Pitchdeck Asia

Event sponsorship is a fast growing market, but it has until recently remained the prerogative of large banner brands like Coke and McDonald's. It has also been out of reach for many small events, events which have passionate members but lack the resources and bandwidth to commercialize sponsorship. Adrien and his team at XSPON want to change all that by building an event sponsorship marketplace for small to mid size events.

In this episode, Sam Gibb, Partner @Endeavour Ventures, and host Graham Brown talk about the state of Asian VC market which is still in the nascent stage compared to the west and where it would be headed in the coming years given the increased focus on Asia from VCs based in US & Europe. Sam also shares his take on what he believes should be the outlook of an angel investor or VC investor towards investments in startups as angel investing is more than just money.

This week on the Investor show, we are joined by Graham Brown, Sam Gibb, Steven Liew & Creel Price. Tune in as they discuss about startup investment, fund raising and the challenge both founders and investors face in Singapore.

Seema Sutradhar joins us on Pitchdeck Asia today to share her vision for addressing the key challenges facing global banks in finance, regulation and compliance. The 2008 financial crisis and global money laundering are the product of a more endemic issue - organizational culture and management of risk. With an integrated platform powered by Big Data and Machine Learning we can move from crude rules-based compliance and workflows to intelligent risk management.

Sam Gibb joins us in the studio today to talk about angel investment and venture capital in Southeast Asia. Sam is a partner in Endeavour Ventures and has invested in a number of startups in Singapore. He shares advice on what startup founders should focus on to better connect with investors and what inspires him about working with startups.

In today's episode of Life's a Pitch, we had Joseph Mocanu, Managing Partner-Verge HealthTech Fund & an Early Stage Healthcare Technology Investor, joining host Graham Brown in the ATP studio. He shares with us his journey as an investor, the lessons he learnt through his failures in investing and about his pet investing space of Healthcare Tech. Joseph also gives some tips on angel investing, on how to identify potential startups and the best time to speak to them as an investor. As one of the 6 Angel Investors part of the Pitchdeck Connect event in Mar 2019, Joseph also shares his feedback & thoughts about the event. Listen to the entire episode to know more. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel & hit the like button to support us. We would love to hear back from you, do leave us a review about our shows on our channel.

Our this episode's featured guests Steven Lieu (Investor & Founder of Cosmic Cafe) & Rina Neoh (Investor & Founder of RXR Cap Pte. Ltd.) are long time friends of our show host Graham Brown, with their relations going back to their time in Fukuoka, Japan. In this conversation, we hear from them about their time in Japan and their journey together as investors & friends. In a version of Angel Investor's Ask Me Anything (AMA) format, the two ace investors talk about the important values they look for in startup founders and also tell us about their own personal areas of interest when it comes to investing in a startup. They share some of the dos and don’ts which a startup founder should follow when pitching to an investor. They also share their excitement with us about the PitchDeck Connect event on 20th March 2019 and tell us how they hope to benefit from this event which is bringing together Angel Investors and Startup founders in a unique, casual conversational environment. Listen to the entire conversation here and don’t forget to like & subscribe to our channel if you are interested in our podcasts. We would also love to hear your thoughts about the shows, do leave us a review on our channel.

In this conversation, Vinnie Lauria, Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, shared with us his story on how he got into the investor's space as well as how Golden Gate Ventures came about. He first walked us through his individual entrepreneurial journey when he was in the US and then subsequently, his story on how he came into Asia. Golden Gate Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing across Southeast Asia, since 2011, it has invested in over 30 companies across more than 7 countries in Asia. We hear from Vinnie about his successes and failures from the 2 startups that he was involved in and what he learnt from his mistakes before coming into Asia. Listen to the entire conversation here and don’t forget to like & subscribe to our channel if you are interested in our podcasts. We would also love to hear your thoughts about the shows, do leave us a review on our channel.

PDA team visited the offices of SC Ventures in Standard Chartered Bank for the Pitchdeck Asia Startup Ecosystem tour to have a conversation with Hari Rajmohan, Marion Bernardi & Rene Michau. SC Ventures defines itself as a team working towards “rewiring the DNA in banking”. They invest in fintech startups and promote rapid testing & implementation of new business models. Over the next 50 mins, they talk about how with the backing of Standard Chartered Bank & a US$100 Million fund, SC Ventures is spearheading fintech projects across various verticals of the bank by partnering with many fintech startups and promoting innovation across multiple divisions within the bank. Listen to the entire episode to know more in depth about their work, on how startups get in touch with them to collaborate, their learnings, future plans and also get some insight into the type of startups with whom they work. We would love to hear back from you, do leave us a review on our shows and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and hit the like button to support us.

ATP team landed at the offices of ImpacTech for the Pitchdeck Asia Startup Ecosystem tour to have a conversation with founders Kineret Karin & Yoav Elgrichi. In conversation with Graham Brown, the Israeli duo talk about their journey through the past decades, working in corporates and then entering the startup life. They also talk about the differences in culture in Asia & Israel and how they adjusted to startup life in Asia. ImpacTech was founded in 2015, it is a leading startup accelerator empowering startups that create social and economical impact. They provide customized acceleration programs, workshops, mentorship, consulting services and various bespoke activities to startups & corporates. Over the 45 mins conversation, they talk about the startups that come to them, their cohorts, about some of the impactul ideas which have graduated through their cohorts. Listen to the entire episode to know more in depth about their work, their motivations, future plans and get some insight into the type of startups with whom they work. We would love to hear back from you, do leave us a review on our shows and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and hit the like button to support us.

ATP team visited Cylon Singapore office in One North as part of the Pitchdeck Asia Startup Ecosystem Tour and had a conversation with Anton Opperman (MD, Cylon Singapore) and Nicole De Silva (Program Manager, Cylon). Anton & Nicole tell us about their personal journey which has now led them to being part of Cylon. They give us an insight into their bootcamps for Startups and talk about the background of founders in terms of their work experience, age & geography. Cylon helps startups in the space of Cyber Security, a sector both Anton and Nicole describe as being very different from other sectors for startups. The requirements for succeeding in this sector need specialized inputs & experience from founders, accelerators, mentors. They also talk about how the field of Cyber Security is still nascent in Asia in comparison US or Europe with very few startups venturing into this space and much fewer number of investors in this space from Asia. They share interesting anecdotes about some of the companies who they have worked with in their cohort. Listen to the entire conversation here and don’t forget to like & subscribe to our channel if you are interested in our podcasts. We would also love to hear your thoughts about the shows, do leave us a review on our channel.

Asia Tech Podcast visited SPINOFF at Singapore Polytechnic as part of our Pitchdeck Asia Startup Ecosystem tour and we had an interesting conversation with Neelesh Bhatia and Rafael Voltaire Alzate. In this conversation, Neelesh and Rafael took us through their individual journeys before joining SPINOFF. Being very passionate about education and student entrepreneurship, Neelesh and Rafael talk about how SPINOFF caters their programme for students. In SPINOFF, students work in multi-disciplinary teams and tackle problem statements that help them evaluate their business skills and commitment necessary to successfully operate an entrepreneurial venture. We learn about our guest's opinion on whether entrepreneurship can be taught to students and also get to know the type of startups working in SPINOFF. Listen to the entire conversation here and don’t forget to like & subscribe to our channel if you are interested in our podcasts. We would also love to hear your thoughts about the shows, do leave us a review on our channel.

PDA Team dropped in to Startup-O’s office in Singapore to hand over the trophy for their #1 spot on the Outstanding Contribution to the Asian Startup Ecosystem Award 2019 and have a conversation with founders Anuj Jain & Nitin Nath. Over the 40 mins conversation, Anuj & Nitin take us through their individual journey which brought them from India to Singapore. They talk to us about how they built Startup-O, their vision for the company and how they stepped in to overcome some of the prevalent problems in the startup ecosystem. Startup-O has achieved phenomenal growth over the 3 years since inception helping numerous startups who pass through their doors succeed in their journey. We hear from them about their selection process for startups and also why they feel Singapore is the ideal place for setting up a startup compared to other cities in Asia. Listen to the entire conversation here and don’t forget to like & subscribe to our channel if you are interested in our podcasts. We would also love to hear your thoughts about the shows, do leave us a review on our channel.

As part of ATP Tour of The Asian Startup Ecosystem, we have our first entry from India with Avinash Kaushik founder of RevvX Accelerator in Bangalore joining our host Graham Brown in a conversation telling us about his journey and their work in RevvX. They talk about how Bangalore has modelled itself into being the Silicon Valley of India and how after losing out talent to Bay Area, SFO in the earlier decades, it is now catching up because of the abundance of opportunities available for the numerous tech talent graduating every year in India. They talk about how RevvX is making a difference in the Tech Startup Ecosystem in India, helping their startups succeed. We learn about the interesting work being undertaken by their startups in diverse fields from HealthTech to SportsTech and also understand in depth the rapidly mushrooming startup ecosystem, community & culture in India. Listen to the entire conversation here and don’t forget to like & subscribe to our channel if you are interested in our podcasts. We would love to hear back from you, leave us a review on our channel.

ATP tour lands at Antler’s office in Singapore to hand over the trophy for #6 spot in the Outstanding Contribution to the Asian Startup Ecosystem Award 2019 and have a conversation with Jussi Salovaara (Co-Founder & Managing Partner-Antler) & Tyler Norwood (Partner-Antler). They discuss about Antler, their personal stories and their journey from Finland & US respectively to here in Singapore. They tell us how Antler is a Startup Generator which is different from a Startup Accelerator. We learn how they train startup founders as individuals and help build their team of co-founders. Over the hour long conversation, we get an in depth understanding of their work, their perspective on startups & startup life. They showcase how Antler is building & supporting the startup ecosystem here in Singapore. Listen to the entire conversation here and don’t forget to like & subscribe to our channel if you are interested in our podcasts. We would love to hear back from you, leave us a review on our channel.