"Vietnamese people are eager to learn and educate themselves. They seek knowledge on topics like Rich Dad Poor Dad and personal finance, areas not typically covered in their schools. To meet this demand, they started with one product—audiobooks—which has driven significant growth. However, they now feel that audiobooks alone are insufficient, so they’ve expanded into meditation and personal mastery classes, similar to MasterClass. When you read Rich Dad Poor Dad, it signals a desire to learn personal finance. In this way, they’re creating a mini-conglomerate. The challenge is that their primary product generates only $10 million in revenue due to the small market size.” - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast" - Jeremy Au
"You don’t need to be an impact fund to create impact. For example, if you invested in Gojek, it created jobs for everyone—what’s the social impact of that? Under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, it provided more jobs for families and improved safety for drivers by standardizing practices. Here’s an example: there are numerous UN sustainability goals, but back when people invested in Gojek and Grab in their early days, there was no such thing as an impact fund in venture capital. Investors simply saw the opportunity and backed it. Now, of course, all those companies have CSR pages. The point is, if you’re investing in a company today that focuses on AI, do you really need to be an impact fund to do so?” - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast" - Jeremy Au
"Chinese VCs are now heading to Indonesia and Vietnam. Why? China’s GDP per capita is around $15,000, while Vietnam’s is about $7,000 to $8,000. The key takeaway is that startups have disrupted incumbents to create trillions of dollars in global value. These VCs go to Vietnam and say, “I’ve seen the future—it’s China.” They’re investing based on the same market thesis. It’s as if the frontier has moved back in time. Whether this approach is accurate or successful depends on various factors, but the concept of a “time machine” tied to GDP per capita is worth considering. Of course, we can work to improve our ability to source and nurture successful unicorns.” - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast" - Jeremy Au
In this episode, Jeremy Au speaks on GDP per capita vs. unicorns, interest rate liquidity lever, and localized approaches.
Keywords: GDP Per Capita vs Unicorns, Interest Rate Liquidity Lever, Localized Approaches, Singapore, Southeast Asia, VC, Angel Investor, Thought Leadership
