BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)

Hosted by Jeremy Au

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720

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past & stay human in between. No B.S on success. Southeast Asia's #1 startup & venture capital podcast with 80,000+ listeners. Hosted by Jeremy Au. VC & serial founder. Harvard MBA & UC Berkeley. Sci-fi nerd & dad of two daughters. Growth and personal growth solves all problems. The best feeling is coaching good humans to be great leaders. Published on Monday & Thursday. Weekly tech news debates, changemaker interviews & listener Q&As. Community of listeners and guests across Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia & the Philippines. Global top 10% podcast. "Learned a lot from the journeys. Must-listen for anyone seeking advice to be a leader" @lindatangxy "Refreshing to hear from distinguished founders what they learned, both the good & bad" @seanojw "Incredibly useful in kickstarting my thought process around customers as an entrepreneur" @klowetan "After tuning into a couple of episodes, this is now my weekly routine. Keep it up!!" @joshrodes8 Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com WhatsApp Weekday Insight: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakR55X6BIElUEvkN02e Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4TnqkaWpTT181lMA8xNu0T Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyAu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/brave-southeast-asia-tech-singapore-indonesia-vietnam/id1506890464 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyau Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyauz Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyau LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bravesea

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 16, 2026Episode 72227 min

The New Architecture Of Tech: Seat Pricing, Orbital Rings & Superstar Employees - E722

Software has been sold by the seat for twenty years. Nobody has ever had to promise it worked. Three conversations from the BRAVE archive, on what changes when software starts getting paid for outcomes instead of access, and what has to be rebuilt underneath it. Andres Klaric spent a decade in private equity watching SaaS scale before co-founding Fuse, an enterprise lending platform. His argument: current pricing has no accountability in it, and the profit pool should sit in the outcome rather than the operating system. Rohit Jha co-founded Transcelestial in Singapore to move data over laser links. When the profitable telco side of the business was going well and his own board told him to drop space, he and his co-founder quietly moved capital into it anyway. Ori Sasson, Founder of S2T.AI, on the barbell splitting the tech workforce, and why employers now have to design jobs around outcomes rather than hours. Watch the full episodes: E710 Andres Klaric, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Fuse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aHsI3gj1c0 E698 Rohit Jha, Co-Founder & CEO of Transcelestial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoQXHJnLV04 E702 Ori Sasson, Founder of S2T.AI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axxDAQvqtF0 Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/ai-saas 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 #SaaS #SoutheastAsia #AI #Singapore #TechPodcast #EnterpriseSoftware #B2BSaaS #DeepTech #SpaceTech #FutureOfWork #AIAgents #Startups #VentureCapital #Founders #SEAstartups #Malaysia #Indonesia #Philippines #Vietnam #Entrepreneurship 00:00 The "what" of AI, and the "how" 00:26 Andres Klaric: "We're at peak SaaS" 04:03 What an outcome actually means in lending 09:57 Rohit Jha: the backbone outcomes need 12:09 A ring of satellites to replace undersea cables 16:43 The space pivot the board said no to 18:03 Ori Sasson: redesign the job around the outcome 20:15 The Hollywoodization of the workplace 23:51 The barbell: superstars and everyone else 27:25 The new architecture of tech

August 13, 2026Episode 72125 min

AI in Healthcare: Will it work for you? - E721

What is technology actually doing to healthcare, and what can it still not touch? Four conversations from the BRAVE archive, on the gap between what medicine can do and what a doctor actually has time to do. Dr. Thomas Kelly walked away from vascular surgery to build Heidi, an AI scribe and care partner now used by clinicians in more than 100 countries. He argues a doctor's paperwork is a patient safety problem, not an inconvenience. Jay Fajardo started over as a solo founder at 58 to attack "pajama time," the 40% of a doctor's day that disappears into admin. Ed Booty spent two years learning that a pure-play tech platform will not reach a rural village, and rebuilt reach52 around community health workers instead. Joshua Wang works upstream, on why we keep catching cancer too late to treat it well. And Dr. Tom closes on what it actually takes to make medical AI work across Malay, Hokkien, English and Singlish. 00:00 Intro 00:40 Dr. Thomas Kelly: paperwork is stealing clinical capacity 04:47 Jay Fajardo: pajama time and the 40% problem 09:59 Edward Booty: why pure-play tech doesn't reach rural patients 14:32 Joshua Wang: we catch cancer far too late 19:53 Dr. Thomas Kelly: Malay, Hokkien and Singlish, and the cost of localisation 25:19 Outro Watch the full episodes: E716 Dr. Thomas Kelly, Co-Founder & CEO of Heidi Health https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5jzWf4V_Y E694 Jay Fajardo, Founder & CEO of BetterClinic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIOCY_LtObM E502 Edward Booty, Founder & CEO of reach52 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pE0LFpCp_Q E628 Joshua Wang, Founder & CEO of Verimmune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roXPyXASiRk Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/ai-in-healthcare 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 #HealthcareAI #SoutheastAsia #HealthTech #Singapore #TechPodcast #MedicalAI #AIScribe #DigitalHealth #Philippines #Australia #Startups #VentureCapital #Founders #SEAstartups #Malaysia #Indonesia #Vietnam #Biotech #Entrepreneurship

August 10, 2026Episode 72054 min

Navigating Southeast Asia: Jeremy Au on Building, Investing, and Career Pivots - E720

Jeremy Au joined Rohit Malhotra on Life Self Mastery to talk about the moves between founder, VC, and operator, and what each seat actually teaches you. Now leading Cosmetic Physician Partners Asia after Bain, CozyKin, Monk's Hill Ventures, and Lucence, Jeremy is candid about what does not transfer between roles. They cover the three things every founder has to get right (the product, the team, and the business), the Southeast Asia story that still is not told at ground level, why angel investing is an Olympic-level race rather than a pass-fail test, why coaching someone and investing in someone are two completely different prisms, and the two-by-two he uses to advise emerging fund managers who have deployed capital without returns. Support the original show: Life Self Mastery with Rohit Malhotra: https://www.youtube.com/@LifeSelfMastery Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/navigating-southeast-asia 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 #VentureCapital #SoutheastAsia #TechPodcast #Founders #Singapore #AngelInvesting #Startups #CareerPivot #EmergingManagers #Leadership #SEAstartups #Malaysia #Vietnam #Indonesia #Philippines #Harvard #Entrepreneurship 00:00 Intro 01:19 Founder to VC to operator, and back again 03:10 The three things: product, team, business 07:33 Scaling a clinic group from the US into Asia 10:54 The Southeast Asia story nobody is telling 18:30 Why a regional thesis is too broad a brush 22:20 Angel investing is an Olympic race, not a pass-fail test 25:41 Coaching someone vs investing in someone 28:08 Advice for emerging VCs who have not returned capital 35:07 The thread: high-performing teams 41:59 The comfort crisis and the 2% idea 46:54 What he would tell his younger self 50:20 Why Flow Club is his favourite tool 52:37 Where to find Jeremy

August 5, 2026Episode 71941 min

Stop Chasing Unicorns - E719

Jeremy Au joins an episode of The Accidental VC podcast. Hosted by seasoned founders and VCs from ANZ and SEA, this show reveals how unlikely beginnings can lead to extraordinary outcomes. Whether you’re building, backing, or just curious—tune in for stories, strategies, and sharp takes from those who’ve been there. In this episode, we explore the thought that “Everyone wants a unicorn. But what if that's the wrong goal?” Mohan Belani and Jeremy Au join Milan Reinartz to challenge what founders and investors think they know about building in Southeast Asia, from venture capital and AI to startup exits, global expansion, and the future of entrepreneurship. Support The Accidental VC: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccidentalVC Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/stop-chasing-unicorns 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 #VentureCapital #SoutheastAsia #StartupFunding 00:00 Intro 02:44 What 2026 actually looks like in Southeast Asia 07:10 Big problems, small wallets: who in the region can actually pay 10:00 Why a $50 million exit is a real outcome 11:14 Power law investing vs micro private equity 17:13 Block lays off 40% and blames AI 18:43 Is Southeast Asia facing a K-shaped economy? 26:21 Future shock: a Waymo, a Costco chicken and no jobs 27:59 What founders should focus on now 31:03 Moat building in the age of AI 36:48 Quick fire: biggest wins and fails in VC

August 2, 2026Episode 71859 min

Navigating the Longevity Market | Dr. Sue-Anne Toh - E718

Dr. Sue-Anne Toh , CEO and co-founder of NOVI Health , joins Jeremy Au to discuss the critical intersection of metabolism, longevity, and health policy. They explore the "War on Diabetes" in Singapore, unpacking why Asian populations are predisposed to insulin resistance and visceral fat accumulation even at lower BMI levels. Dr. Toh shares her transition from healthcare administration at NUHS working with MOH, to launching a health-tech "speedboat" to bridge the implementation gap in preventive care. The conversation covers the 80/20 of longevity, the role of GLP-1 medications in hormonal balance, and actionable strategies for "banking" muscle mass to ensure quality of life during aging. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/sue-anne-toh-novi-health 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 #Longevity #Healthspan #SoutheastAsiaTech 00:00 - Introduction: Dr. Sue-Anne Toh's background 02:14 - Choosing medicine over law: curiosity and impact 03:51 - From policy to founder: the "impatient" path to NOVI Health 10:49 - Navigating the "Snake Oil" noise in longevity 12:39 - The 80/20 of health span: sleep, steps, and nutrition 22:30 - The ROI of treats: behavior change vs. restrictions 30:02 - TOFI Phenotype: Thin Outside, Fat Inside 33:04 - The Insulin Resistance "Pancreas Factory" 37:56 - Public Health strategies: Enforce, Empower, Educate 40:35 - GLP-1s and the future of weight care 45:01 - Why muscle mass is the ultimate longevity asset

July 29, 2026Episode 71729 min

AI: State of Industry and Investment | Aravind Kandiah, Jun Wakabayashi, John Homer Alvero - E717

Everyone has the same access to the same frontier models. So what's actually left to compete on? Jeremy Au moderates a panel at the Crosscurrents Summit in Parañaque on where enterprise AI adoption really stands. Aravind Kandiah is CTO and Co-founder of Bifrost, a robotics infrastructure company that simulates the world to evaluate robots. Its simulations power some of the largest robotics companies, from Mars exploration with NASA to high-risk industrial work. Bifrost is backed by Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital and Airbus Ventures. On the panel he splits enterprises into those running pilots to hit an R&D spend target and those facing a real forcing function, like Korea's birth rate leaving factories unstaffed. Only the second group ships. Jun Wakabayashi is a Venture Principal at AppWorks, one of Asia's leading accelerators and VC firms. He rose from Analyst in 2017 to Principal by 2023 and leads its Beacon Funds arm, a fund-of-funds backing emerging venture managers across Southeast Asia and web3. He holds a B.S. in Finance from NYU Stern and previously worked at PwC. He puts engineering at 60 to 80% of enterprise token spend and tracks teams accidentally burning $5 million a month. John Homer Alvero is Head of AI Engineering at Converge ICT, one of the Philippines' largest fiber broadband and digital infrastructure providers. An AWS architect across fintech, telco and gaming, he was previously Cloud Solutions Architect at SM Investments. His blocker isn't the technology: governance and cybersecurity teams can't write credible guardrails until they're AI-literate themselves. Where they split: Aravind says the moat is everything except the model. Jun says it's distribution, the one thing the labs lack. Crosscurrents Summit, presented by Clouted Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/enterprise-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 #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy #AIAdoption #BuildVsBuy #AIROI #PhysicalAI #Robotics #SoutheastAsia #TechPodcast 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Meet the panel 03:02 Is enterprise AI adoption actually real? 05:34 Engineers have stopped typing code 08:21 What's really holding enterprises back 10:30 How to measure ROI and cap token spend 15:32 Where the returns show up internally 18:36 Build or buy, and why services came back 23:23 Advice to a three-years-younger self 26:02 Model, brand, or distribution?

July 27, 2026Episode 71646 min

Building the World's Most-used Medical AI | Dr. Thomas Kelly of Heidi - E716

Dr. Thomas Kelly was a vascular surgery trainee in Melbourne before he walked away from medicine to fix the problem he hated most: paperwork stealing time from patients. Today he is co-founder and CEO of Heidi Health, an AI medical scribe and "care partner" used by clinicians in more than 100 countries, valued at US$465M after its 2025 Series B led by Point72. In this episode, Jeremy Au and Dr. Tom break down how GPT-4 nearly destroyed the company, forcing a brutal pivot from an AI model company into a product company, and how that near-death moment led to becoming one of the world's most-used healthcare AI tools. They dig into why great AI scribing is far harder than a demo, how Heidi is expanding into clinical decision support and medical-device territory, why he isn't scared of OpenAI in healthcare, and why Singapore, Japan, and the rest of Asia are core to the roadmap. A must-watch for founders, venture capitalists, and operators building AI, health tech, and vertical software across Southeast Asia. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/heidi-health-tom-kelly 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 #HealthcareAI #AIScribe #FounderStory #AIinHealthcare #StartupPivot #SoutheastAsia #VentureCapital 00:00 – From vascular surgery to AI: meet Dr. Tom Kelly 01:38 – Why he became a doctor: the "platonic ideal" GP 02:55 – Maths, machine learning, and the pre-med detour 04:22 – GAMSAT YouTube videos to his first business 07:06 – Building Oscer, an early AI clinical tutor 08:58 – Why doctor paperwork is a capacity crisis 13:05 – Is an AI scribe easy or hard to build? 17:35 – From scribe to full AI care partner 18:28 – Clinical AI and medical device regulation 21:32 – Roadmap: tasks, primitives, and on-prem hardware 26:24 – Going global: Singapore, Japan, and Asia 28:50 – Localizing for Malay, Hokkien, and Singlish 32:52 – Why clinicians drive the innovation 34:21 – The GPT-4 pivot that nearly ended Heidi 37:20 – Competing with OpenAI and how to run a pivot

July 22, 2026Episode 71532 min

Spent $1.5m On One Sperm Race and It Went Viral | Eric Zhu - E715

An 18-year-old got kicked out of high school, built a data startup from a bathroom stall, and now raises millions to race human sperm on live television. In this episode of the BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, Jeremy Au sits down with Eric Zhu, founder of Aviato and Sperm Racing, to unpack one of the strangest venture-backed stories in tech. Eric explains how he ran founder calls from an Indiana high school bathroom using a green screen and hall passes bought from drug dealers, why a billionaire dared him to turn sperm speed into a spectator sport, and how the first race cost $1.5 million and went viral overnight. He also breaks down the real business behind the memes: biomarker sports, rolling up e-commerce and software brands, and running them with AI agents. Along the way he shares why he bets on young, hungry, underpriced talent, why he thinks founders are "degenerate gamblers" chasing asymmetric upside, and why AI may be the biggest inflection point since the early internet. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/eric-zhu-sperm-racing 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 #SpermRacing #Startup #VentureCapital #TechPodcast 00:00 The High School Bathroom Startup 03:02 - Moving to San Francisco 04:20 - Building a Data Engine 08:14 - Lessons in Leadership 09:13 - The Genesis of Sperm Racing 10:09 - Production Chaos in LA 14:02 - The Business of Biomarker Sports 21:35 - Hiring Gen Z Talent 23:44 - The Reality of Silicon Valley 26:39 - AI and The Future of Work

July 20, 2026Episode 71458 min

Zombie Unicorns: Southeast Asia's Structural VC Problem | Kristie Neo - E714

Southeast Asia's venture market is not in a downturn. It is in a structural winter, and mid-2026 is when that distinction stopped being academic. Kristie Neo returns to break down what is actually happening across the region: Singapore's IPO revival is real but is being carried by data centres and REITs rather than homegrown tech; allocators now rank Southeast Asia at the bottom of Asia behind China, India, Japan, Korea and ANZ; and a generation of growth-stage companies is being kept alive past the point where a merger or a wind-down would have served everyone better. Jeremy Au and Kristie also work through what could actually restart the funding ladder, from encouraging tech M&A and fixing university IP commercialisation, to tax incentives for angels and support for syndicate leads who can assemble the $1 million to $5 million rounds that Singapore currently cannot fill. If you are a founder raising in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia, or an LP trying to work out where capital goes next in Asia, this is the honest state of the market. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/kristie-neo-southeast-asia-zombie-unicorns 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 #SoutheastAsia #VentureCapital #SingaporeIPO 00:00 Intro 01:00 Singapore's IPO revival and what is really lifting SGX 06:30 Safe haven status and the Indonesia allocation problem 09:34 Why Southeast Asia sits at the bottom of the allocator stack 14:58 A generation of zombie companies 18:07 The case for mergers, folds and consolidation 21:50 Fixing the funding ladder: who writes the first check 23:55 The IP commercialisation gap and university tech licensing 35:15 Rethinking how governments seed VC funds 41:24 Where can an LP put money today 45:00 Incentivising angels, syndicates and family offices 52:43 The information gap and parting thoughts

July 16, 2026Episode 71342 min

Climbing the Wrong Mountain: Why I Walked Away from Big Law and PE | Daniel Suh - E713

Daniel Suh spent a decade optimizing for prestige. Korean immigrant parents who left careers behind to start a small business in the US, a childhood spent moving apartments through bankruptcy, UCSD, five years in consulting to put his brother and mother through school, then an accelerated JD-MBA at Northwestern. He landed the big law summer and a private equity offer, the American dream on paper. He was elated for about ten minutes. "It felt like climbing a mountain for ten years. You get to the summit, and then you realize you climbed the wrong mountain the whole time." Today he is General Partner at Gold House Ventures, the cultural capital fund backing founders at the intersection of AI and creativity. In this conversation with Jeremy Au, Daniel breaks down the second-generation guilt that pushes immigrant kids into careers they never chose, the high school demand letter that won back his family's security deposit in 24 hours, and why Gold House evolved from an Asian founder fund into something broader. He gets specific about what "cultural capital" actually buys a founder that money and introductions cannot, and why the backlash against AI is a narrative problem rather than a technology one. If nobody trusts the model, adoption stalls no matter how good the model is. Culture, not capability, is what moves people. A conversation for founders, VCs and operators across Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia who are quietly wondering whether they are climbing someone else's mountain. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/daniel-suh-gold-house 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 #VentureCapital #StartupPodcast #GoldHouse #SoutheastAsia 00:00 - From San Francisco to Manila 01:31 - Korean immigrant parents, bankruptcy and growing up in poverty 03:56 - Three prisms: parent expectations, family money and your own dreams 07:38 - Five years in consulting to put the family through school 09:45 - The Northwestern JD-MBA: decent at law, miserable doing it 13:39 - The big law and private equity offer and climbing the wrong mountain 17:04 - Finding Gold House on LinkedIn and getting emotional over a website 19:46 - The security deposit fight that made empowerment personal 24:42 - Building the "Asian YC" and the fund thesis 27:26 - The Fund II rebrand: cultural capital 32:12 - The AI backlash: jobs, deepfakes and paying creators 34:45 - Bravery, optionality and choosing yourself by telling the truth 39:22 - "A winner is a loser who tried one more time"