Go beyond the headlines on Asia's business, tech, and startup news. We tell the stories behind the biggest news, most innovative companies, and the people making it all happen - from Asia to the world 🌏.
Prashanth is now building his fourth startup — and he says it's the hardest one yet. This time he had both the capital and the AI tools to move fast, and both made it easier to skip the hardest part: truly understanding the customer.
The destination for the startup journey has never changed: founders still need to find product-market fit. But almost everything else has. Capital. Hiring. Distribution. Even how founders build, test, and iterate has been transformed by AI.
They discuss why founders should probably raise less, not more. Why AI can accelerate bad ideas just as quickly as good ones. Why judgment—not execution—is becoming the scarcest resource. And they imagine what a four-person, billion-dollar company might look like in 2031... before revealing who's actually in the room.
Timestamps
00:00 Cold Open: Is the Startup Playbook Dead?
00:36 Why AI Changes Company Building
06:35 Why a Fourth Startup Can Be Harder Than the First
10:55 The One Thing AI Still Can't Do: Understand Customers
15:32 Should Founders Raise Less Money?
21:01 Building a Four-Person Billion-Dollar Company in 2031
26:08 How Fast Should Companies Adopt AI?
30:21 Execution Is Cheap. Judgment Isn't.
Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at 6040podcast@techinasia.com.
15 Jun 2026
The 2026 Prediction Bingo Update: Half Right. Fully Accountable.
Six months ago, we made a set of predictions about AI, markets, and startups in 2026. Now it's time to see how they're holding up.
Some aged surprisingly well: Google's AI search is becoming the default experience, AI specialists are going mainstream, and Canva continues its march toward IPO. Others... not so much.
Along the way, we unpack the biggest surprises of the year so far: Anthropic's stunning rise, growing skepticism around vibe coding, why AI wrapper startups are disappearing, and whether investors are underestimating how quickly foundation model companies can move into every category.
Then we’re coming in with a set of new predictions: physical AI, a Chinese breakout, video models, nuclear energy, and an AI-native creative studio that might just build the next MGM.
So who won our bingo card check-in? The answer depends on who you ask.
The views expressed on 60/40 are our own and are for informational purposes only. Nothing here constitutes financial, investment, or legal advice. Do your own research.
Timestamps
01:22 — The Bingo Card Is Open — Maria sets the format: six-month accountability round across AI, markets, and startups.
02:27 — Gemini Is the Default (In Most Places) — Aleksey's call on Google AI mode; one market where it's literally 100% right.
06:27 — The AI Wrapper Obituary — Prashanth on why wrapper companies are gone, and where the surviving moat actually lives.
09:37 — The Two-Year Runway Problem — Maria on how even regulated, data-heavy startups now have a compression clock on them.
14:35 — Vibe Coding's Accountability Crisis — Prashanth on what he's actually seeing in engineering teams and why the 90%-done first date gets very expensive.
17:08 — Anthropic's Surprise Dominance — How the company that stood up to the Pentagon became the product people stuck with.
22:34 — The IPO Pricing Clock — Aleksey's specific prediction: Anthropic raises real prices within three to six months of IPO.
31:14 — The Most Dangerous Startup Category — Wrapping up the retrospective with a fresh scan: what's most dangerous to build right now, and why 2018–2022 vintage startups face the hardest road.
36:50 — H2 Dark Horses: Video Models and Nuclear — Peter bets on large video models; Aleksey goes long on nuclear energy infrastructure as the only serious compute scaling answer.
Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at 6040podcast@techinasia.com.
20 May 2026
Where is Asia’s smart money going?
Markets are up despite an oil crisis, AI capex keeps climbing, and Asia's capital allocators are making big moves. So where is the region's smart money actually going?
Maria sits down with co-host Aleksey — global head of investment solutions at Leo Wealth — for a full market vibe check across the region. They get into the two camps dividing investors right now (are we in '98 or about to hit a wall?), why North Asia is eating Southeast Asia's lunch on capital flows, and the surprising case for nuclear energy making a comeback.
Aleksey floats a wild idea that's gaining serious traction: a compute futures market where you can buy GPU hours the same way you buy oil. They also unpack the Manus-Meta deal fallout, debate India's perennial "almost there" problem, and try — really try — to find the bull case for Southeast Asia.
Timestamps
00:00 — “If an oil crisis can’t crash markets… what can?”
00:29 — Where is Asia’s smart money going right now?
07:50 — Why Asia suddenly feels bullish again
10:46 — The uncomfortable truth about Southeast Asia’s growth story
12:47 — India vs China: why investors still hesitate
17:29 — The next big AI trade: compute futures markets
25:33 — Can Asia produce a true AI software giant?
29:22 — IPO mania is returning
37:06 — The Manus/Meta controversy explained
42:47 — Rapid fire: Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia bull/bear cases
46:23 — “I don’t have a bull case for Southeast Asia”
50:54 — What markets are still underestimating about AI
Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at 6040podcast@techinasia.com.
Who has been a guest on Tech in Asia Podcasts
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Gregory Van
Samuel Rhee
Milind Sanghavi
Kee Lock Chua
Nipun Mehra
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Podcast Authority Score: 31 / 100
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Questions about Tech in Asia Podcasts
Who hosts Tech in Asia Podcasts?
Maria Li and Peter Bithos and Prashanth Ranganathan and Aleksey Mironenko host the show. Published by Tech in Asia.
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The show publishes monthly, based on its RSS feed.
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