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The Nanning scheme in Guangxi, China, reported to be the "1040 Sunshine Project", recruited overseas Chinese, including Singaporeans, to buy in for between S$26,000 and S$50,000, with returns of up to 10.4 million yuan.  In September 2026, 52 Singaporeans were detained in Guangxi over suspected pyramid scheme offences. No official count of how many people paid in has been released. What can creators learn from this? In this episode of BRAVE, Adrian Tan was invited to join the scheme in 2018 and after a few days, decided to walk away. He wrote of his experiences then, and when the news caught wind of this in 2026, his post went viral. Where everyone else hid their faces, he stood up and spoke openly about it to make sure others don't fall for this. He joins Edric Poon to talk about why he spoke out, why he still won't name names, what the scheme's marketing got right, how his YouTube Q&A rode the wave to monetisation, how years of blogging made him Mr HR Tech, and why AI won't hurt creators who have something to say. Adrian Tan is a marketer, author, podcaster and content creator. He founded Marketing Sumo, where he provides fractional marketing leadership to B2B HR tech companies. He hosts The Adrian Tan Show, a solo podcast sharing his take on current affairs, and hosts and produces other podcasts alongside guest appearances. Through newsletters, video and social media, he brings candid observations and humour to conversations about work and everyday life. Adrian is the author of the Amazon Singapore bestseller 'No More Bosses: The Journey to Sustainable Self-Employment'. He began his entrepreneurial career by co-founding an award-winning recruitment business. He is a father of four. Adrian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriantanck/ Website: https://www.adriantan.com.sg/  If this episode made you think, like, comment and subscribe for more stories and lessons from creators. Tell us in the comments: would you have spoken up? Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/adrian-tan-scam-marketing-lessons BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com 00:00 Introduction 02:13 The 1040 promise: S$50K for a million 02:46 Singaporeans recruiting Singaporeans 05:05 A secret government narrative, and no product 07:00 "So it must be legit" 08:44 Paying to get out 10:52 Why it worked: narrative, trust and greed 15:11 Lured by her stylist: 15 months to get half back 17:29 Sunshine Empire and get-rich-quick schemes 19:50 Why he showed his face 21:38 From blog post to viral YouTube video 24:14 Why he won't name names 29:05 From Blogspot to Mr HR Tech 34:37 What AI means for creators #ContentCreator #ScamAwareness #PyramidScheme #SpeakUp #CreatorEconomy #PersonalBranding #Blogging #Marketing #YouTubeGrowth #AI #NanningScam #Singapore #SoutheastAsia #BRAVECreators #BRAVEsea

Money is being rebuilt for AI agents, and the first regulated funds are already open to them. Richard Schroder spent 25 years in institutional banking, led the ANZ digital assets team that issued the first bank stablecoin on a public blockchain, and left to co-found Conduit Digital Holdings, which tokenizes money market funds for corporate treasuries across Asia-Pacific. He joins Jeremy Au to cover why asset managers moved on-chain before banks, what Sibos and Token2049 now agree on, how a tokenized fund is made agentic-aware, the three controls that let an AI agent subscribe, redeem and transfer without going rogue, collateral mobility, how Federated Hermes and BNY fit into the stack, where the moat sits when most of the technology is open source, and the gap between a roughly $20 trillion real-world asset market and the $38 billion tokenized so far. Plus his advice for fund managers ready to make a start, and the $30 million stablecoin trade that felt brave at the time. Richard Schroder is the Co-Founder and CEO of Conduit Digital Holdings, the digital assets business of Conduit Group, an independent investment group headquartered in Singapore. Conduit Digital Holdings tokenizes regulated money market funds for institutional and wholesale investors in Asia-Pacific, with a strategic alliance with Federated Hermes, and offers tokenization-as-a-service and agentic services to fund managers. Richard previously spent 25 years in institutional banking and led the digital assets team at ANZ. Richard’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-schroder-76961140/  Conduit Digital Holdings: https://www.conduitdigital.xyz/ Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/richard-schroder-tokenized-funds-ai-agents BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com 00:00 Introduction 01:31 From 25 years in banking to Conduit Digital Holdings 03:54 Sibos vs Token2049: bankers and crypto converge 06:11 Tokenization explained: better, faster, cheaper, programmable 07:19 Stablecoins, money market funds and collateral mobility 10:33 Opening a regulated fund to AI agents: the three controls 13:42 Corporate treasury as the first customer 16:30 How banks are responding and why partnering wins 20:02 What makes a moat 22:47 Moving information vs moving value 25:34 MCP servers and websites built for agents 29:55 Conduit's products and the $20 trillion market 34:13 Advice for fund managers: make a start 35:50 A brave moment, the team, and why build this now 39:22 Where to find Richard #AIAgents #Tokenization #RealWorldAssets #RWA #AgenticFinance #Stablecoins #DigitalAssets #Blockchain #MoneyMarketFunds #CorporateTreasury #Fintech #Singapore #Australia #VentureCapital #BRAVEsea

Chalinda Abeykoon, managing partner of nVentures, traces the seven or eight ways he tried to solve startup funding in Sri Lanka, most of which failed. At the Brandix apparel accelerator, the products were good, but the startups lacked the enterprise sales skills to sell to brands like Nike and Lululemon. A diaspora equity crowdfunding platform raised about $1 million in 20 months before the Easter bombings, the pandemic and the economic crisis ended it. nVentures is a $2 million fund, with 70% of LP money from the diaspora, backing B2B fintech. He reports two exits, about 30% IRR and 1.8x TVPI. He argues early-stage support is an art, going from minus one to zero, and that founders grow by leaving their comfort zone for Singapore. Chalinda Abeykoon is Managing Partner at nVentures, an early-stage VC fund investing in technology startups across South and Southeast Asia. His portfolio includes two global exits, including an acquisition by JPMorgan Chase. Chalinda is a recipient of the Chevening Fellowship from the University of Oxford and an Australia Award from the University of Queensland. Chalinda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chalindaabeykoon/ nVentures: https://nventures.sg/  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/chalinda-abeykoon-sri-lanka-venture-capital  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com 00:00 Opening themes 02:20 Graduating into a hiring freeze 04:38 Childhood in Colombo 06:40 Teaching students to pitch 08:40 The Brandix accelerator 12:00 B2B strength, B2C bias 14:30 How nVentures began 17:50 Fund structure and results 20:00 From minus one to zero 23:00 Sri Lanka and Singapore 30:40 Losing his father young #SriLanka #VentureCapital #Startups #SriLankaStartups #Fintech #B2B #SouthAsia #SoutheastAsia #Singapore #Entrepreneurship #StartupFunding #EarlyStageVC

Lennix Lai, general manager at OKX, describes moving from trading roles at JP Morgan and AIG into crypto after reading the two-page Bitcoin whitepaper, despite first thinking Bitcoin was a scam. He argues DeFi can grow into a connected global marketplace, citing the recent SEC innovation exemption for tokenized securities and OKX's joint venture with ICE for tokenized equities that trade around the clock. He explains OKX's shift toward serving agents as well as humans, including an agent-to-agent marketplace, private keys held in a trusted execution environment, user-defined security policies, and pre-trade risk simulation. Early adopters of OKX Agent Trade Kit and Onchain OS are semi-professional retail traders who trade more often and with more discipline. Lennix is one of crypto’s original builders out of Hong Kong, where so much of the early industry took shape. He joined OKX in 2017 and has been working alongside CEO and Founder Star Xu virtually since the beginning. He helped fight the defining derivatives battle with BitMEX in 2018, then built OKX’s institutional business from scratch. Today, he’s deeply involved in the group’s global licensing and regulated entities, while creating bridges between crypto and traditional finance, including OKX's landmark tri-party custody arrangement with Standard Chartered Bank. He's a recognized voice on the convergence of traditional and digital markets, institutional crypto adoption, and global regulatory compliance and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg and in the SCMP, CoinDesk and Cointelegraph as a commentator. Before crypto, he was at JPMorgan and AIG, so he has a rare front-row perspective on both the old financial system and the new one. Lennix’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennix-lai-808abb1a/   OKX: http://www.okx.com/   Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/lennix-lai-okx-ai-agents-defi  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com 00:00 Introduction 02:04 From banking to crypto 03:53 Why blockchain 08:26 The future of DeFi 12:21 Tokenized equities 14:35 Agent-to-agent marketplace 18:38 Building for agents safely 21:43 Agents moving value 25:09 Advice for agentic finance builders 27:36 Early adoption results 31:30 Staying the course #DeFi #AIAgents #Crypto #Blockchain #TokenizedStocks #Stablecoins #AgenticFinance #FutureOfFinance #FinTech #Bitcoin #Web3 #CryptoPodcast #TechPodcast #SoutheastAsia #Singapore #HongKong

Goh Yiping, co-founder and CEO of Formas.ai, traces her path from startup founder and venture capitalist to McKinsey partner, then to an executive role at immersive entertainment company NEON, and explains how each stage taught her to scale and think at an institutional level. She then explains the family decision to found Formas.ai with her husband Carlos: an AI-native design workspace, billed as the “Figma of architecture,” that aims to cut seven weeks of rendering work to two days. She closes on risk, courage, and why she chose to drive AI rather than consume it. Yiping Goh is the Co-Founder & CEO of FORMAS.AI, an AI Design and Agentic 3D Modelling Workspace for architecture, interior design, and the built environment. FORMAS.AI helps designers move from sketches, floor plans, references, notes, and spatial intent into visual design iterations, photorealistic renders, and connected design workflows with greater speed and control. Under her leadership, FORMAS.AI was named the Global Winner of SuperAI Genesis 2026, strengthening its position as one of the emerging AI companies shaping the future of spatial design. Yiping is an entrepreneur, operator, investor, and business builder with nearly two decades of experience across startups, venture capital, private equity, and corporate innovation in Asia. Prior to FORMAS.AI, she was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she worked across new business building, growth strategy, and private capital. She was also a Partner at Quest Ventures, one of Southeast Asia’s leading venture capital firms, backing and advising high-growth technology companies across the region. Earlier in her career, Yiping co-founded and scaled ventures including All Deals Asia, and contributed to the growth of MatahariMall in Indonesia. She has been recognised as one of Singapore’s notable women in technology and entrepreneurship, named among Singapore’s 100 Women in Tech, awarded the NUS Outstanding Young Alumni Award, and featured in Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, Tatler Asia, and The Peak Singapore. She also serves on the National University of Singapore Alumni Advisory Board and is an active voice on AI, venture building, and the transformation of design-led industries. Yiping’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yipinggoh/  FORMAS.AI: https://www.formas.ai/  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/yiping-goh-formas-ai  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com 00:00 Episode highlights 02:39 From Venture Capital to McKinsey 05:23 Lessons from Joining McKinsey as a Partner 11:37 Scaling Operations at NEON 13:24 Choosing When to Buy or Build 17:10 Returning to Entrepreneurship with FORMAS.AI 22:15 What FORMAS.AI Does 26:39 Rethinking Architecture and Design Workflows 31:58 Building Beyond AI Rendering 35:28 Building FORMAS.AI as Husband-and-Wife Co-founders 44:17 Choosing Entrepreneurship in the AI Era #Singapore #Architecture #AI #DesignTech #Startups #Founders #VentureCapital #WomenInTech #Entrepreneurship #SoutheastAsiaTech

Rosaline Chow Koo, founder of covee and formerly of CXA, traces her path from a Procter & Gamble plant in Iowa and banking to insurance in Singapore, where she grew Mercer's Asia business 800% and went from 4 to 14 countries. She left at 51 to build CXA, a tech-led benefits brokerage that won 500 companies in five years, funded partly by her husband's $3 million. An 11-year SaaS contract with a bank, 150 contract engineers and COVID forced her to sell the brokers and the platform. She describes the shame that followed, caring for her 97-year-old mother, and why AI brought her back: three people built in eight hours what 330 could not, and she says reading a policy now takes a minute instead of 30 to 40 hours. Rosaline’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosaline-chow-koo-212334/ covee: https://www.covee.ai/  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/rosaline-chow-koo-covee-ai  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #InsurTech #Founders #SoutheastAsia #EmployeeBenefits #HealthTech #AI #Singapore #WomenInTech #StartupFailure #Resilience #SaaS #TechPodcast #BRAVEsea 00:00 Opening hook 02:31 Early career to insurance 09:11 Growing Mercer in Asia 10:40 Leaving to build CXA 27:08 Why a brokerage model 36:38 The SaaS build decision 41:56 COVID and selling the company 45:30 Shame, letting go and reset 53:50 Why build again with AI 59:40 Value for brokers and insurers 1:04:00 A time she was brave

Gita, an Indonesian who lived abroad for decades and now lives in Indonesia, joins host Jeremy Au to discuss Revolusi by David Van Reybrouck, which she has read twice. She describes how the book, built on interviews with about 185 people, presents Indonesian independence as the work of ordinary people, including students in the Netherlands. They compare the Dutch VOC and the British East India Company, and trace Singapore's path through Japanese occupation to independence in 1965. Gita covers the 1928 Youth Proclamation that chose Malay as a shared language, the 17 August 1945 proclamation after Japan's surrender, and the book's ship-class metaphor for colonial hierarchy. She argues that learning history beyond short-form content helps people avoid being misled. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/revolusi-indonesia-independence-history  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Indonesia #History #SoutheastAsia #Revolusi #IndonesianIndependence #Decolonization #DutchEastIndies #SumpahPemuda #Singapore #ColonialHistory #ASEAN #BookRecommendation #HistoryPodcast #TechPodcast #BRAVEsea 00:00 Why history matters 01:04 Reading Revolusi 03:36 Four chapters of regional history 04:53 Ordinary people in the story 09:47 The 350 years jigsaw 12:19 VOC, East India Company and Raffles 20:22 The 1928 Youth Proclamation 22:23 Singapore and Japanese occupation 27:18 Proclaiming independence in 1945 34:49 The ship metaphor and unity 39:17 Takeaways

Jean Hew explains how The Neighbourhood Boy, Jom's podcast series on Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, was made over three years. The team picked the subject because Wong had just been named the next PM, and Sudhir and economist Donald Low could speak about his early years. Most interviewees described a guai, down-to-earth technocrat, while Low alone saw him as a PM frontrunner. Each episode went through about 15 drafts, and recording paused when the general election was called, which revealed a more political side of Wong. When the planned narrator withdrew, Jean became host, aiming for a kopi-chat tone. She covers the feedback, including requests for more criticism of the PAP, and why most of her 20-plus interviewees felt Singapore is on the right track. Jean Hew was the first employee and head of research at Jom, a weekly digital magazine covering arts, culture, politics, business, technology and more in Singapore. She is the host, producer and co-author of Jom's podcast on prime minister Lawrence Wong, titled "The Neighbourhood Boy". She now works in corporate investigative research. Jean Hew’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-hew/ Jom: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jom-media-mag/  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/jean-hew-lawrence-wong-podcast BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Singapore #Journalism #LawrenceWong #TheNeighbourhoodBoy #Jom #Podcasting #SingaporePolitics #Media #Storytelling #NarrativePodcast #CareerAdvice #SoutheastAsia #TechPodcast 00:00 Introduction 01:43 Stumbling into journalism 05:08 Why philosophy fits journalism 07:42 Joining Jom when it had nothing 09:49 Year one and the editorial boot camp 12:22 Carrie Bradshaw and paying for journalism 16:14 Why a podcast, and why Lawrence Wong 18:58 Born on reclaimed land, and very guai 21:19 "I don't care about being sweet" 24:08 How the GE changed the script 28:15 Coffee in Siem Reap, and becoming the host 32:13 Gossiping about the Prime Minister 35:31 Launch nerves and letting go 38:52 How it was received 41:31 Is Singapore on the right track? 43:38 Being brave 45:06 Three takeaways

In this compilation episode hosted by Edric Poon, Daniel Suh, general partner at Gold House Ventures and a former corporate lawyer, describes the guilt second-generation Asian Americans feel toward immigrant parents, and why that pushes many toward prestige careers. He recounts five years in consulting with senior military and government clients, a Northwestern JD/MBA, and summers at a big law firm and a private equity firm. A verbal private equity offer left him feeling he had climbed the wrong mountain. Executive coach Pooja Venkatraman argues burnout comes from the mental soundtrack running during work, not the hours worked. Jeremy Au says purpose, not happiness, sustains effort, citing his army service. E713 Daniel Suh, General Partner at Gold House Ventures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BayAbDaMGM   E712 Pooja Venkatraman, Executive Coach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG25OpGZ66c   E720 Jeremy Au on Life Self Mastery with Rohit Malhotra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GVydLTmN8c  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/unlearning-prestige  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #CareerPivot #ImposterSyndrome #GoldenHandcuffs #ExecutiveCoaching #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #BigLaw #Purpose #TechPodcast

Jianggan Li joins Jeremy Au to report back from a week in China visiting five humanoid robot companies and three AI investors. They cover the US-China summit that produced a hotline and the term superintelligence, why Jianggan reads the agreement more generously than the media did, and the near-absence of safety discussion among Chinese labs racing toward general intelligence and embodied AI. The robotics findings are concrete: everyone concedes a funding bubble, Figure sorts 1,300 parcels an hour with 2,200 expected within a year, and engineers say hardware is not the limiting factor, software is. Warehouses run 60 to 70 autonomous forklifts. They close on Jeremy's open question about America's structural advantages, and whether US firms have the upstream supplier depth to iterate quickly. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/china-humanoid-robots  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #AI #HumanoidRobots #ChinaTech #Superintelligence #AISafety #Robotics #EmbodiedAI #WarehouseAutomation #USChina #AIAgents #SupplyChain #MomentumWorks #JeremyAu #SoutheastAsiaTech #BRAVEsea 00:00 Superintelligence gets a name 02:07 Reading the summit generously 03:00 Long memories in Beijing 06:00 Setting the base tone 07:19 Agents that route around their guardrails 08:51 Safety is not the conversation in China 10:24 Regulatory capture, or a real race 13:15 Five humanoid robot factories 14:30 Hardware is not the limiting factor 17:27 Sixty forklifts and nobody driving 18:31 The Chinese tailwinds 19:11 What is America's structural advantage

Most founders who come to Beyond Border assume a US work visa works like an ESTA: fill in a form, get an answer in 48 hours. Frederick Ng, its co-founder, explains why a good O-1 process takes about three months and a 700- to 1,000-page petition. He joins Jeremy Au to cover the O-1 and L visas for founders and their launch teams, why a spouse's work rights often decide the visa, and how executives tied to an employer-sponsored green card can move to the EB-1A. He also walks through how Beyond Border separates human judgment from AI-assisted case work, how it found product-market fit with no website, why he went from VC to operator and back before founding, and the silent retreat and Everest base camp trek that tested him first. Fred Ng is the Co-founder and CEO of Beyond Border, a tech-enabled U.S. immigration platform helping founders, companies and global talent navigate the U.S. immigration system. An entrepreneur, operator and former venture capital investor, Fred previously served as Country Manager at Glints, where he helped build and scale the company’s business across Southeast Asia. He later joined Square Peg, a leading Asia-Pacific venture capital firm, where he invested in and worked with technology companies across the region. Fred founded Beyond Border with a simple belief: where you come from should never limit where you can go. Today, Beyond Border is a trusted immigration partner to founders, highly skilled professionals and growing companies looking to build their futures in the U.S. Drawing on his experience across entrepreneurship, operations and investing, Fred regularly speaks on entrepreneurship, venture capital, U.S. and Asian startup ecosystems, global talent and immigration, and what it takes for founders to build and expand across borders. Fred’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederick-ng/  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/frederick-ng-beyond-border-o1-visa  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com 00:00 Introduction 01:10 Fred's path: Glints, Square Peg and Beyond Border 02:23 Hong Kong, London and multiple passports 05:16 Starting venture on the wrong side of the table 07:49 Why operators make better investors 12:48 Too impatient for a 10-year feedback loop 15:19 Finding product-market fit with no website 17:46 Empathy over the CRM 19:29 Judgment vs intelligence in immigration work 24:04 Why a US work visa takes three months, not 48 hours 25:34 The O-1 and L visas for founders and launch teams 28:02 Spouses, dependents and the EB-1A 30:46 Ten days of silence, then Everest base camp 33:42 Three takeaways #O1Visa #Founders #SoutheastAsia #Immigration #USImmigration #GreenCard #EB1A #USExpansion #Startups #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #ProductMarketFit #GlobalTalent #Singapore #HongKong #TechPodcast #SEAstartups #BRAVEsea

In 2016, Singapore declared a War on Diabetes. This BRAVE compilation looks at what the Singapore blueprint gets right on health and public policy, and what that stability may cost in entrepreneurial drive. Dr. Sue-Anne Toh of NOVI Health explains TOFI (thin outside, fat inside), why Asians develop diabetes at lower BMI, and how insulin resistance works. Adriel Yong of Clouted lays out the efficiency paradox: when public services work this well, fewer people grow up as problem solvers, and state ownership leaves few business families to build on. Dr. Joshua Wang of VerImmune covers why cancer is detected too late, why new therapies are tested on late-stage patients first, and how diabetes went from a death sentence to a chronic disease. Watch the full episodes: Navigating the Longevity Market | Dr. Sue-Anne Toh - E718 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP0L_qhSRJA  Singapore Works Too Well To Be A Great Startup Hub? | Adriel Yong - E705 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOimzcac29w  Joshua Wang: Reprogramming Cancer, Biotech’s Funding Shift & Why AI Will Rewrite Biology – E628 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roXPyXASiRk  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/singapore-health-policy  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Singapore #Healthcare #SoutheastAsia #PublicHealth #Diabetes #WarOnDiabetes #HealthPolicy #Longevity #Biotech #Cancer #Immunotherapy #Startups #SingaporeStartups #VentureCapital #Founders #Entrepreneurship #SEAstartups #TechPodcast #BRAVEsea 00:00 Intro 01:02 Dr. Sue-Anne Toh: Singapore's War on Diabetes 01:47 TOFI: thin outside, fat inside 03:38 Insulin resistance and the pancreas "factory" 06:43 AI, manual labor and the WALL-E future 08:28 Adriel Yong: the Efficiency Paradox 10:04 Temasek, GLCs and the missing business families 11:39 Focus or numbing? HF0 and founder distraction 14:21 Why swing for a billion? 16:12 Dr. Joshua Wang: therapeutic, not preventative 18:36 Why cancer is detected too late 21:27 From death sentence to chronic disease 22:55 Outro

Edy Widjaja, former Senior Partner at Bain & Company and author of The Accidental Partner, joins Jeremy Au for a candid look back at a 16-year management consulting career. They cover what the job actually consists of once you take away the slides and the pitch, how performance reviews and feedback really work inside a top firm, how he handled clients and competing stakeholders, how he and his wife traded off two demanding careers around a young child, what a partner does day to day that nobody sees, and what happened after he retired at the end of 2025. Edy Widjaja spent fifteen years inside an elite global management consulting firm, rising from an overlooked research scientist with zero interviews to Senior Partner advising top executives across Southeast Asia.  He holds a BSc in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Indonesia and a PhD in Materials Science from Northwestern University — a path that was originally meant to end in a laboratory. Long before any of that, he learned to read a customer's needs from behind the counter of his parents' nine-square-meter provision shop in Chinatown, West Jakarta. That instinct, it turned out, mattered more than almost anything he learned in a classroom. He co-founded his firm's Jakarta office, led its Southeast Asia Financial Services practice, and spent a decade shaping the region's hiring and mentorship as its Recruiting and People Partner. In 2026, he closed the laptop for the last time to write, travel, and figure out who he is without a calendar telling him. The Accidental Partner is his first book. All net proceeds support education access, scholarship, and mental health initiatives in Indonesia. He lives in Singapore. Get the book at https://www.edywidjaja.com  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/the-accidental-partner  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Consulting #Leadership #SoutheastAsia #Bain #ManagementConsulting #Indonesia #Singapore #INSEAD #MBA #CareerAdvice #Feedback #PerformanceReview #WorkLifeBalance #DualCareer #Partnership #Mentorship #StakeholderManagement #Jakarta #TechPodcast #Founders #VentureCapital #SEAstartups #Vietnam #Malaysia #Philippines #Retirement #BRAVEsea 00:00 Introduction 02:37 From a provision shop in West Jakarta to Bain 10:21 The INSEAD MBA, and nearly not getting hired 14:21 What consulting actually is behind the slides 19:45 Performance reviews, feedback and the ego 26:58 Clients, stakeholders and the front line 37:23 Jakarta, travel and not being a weekend dad 42:08 Two careers, taking turns 44:19 What a partner really does all day 49:52 Why he retired at senior partner 53:45 Life after the calendar empties 56:57 Three takeaways

Get the basics right in school and everything else builds on it. Miss that window, and it is very hard to course correct. In this compilation from the BRAVE archive, Adam Huh Dam of Stick 'Em, Adriel Yong of Clouted, Henry Motte-de la Motte of Edge Tutor and host Jeremy Au break down what actually improves learning outcomes, and why so much of edtech does not. Why authenticity and real traction can beat a polished pitch, from the team that won the 2025 Hult Prize (Adam Huh Dam) Why more screens and gadgets in schools have made outcomes worse, and where AI can genuinely help students (Adam Huh Dam) How the US and Singapore education systems differ, and how gaps in public schooling create private markets like college counseling (Jeremy Au and Adriel Yong) Why time abroad and cross-border relationships matter more for young people as AI takes over routine work (Adriel Yong) Why selling into public school systems takes so long, from multi-stakeholder buying to risk aversion (Henry Motte-de la Motte) Why K-12 is the highest-ROI investment a government can make, and what the Asian Tiger economies got right (Henry Motte-de la Motte) Watch the full episodes: Adam Huh Dam, Co-Founder of Stick 'Em How To Win A $1M Prize And Fixing The Global Education Crisis | Adam Huh Dam of Stick ‘Em - EP682 https://youtu.be/jaeEyRF3doA  Adriel Yong, Co-Founder & COO of Clouted AI Has Changed The Way We Create, Consume And Value Content | Adriel Yong - E730 https://youtu.be/qqrkSe95nmY  Henry Motte-de la Motte, Founder & CEO of Edge Tutor Henry Motte-de la Motte: Education Tech Challenges - E372 https://youtu.be/oENqetfds_4  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/edtech-future-of-learning  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Education #EdTech #SoutheastAsia #Singapore #Philippines #Indonesia #TechPodcast #STEAM #K12 #AIinEducation #EducationPolicy #Founders #SEAstartups  00:00 Intro 00:40 Adam Huh Dam: going to London knowing we wouldn't win 03:48 Why Stick 'Em won the Hult Prize 04:50 AI in classrooms: the low-hanging fruit 06:07 More screens, worse outcomes 07:36 Jeremy Au & Adriel Yong: Singapore versus America 09:57 College counseling and pay to play admissions 11:51 The moonshot: six months abroad for every student 13:22 Henry Motte-de la Motte: education's long sales cycles 14:23 The window closes at 18 15:04 What the Asian Tigers got right 15:50 Outro

Wing Vasiksiri joins Jeremy Au to analyze a major wave of tech M&A deals and macro growth trends reshaping Southeast Asia. They dissect Grab’s $1.5 billion acquisition of a 60% stake in Atome Financial, examining its unique performance-linked staged structure, offline-to-online retail synergies against Sea Group, and the strategic value of Atome’s credit underwriting capabilities. They also break down Circle’s $400 million purchase of Tazapay, exploring how cross-border B2B payment rails and all-stock deal structures de-risk regional expansion and align long-term founder incentives. Finally, they examine Singapore’s $200M+ fintech fund injection, the double-digit surge in regional e-commerce activity, and why Thailand and Malaysia are emerging as primary data center hubs for Chinese hyperscalers and frontier AI initiatives. 00:00 SEA tech M&A takes off: Grab announces a $1.5B deal for Atome Financial while Circle acquires B2B payments firm Tazapay for $400M.  03:14 Grab and Atome synergies: Combining offline BNPL retail networks with food delivery to build an orthogonal vector against Sea Group.  04:38 Unique deal structures in regional tech: How staged buyouts and performance-linked mechanisms de-risk acquirers and align management teams.  06:36 Underwriting as a competitive moat: Grab taps into Atome's multi-country credit track record, institutional debt lines, and portfolio scale.  11:08 Strategic cash deployment: Grab utilizes balance sheet cash for high-growth strategic acquisitions rather than traditional public market buybacks.  12:51 Circle acquires Tazapay: Cross-border regulatory licenses and global payment infrastructure unlock a 6x payout for early VC backers.  18:02 Singapore’s $200M+ fintech initiative: Public funding steps in during a VC deployment winter to support proven regional exit pathways.  19:50 E-commerce surge across SEA: Double-digit growth in app installs in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia creates secondary startup opportunities. 26:02 Frontier AI labs expand to APAC: OpenAI and neolabs establish Singapore headquarters and launch accelerator programs in Thailand.  27:18 The Thailand and Malaysia data center boom: Abundant power, cheap land, and a "bring-your-own-chip" model drive Chinese hyperscaler investments.