From Silicon Valley to Asia [#StartupAsia Preview]

This picture has nothing to do with Thomas. But I thought these eyes could be useful when talking to investors.

The fusion between web technology and entrepreneur arguably originates from the West. In Asia, entrepreneurs are still very much influenced by what’s happening in Silicon Valley, even though the Asian markets and Silicon Valley are two different animals. But it doesn’t hurt to learn more.

After all, the spirit of entrepreneurship, I believe, is pretty much the same across the world. So we thought it would be fun to have an entrepreneur who have built successful businesses in Silicon Valley and Asia, and try to pick his thoughts as we compare both markets. Thomas Clayton is the man who we will put in the hot seat and he is roaring to go as we discuss topics for our upcoming coffee chat session at Startup Asia Jakarta.

Besides the comparison of entrepreneurship in the East and West, I will also dive deeper into one or the more burning topics all entrepreneurs would love to know: raising money from investors. And this one is kinda special because Thomas has raised money from some very big name investors including Sequoia Capital, Goldman Sachs, Marc Andreessen, and Ron Conway.

Thomas’ latest startup is Bubblemotion, the company behind Bubbly, a Twitter-like voice service, with millions of users, many from Indonesia. That also puts him in a good position to comment on how a consumer app can generate a healthy million users in Indonesia. You can find out more about Bubbly’s milestones at Startup Asia Jakarta, as well as more of Thomas’ thoughts on his journey from Silicon Valley to Asia on June 7 at 2:00 – 2:30pm.

[Image credit: Coolpicturegallery]