During my time in Taiwan, I met Jason at an Appworks Startup Accelerator event. I was interested in his career background as I knew very little about the Indonesia startup ecosystem (not much has changed).
However, Jason was the first podcast guest I reached out to after my hiatus in 2021 and I’m glad he was more than willing to come on. In this episode, I hope you learn something about Jason, Aksara Ventures or the Indonesian VC & startup scene.
Topics and timestamps as follows:
- 0:00 – Introduction
- 0:56 – Jason’s intro, why he came back to Indonesia from the US and some thoughts on how hard it is to find jobs as an international student
- 4:20 – How Jason got into VC, his career journey at Gojek, local Indonesian vs overseas graduates
- 7:50 – Why Jason started his own Venture Capital firm (Aksara Ventures), what does Aksara mean, what is their point of differentiation?
- 15:20 – Why Indonesia as a place to invest? What are the opportunities and barriers?
- 19:20 – How does Jason find startups to invest in? The value of good karma, investing in the team vs numbers
- 24:40 – which countries in Southeast Asia is Jason interested in? Which startups & sectors is he excited about?
- 28:10 – Is Jason worried about the current market cycle? (low interest rates, increased competition)
- 31:10 – are young Indonesians getting into entrepreneurship? Issues around income inequality
- 34:48 – can SE Asian startups go global outside of their own region? Are many foreigners coming to Indonesia to work in tech?
- 39:20 – thoughts around NFTs, crypto & gaming
- 43:45 – how to get into the Venture Capital industry? What traits make a good VC investor vs associate/analyst? How to contact Jason