Alvin Foo Podcast Transcript
Alvin Foo joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Alvin Foo. Alvin Foo is a seasoned business technology leader with over 25 years of experience in the Asia Pacific region. He has held senior roles at major global companies, including Nokia, Omnicon, Interpublic Group, and Google.
As a co-founder of NASDEX, a regulated marketplace for trading tokenized real-world assets and Metafyed, a web three investment bank focused on asset tokenization, he is at the forefront of innovation in finance. Currently Alvin is a venture partner at Zero2Launch, which specializes in startup launches in the crypto sector.
He mentors emerging companies through his involvement with the German Accelerator, Spark Labs, and Orbit startups. His previous positions include managing director at Reprise Digital and head of nobility and innovation at Omnicom Media Group in China, as well as head of mobile for greater China at Google.
Well, good afternoon, Alvin. Welcome to the show!
Alvin Foo: Good evening from Malaysia. Thanks for having me!
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. Appreciate that because I know early morning here in Kansas City, but in Malaysia, I know you’re getting ready probably to wind down your day. So, I appreciate you making the time Alvin really do.
And Alvin, I want to jump into your 1st question. You’ve got over 25 years of experience in business and technology across the Asia Pacific region. What are the most significant changes you’ve witnessed in the tech and business landscape during that time, particularly in that digital space?
Alvin Foo: Well, I had the opportunity to look at Asia Pacific from, I would say, inside China versus outside China.
And the reason why I say that was also because I used to run a tech company from Malaysia or more specifically Southeast Asia out of Malaysia in 1997. So I’ve gotten into the internet age very early. I had the opportunity to run a business all up until 2006 before I moved to China. So, I had a very good experience working in China from 2006 all the way till right now.
So, I’ve seen the evolution of China. That started off very slowly and eventually exploded. And also, I saw the evolution of the internet business that grew from a very small scale to a massive scale in Asia Pacific. So, there are actually two parts of the big, because one part of it is really pretty much Asia Pacific.
And the other one is China. I must say all the years, I saw a lot more activities in China, especially in the early 2000, because that was when that was the beginning of, of the internet age for China, where they started e commerce, where you got entrepreneur like Jack Ma who started Alibaba then, and then took Alibaba to a very sizable company, e commerce dominating the space.
Also, in Asia Pacific where I saw similar e-commerce company ride hailing and so forth, that grew more or less in the, in the mid-2010. Like more, like more, more like 2015. So, the activities on internet, internet actually started a little later in Asia versus China. China was, was, was in like was on steroid from an early stage.
So that was how I would, I would look at Asia Pacific.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate that really do. And I know you were in the middle of that with the explosion of growth over in China, and you saw a lot of transformation and we really appreciate that. We see a lot of you across social, obviously do a lot of speaking events and you travel a lot, but I appreciate you sharing that with our audience today.
Alvin, as the co-founder of Nasdex and Metafyde, how do you see the tokenization of real-world assets shaping the future of finance? What opportunities and challenges do you foresee in the widespread adoption of asset tokenization?
Alvin Foo: Asset tokenization is still relatively a very new thing. In fact the asset tokenization actually started or creeping in only in the last bull market.
That was like in 2022 or 2023 where it was still very early stage. Right now, you probably see a lot more adoption, but I would say adoption is still very much within the crypto fraternity. I have invested into several projects in the RWA space. And I’ve also incubated some like the one you just mentioned now is a regulated RWA marketplace that’s focused into Asia.
And of course, I’m also incubating another company, another company that does asset tokenization, but more specifically into advising companies that wants to tokenize the asset called Metafyde.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I really appreciate that. I’m glad that you’re getting into this space a little bit because it’s important too, it’s hard to get folks to adopt a new technology or a new way of doing things.
And I think moving in this direction, as far as asset tokenization, adopting more blockchain and web 3 technologies is so, so important. And we just need to keep continuing to spread the word. So, I appreciate that. And Alvin, Zero to Launch is focused on startup launches in the crypto sector. From your experience as a venture partner, what qualities do you look for in promising crypto startups?
And how do you mentor these emerging companies?
Alvin Foo: Well, investing in crypto versus investing in traditional internet companies are very different in the crypto space because of the nature of the business, right? The narrative of the crypto at that very moment is actually very important. So, we need to find out right and make an assessment what we want to invest at that point of time.
So, for example, like this, this round, it’s a lot got to do with tokenization in RWA. So, we actually invested into RWA companies. And as I’ve said earlier, I have also incubated a few. First is to pick the narrative and subsequently, right. To be looking at startup founders who are savvy enough in a space who have been in crypto for a long time.
And more importantly, right. They are passionate about what they do. What I usually look for. Right. Is that fighting spirit and that I always coined the term sweet fighter because the term street fighter came from a game that I used to play when I was a kid. And as a street fighter, the concept of you never say die, never surrender.
And that’s the kind of quality that I will look in a founder or a co-founder.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And that is so important. You know, entrepreneurs go through a lot, and it takes a lot, like you said, a street fighter. I think we both played the same game, but we need to find those qualities in entrepreneurs because entrepreneurship is not for anybody that’s faint of heart.
It’s someone that needs to be persistent, consistent and get out there every day, no matter what, take the hit. So, I appreciate that. Last question of the day, Alvin. Blockchain and Web 3. 0 are fast evolving spaces. As an advisor to organizations like Noise and Preventius Capital, what key trends do you believe will define the next decade of blockchain development?
Alvin Foo: I still think that we are in a very early stage. There are a lot of narratives that has actually, you know, followed. In the last bull market, we saw, you know, terms like NFT, and there’s a lot of narrative that has actually, you know, followed. Metaverse and so forth, and even DeFi. I think DeFi is maturing. The good thing is that what we are seeing in most of the narratives started earlier, this was what I would term the 1.0. So, it was the 1.0 Metaverse. It was the 1.0 DeFi. And what we’re seeing right now is DeFi 2.0, right? And the more mature offering, even in, in the concept now, Metaverse started very early, right? So, a lot of people would think that this could be a second life, right? I think Metaverse will eventually morph into something that a game developer, a real game studio, a huge game studio that actually would embark on a trail and build a very sustainable and monetizable Metaverse.
Roblox is actually one and it’s very successful, right? But what is lacking in those games was the focus was very much on the tokenomics. versus the gaming logic, right? If you look at games that has been successful, the most important part of a game is, isn’t the tokenomics, isn’t the reward. It’s really down to a very simple concept called fun.
And if you build a game and it’s not fun, regardless of whether the reward is great, you make money out of it. Eventually it will just die as well because it’s, it’s just not fun. Right. So, I think in moving forward and you will see More gaming companies, bigger gaming studio company, getting their space and build what I would term as a metaverse 2.
0 or 3. 0, whatever you want to call it, but, but a more mature gaming logic, right, that takes on crypto element and also the Web3 element. And I think this is where I am setting and, and because gaming has always been very successful, gaming has always been profitable. I think, you know, putting games and also tokenomics and crypto together, I think is moving forward, right?
This could be a game changer for the crypto sector.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. And we see a lot of players get into it. You know, I’ve spoken with the CEO of G2A gaming and many others in this space, and they’re moving in this direction. And your point about the gamification, if the game’s not fun, like you said, no matter how much earnings you get from the crypto side, it’s not worth it. It’ll die out. So, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this today.
And Alvin, it was such a pleasure having you on today. And I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Alvin Foo: Well, that’s just all mine, Brian. Thank you very much for having me and reaching out to me. I look forward to the next one.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Alvin Foo Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
