Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Bernard Leong

In our episode 300, our host Bernard Leong will be interviewed on everything under the sun on Analyse Asia. With the interview conducted by Carol Yin, co-producer of the podcast, Bernard started with a couple of major announcements for Analyse Asia. Next, Bernard answered many interesting questions posed from the audience of the show such as: (i) the evolution of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southeast Asia, (ii) who will win the race between Grab and Gojek, (iii) fun and interesting facts about the podcast from how Bernard selects his guest to getting a prominent guest on the show via a business deal. Last but not least, we discuss where the Analyse Asia podcast is going and an upcoming premium content project.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

• Welcome Carol Yin, the co-producer of the show as the host of Episode 300. [0:37]
• Major Announcements on Analyse Asia podcast [1:29]
  • We will make a significant change in the title of the podcast from “Analyse Asia with BL” to “Analyse Asia”. We are also dropping the episode number from our title starting from this episode. The title change will take some time as we need to make changes on different sites.
  • Our current host, Bernard Leong will be taking at least 3-6 months break but you will still see every episode from now to the break ends. The reason is that he is currently in personal transition and his family expecting third kid to the family in August 2019. If there are some major news happening from July to Sep 2019, Carol will be stepping in to host on Bernard's behalf.
  • Our premium content project relating to Tencent and we are likely to do a Kickstarter program. BL and Carol will co-produce the show and the voices for the show will be announced later.
  • 1st Live Show - Wework Singapore on 5 Sep 2019 and need help for Hong Kong live show: We will be charging for the live show and we hope that you can help to bring down some of the costs.
• AMA with Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, LinkedIn, personal site) [6:12]
  • (Colin Charles): You’re relatively well travelled. How do your travels shape your lens when it comes to analysing Asia? I will presume travel gives you an edge, but what top 3 things have you noted from travels that permeate from or diffuse to Asia? [6:49]
  • (Uri Wolfovitz) What are the three likely outcomes of the US-China trade war ? Please indicate the winner and loser together with the timeline. [12:30]
  • (JJ Chai): How would one assign weights to the factors that result in startups' success levels? What share is business model vs sector vs founder(s) vs luck (including externalities)? [16:29]
  • (JJ Chai): What patterns do you see in successful founders in terms of personality traits? [19:34]
  • (Hian Goh): Who’s going to win, Grab or Gojek? [20:21]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom) How was the startup ecosystem in Singapore and Southeast Asian when you were involved at SGentrepreneurs.com? (Period is between 2005-2013) [23:03]
  • (Lisa Enckell) Please share a story on how the tech scene had changed in this part of the world since you launched the first episode. (Period is between 2014-2019) [24:57]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): Why did you decide 5 years ago to launch a podcast? [28:33]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): What’s your secret sauce for shipping one episode each week? [30:10]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): How do you build your deal flow of guests? [31:37]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): How do you reach out to them? How do you identify the best channel, time, blurb to convince them to join? [32:00]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): How do you select them (heuristics and due diligence)? [34:34]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): How do you decide if you should invite one more time a guest? [35:51]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): Who are the 5 people you wish to have one day on your show? [36:50]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): Where do you see Analyse Asia in 5 years except releasing the 600th episode? [38:00]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom) Would you like to make your podcast a full-time business? [39:00]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): 3 fun facts about Analyse Asia? [39:27]
  • (Arnaud Bonzom): What are the 3 podcasts on startups you love listening? [42:00]
    • BL's recommendation: Acquired Podcast, Startup by Gimlet and Recode Decode, and Carol's recommendation: How I build this?
  • (Wynthia Goh) Through 5 years of interviewing the insiders, disrupters, innovators, founders and investors, what has changed over the years and what has stayed the same? [42:38]
  • (Wynthia Goh) Which guests left the strongest impression (for better or worse) and why? [43:48]
  • (Wynthia Goh) If you are to summarize what you have learned from all the people you have interviewed, what would it be? [45:00]

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The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack and this episode is both hosted and edited by Carol Yin, and co-produced by Carol Yin and Bernard Leong.