As a startup in Singapore, international expansion is definitely on your minds, but how do you start thinking and planning your first foray outside our sunny little island? Silicon Valley is often touted as the mecca of tech, but what are the realities and challenges of operating and fundraising on the ground? Indonesia looks exciting with almost 300million in population and extreme rapid economic growth, but how do I navigate around the regulations, do I need to speak the language etc. We feel you, and we understand your frustrations. Our BLOCK71 global teams have met plenty of entrepreneurs interested to expand in their respective markets, who share the same pain points and ask similar questions. That's why we've brought together a pow-wow panel of entrepreneurs and investors from the Bay and Indonesia to share their real and unfiltered experiences, the highs and the lows of doing business in these markets, and how they compare, and answer your burning questions. If you're planning a "market study" trip to Silicon Valley and Indonesia now or in the near future, come and join us in this first-ever joint initiative by BLOCK71's global teams!

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019, 06:00 pm - 07:00 pm
BLOCK71 Singapore, Singapore

Meet our panellists

→ Christina Hsiang founded Startups Greater Asia (SGA), a cross-border strategic advisory firm that helps scale-ups and corporations with corporate innovation and market expansion. We empower companies by helping them identify and integrate innovation, obtain intel, and find strategic partners in new markets. Chris also advises corporations, VCs and startups on corporate legal matters such as mergers & acquisitions, venture capital investment, business formation, commercial contracts and licensing transactions as a corporate attorney at Carr & Ferrell LLP and previously General Counsel at a hardware/transportation startup in San Francisco. Combining her legal knowledge and business experience working with emerging technologies, Chris advises and provides resources to founders, investors and established corporations looking to conduct cross-border business more successfully. Chris is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English, and often speaks/writes about startup legal strategies, emerging technologies, the cross-border investment landscape, and cross-border growth challenges. In addition, Startups Greater Asia publishes business insights on cross-border investments and hosts events on cross-border tech topics. Chris received a J.D. from the University of Washington, and both a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Russian from Georgetown University.

→ Shaw is the CEO of Hustle Flywheel Financing, a newly-launched non-dilutive working capital provider to early stage digital companies in the e-commerce, software as a service and fintech space. She previously ran Finance & Operations at Plum Lending, a commercial real estate fintech (Series B). Prior to that, she structured equity derivatives and credit products at Morgan Stanley in NYC. She graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Mathematics and an MS in Management Science & Engineering.

→ Tom Pennings , CEO and co-founder of Onsophic - a SaaS solution for leaders in digital transformation, customer experience and security/safety to increase project success 4 times faster than traditional methods. Tom grew up in Belgium, and has lived and worked in SF since 1999. He recently moved to Singapore to expand Onsophic in ASEA.

→ Sazali Johari is the Programme Director for BLOCK71 Indonesia, an initiative by NUS Enterprise with established locations in Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta, with the aim of fostering ecosystem building in the Indonesia market as well as extend BLOCK71 global network of entrepreneurial hubs (in San Francisco and Suzhou), to bring together entrepreneurs and innovators from Singapore and other markets to work together and tap upon the combined experience and resources of NUS Enterprise and our strategic partners.
Prior to NUS, Sazali has experiences in starting up and scaling businesses in Singapore for various Start-ups and Enterprises, in the areas of IT Services, HRTech and FinTech. Sazali started his career as an IT Consultant and has been in key regional management roles in Professional Services, Consulting, Outsourcing and Software Companies like Accenture, IBM, Swisscom, Aspect and Pactera. Sazali graduated from NUS with a major in Electrical Engineering.

Registration will commence at 5.30pm.