Jay:  What’s up, podcast listeners? This week, we decided to do something a little different and record a radio show. I told you guys at the end of last year that we were going to mix it up in 2019, and so I’ve asked my partner Kyle Ellicott, who you guys all know well by now, to join me on the episode. Kyle, welcome back on the show. I think this is your third time, three-peat now. I think you’re the only guest that I’ve had on for three times, and I suspect that it’s going to be a lot more, because we are working together. So welcome to the show again.

Kyle:  Thank you. Thank you. I feel so honored. I feel like I just won the hat trick of podcasts here, going for the three-peat. But happy to be here, and I’m excited to chat.

Jay:  Be careful what you wish for. I’m going to lock you in for something more permanent.

Kyle:  Awesome.

Jay:  It’s a week before Chinese New Year here in Hong Kong. For those of you who aren’t from Asia or have lived over here, Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year, occurs every year around late January, early February. And it’s basically the most important and biggest holiday for most Asians. Literally, everything shuts down for three to four days, especially here in Hong Kong. I find what’s interesting — and, Kyle, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, because I know you’ve spent some time here — what’s interesting is that, literally, it’s like a false start for the year. Basically, everyone comes off of Christmas, which is a slow time of the year, and then they have their New Year’s resolutions, and then businesses get this jump start, and then it’s a false start because no one actually does anything, because people start using “Oh, the Chinese New Year is coming up, so nothing is going to get done anyway.” Blah, blah, blah. “It’s right around the corner.”

So January is kind of a wash month as far as actually getting things done. Have you experienced the same thing?

Kyle:  I have. It’s funny. You couldn’t be more spot on in everything in the fact that the Chinese New Year is a great time. And when you bounce back and forth between the borders — between Asia and the US or Europe or other countries — it’s kind of unique because you get to experience… Like for me, I got to experience Christmas and the holidays and New Year in the US, and then I went over and got to experience Chinese New Year just a few weeks later. It was like think nothing of it. It was just a continuation of holiday season.

But from a business side… First off, everything does truly shut down, and I think what’s really unique is in the US, with the holidays that we have at the end of December, a lot of business starts to slow down. Throughout December, you have about two weeks off, and then everything starts back up in January.

With Chinese New Year, it’s very unique because it’s not just one day. It can be one week. In some businesses and industries, it can be two weeks up to almost three to four weeks. So it can really have an impact on your business. But from a business perspective, it’s definitely a little bit of a false start, and you also have CES, the Consumer Electronics Show in Los Vegas right in between the New Year ending and then before Chinese New Year, so right in January. So you come off the holiday, and you get back to work for a few days, you go to Las Vegas, if you’re in that industry — consumer or general technology — and then two weeks later, it’s Chinese New Year. So from a business perspective, you almost have to have everything ready and done and moving in November, or else you might be waiting until the end of February/beginning of March to keep going.

Jay:  That’s right. We’ve experienced that first hand in a number of different areas — whether it’s dealing with portfolio companies or LPs or what have you. I’d like to just also add that… You have a good line up there, like you said — Holidays, Vegas, and then you get, from a personal development standpoint, you get a do-over on your New Year’s resolutions if you’ve fallen off the wagon by then.

Kyle:  Absolutely, if your gym membership, if you canceled it accidentally, you’ve got two more weeks to restart it. It’s all clear. It’s all good.

Jay:  It’s actually pretty good. That’s what’s happening next week here in Hong Kong. On that note, the main reason I wanted to do a radio show this week with Kyle is to talk about a topic that we’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about. Mainstream media talks about it every single day. What it is is basically the trade wars between Asia and China. And exactly, from an investor’s standpoint, how we view that going forward. So I just wanted to riff with Kyle a little bit and get his thoughts and just a more global perspective. Kyle is based in Silicon Valley. I’m here in Asia, so I thought it would be good to get both sides of the story.

But before we get into that, just to keep our legal guys happy, I’m just going to go ahead and disclaim the episode, and I’ve got to read this out.

Nothing in this episode/show should be construed as a solicitation or offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied on for any investment decisions. Please consult with a financial advisor, accountant, attorney, or conduct your own due diligence. Okay, now we’re not going to get in trouble.

Kyle:  Now we’re safe.

Jay:  So now we can say anything. No. This trade war thing is splashed all over the mainstream media these days. And because of the internet and this sort of thing, it’s like a fire hose of content. It’s hard to determine what is real, what is fake. People even send me articles from, say, the New York Times and all these very established, prominent, and trustworthy sources. And I read the article, and I’m just like that’s just very, very one-sided. I think the average investor’s perception of what’s actually happening over here is vastly different than the reality.

And so, for those who aren’t sitting in Asia like I am and watching things first hand, the simple thing is the deal with this issue with Huawei when Canada basically detained the daughter; then China started detaining Canadians. And a lot of people are freaking out, and they’re like “I can’t travel to China. I don’t want to get nabbed.”

It’s basically the number one question that we’re getting. I’m just going to give you some of my personal thoughts on what’s happening over here, what the sentiment is like in private equity and VC in Asia because of the trade wars. And then I’ll ask Kyle what he thinks.

From my standpoint, I like to look at the data first. When I read these headlines, I like to dig in and basically say “Let’s put the mainstream media to one side. Let’s look at the data, and let’s actually try to come up with an objective thesis on what exactly is happening.”

So if you look at the data, yes, the data actually supports the fact that the economic data out of China is quite weak. Q4 in 2018 was actually the weakest quarter of growth in the last decade, both on industrial production and retail sales. The Chinese government is very cognizant and very well aware. They’re actually worried. They’re worried about the debt situation in China. So this is all real. That’s not fabrication or fake news.

And China is actually one of the only central banks or governments that are actively easing. They’re cutting RRRs (reserve requirement ratios). Powell just came out earlier this week with a very dovish stance, but that was kind of forced. He’s kind of held hostage right now by the stock market and by Trump. But on a policy and standpoint and outlook, China is actually aggressively easing. And they’re one of the only ones that are very outright and forthright in saying that we are trying to relax the credit, and we need to be careful about this debt situation.

On the public market side, the stock markets were down over 30% last year, and there’s a lot of uncertainty and confusion as to what’s really going on.

My contention is, yes, the trade wars are real. They are affecting both sides — the US and China. And a lot of the Chinese corporates are getting affected by the tariffs and this sort of thing in addition to the overall macro fears and uncertainties that investors have. So they don’t want to be actively investing their money into the markets. It’s been my contention and my arguing point all along that I think that, on the large, bigger-term, longer-term view, that the trade wars are actually going to be good for the overall economy, for the overall growth and innovation that the country sees, and I think this trade spat is not going to be over overnight. It’s going to grind on for a while.

But the pressure from the US, this sort of thing, is just going to give more competition. And, as we know, in free markets, competition is a good thing. It curates a higher level of innovation and IP and access to markets and all the things that are good long but in the near-term, painful. I think those are the things that this trade war is actually going to stimulate.

China has been aggressively shifting its economic model to be less dependent on exports and more dependent on the rising middle class, domestic consumption, and demand for services. China, for sure, is the largest consumer market in the world, and it will be for the next decade.

My overall view is that, look, this is a long-term picture. The trade wars are going to grind on for a while. But in the near team, there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty from an investor’s standpoint. But in the long term, I still think that the growth of the country is going to basically be number one in the world. China’s consumer internet will continue to grow and be an industry leader. Alibaba and Tencent are not going away, anywhere. They’re going to keep leveraging the country’s social networks and payment networks.

China is still printing 6% GDP. For a first-world economy, that’s unheard of. On the macro side, those are my general thoughts. Kyle, please share your thoughts as well, but that’s what I actually think.

Kyle:  Yeah, I think you’ve spelled it out perfectly. I think one thing to jump back to is the uncertainty that’s being painted on the media side, globally, on where things are or not. We do get a lot of questions about the trade war because we’re either looking or investing or looking at companies on both sides and doing business. And so it is a topic of discussion. And it’s an important topic because it has rippling effects throughout everything.

As you said, Jay, China is not going away. It’s going to be and is the largest economy, and that’s something that, for all businesses, needs to be paid attention to. But when you have something like this come into effect, the ripple that it has created — not just from the public and private market or public markets, but all the way down to the private markets, to the individual goods, to the way that early-stage to late-stage to public companies are starting to think about their strategy around going global versus staying local and how companies in China and Asia are approaching throughout Asia and then back to the rest of the world… It has definitely had an effect throughout everything.

And we’ve that in so many different areas, and now it’s coming to light. And hopefully we’ll be able to move forward, in a lot of ways, to this new world that we’ve going to be in, recognizing that China and Asia as a whole is here to stay, and we all need to adjust to what that means and how we benefits, from a business standpoint, on all sides.

From the media standpoint, for those that are listening, take a look at the full story. Don’t just read one piece and consider that the full story of the situation. Instead, look at all of the pieces as well. We’re seeing this in everything.

Jay:  Yeah, I think that the most important thing is actually talking to people that are actually on the ground. Even me myself, sitting in Hong Kong, I’m not literally in the thick of it. Go to China or call someone that you know over there and talk to them.

Kyle, you work with a number of companies that do business directly with China or are based in China. What has been the feedback that you’ve gotten from those companies directly in the startup scene in China? How has the general trade war affected them?

Kyle:  The biggest piece of feedback has been just the question mark of, What next? What will happen? Or, What is going to come out of this? That’s been probably the biggest, I would say, conversation throughout both sides — from the US and from China, those that I’ve worked with.

What I think has happened is a lot of companies in China have had to now focus their efforts locally instead of what we’ve seen as a trend in the past 12 months, has been build, go global, and dominate globally. Instead, it’s been very much focused locally, developed locally, develop for the local markets, and slow growth outside when the time is right and if the time is right.

The venture market has been very unique. Those that I’ve spoken to on the Asia side and specifically in China have kind of started to reserve capital or pull back the investments. And this has been documented throughout media, that the amount of investment capital going from China going into Silicon Valley, let alone the rest of the US, is greatly down, mostly because not everyone is sure of what’s going to happen, so unsure to take risks in case things get clogged back. Then you get into technology and IP transfer. If this whole trade war gets down into the technical levels about who and how and what around IP, that could lead to issues.

A lot of what’s been happening in China has almost been put on pause and turned internally, in terms of focus. Focus on your local market. Build locally. Get strength. Prove out your models. Then grow.

On the US side, we’re seeing a little bit of the same apprehension but a little bit of “Well, wait. We want to be in China. We want to go there. We want to be a part of that market. We want to tap into this largest consumer market. How? Where? Can we go now?” It’s just created that little bit of a question mark gap of “When can the trigger be pulled.”

So from both sides, what I’ve seen is a pause locally in China with a focus back into the local markets. So more investors in China investing in Chinese companies or throughout Asia or even, in some cases, Latin America and Europe. And then the companies in the US are starting to look at how they can work there versus expecting someone to ask them to begin working. So that’s been unique.

And then we talked a little bit about this offline, but I think it’s something to note. Another effect that we’ve had is companies in China wanting to come to the US and raise capital, showcase their product and the like. That has slowed down dramatically. The CES, Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this year saw a dramatic drop in companies coming from China to showcase their products, which also decreased the amount of traffic of corporations to investors and general attendees to the show. It felt a little lighter when you were on the ground in Vegas. What normally is dominated by companies throughout Asia and very heavily focused in China, it just wasn’t there this year as it had been in the past for various reasons. But at the top level, it’s been kind of related to this same subject.

Jay:  It’s quite interesting, and I agree with you that, from an investor’s standpoint, we saw these crazy funds because raised by SoftBank and the likes. And there are still pockets of large global investors that are raising China-dedicated funds or Asia-dedicated funds with hundreds of millions of dollars committed. But it’s definitely slowed down, and I think that the mantra of raising cash or holding a lot of dry powder, being much more selective, waiting potentially for valuations to pull back a bit — because I know they were frothy there for a while, and they still are in many, many sectors.

And I think, from an entrepreneur’s standpoint, building a startup, like you said, this is the time to keep your head down and take advantage of the fact that you’re not necessarily missing anything out there if you’re not on the road trying to fundraise. This is the time to really roll your sleeves up and get your traction going in your company. Like everything, the markets are cyclical.

Kyle:  I’ll also add to that. For so long, people have, when they thought about fundraising in Asia, they think of fundraising from China. “Chinese investors are going to give me money. I’m going to be set.” That’s not the best mentality then or going forward. And what has happened with some of the slowdown is the venture markets throughout Asia have begun to explode positively. You’re seeing funds raised in Indonesia. You’re seeing more activity in emerging markets like Vietnam, in Thailand, South Korea. Japan is starting to come on the map in an aggressive way. Australia has started to really dramatically shift back into technology.

So you’ve seen the greater Asia region, when it comes to venture capital and technology, benefiting from these changes as funds are being raised, companies are coming to light. It’s not just about one place. It’s about the whole region. And companies in the US and the like are seeing that and seeing opportunity on both sides, to enter new markets before entering others in the past.

Jay:  I think from an investor’s standpoint, it’s quite interesting as well because, like I said, valuations got a bit frothy there for a while. Now is the time when we can almost go bargain hunting. It’s not there yet. Obviously, on the public-listed side, it’s pretty cheap, and people are still trying to bottom fish, but in the private side, it’s these times where… We have a flood of deal flow every single day, but these are the times that you can actually look and distinguish whether an entrepreneur is actually fully all-in and fully committed and really putting his head down and getting to work.

I’ll use the example of crypto, even though I’m no crypto or blockchain specialists. I know, Kyle, you’re much more well versed in that realm. But we had this huge bull run last year in 2018, and then it sold off. Now you hear the news headlines, “Crypto is dead,” and blah, blah, blah, and, “People are exiting the industry, and all the talent is migrating away.”

When you take that as an example, the entrepreneurs that have been in it since 2014 or 2008 when the Bitcoin white paper came out, whenever it was — 2009, I think — and they’re still in it, and they’re going through these boom and bust cycles, and but they’re still in it, and they’re head down. Those are the true believers, and it’s the handful of those people that are basically going to take that technology to the next level. And so those are the companies, those are the founders, those are the entrepreneurs that we want to basically partner with.

Kyle:  Exactly. We want somebody who is all in and dedicated to their company and going to see it through thick and thin and really understand their market at the end of the day, that their market is going to have highs and lows, and then understand how the navigate through that.

I think that’s one thing that gets missed a lot. Knowing your market is one thing. You can take the time and dive as deep or as high level and understand your market or your industry, no problem. You’re selling shoes. You can understand the shoe market with time. But to be a very, very involved expert and a very dedicated founder and understand how to navigate that market is something completely different.

Knowing when the market goes up and goes down and how it’s going to float over the next 12 months and make decisions based on that ahead of that or, reactionary, as something comes up, that’s an entrepreneur you want to invest in. That’s the type of entrepreneur that we look for. And in a lot of cases, when we do stuff, it’s like I want someone that can read the market ahead and tell us “In the next 12 months, we’re staying the course, but this is where things may be going, and this is how we’re looking at adjusting for that.”

At the end of the day, you don’t know if that’s going to be the right direction. Things will have to be adjusted for, and you may have to go a completely different route, but nonetheless, having that market intelligence in a founder or in a team is very, very key to a successful group, and that’s something that people just sometimes lose in their traction.

Jay:  Switching gears a little bit… I think some of the sectors that excite me within Asia and venture right now, especially when it comes to China, is education being one of them. Healthcare is obviously a huge one, but I’m a little bit scared. I think that unless you have a sector expertise or maybe a healthcare advisor that can help you navigate through that field, I think it’s a little bit tricky and could be potentially very dangerous or costly to try to delve, as an investor, into the healthcare side. But education is definitely interesting to me.

Obviously, internet of things, wearables, smart tech, health tech is an area that I’m extremely excited about that China is actually on the forefront of as well, as far as innovation. And Kyle being someone from an IoT background, I just wanted to get your opinion on what excites you right now. How does the future look for innovation companies coming out of China in that space?

Also, this is a big issue with the semiconductor chips and the trade wars and spying and this sort of thing with the US. So there’s that headwind as well that a lot of these companies are going to face, anything that does cross-border type of stuff between China and the US.

Kyle:  Yeah. The manufacturing and component sector, they’ve had their moments and will continue to go through these cycles as… These conversations around the trade war and around the future of trade in general go through. And what we’ll also play is the increased demand for connected devices. The amount of devices we have today and going forward that are going to need semiconductors and microprocessors and just general chips sets, it’s more than we’ve ever had in the past. We have to be able to adjust for that, and we don’t know how aggressive that’s going to get, because of some of the industries you just mentioned.

But others that I’m excited about, in addition to what you said, is transportation, retail. These are two incredibly dominating industries, not just in Asia but throughout the world and getting very highly in the US. There is so much potential and so much change that’s going to happen.

You look at transportation to start with. You get into general transportation and how we’re shifting mobility and how we get from point A to point B, going from traditional powered vehicles — gas and diesel — to electric, that is a change of a component that was not originally thought about. And how big that gets and how much scale that hits. That’s something manufactures and companies are going to have to adjust for.

Look at last-mile delivery and the whole last-mile sector of being able to get within that short mile from point B to point C, being able to go on a scooter for half a mile down the street or getting on a bike and being able to go a couple of blocks throughout a town versus needing to use a car. These alternative methods of transportation are hugely rising. And in a country like China — it’s 1.4 billion and rising — with these interconnected cities, this type of transportation is incredibly key in emerging markets. The same in the US and other countries where sustainability, from an energy standpoint, these things are making sense, and people are adapting very aggressively to them, which is a whole other story.

You’ll got the whole sector of transportation and mobility which spins off ideas around it. Data and smart cities and new energy and a whole set of sub-sectors in itself.

Shift over the retail, and this is where transportation and retail land. Before we get to the traditional retail, look at supply chain and how those supply chains and delivery networks are completely shifting right now. If you follow what’s called new retailer, O2O, online to offline, and the movement that’s happening in Asia and starting to come about in the US, this is the idea of being able to start your shopping online and go finish it in the store and then being able to walk out and it being delivered to you. The process of getting that product from a shelf or from a warehouse to a basket to then your house in less than an hour, that’s a dramatic shift in the infrastructure that we’ve had to date. And it’s going to happen. People want things faster. They want more custom, or they want what they want when they want it, where they want it.

And so the way retail and transportation are coming together on this supply chain, these delivery networks, this last-mile delivery, I think it’s fascinating and a continuing trend. And then, back to online to offline, the way that we shop has changed dramatically since the evolution of the internet and really the boom of e-commerce and mobile and now the value of data and how that’s being leveraged to influence our buying and recommendations.

People are shopping very differently, and they want experiences. They don’t want to just walk into a store, see a shirt, and walk out. Most want to have this experience type where they can stand in front of a mirror and try something on without it being there if it’s sold out. Stores want that because they don’t want to lose a customer.

Stores are also having to adjust how they continue to interact with customers and how they keep customers. We’ve seen the introduction of smart mirrors where you can try on lipstick or various makeups as if you were putting it on, or hair colors. I don’t know if you’ve seen the video. I forgot the name of the company. This is in China. They have a mirror you can stand in front of, a traditional-looking mirror, and you can try out different hair colors, and it looks, to a T, legitimate, as if it was on you and you were looking in a mirror. It’s crazy.

Jay:  It’s incredible. I know there’s an app for that, but this is like 2.0 because you’re literally standing there.

Kyle:  You’re right there in the store. And now think about that. You go to buy the shirt that you work, and they don’t have it. Most of the time you would walk out. Well, now you can actually see what it looks like on, request the color, it can be pulled from the warehouse and in your front down in an hour. Or you can customize the solution, and it can be there in a day. You don’t have to go home and then search it and lose it. Just this whole world of retail, to me, and the future of it, I think is going to dramatically change and be very profitable.

The last one I’ll say is artificial intelligence but around this digital twin experience. You and I spoke about this yesterday. And in China, pushing forward, mixing and blending AI into entertainment and creating these digital twins where they’re a personal AI, personal artificial intelligence. It looks like someone. It speaks like it’s a human. It’s right there on the screen. It reports the news. It engages with the audience. It’s a new character that’s digital. I think there’s another whole world around that. For me, it’s transportation, retail, and the future of AI.

Jay:  Absolutely. I wanted to talk quickly about Southeast Asia, because you mentioned these delivery services, and I wanted to just run through that before we look to wrap up. Southeast Asia, I want to make sure that we talk about it. I’m very excited about Southeast Asia, in some areas, even more so than China. Asia is much more than just China. Southeast Asia has almost two-thirds of a billion people, and half of them are internet users. So they have a very strong macro backdrop. And in Southeast Asia, I am particularly excited about even things like e-commerce which is sort of taken for granted now because of the rapid penetration and mobile internet users. Things like online media, ride hailing, food delivery, on demand services — a lot of these places in, say, Indonesia or Philippines or Thailand are still very remote areas.

You’ve heard of these companies like Grab, which is the Uber of Asia and Go-Jek which is Indonesia’s rival delivery and ride hailing services. These companies are raising huge rounds, and there’s a reason for that.

For example, Indonesia is a pretty small country. I think it’s about 250 million people, but there’s like 13,000 islands. So getting to those islands and logistics and e-commerce and all this stuff, that requires, like you said, a huge infrastructure build out in the backend. So all these companies are aggressively going in there. Even companies like Tencent and Alibaba have recognized that Southeast Asia is their next frontier opportunity, and they’re aggressively backing some of these companies. I think Lazada was backed by Alibaba. Right?

Kyle:  Yeah.

Jay:  Kyle, what are your thoughts on Southeast Asia? Are there any things that excite you there?

Kyle:  100% bullish on it. I think it’s, honestly, one of the best investment regions out there, because of exactly what we’ve just been talking about. There’s so much density in terms of people and so much opportunity and so much need to recreate or evolve traditional industries, from everything. It’s not just one thing. It’s everything. So you have the opportunity to see a lot of different takes on a lot of different industries.

You look at like the shift of entertainment and how Shanghai to South Korea to some of the other countries around are all playing a role when it comes to e-sports to VR to digital media. And you look at infrastructure and how that’s being portrayed throughout Indonesia, Singapore. And you have Japan playing this role, and then go further south, and you get Taiwan in the mix from manufacturing to consumer goods. We could go on forever. But to me, I’m incredibly bullish because there’s so much potential.

The talent that is there is real and hungry. And not hungry in the sense of do one and it doesn’t work, start over. But hungry to really change something, to make something that works, not just for them but for their country, for the region. And that has revenue in a lot of cases.

So for me, I’m speaking very openly, having spent a lot of time there and continue to do so. I think it’s a great opportunity. It has to be paid attention to, whether you’re an investor, an entrepreneur, an executive — it doesn’t matter. Your eyes need to be on it because you will have to interact with it to be successful long term. Unless you have something that’s super niche and super local, it’s something you have to pay attention to and can’t forget about.

Jay:  That’s right. It’s one of these things where you can’t bury your head in the sand. Like you said, as an investor, it’s significant. So definitely keep that on your radar screen for this year, for the guys and gals in the audience that are active investors. And you should definitely come over to Asia and check it out yourself. There is a ton, a ton, a ton of conferences and events and just opportunities for you to actually meet these companies and founders and see what the actual demographic is like and try to separate yourself from what you read on the internet, on the news, and what’s actually happening over here.

So I think it’s a super exciting time.

Kyle, last question for you before we wrap up the radio show. Obviously, I suspect that we’ll be doing this in the future quite regularly.

Kyle:  I have a hint.

Jay:  Awesome. I just want to get your thoughts on where you think the market is going to be, the private market and the venture market is going to be one year out from here? How does 2019 look for you? Personally for me, on the public side — because I’m a hedge fund investor — so on the public side, it’s going to be a struggle. I think valuations are still pretty rich, and from a risk management perspective, I’m worried about the downside. That obviously directly affects venture. There’s companies like Uber and Lyft are racing. Pinterest and these sort of companies are late stage. Pre-IPO companies that are racing to try to list before this market unwinds, if it does. So I’m just curious to hear your thoughts.

Kyle:  I think 2019 is going to be an interesting year. There’s a lot of capital, and a lot of capital out there to start deploying. We’ve seen a lot of new funds close at the end of 2018 and even here in the beginning of 2019, ready to start deploying globally or in their respective region. And so I think we’re going to see a lot of that deployment, but it’s not going to be as easy.

There’s going to be a harder push around valuations, just like you mentioned on the public markets. There’s going to be a hard push around having sustainability and revenues, getting to growth faster and making sure that this is a sustainable business and not just an idea. So I think we’re going to see some interesting funding.

But you’re also, I think, going to start to see a lot more funding in the series plus market, which is going to have to happen as a lot of these funds we’ve seen launch are 150 to 200 to 300 to a billion dollars. That capital has to be deployed, and generally, it doesn’t get deployed at the smaller levels. So you’re going to see a lot more funding opportunities in the series-plus category. For those that are seed, moving into their series A or pre seed, be ready to understand your market, understand how to navigate your market. Be ready to validate your valuation and be flexible on it. And be ready to talk about how you’re making revenue in your plan going forward.

In 2020, what 2019 is doing, there are several IPO that are being triggered. That could create a very unique liquidity market as these founders and team members start to gain access to the capital they’ve had locked up for seven to ten plus years. 2020, we could see a lot of angel investments and a lot of capital deployed, even more so than we’re seeing right now, depending on how things all go. That’s my quick view.

Jay:  Alright, so I think we’re going to have to do follow-up radio shows just to see if…

Kyle:  If I’m right.

Jay:  Exactly, exactly. Thanks, Kyle, for joining the radio show. Thanks to all you podcast listeners out there. I want to do this sort of semi-frequently, if possible, but I’ll talk to Kyle offline and try to bribe him into agreeing to do so.

I think we’re both pretty excited about Asia in general this year. Like Kyle said, the macro picture is there. The demand is not going away. The companies need to solve these problems in the world, especially in Asia. So depending on the markets and how funding goes, I’m excited. If the market holds itself together and we do get some liquidity, I think it’s going to be a great time for some of that to come back and be reinvested into the ecosystem, and that’s just going to be a virtuous cycle for startups.

I think there’s a couple of good sector type reports from some of the guys out here that we could actually link up to the podcast episode. So look in the show notes, and we’ll try to get some free downloads there for you.

That’s it for this week. Thanks again. Thanks, Kyle. Appreciate it.

Kyle:  Thank you.

Jay:  We’ll talk on the next radio show.

Kyle:  Looking forward to it. Thanks, Jay. Thanks, everybody.

Jay:  Alright, take care. Bye.