Need help with market expansion, product market fit, growth, or fundraising? Reach out!https://forms.gle/PkKjvfqCUjq4MgGk6Support the pod!https://buymeacoffee.com/lowlevelbarbariansLets Connect!* https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderle/* https://www.linkedin.com/in/jianggan/* https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidqchang/In this episode, we dive into why…

The LLBs delve into a wide range of topics including carbon capture technology, tech investment trends in Southeast Asia, updates from the Tech In Asia Malaysia 2024 event, the innovative business model of Temu, and insights on the upcoming US elections. Our hosts Dave, Jianggan, and Alexander share their thoughts and engage in lively discussions a…

Mak Choong Moon is an expert business coach who coaches over 40 CEOs a month as a Vistage chair here in Malaysia. His career spans IT services, manufacturing, insurance, gaming, and property development. His family has a long rich history of doing business in Malaysia since post World War II. In this episode we cover his main job these days in coac…

This week's podcast was a bit of an unplanned episode. Alex and Jianggan catch up and discuss the many nuances and blurred lines of a countries economic power/growth and how soft power relates. Updates not included; Dave make's his annual migration to US for a longer period of time so we are missing him and Joon has joined the Antler program in sea…

Jianggan's finished his immersion tripe to Shenzhen and is now back in Beijing again! Alex is just back from his US trip. In this episode we explore the value of Cross-border learning between China and Southeast Asia. Jianggan shares insights in the difference of business cultures between SEA and China. What do Chinese companies want to learn from …

Taylor Swift Eras tour finally winds down. Jianggan and Alex discuss the Swifty movement. Is it a cult or the greatest business empire ever? Is Taylor Swift the ultimate manifestation of capitalism or is her character genuinely representative for millions around the world? Stay tuned towards the end for business ecosystem updates from Jianggan's tr…

This episode is a cut from E:31 pre-show talk. Are you curious about licensing I.P. from a big name like Hasbro? Look no further Joon dives into of aspect of the family business that focuses on building an events business while licensing big names like My Little Pony, Transformers, Monopoly, and much more. Take a peek of what it is like building an…

In this episode, we catch up with Jianggan during his Chinese New Year celebrations in Jiangsu, China. Offering a personal and reflective update, he shares insights from his recent travels and conversations with friends involved in the Chinese business landscape. From observing the impact of e-commerce on local retail to discussing the anxieties su…

Will SORA kill your AI startup ambitions? Are we on the cusp of AGI? We discuss these topics and much more. Along with updates on SORA and Gemini 1.5, we'll explore which types of companies and industries are vulnerable and which are more defensible. Our second major topic revolves around Temu and their Super Bowl ads. We'll take a deeper look at t…

All things come back to land. What are the fundamental underpinnings of what is driving land value in the US? How does the evolution of e-commerce affect land. US commercial real estate land fundamentals vs Southeast Asia land fundamentals. Other interesting topics include, the right way to Live Sell, Myth of Palm Oil margins, effects of climate ch…

This episode covers three main topics. Trump, The Future of Vietnam and The Food Delivery Ecosystem in Southeast Asia 2024. E:33 a comprehensive discussion revolving around Donald Trump's possible re-election and what it may mean for Vietnam. The results of the upcoming U.S. election could affect various aspects of the global economy, specifically …

E:32 takes a deep dive into the dynamic world of venture capital in Southeast Asia, examining the future of billion-dollar industries including digital banking and the rapidly growing electric vehicle market. We also explore the intricacies of the US industrial real estate sector and speculate on where the next 100 billion dollars will be invested …

LLB this week discusses diverse topics surrounding key global issues. Starting off with sweeping views on China market trends and the population decline, Alex, Jianggan and Joon provide a comprehensive discussion on the potential implication. They also explore the controversial topic of a possible China war over Taiwan. The conversation further dig…

Bestie Barby, Joon Chan Join E:30 this week. The future of e-commerce and global politics. The discussions navigate through live selling on platforms like TikTok, exploring the revolution it brings to user shopping experience and the opportunities it presents to entrepreneurs. It delves into the political dynamics between China, Taiwan, and the U.S…

This is the last recorded episode of 2023. A retrospective as we move forward into 2024. Jianggan was late to the party so Dave generously updated us on the state of commercial and industrial real estate in the US. It was clear that there was lots of risk off in 2023 and raising capital was much harder to raise. Jianggan joins the conversations abo…

First episode of 2024. After a long hiatus Alex and Jianggan catch up. We have a short personal updated followed by the state of Chinese Tourism, the general economic outlook for 2024 and the nature of looming uncertainties. Towards the end we dig deep into the state of E-commerce and what is going on behind the Lazada layoffs. Tune in to hear it a…

E27: A rare appearance from the Master Debater himself. This episode is cut from a longer episode posted from EOA (to be released soon). Andrew is deeply concerned about where AI is heading. Andrew covers some broad topics of where we are in AI from the development of transformer architecture, the development of neural networks and the implications…

E26: Another test run for the new studio. Joon Chan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joonchan/), has been living a quieter life since his venture building days. He stopped by the studio and shared his thoughts on Geopolitics in the context of countries aligning East vs West and the impacts on Southeast Asia. Joon also briefly gives some insights into G…

Chong Siong, Principal, from Team Rocket Research happened to be in my neck of the woods. I used him as a guinea pig for testing the new studio equipment. This episode was completely unscripted and off the cuff. It was a good learning experience to improve the format in the future. Team Rocket Research (TRR) is a research outfit specializing in DeF…

Last episode of 2022. In this episode we review all the predictions we made in 2022 and review the topics we discussed. We covered a lot of ground from the Grocery sector, 15 minute delivery, Macroeconomic conditions, Food Tech, Payments in SEA, Quality of VC in SEA, where the money and talent is heading, and the trends of ChatGPT-3. We close out w…

Recorded Nov 30th; late due to end year obligations. A very interesting episode that focuses on a thesis that says Malaysia is the best country to invest in SEA. Along with this sentiment, Jianggan and Alex discuss the big opportunities to build or invest in Southeast Asia that are not related to tech. Did the foodtech platforms have the right inve…

Justin Ahn, Co-Founder of Quid.li, is building a startup that sits in a very similar space to FTX. Quidli enables crypto as micro-rewards with top collaborators and community members through Web 2.0 tools such as browsers, email, Slack and Discord. In this episode we cover two important aspects missing from current coverage of the FTX fallout. 1.) …

Description: FTX doom and gloom seems never ending, however Don Phan, crypto researcher, indicates that price action around bitcoin and ethereum possibly signal that fallout and contagion seems contained for now. Realistically, we are all waiting to see what happens. What are the results of the possible contagion, where exactly does the crypto fron…

The FTX drama ensues. In this episode Patrick Ambrus helps break down the Alameda Research and FTT structure and explains why it was wrong. He gives a very clear and succinct timeline of how the crash happened with new and unique insights. I have known Pat since 2006, and he is one of the best critical thinkers I know. His applied work, research, a…

If you have been lost on the FTX story this podcast is for you. If you want to know more about the background of FTX, what caused the collapse, and the long term consequences tune in. Follow Team Rocket Research: https://twitter.com/rocketresearchxhttps://teamrocket.substack.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/chongsiong/ Topics Covered: Intro (00:00:3…

This episode is a high level dive into the world of AI, featuring a close LLB friend, Ken (Noppadon Kamolvilassatian), an AI practitioner. Part of the episode broadly covers AI so feel free to skip around to what interests you. We also cover how the AI field is developing, recent developments in the hardware and software powering modern AI, the evo…

Time Stamps Below of Each Section. Feel free to skip the short banter section.This episode starts up with Dave and Alex catching up on Dave’s latest project in Industrial Real Estate in the US (00:00:00) and comparing the space to Asia (00:08:25). When Jianggan finally joins the session, we kick of the episode by discussing the CCP elections (00:22…

While Dave and Andrew are off hiking in a mountain in Bulgaria together, Jianggan and Alex discuss the Great Singaporean Migration. Will this big talent shift to Singapore be permanent this time? They also discuss some of the changes in the SEA tech landscape, especially in fintech. Jianggan shares some context to the Shopee layoffs and an interest…

LLB is back. It was a long hiatus and we appreciate feedback from those who encouraged us to continue. Episode 15 starts off with everyone's personal updates for the past quarter discussing early stage investing, building profitable companies with optionality, and overcoming personal struggles. The second half tackles our old friend's SEA Group's 2…

What is going on with Goto’s stock price? Why hasn’t GoTo’s stock dropped further? Will Goto’s stock price sustain? What-in-the-what is Zilingo and what happened with their CEO Ankiti Bose? Netflix has lost subscribers for the first time, what is the fate of Netflix’s future? Elon Musk finally pulled it off and owns Twitter. Is Twitter big in Asia?…

Southeast Asia is open! Come and travel one and all! In this episode the Master Debater gives us a rundown of where acquisition marketing is headed and where we are now. Is quick commerce headed to a demise or is this just the beginning of a new wave of consumer behaviors that last past the pandemic? If you missed the latest on the Axie Infinity Ro…

The Master Debater's Corner. If you haven't noticed our usual cheery co-host Andrew G has been missing from the past few podcasts. In this episode we get to catch up with him to hear about what he has been working on, his views on Russia & Ukraine, insider insights on the Lazada stalled IPO, and a more bullish view on Goto and Grab.…

Low Level Barbarian Special! Barbarian Bestie, Dimitry Levit, from Cento Ventures, joins us to discuss a highly delicate topic, as a Russian National, the war in Ukraine with Russia. Dmitry shares insider views around how the war has been viewed in Russia, the nature of the Russian social contract, information warfare, media bias and propaganda. Ho…

The war in Ukraine and Russia continues. The barbs discuss the potential ramifications and effects seen globally and Southeast Asia. Don't look at your stock portfolio any time soon! This episode covers the drop of KWEB index and the Didi debacle along with events that caused its recent massive drop in stock price. Lastly, its a hard topic to avoid…

Why does the world care about Ukraine? Lazada stalls an IPO spinout. What are the implications for Alibaba, the future of Lazada, and competition in the e-commerce space here in Southeast Asia? Shopee is exiting France before barely settling in, and lastly Siam Commercial Bank is creating waves in the Fintech ecosystem with their latest investment …

The fintech space is heating up again. Malaysian startup Curlec, a direct debit fintech company, was acquired by India’s Razorpay. In this episode we discuss the unique founding partnership Zac has with his co-founder Steve, how Zac managed to avoid founder conflicts all the way through an acquisition, the fintech landscape, and why Zac decided to …

Is covid over and should it be considered over? Have you avoided the cancel culture brouhaha? Where are we with Crypto? If you have been missing out on any of these topics the first half is here to get you caught up. In the second half the Low Level Barbarians discuss SEA’s rapidly dropping stock price due to India banning Free Free on national sec…

The first episode of 2022. What lies ahead for the Low Level Barbarians. Jianggan, Alex, Dave, and Andrew discuss what they are planning for the new year personally and professionally. They also cover some predictions and the outlook for the new year. Tune in to hear about remote work, the macroeconomic environment, and changes to the investment in…

The last episode of 2021. The gang had a long break from holiday travels and celebrations but came together for one last episode. The final episode of 2021 discusses Grab's IPO and its performance, the idea of shallow unicorns; raising too much money and the effects of firing employee's en masse, and lastly what the metaverse is and its future pote…

Shopee is going global and has hit a 200B market cap making it one top 20 largest tech companies in the world. What has contributed to Shopee's global domination and can they hold up to any potential competition? The discussion naturally moved to the evolution of gaming companies into platform players. We dig further and explore 2 of Vietnam’s late…

In this episode the LLB gang sets the foundation for a future episode around media and the metaverse by discussing the recent launch of Diablo 2 Resurrected, and its business model. The main topics for this week's episode discusses the viability of a local hero company, One Championship. Can One Championship find its footing to become a media giant…

For this special and entertaining episode, barbarian Dave calls in from his motel in Wisconsin. The gang arrives on time to discuss Grab Q2 results, the global expansion of SEA group, the rise of Tik Tok E-commerce, and Carousell's most recent raise, which makes them a Unicorn. Are there any surprises for Grab? Will raising USD6.5B hurt or help SEA…

Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and South Africa central banks are banning together to develop an interbank system that removes intermediaries by using digital currencies. The LLB gang discusses the nature of digital currencies along with the context for blockchain ledger technologies. The second topic covers what the future of saas in Southeast Asi…

Can AirAsia build a superapp? We dig deep into the ambitions of AirAsia and look at their core business and see if they have what it takes to compete in superapp space. Man of the high ground, Dave Chang, gives a great presentation on the state of VC and we discuss the driving trends we see in the Southeast VC/Angel scene. Lastly we touch upon the …

With Grab’s release of Q1 results the LLB gang couldn't resist from following up from episode 1 in discussing the performance and health of Grab. This discussion however goes much deeper into the ecosystem and the broad ranging effects from the type of labor developing, and how substantial the results were. With China continuing crackdowns from edu…

The maiden voyage of the LLB podcast. Alex Le, Dave Chang, Andrew Gnananantham, and Jianggan Li band together to launch the Low Level Barbarians podcast. A podcast dedicated to discussions and debate about technology, business, startups, economics, society and more! In this episode the barbarians in arms discuss the Grab Spac IPO, Antitrust in Chin…