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Stories of impact. People leading the change. Your blueprint to the evolving future of the next billion Internet users.
Humans are creatures of habit. We fall into unconscious ways of doing things repetitively, and it often seems second nature. Think of how you’re overwhelmed...
In 2020, podcasts became a way of entertaining, learning and sharing human stories as the world, for many, was reduced to our homes. Here is...
If you’re a founder or entrepreneur, you know that learning and expanding your mind is one of the most important things you can ever do...
Vietnam’s e-commerce industry has expanded fast over the past decade. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has emerged as the fastest-growing market in...
You’re a founder or entrepreneur pitching your startup to investors. Your pitch deck is all ready, you feel good and you’re ready to dazzle them....
Shihuituan is a community group-buying e-commerce platform focused on lower-tier cities in China. It primarily sells high-grade fresh fruits and vegetables, and other packaged food....
POV: You’re raising funds for your startup, and you’ve got several meetings lined up with potential investors. You’ve gone through your pitch deck hundreds of...
Making education fun can be difficult as today’s students have increasingly short attention spans. With distractions like social media, content streaming and gaming, educators worldwide...
Happy Thursday! We’re almost approaching the end of the year – time flies. In case you didn’t know, we have an extremely lively listener community...
by Rita Yang
Happy Monday! It’s been an interesting week so far. In case you didn’t know, we have an extremely lively listener community (you can join here)...
by Rita Yang
One central ecosystem with complete interconnection and operational convenience between banks, digital wallets, and any payment system in existence – this is the ambitious vision...
Hello, everyone! Hope you’ve had a great week so far. Here’s what our listener’s community shared this week. We’d love for you to join so...
by Rita Yang
In this series of quick takes, we crystallize the highlights of founder interviews into bite-sized digests for your reading pleasure. If you have a quick...
Hello, everyone! Here’s your link roundup for this week. We’d love for you to join our community, so head over here to start chatting.
by Rita Yang
Pharmeasy was Siddarth Shah and team’s answer to the systemic issues of India’s healthcare ecosystem, offering accessible, authentic and affordable medications on one platform. To...
Happy October, everyone! It’s been a quiet week, so we’ve compiled some useful links that were shared from a month ago. As always, you can...
by Rita Yang
Before live-streaming became commonplace content online, Justin Kan strapped a webcam to his head and live-casted his daily life for about 8 months on end....
In recent years, prominent Indonesia-based startups like Gojek and Tokopedia have been putting the archipelago on the map for start-ups and innovation. Home to the...
A designer and engineer turned early-stage investor, Garry Tan’s journey to becoming managing partner of Initialized Capital was one that comprised hard work, learning from...
Welcome back to the second week of our link roundup. Over this week and last, our community discussed the latest Apple launch event (hello, Series...
by Rita Yang
This Q&A comes from a recording of a founders’ dinner we hosted in Jakarta last year. Hans answered a wide range of questions, including absolutes,...
by Hans Tung
Hello there! In case you didn’t know, we have an extremely lively listener community (you can join here) that chats across a host of messaging...
by Rita Yang
You’ve heard this before – the lockdown has changed the way we read, think, and play. Instead of Friday night drinks, we were doing spelling...
In 2011, Marc Andressen wrote the highly predictive and insightful essay “Why Software Is Eating The World”. In it, he talked about the shift from...
This article first appeared here. The “Digital Economy” was born over 25 years ago. Coined by technologist and author Don Tapscott the term “digital economy”...
by Hans Tung
This article first appeared here. GGV Capital’s new Digital Economy Index has shown that fast-growing ecommerce companies with differentiated offerings might yield higher returns sooner...
by Hans Tung
Some have termed the COVID-19 pandemic as a chance to embark on ‘The Great Reset’. A rallying cry to critically examine the foundations that societies...
Online grocery retailer Miss Fresh has two key features: one, instant delivery, requiring up to 30-minutes for home delivery, and secondly, a full grocery offering...
If you don’t know who Viya is, you should. She is an internet celebrity in China who sells via live streaming on Taobao. In 2019,...
by Rita Yang and Hans Tung
For those who may not be familiar, I started out as a founding engineer at WebEx (now Cisco WebEx) in 1997. I was part of...
by Tony Zhao
If you’ve been an avid listener of our podcasts, you’d know that towards the end of each episode, we do a round of quick-fire questions...
One of the most representative faces in China’s technology industry, Jane Sun is the only female CEO in the online travel industry and among a...
Southeast Asia’s investment ecosystem is one that is rapidly developing and growing. Over the past decade, the growth potential of SEA has become undeniable as...
Unlike brick and mortar retailers and supermarkets, many of which have been forced to shut down during COVID-19, online marketplaces have enjoyed strong levels of...
Meaning “open a market stall” in Bahasa Indonesia, Bukalapak is one of Indonesia’s largest eCommerce platforms and one of its most recent unicorns as well....
I did not start doing VC right after college. First, I must mention I was very fortunate to be in the class of 1993 at...
by Hans Tung
This article first appeared here. China’s Super App Meituan Dianping just turned profitable. A year after its IPO, the 9-year-old company finally arrived at the...
by Hans Tung and Rita Yang
This article first appeared here. Shopping, as we busy city dwellers know it, has never been easier. Whether it is Amazon’s “1-Click” buy button or...
by Hans Tung and Rita Yang
This article first appeared here. Pinduoduo is China’s most valuable private e-commerce company that just filed for a US IPO, less than 3 years after...
by Hans Tung
Keeping a business afloat during times of crisis requires a very specific set of skills a good entrepreneur needs. In this master list of crisis-management...
If there ever was a time for B2B e-commerce to cement itself as the dominant way of doing business, it is now. With COVID-19 forcing...
With over 91 percent of the world’s student population shut indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all are getting their lessons and learning online,...
It’s not an easy task to lead a team or company during this time. Many organisations are now also facing the added complexity of running...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a major paradigm shift for businesses, economies and industries across the world. While the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been a...
A self-made billionaire, Nathan Blecharczyk made his first foray into entrepreneurship during high school, when he launched a business and sold to over 20 countries....
If you have a mobile phone with a stable internet connection, you would have most likely purchased a product or service online. On top of...
Savio Kwan is known to most as the former President and COO of Alibaba, steering the company through tumultuous times like the 2003 SARS pandemic...
In 2014, a group of friends visited Bangkok’s famous weekend market, Chatuchak, while on holiday. Among them, was then 22-year-old Ankiti Bose, an investment analyst...
When William Tanuwijaya first started raising funds to build Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest e-marketplace, back in 2009, investors were skeptical and few had reason to entrust...
What I look for – basically what VCs look for – we’re looking for patterns. If you look at the number of founders, or start-ups...
by Hans Tung
In a 2019 study, India was listed as the country with some of the worst traffic congestion in the world – in fact, four of...
Southeast Asia has come to know and love Grab, a super app that has become an extension of daily life. Today, Grab offers transport, food,...
by Ming Maa
High gross merchandising volume (GMV)? Frequency of usage? Conversion rate? Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)? If you’re interested in the fast-moving world of business-to-consumer e-commerce, what...
This is part of our webinar series intended to help leaders navigate this global crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has raged on for a few months...
by Jixun Foo
The career decisions I had to face in 2005 and 2013 were one of the toughest things I had to face. First, I think one...
by Hans Tung
In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, more and more employees are required to work remotely, forcing workplaces to become virtual. It is a much-needed, albeit...
Trust is a word that comes up a lot when talking to Vaibhav Gupta of Udaan, India’s top business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce company. The Bengaluru-based Udaan,...
by Vaibhav Gupta
Having interviewed close to 50 founders from all over the world across two seasons of our podcast, a common theme in our conversations is what...
In this series of candid letters to founders, we invite business leaders to share industry insights, advice and perspectives they in turn have acquired from...
By Brian Gu
When I went to China, what spurred me was knowing that China was about to undergo some changes. This was as early as 2003. I...
By Hans Tung
The original question was: As a young investor, I often make mistakes and I try to struggle through and learn from them. I will be...
By Hans Tung
Original question: What advice would you give to a foreigner starting a business in China? Do you see China being as attractive as the U.S....
By Hans Tung