So far so good, but Thai talent must look beyond own shores 

Q: WHAT IS YOUR IMPRESSION OF THE THAI START-UP ECOSYSTEM?
In terms of the infrastructure of support and the pillars [required] for Thailand start-ups to be successful, I think it is very well established. There are players in the market that have been focusing on building ecosystem for many years and are still doing it. I'm fairly impressed with the commitment they are showing and a lot of people's first thought is to create start-ups. 
I was also surprised by the awareness. I think that in other parts of Southeast Asia, starting a start-up might not be the first choice, or a choice in terms of career. Their first thought is to be a doctor or to join a bank, but now people in Thailand say, 'I will do a start-up,' and parents have opened up to that kind of career and say, 'You can go and try'. That's quite revealing for me.

Q: WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE POTENTIAL FOR THAI DEVELOPERS, AND WHAT ARE THEIR WEAK AND STRONG POINTS?
There is true potential in the Thai ecosystem. One I have seen is hunger for knowledge. A lot of Thai developers try to learn and it's a challenge because of the language barrier. This problem happens in Vietnam and other countries as well. But they will try to find a way to bypass that barrier. Thai developers have a very solid group of people and know how to maintain and circulate the knowledge in the ecosystem. 
However, one thing that I have never seen enough of, is that they are not really coming out and exposing themselves beyond Thailand. 
Thailand has not got to the stage where outside investors have shown confidence in the capability of its start-ups. Now it's at the point where local investors are feeling comfortable and we have seen effort from 500 Tuk Tuks, the Thailand-based fund for the global venture-capital (VC) firm 500 Startups, which has shown there is a level of confidence in investing in a Thai start-up. But outsiders do not share the same perception. It's not a problem specifically for Thailand; a lot of countries in Southeast Asia share the same perception as well.

Q: WHAT SHOULD THAILAND DO TO GET THAT CONFIDENCE?
Exposure. The more we can expose Thai start-up capability and potential to other parts of the world, the more we can help in at least getting people to get interested. It's happening but we need to continue [working on] that. 
There is room for growth in the size and number of funds Thailand has access to. And I think that would come when interest in the Thailand ecosystem grows.
However, when people think of Southeast Asia, it's easy to first think of Indonesia because of the size of their population, or of Vietnam, which is a new market and has lower labour costs and expertise. 
Thailand used to be one of the first places to come to mind, but there's been a revolution of Thailand growing to a stage of maturity as a country. 
It is not as economical as Vietnam. If we can really expose Thailand to more investment from different countries, then the resources and tools will come in.

Q: ANY SUGGESTION ON HOW WE CAN REACH THAT GOAL?
One very interesting thing I've realised about the Thailand ecosystem is that Thai people are everywhere in the world. They have an ability to find each other and get connected, and that is a strength. Then, after that, perhaps [an initiative to] set up or become a bridge to demonstrate their capacity will make it easier to interest other countries in Thailand and bring exposure to Thailand.

Q: DOES THAILAND HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY IN THE REGIONAL MARKET?
Opportunity comes with vertical industry. My advice to a Thailand start-up is do not lose sight of the fact that understanding the local culture and context is very important. Balance that very well with expansion plans, money and funding.
It is very easy to roll in the market and start executing immediately. But Asian start-ups do not necessarily have that luxury very often. So understanding the local culture, and the behaviour of the countries they want to scale up to, is crucial because the room for error is very small. For example, Grab, a technology company that offers a wide range of ride hailing and logistics services through its app in Malaysia and neighbouring countries, is willing to invest and they make sure they are hiring local people. Grab is able to identify others' problems in a similar space, so that they can expand their services as well. That gives them a very good advantage.

Q: WHAT ARE KEY POINTS YOU COACH DEVELOPERS ON? 
I give them two kinds of advice. One is to really develop or focus on something that keeps their passion going. It's very easy for developers to get burned out because there are so many technologies to learn. The other advice is to find a logical cause and purpose to develop for. 
It's very cool to develop applications for entertainment or fun, but doing that can only sustain your motivation for a certain period of time. Finding a logical purpose gives you a stronger reason and motivation.

Q: HOW SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT ARE START-UPS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA? 
A lot of Southeast Asia communities are very close and connected to one another. That's the beauty of the ecosystem in this region. We have a tendency to connect with one another and that's our similarity and our strength. 
There are two sides [of this similarity]. The good side is we find strength, and the bad thing is it is very hard sometimes to get out of that circle and start connecting with people outside. People just feel comfortable in their comfort zone. 

Q: CAN YOU PREDICT THE TRENDS DEVELOPERS WILL FOLLOW IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS? 
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) seem to have really interesting applications. In real life, there are applications for games and entertainment, but people use AI and VR in life-saving applications as well. For example, to help firemen, and for educational projects.
Next is the Internet of Things (IoT), or "smarthome", in other words. Today we have technologies that allow it to happen easily.
Cloud computing is coming up really strong. It has been strong for the past few years, but I think that recently companies have been really actively pushing it because of how mature the technologies have become. It's no longer a very weak concept that businesses have to struggle with.

Q: DO YOU THINK THAT ONE DAY START-UPS WILL SEE THEIR BUBBLE BURST, OR EXPERIENCE DECLINE?
I think we are reaching the stage where people start to really understand how difficult it is and really internalise the challenges. We've reached the point where awareness has matured and that comes with experience. 
As long as the current ecosystem players continue to groom the community of start-ups, more people will have an opportunity to go on that journey and then come back and share their experiences with people who want to launch start-ups. And then giving new start-up founders, or potential start-ups founders, a chance to learn from them.
It has probably slowed down a bit, but will pick up again. I feel now it's pretty much going upwards because people are very excited about start-ups. 

Q: BEFORE JOINING GOOGLE, YOU FAILED WITH YOUR OWN START-UP, SO WHAT KEY MESSAGE DO YOU SHARE WITH OTHER DEVELOPERS WHO FAIL?
Learn from why he or she fails. And don't keep that learning to themselves, but come out and share it. 
It will benefit people who want to launch a start-up and gives a sense of the opportunity for tweaking, about why exactly [failure] happens. 

Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAILAND 4.0?
Good vision, and now it's time to lay down a concrete plan and act upon it. It's a nice feeling, like at least the government is pushing out the concept. For us, we use that as a gauge. 

Q: WILL IT HELP SUPPORT START-UPS? 
It depends on the execution. It's nice to have a grand vision, but if you have no plan it's very hard to drive things.