Late last year, Jeremy Au invited me to do a weekly podcast with him, riffing on the latest news in the Southeast Asia Tech scene. Now I love listening to podcasts (Acquired, Odd Lots, Stratechery), but I had some trepidation about being so out there with my thoughts in public. I figured it would be a good way to challenge myself. (good tweet from Kevin Lee on getting over this fear)
Key learnings/surprises from the year:
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Consistency matters: The majority of podcasts launched don’t get to 10 episodes. Jeremy is a beast, with 362 and counting as of Jan 1, 2024! We did 39 together last year, and that is entirely due to Jeremy being disciplined with our recording schedule! Consistency allows people to develop a relationship with you, and tune in knowing that there will be something at a specific time each week.
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Your audience may not be who you think it is: I had initially thought of our audience as primarily founders, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that our audience also included other ecosystem participants (investors, lawyers, service providers) who have provided great feedback on what topics to cover. There are 30k+ listeners across all of Jeremy’s podcasts (he does 3 different ones a week) but they are all focused on the startup ecosystem so I’m guessing there is some overlap between the different series. People come up to me and say they’ve heard me on the pod, which breaks my illusion a little that no one is listening!
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Topic mix & chemistry equally important: People seem to enjoy the bantering which I guess makes sense for a news recap show - the feedback on that makes me feel a little more at ease vs feeling the need to have all the facts and figures at my fingertips! We’ve covered a wide range of topics from big raises, to shutdowns, the nuts and bolts of market and customer selection, recaps, downrounds etc.
Thoughts for the podcast in 2024:
- More tactical knowledge sharing - I’d like to do more deep dives here, possibly with subject matter experts
- More connecting the dots - as a more nascent ecosystem, I think it’s helpful to draw parallels to other industries and geographies so folks can build more mental models.
If you’re curious, here are all 39 episodes I did with Jeremy in 2023.
If you have feedback on the pod, please do let us know!!!