Made it in Thailand

About Made it in Thailand

Interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders who’ve “made it” in Thailand. Real stories of ambition, setbacks, and strategic wins on the path to success. Built for founders and operators who want to win in Thailand. Guests from the US, UK, Australia, and Thailand. Honest journeys and cross-cultural lessons. Inspiration for anyone building in the Thai market. Apply to be a guest: https://madeitinthailand.com/apply Hosted by Scott Pressimone, a US expat based in Thailand for 13+ years and owner of Fractiond, a Thailand-based strategy consultancy. #ThailandBusiness #ExpatSuccess #ThaiExpat

Publisher

Scott Pressimone

Category

business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 May 2024

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

44 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   How to Lead Teams in Thailand: Lessons From a Former dtac CPO | Nardrerdee "GoonG" Arj-harnwongse

   Nardrerdee "GoonG" Arj-harnwongse started her career as one of the first 30 employees at Lotus Supercenter. A few years later, the 1997 crisis hit, and she was in the room telling hundreds of new management trainees, face to face, that their jobs were gone. That set the pattern for a 30-year career inside Lotus, Tesco Lotus, Nokia, Unilever, dtac and Asset World Corporation (AWC). Acquisitions, a three-year decline, digital disruption, COVID. Every new role was supposed to be easier. None of them were. We discussed how to lead teams in Thailand through change, and what actually holds a team together when the business is under pressure. Why Tesco told Lotus staff it bought the company because they were good, and changed almost nothing in year one. How an anonymous internal app at dtac, with a 48-hour response rule for the CEO and every C-level leader, showed her how her people actually felt. Why Nokia refused to call itself a family. And the question foreign leaders ask most: can Thai teams take direct feedback? If you're leading a team in Thailand through a tough stretch, this one is worth your time. ABOUT THE GUEST Nardrerdee "GoonG" Arj-harnwongse is a people and transformation leader with three decades inside some of Thailand's largest companies. She was employee #30 at Lotus Supercenter and helped staff through the Tesco acquisition, then held HR leadership roles at Nokia and Unilever, where she led people strategy across multiple countries during a turnaround. She served as Chief People Officer at dtac for nearly eight years, and most recently as Chief People Officer at Asset World Corporation. She now sits on a board and advises business owners on leadership and change. ABOUT THE HOST I'm Scott Pressimone, a Fractional Commercial Leader with over a decade of executive experience on the ground in Bangkok. I help foreign capital, founders, and CEOs bridge the gap between Western expectations and Thai operational realities. https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottalanpress/ https://fractiond.io/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Meet Khun GoonG 02:25 1997 Thailand Crisis at Lotus 03:58 Handling Layoffs Humanely 06:18 Tesco Acquisition Shift 08:25 Culture Change Training 10:55 Restructuring as a Career 12:11 Unilever Turnaround Story 15:59 Raising Engagement Fast 19:07 What is Fractiond? 20:08 Changes That Stick 20:59 Anonymous Feedback Platform 25:37 COVID Feedback Pulse 26:14 Trust Through Transparency 28:26 Implementing Agile 32:25 Leading Change Resistance 34:19 Nokia Employability Mindset 36:50 Rolling Out AI Change 41:43 Great Leaders Traits 44:09 Feedback in Thai Culture 48:22 Board Life and New Chapter 51:08 Final Tips #LeadingThroughChange #WorkingInThailand #ThaiBusiness #ChangeManagement #LeadershipInThailand #BusinessInAsia #FractionalLeadership

2. 

   4 Aug 2026

   He Built a New Life in Thailand From Scratch | Vic Levitin

   Vic left Israel with his family after October 7th and is now three years into life on Koh Samui. He rebuilt from scratch with no local network and grew a SaaS to $90,000 a month, until his payment processor shut the whole category down and most of that revenue was gone in a day. We got into how he built it and what he took away from it. The parts of a business you don't control can end it, even when the product works and people are paying. Prove demand before you build. Know who your real customer actually is. And when anyone can build with AI, the audience is the hard part, which is why Vic now brings the people who own that trust in as partners instead of paying affiliates. He also talks about hitting $90K a month and feeling empty, and why he was already looking for the exit before the business got pulled out from under him. If you're building in Thailand or thinking about the move, this one's worth your time. ABOUT THE GUEST Vic Levitin is an entrepreneur with two decades of building across e-commerce, SaaS, biotech, and AI. He founded CrazyLister, a design platform for eBay sellers that raised venture funding and passed $2M in ARR, and later led Diptera AI, a mosquito-control company now backed by the Gates Foundation. After moving from Israel to Koh Samui, he built an AI image platform for online creators to $90,000 a month. He now builds SaaS companies in partnership with domain experts across several industries. https://www.linkedin.com/in/viclevitin/ https://www.viclevitin.com/ https://dazy.ai/ ABOUT THE HOST I'm Scott Pressimone, a Fractional Commercial Leader with over a decade of executive experience on the ground in Bangkok. I help foreign capital, founders, and CEOs bridge the gap between Western expectations and Thai operational realities. https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottalanpress/ https://fractiond.io/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Meet Vic 02:33 Escape and Relocate 03:30 First Year Struggles 04:19 Why Koh Samui 06:49 Visas and Legal Setup 08:20 US LLC Playbook 10:16 CrazyLister Origin Story 13:31 Mosquito Tech Mission 17:28 Rebuilding in Thailand 18:58 Solar Business Reality Check 24:46 AI Influencer SaaS Launch 29:39 Validation Before Building 33:11 Partnering for Distribution 36:57 From 30K to 90K MRR 38:31 Payments Rug Pull 42:08 High Leverage Founder Work 46:55 Meaning Beyond Money 50:57 Closing #BuildingInThailand #SaaSFounder #ExpatEntrepreneur #WorkingInThailand #ThailandEntrepreneur #FractionalLeadership #BusinessInAsia

3. 

   2 Jun 2026

   Corporate to Business Owner: What It Really Takes to Make the Jump | Steven McGinnes

   Event Details & Registration https://www.scottpressimone.com/freedom-bkk/ Steven McGinnes lives in Phuket, works from a sailboat, and has built the kind of life that looks effortless on LinkedIn. He's also one of the most honest people I've spoken with about what it actually costs to get there. That gap between the 4pm on the water and the 4am worrying about whether the invoice lands is exactly what this conversation is about. Steven spent his career in the creative agency world before going out on his own. He's watched enough people make the same avoidable mistakes to know which ones to flag early. We covered a lot of ground, but it kept returning to the same core tension: freedom and accountability scale together. The more of one you want, the more of the other you're signing up for. What most people making the jump from corporate underestimate is not the hustle. It's the invisible infrastructure they never had to think about. The vendor setup. The payment terms. The cash flow gap. The fact that 65% of business failures come not from a lack of clients, but from the timing of when money arrives versus when it goes out. We also got into the T-shaped skill set. You don't need to become an expert in finance or new business development or legal setup. You need to be competent enough that none of them kill you. And you need to start building your network before you desperately need it, because the people who wait until they're hungry are already too late. ABOUT THE GUEST Steven McGinnes is a Bangkok and Phuket-based independent operator and keynote speaker with a background in creative agency leadership across Asia. After building a career running client teams and regional creative operations, he went out on his own and has been working from Thailand ever since, with clients across Asia, the US, and beyond. He's co-organizing our upcoming June 26th event on making the jump from corporate to independent. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmcginnes/ ABOUT THE HOST I'm Scott Pressimone, a Fractional Commercial Leader and Interim Country Director with over a decade of executive experience on the ground in Bangkok. I help foreign companies and founders bridge the gap between Western expectations and Thai operational realities. https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottalanpress/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 00:47 Meet Steven 03:23 Event in Bangkok 05:04 Three Reasons to Go Solo 07:27 Identity and Disappearing Roles 09:50 T Shaped Skills for Founders 15:14 Sales Discomfort and Accountability 19:57 Passion vs Paid Market 26:05 Unknown Unknowns and Admin 27:07 Vendor Setup Headaches 27:32 Cash Flow Payment Delays 28:35 Founder Mindset Shift 30:24 Is It Worth It 32:10 Freedom Versus Accountability 33:57 Job Security Illusion 37:24 Working From Thailand 39:31 Doing It Above Board 43:09 Hidden Costs Unknowns 46:44 Build Network Early 48:04 Choosing Clients Saying No 49:39 Workshop Format Follow Up 53:02 Final Takeaways Closing #CorporateToEntrepreneur #GoingFractional #BangkokBusiness #WorkingInThailand #IndependentOperator #ThailandEntrepreneur #FractionalLeadership #BusinessInAsia

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

216,257

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 66 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

86

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

27

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