Why founder turnover is good, how super apps wage an information war, and more

Dear readers,

As Formula 1 rolled back into Singapore, it seems like everyone in the tech investment community flocked into the tiny city.

For me, it was a week of fluttering between events (and getting frustrated by the blocked roads that rendered cabs useless), catching up with new and familiar faces, and gaining fresh perspectives. So I hope you don’t mind a longer letter this week. Happy to chat more at terence@techinasia.com.

Founder turnover

An entrepreneur remarked that founder turnover can be healthy and should be encouraged. Not every founder can or wants to scale with a company as it grows from 10 to 100 to 1,000 people.

A dreamer starting the next big thing has a far different skillset from an operative adept at spinning a thousand cogs.

Founders should be allowed to leave their executive roles without feeling like it’s a demotion. One founder I know is starting a new company with business ties to his first startup. A Carousell co-founder stepped away to make room for a new chief technology officer.

I also heard that a well-known tech company that’s barely over five years old is already on its fourth generation of leadership. The firm was growing so fast that these moves became necessary.

Deep tech’s unique path

I had an interesting conversation with an investor at the DealStreetAsia event. We discussed how deep-tech startups have a fundamentally different path when raising money. Instead of pursuing VCs, many of whom don’t do deep tech (though that’s changing), they’re chasing after strategic investors early on with a view of an early exit.

Not all deep-tech startups take this path, though. SenseTime, a prominent Hong Kong AI startup, is one example (its CEO happened to be in town). Another is Mirxes, a cancer detection firm that I covered recently.

Super-app tit for tat

Startups aside, there’s obviously a lot happening between Grab and Gojek, with the super apps fighting an information war via the media.

First, consultancy firm ABI Research came up with some new data showing Grab firmly in the lead in Southeast Asia, and even in Gojek’s home market of Indonesia. I did a follow-up analysis on this that you should check out.

Next came news that Gojek lost its Vietnam CEO – its second within a year – and that Ovo is the no. 1 e-wallet in Indonesia.

Then Gojek announced that it leads Indonesia’s food delivery market with a 70% share, citing internal figures and data from Nielsen. It didn’t take long for Grab to rebut by using data from another third-party research house. I expect this tit-for-tat moves to continue for some time.

As usual, if you want to stay on top of tech developments in Southeast Asia, do subscribe to us. Now, on to the rest of our premium content.

Startups galore

• Chope wants to be the ‘Netflix’ of the restaurant industry, and here’s how it plans to do it
• Rising startups on Tech In Asia: fintech firms are growing fast
• India’s Ikea-backed home decoration startup is ready to go global
• The fintech startup helping SMEs in the Philippines get access to credit
• A gyroscope-powered glove that steadies trembling hands

Big moves

• Wavecell: from a small bootstrapped team to a $125m exit
• How Amazon could make its move in Indonesia
• After 3 straight profitable years, Transferwise eyes Asia expansion

More super-app action

• Commentaries: Gojek is going big or going home 💥
• Here’s why Asia’s auto giants want a piece of the ride-hailing pie

Listicles

• Complete list of tech and startup events in Singapore
• Meet the 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in Southeast Asia

Happy reading,

Terence
Chief Editor