#9 Quitting VC to chase mom-and-pop shops

#10 Crypto churches and AI evangelism

This episode was partly generated by my AI-cloned voice, which narrated my essay Crypto churches and AI evangelism (though it doesn't sound like me). My new writing project Reading the Waves is here: https://readingwaves.substack.com/ [https://readingwaves.substack.com/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leapfrogs.substack.com [https://leapfrogs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#9 Quitting VC to chase mom-and-pop shops

In this episode, we’re stepping away from the metaverse and AI craze and turning to the world of traditional industries. Venture capital is an often glorified job for young professionals. Will Kurniawan [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wkurniaw/] lived that dream for a few years before deciding to leave it behind. Rather than following the typical path for a venture investor — raising his own fund or joining a tech startup — he took an unconventional route by pivoting to traditional sectors. A little over a year ago, Will launched Emerald Lane [https://emeraldlane.io/], a boutique buyout firm, or a ‘serial acquirer,’ that seeks out small and medium-sized businesses. Think of family-owned operations, like a decades-old plumbing service, where the next generation desires more glamorous job titles (perhaps VC) than taking over the family business. Beyond that, Emerald Lane also looks for bootstrapped startups — like a small marketing agency — and businesses in the creator economy. Sometimes I feel as if I’m living in a startup and VC bubble, so it’s refreshing to hear Will, who grew up in Indonesia and studied in the US, talk about his alternative path of working with mom-and-pop shops and other small, scrappy businesses. Timeline 2:24 Emerald Lane’s three areas of focus 8:00 Working as a VC in China 9:46 Why Will quit VC (spoiler: Luck plays a big part in VC) 14:34 Why Emerald Lane is a holding company rather than a fund 19:48 The  ‘proprietary deal flow’ strategy 23:57 Doing due diligence on unfamiliar industries 24:52 A fun anecdote of interacting with a seller 27:01 Will’s life essentials Recommendations How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets by Felix Dennis *Will’s note: the book is much deeper than its slightly cheesy title might suggest This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leapfrogs.substack.com [https://leapfrogs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#8 The good, the bad and the ugly of AI anime fantasies

Happy holidays and welcome to Leapfrog, a podcast exploring [https://leapfrogs.substack.com/about] global entrepreneurs beyond the American-centric bubble. Thanks for your patience with the delayed update, but this episode will be worth the wait!🎄🤶 2024 has flown by, punctuated by continued breakthroughs in generative AI. In this episode, I speak to Raven Gao, a philosophy enthusiast turned computer science graduate who is building an AI platform for generating anime-style characters. As of today, the tool, called PixAI [https://pixai.art/], has attracted over 5 million users, primarily from the US and Japan. This wide-ranging conversation began with Raven’s formative years, where he found solace in meeting international friends through video games. This experience would later inspire him to create a similar “metaverse” for people to form genuine connections. Raven explains how anime lovers use AI to visualize their fantasies, the pros and cons of consuming AI-generated content, and why, after developing tools for anime fans, he wants to empower professional artists as well. Raven also warns of developing emotional attachments to virtual characters, while acknowledging the tricky balance between AI safety and user experience. That raises an even deeper question: what kind of relationship with AI should we, as a society, strive for? Timeline 1:34 Raven’s free-ranging adolescence and his online friends 6:47 Why Raven was drawn to utilitarianism and why he abandoned philosophy 9:27 The lack of cultural diversity in early AI models 12:45 The essence of metaverse (vs a Zoom call) 14:20 Youngsters who are “overlooked” seek comfort in AI chatbots 16:30 How to prevent AI from doing harm and why it’s easier said than done 20:45 With generative AI, creation is consumption 25:46 The danger of consuming the content one creates for themselves 29:22 Empowering Japan’s exploited anime artists with an AI tool 33:06 Recommendations Mentions The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman Utilitarianism, the ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide? [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/technology/characterai-lawsuit-teen-suicide.html] (New York Times, October 2024) Principles of Economics by Gregory Mankiw *The cover photo is a screenshot of the Christmas-themed images I generated on PixAI. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leapfrogs.substack.com [https://leapfrogs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#7 How this founder leveled up after China's gaming crackdown

Welcome to Episode 7 of Leapfrog, a podcast about [https://leapfrogs.substack.com/about] global entrepreneurs outside the American-centric bubble. Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on the gaming industry in the late 2010s [https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/20/china-restarts-game-approval-process/?guccounter=1] prompted a wave of Chinese studios to seek overseas expansion. Despite their domestic success and abundant developer talent, these companies often struggled with go-to-market in the foreign land. Ada Liu [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ada-liu-11027597/], who grew up in China and worked in the North American gaming industry, saw an opportunity to launch a startup bridging that gap. Timeline: 1:40 Ada said she wasn’t a “good student” in China 6:34 Kung Fu Panda inspired Ada to pursue digital arts in the US 10:16 Shoe Dog [https://www.amazon.ca/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike/dp/1501135910]: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike Hardcover – April 26, 2016 11:46 How China’s gaming crackdown presented Ada a startup idea 17:20 Ada’s second business — an AI-powered art assets platform 23:30 Why the gaming industry is often quick to embrace emerging technologies 28:54 Ada’s recommendations, including Building a StoryBrand [https://www.amazon.ca/Building-StoryBrand-Clarify-Message-Customers/dp/0718033329] - Donald Miller, Oct. 10 2017 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leapfrogs.substack.com [https://leapfrogs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#6 'Working at TikTok gave me reverse culture shock'

Welcome to Episode 6 of Leapfrog, a podcast about [https://leapfrogs.substack.com/about] global entrepreneurs outside the American-centric bubble. I apologize for my glitchy voice in this episode; my seven-year-old MacBook suffered from a water damage! Lucy Gao had been studying and working in the US for over a decade before reconnecting with her homeland. Instead of moving back to China physically, she joined the US office of TikTok, the Chinese-owned short video app that was seeing a meteoric rise around 2020, to gain a sense of home. In Silicon Valley, Lucy experienced China’s rigorous “996” culture—working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. She realized that TikTok's competitive advantage might not lie in its AI, but quite the contrary, in its large army of employees worldwide carrying out growth and user engagement tasks through highly manual work. This role, unique to Chinese tech firms, is known as yunying (运营), translated as “operation”, though it differs greatly from its Western definition. Reflecting on her varied experience straddling China and the US, where she transitioned from software engineer to product manager, venture capitalist and now entrepreneur, Lucy also shared her simple rule for making important life decisions: listen to your heart. Timeline: 2:17 Making life decisions the way Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs do 5:29 TabbyML as an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot 8:18 How Lucy ended up attending high school in the US 11:07 Transitioning from software engineering to product management 13:27 Joining TikTok at the dawn of its global dominance 16:02 TikTok’s secret to success — yunying 20:06 Reverse culture shock at TikTok 23:58 To grow quickly, TikTok needed to rely on its China team early on 25:28 Moving back to China and becoming a VC during COVID-19 28:40 Lucy’s three life essentials Mentions: * TabbyML [https://tabby.tabbyml.com/], a self-hosted AI coding assistant * Jeff Bezos’ Regret Minimization Framework [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ] * Steve Jobs on “connecting the dots,” from his famous commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 [http://you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward] * Rui Ma’s podcast episode [https://pandaily.com/livecast-12-andy-tian-of-asia-innovations-copy-from-china-exporting-live-social-apps-globally/] on the “operation” aka Yunying (运营) role at Chinese tech firms, and how it works differently in Western countries This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leapfrogs.substack.com [https://leapfrogs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]