This week’s special guest is Will & Michael from Cocoon Ventures.  Will Klippgen co-founded product comparison website Zoomit.com which merged with Kelkoo.com and was eventually sold to Yahoo! In 2004 in one of Europe’s largest internet transactions.  Michael has invested in over 25 companies in the UK and achieved 6 successful exits. He has also invested in 8 early stage companies in Southeast Asia including Anchanto, MyDoc and Nugit under the name of Cub Capital since 2013.  Founded in August, 2016 Singapore-based VC firm Cocoon Capital focuses on seed / early-stage digital enterprise tech start-ups across SEA.

Together, we discuss how Will & Michael’s experience as angel investors have made their investment approach more hands-on by investing in no more than six startups per year.   We also talk about the importance of having a brand as a VC and what it takes to create a VC brand.  Lastly, how Cocoon Capital helps startup founders not only grow their business, but also provide mentorship to build own personal development.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

The post EP #30 Will Klippgen & Michael Blakey from Cocoon Capital appeared first on Startup Radar.

This week’s special guest is Amit Saberwal from RedDoorz.  Amit is the CEO of RedDoorz, one of Southeast Asia’s leading budget hotel online booking platform.  Headquartered in Singapore, the brand is spread across Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines and Vietnam. Prior to founding RedDoorz, he was the Chief Business Officer – Hotel and International Markets at India’s premier travel and airline booking site MakeMyTrip.com. 

Together, we discuss how Amit came to found RedDoorz after identifying the pain points for budget hotel owners in Southeast Asia.  He also takes us through his experience of raising RedDoorz’ latest round despite the “Series B” funding gap that currently exists in Southeast Asia and shares his international expansion strategy of going into one city, one country at a time.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

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This week’s special guest is Charles Manning from Kochava.  Charles is the founder and CEO of Kochava, a mobile attribution analytics platform serving tier-one advertisers worldwide. Prior to founding Kochava, he founded PLAYXPERT (a gaming technology platform) and licensed the technology to Razer.

Together, we discuss Kochava’s story on becoming a bootstrapped, profitable company and why Charles decided tobootstrap while outside VC funding was available.  He also shares his insights on the recent shake-up in mobile measurement landscape and lastly, his future outlook on bringing ad-tech into blockchain and why putting media buying and selling on blockchain makes sense. 

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This week’s special guest is Ridzki Syahputera from Convergence Ventures.  Ridzki is the corporate development manager at Convergence where he focuses on supporting their portfolio companies post-investment.  Prior to joining Convergence, he ran a market entry consulting firm at Seroja Partners that specifically focused on helping media and advertising technology enablers to enter into the Indonesian market.

Together, we discuss how Ridzki helps his portfolio companies after the investments are made and shares in detail what Convergence’s post-investment strategy entails.  He also shares his experience on working closely with the ICT Ministry and how the government is putting big efforts in promoting entrepreneurship and tech development in Indonesia.

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This week’s special guest is Issac Lee from Blockwater Capital.  Issac is the Managing Partner at BlockWater Capital, a leading digital asset investment firm focusing on bringing blockchain enabled projects to real world application. He has extensive expertise in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries and advised various projects on behalf of Blockwater.  Blockwater has invested in top blockchain projects such as Fantom, Fusion and Bibox.

Together, we discuss what are the core barriers to institutions transferring assets on mass into crypto and how crypto can eventually become the new asset class for the investors.  In addition, Issac introduces his plans for Blockwater’s newest fund and why he decided to structure it as a traditional hedge fund. Hope you guys enjoy this one!

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This week’s special guest is Jooch Nam from WeWork Labs.  Korea is the first country in Asia where WeWork Labs has been launched and Jooch manages Yeoksam 2 station, one of the four locations in Seoul.  Before joining WeWork, Jooch spent the past 11 years at EBS (Korea’s leading educational television and radio) hosting and writing various English programs.  He also hosted culture & travel related programs on Arirang Radio. 

Together, Jooch shares his biggest takeaways from interviewing people from all walks of life and how he is applying his learnings to help early stage startups grow.  He emphasises the power of networking and shares his favorite quote “Your network determines your net worth”. 

The post EP #24 Jooch Name from WeWork Labs appeared first on Startup Radar.

This week’s special guest is Jeremy Berger from Life.SREDA. Jeremy  is the portfolio director of Life.Sreda, one of the first fintech-only venture capital funds in Southeast Asia. Through its two funds, Life.Sreda has made over 20 investments across the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with seven exits to date. Berger also manages Arival Bank, a venture-backed digital banking startup.

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This week’s special guest is Christopher Quek from TRIVE.  Christopher is Managing Partner at TRIVE, an early-stage VC in Singapore,  focusing on investing in the SEA region. He is a 4th generation serial entrepreneur turned VC and has invested in over 13 startups. A prior experience as a pro-bono incubator saw him helped 38 Singapore startups raise US$5.6m in angel funding. Also He has been regarded as a thought leader in the startup community, writing over 100 articles on Tech in Asia, e27 and BEAM, interviewing various known personalities in the startup ecosystem.

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This week’s special guest is Arnaud Bonzom from Map of the Money.   Arnaud is a former Venture Partner at 500 Startups where he was focusing on helping Southeast Asian entrepreneurs to succeed. He is a frequent speaker at several international conferences including Slush, Tech in Asia, Rise and Web Summit. He is also the co-founder of Map the Money, an organization that helps entrepreneurs to raise funds in Southeast Asia.

Arnaud explains the driving force behind Southeast Asia’s recent growth and how the VC ecosystem has evolved to fuel that growth.  From his experience advising B2B startups, he shares his insights on how startups should evaluate corporate partnership and how to get the most value out from it.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

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This week special guest is Eric Dadoun from Impiro.  Eric brings a world of knowledge, relationships and experience with him built on 15 years in the startup, tech and business world after having started his first company at 17 years old. He now plays an integral role at Impiro as well as some of their group companies such as Silverstreet and Twizo in terms of driving relationship development, strategy and new initiatives. His strong focus on providing great value, transparency and dedication as an angel investor has become synonymous with his approach to business and a foundational aspect of everything he does at Impiro.

Together, we discuss how Eric evaluates early stage companies when making angel investments and what additional value-add angels bring that VCs or institutional capital do not bring. We also take a deeper dive into the optimal relationship between an investor and founder as Eric answers the question, “Can an investor be a friend as well as an advisor?”

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