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The Generalists

The Generalists

Written by: Raz Kotler and Michael Smith Jr.
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 The hosts Raz Kotler & Michael Smith Jr., interview people around how they arrived in Singapore, their careers, their personal journeys and how the concept of being a Generalist influences their life and career. All episodes currently filmed F2F in the Poddster Singapore studios.Raz Kotler and Michael Smith Jr. Careers Economics Personal Success
Episodes
  • DeepSeek, Foxconn & China's AI Rules: GNA Weekly (ep 81)

    DeepSeek, Foxconn & China's AI Rules: GNA Weekly (ep 81)
    May 8 2026

    GNA 2 is back with another Asia-focused breakdown of the biggest stories in AI, startups, chips, infrastructure, geopolitics, and capital markets.🎟️ Generalists Live with Nir EyalNir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked, Indistractable, and Beyond Belief, is coming to Singapore for a live podcast with The Generalists.May 25th at Poddster, with 30 minutes of conversation and 30 minutes of open audience Q&A.Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/beyond-belief-nir-eyal-live-podcast-with-the-generalists-tickets-1988068911632?aff=oddtdtcreatorIn this episode of Generalists New Asia, Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler revisit the Meta and Manus fallout, including what China’s unwind order could mean for Singapore TopCos, cross-border AI startups, foreign capital, and founders trying to move from China into Singapore.They also dig into Foxconn’s AI server boom, why AI infrastructure may still have room to run, the eFishery fraud case in Indonesia, Singapore’s advanced chip packaging story with Silicon Box, Goldman Sachs switching off Claude in Hong Kong, TikTok’s massive Thailand infrastructure bet, Singapore’s parliament debate on AI and jobless growth, funding activity across India, Singapore and Australia, DeepSeek’s rumored mega-round, and why US-China AI tensions are only getting bigger.📖 What We Cover

    • Why the Meta-Manus situation still matters for China, Singapore, and AI geopolitics
    • What “unwinding” a $2B AI acquisition could actually mean
    • Why China may be setting guardrails for the next Manus-style company move
    • Why Singapore TopCos, foreign capital, and Chinese IP are becoming more sensitive
    • How Foxconn’s AI server business became bigger than its iPhone business
    • Why AI servers, CPUs, memory, and infrastructure remain central to the AI trade
    • What the eFishery fraud case means for Indonesia’s startup ecosystem
    • Why Michael thinks the eFishery situation raises questions beyond the founders alone
    • Why Singapore’s Silicon Box could matter in the global AI chip bottleneck
    • How advanced chip packaging in Tampines became a surprising Singapore innovation story
    • Why Goldman Sachs switching off Claude in Hong Kong raises geopolitical questions
    • Why TikTok is putting a massive infrastructure bet behind Thailand
    • How land, power, TikTok Shop, and ByteDance’s AI needs connect in Southeast Asia
    • What Singapore’s parliament debate says about AI, workers, and jobless growth
    • Why India, Singapore, and Australia are showing strength in the current funding market
    • How India’s neo-cloud and GPU infrastructure market is scaling
    • Why Toku, Level 3i, Formas.ai, and other AI companies show momentum in the region
    • Why DeepSeek may become China’s flagship AI model company
    • Why US-China AI tensions are likely to keep shaping startup funding, models, and acquisitions

    🔔 Listen and Subscribe

    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast
    • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4
    • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/the-generalists

    👤👤 Anchors

    • Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/
    • Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

    🔗 Resources and Links

    • Nir Eyal: https://www.nirandfar.com
    • Beyond Belief: https://www.nirandfar.com/beyond-belief/
    • Sinocism: https://sinocism.com
    • Meta: https://www.meta.com
    • Foxconn: https://www.foxconn.com
    • eFishery: https://efishery.com
    • Silicon Box: https://www.silicon-box.com
    • TSMC: https://www.tsmc.com
    • Goldman Sachs: https://www.goldmansachs.co
    • Claude: https://claude.ai
    • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com
    • TikTok Shop: https://shop.tiktok.com
    • Singapore Parliament: https://www.parliament.gov.sg
    • Yotta: https://www.yotta.com
    • Toku: https://www.toku.co
    • DeepSeek: https://www.deepseek.com
    • Echelon: https://echelon.e27.com
    • SuperAI: https://www.superai.com

    #GeneralistsNewsAsia #AINews #DeepSeek
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    48 mins
  • What Failure Teaches You That Success Never Will (ep 80)

    What Failure Teaches You That Success Never Will (ep 80)
    May 5 2026
    Episode 80: Admond Lee, founder of The Runway Ventures, joins The Generalists to talk about startup failure, legal threats, founder-market fit, and why Southeast Asia needs more honest conversations about what actually goes wrong when companies collapse.🤝 Sponsored by https://TAP4SRV.com - Quickly find local Service Providers on WhatsApp! 🤝In this episode, Admond Lee shares the story behind The Runway Ventures, a media and founder community built around one uncomfortable idea: founders learn more from failure than from polished success stories. After his own startup failed, Admond realized that most founders in Southeast Asia only hear the fundraising stories, the unicorn stories, and the wins. What they rarely hear are the mistakes, the wrong assumptions, the poor market timing, the missed founder-market fit, and the hard lessons that could help them avoid repeating the same failures.Admond also opens up about the risks of writing publicly about startup failures. He talks about receiving legal threats, cease and desist letters, pressure from founders and investors, and the challenge of balancing truth, accountability, and empathy when covering sensitive stories. The conversation also explores why failure is still so stigmatized in Southeast Asia, how this differs from places like Silicon Valley and Israel, and why ecosystem maturity requires more founders to talk honestly about what went wrong.📖 What You'll LearnWhy Admond started The Runway Ventures after his own startup failedWhat happens when startup failure stories trigger legal threats and founder backlashWhy Southeast Asia still struggles to talk openly about failureHow founder-market fit can make or break an early-stage startupWhy conviction should come from traction, not just beliefHow Admond built a newsletter and LinkedIn growth system around failure storiesWhy Admond believes curiosity, fast learning, and repeated action matter more than fixed job titles🔔 Listen and SubscribeYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/the-generalists👤👤 HostsMichael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/👤 GuestAdmond Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/admond1994/🔗 Links and ResourcesThe Runway Ventures: https://www.therunway.venturesAtomic Habits: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habitsJames Clear 3-2-1 Newsletter: https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1Principles by Ray Dalio: https://www.principles.com/Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/Funding Societies: https://fundingsocieties.com/ShopBack: https://www.shopback.com/Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/The Hustle: https://thehustle.co/
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    51 mins
  • Asia's AI Power Shift: DeepSeek, Manus & India's Rise (ep 79)

    Asia's AI Power Shift: DeepSeek, Manus & India's Rise (ep 79)
    Apr 30 2026

    Generalists New Asia, or GNA, is our new Asia-focused tech, AI, startup, and business news show from The Generalists.

    🤝 Sponsored by https://TAP4SRV.com - Quickly find local Service Providers on WhatsApp! 🤝

    In this pilot episode, Michael Smith Jr. and Raz Kotler break down the biggest stories shaping Asia’s technology ecosystem, from DeepSeek and China’s open-source AI push to Meta and Manus, Singapore’s role as an AI hub, India’s rise as a major AI market, Salesforce and the SaaS apocalypse, AI jobs, cybersecurity, and SGX’s Nasdaq bridge.

    This is not a traditional interview episode. It is a faster, looser, more opinionated conversation about what is happening across Asia and why it matters globally.

    📖 What We Cover:

    • Why DeepSeek matters for China, open-source AI, and the global AI race
    • Why Intel, CPUs, and memory still matter in the age of GPUs
    • What the Meta and Manus situation could mean for Singapore, China, IP, and startup domiciling
    • Why Singapore continues to punch above its weight in AI governance and enterprise adoption
    • How Salesforce, Agentforce, and AI agents fit into the SaaS apocalypse debate
    • Why India may become one of the most important AI markets in the world•
    • Whether AI is destroying jobs or creating new demand across Asia
    • How AI is changing customer service, coding, security, and enterprise operations
    • Why Japan, Korea, and other Asian markets are investing in sovereign technology capability
    • How North Korea, cyber threats, and AI tools are changing the security landscape
    • Why the SGX and Nasdaq bridge could matter for Singapore’s capital markets

    👤👤 News Anchors

    • Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/
    • Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

    🔔 Listen and Subscribe

    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast
    • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4
    • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/the-generalists

    🔗 Resources and Links

    • DeepSeek: https://www.deepseek.com• Intel: https://www.intel.com
    • Huawei: https://www.huawei.com
    • SemiAnalysis: https://semianalysis.com
    • Meta: https://www.meta.com
    • Nas Company: https://nas.io
    • Razorpay: https://razorpay.com
    • Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com
    • Agentforce: https://www.salesforce.com/agentforce/
    • IMDA: https://www.imda.gov.sg
    • CSA Singapore: https://www.csa.gov.sg
    • OpenAI: https://openai.com
    • Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com
    • Tata Consultancy Services: https://www.tcs.com
    • Wipro: https://www.wipro.com
    • Tekion: https://tekion.com
    • Black Hat Asia: https://www.blackhat.com/asia-26/
    • SGX Group: https://www.sgxgroup.com
    • Nasdaq: https://www.nasdaq.com
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    1 hr and 4 mins
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