Seeing through the founders in Southeast Asia

In Tech in Asia, Rosalind Tan explains why the Southeast Asian tech landscape is a heady mix of uncertainty and immense promise

For all the puffing of chests and preening of feathers, the Southeast Asian tech landscape is still a heady mix of uncertainty and immense promise. Positive macros and healthy exits confirm exciting value creation; but that storied ~1000x (Google, Facebook, Alibaba) return remains the elusive white whale for VCs in this highly diverse, fragmented and largely untapped market.

The Southeast Asian tech landscape could be characterised by a constant tension between the drive to build stable, enduring businesses, and the drive to “win the future” with an outlier business that carries some earth-shattering, game-changing insight.

Some of us are looking to invest in/build that 1000x company, trying to figure out what that black swan might look like (ironic of course, as Taleb’s black swan by definition lies outside of all empirical postulation at our disposal). But is that where the real value creation is happening?

At my firm we have an unusual approach to debating investment decisions. We sit in a meeting room, and each is made to take a position regardless of their established inclination – Yes, No, or Bandwagon (free to chime in on Yes and No). The idea is that this forces us to fight our cognitive biases and come to as ‘objective’ a conclusion as possible. The reasoning behind it is simple: we often firmly believe things we barely grasp.

Southeast Asian founders are often drawing analogical comparisons between Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia. The fact of the matter is that only the smallest handful of Southeast Asian founders have the talent and/or financial wherewithal to back up Valley-style bold ambition. Here’s why:

Image via Tech in Asia

 
This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.