This document provides advice and perspectives from Michael Smith Jr. on building a technology startup that can expand regionally or globally. Some of the key points summarized are: 1) Thailand has the capability to build a successful tech startup, launch it globally, and achieve great success, though there are local challenges to address. 2) Important factors for success include focusing on customers, collecting and using data, keeping strategies and technologies simple, developing strong company culture and leadership, and experimenting early. 3) Outsourcing infrastructure technologies through cloud services allows startups to focus on building their core products and solutions rather than infrastructure management.

1. Leveraging On Scalable Technology To
Expand Regionally
tech alone doesn’t work though - FYI
Michael Smith Jr.
SeedPlus.com

2. Things don’t have to change the world to be
important
Steve Jobs 1996
Jobs quotes > Woz quotes

3. I can be reached:
Pro-tip: adding evie to the email won’t help
SeedPlus.com
SeedVC.blog
@dreampipe (till twitter dies)
michael at SeedPlus.com

4. My background
coder (bad)
enterprise sales (good)
product marketing (okay)
product management (better than okay)
restaurant/pub owner (bad)
evangelist (good)
biz dev (better than okay)
Thai Speaker (marginal)
VC (apprentice)

5. It’s okay not to do a startup
Don’t do it just because the cool kids are
Take a gig first at a cool company
First, learn what you like - what you are good at

6. (GDP) Gross Domestic Product
(GNP) Gross National Product
(GNH) Gross National Happiness
(From Bhutan )
(GDT) Globally Desirous Thing

7. Nike Shoes
Rolex Watches
Thai Food (not because I am here)
iPhones
American TV Shows

8. All achieved escape velocity
to become a GDT
(however let’s even try to go regional first)

9. (hello thingmakers)
Can Thailand build a GDT?

12. Cleveland Nigeria

13. Food for thought:
Thailand is as capable (there are of course Thailand related
challenges) as any other County to:
1. Build a tech startup
2. Launch it onto the global stage
3. Kick Ass
There is no one way to do it but let’s discuss this more

14. Important stuff for your success toolkit
Pro-tip: Taking notes is not cool

15. Karma
People
Data
Focus/Simplicity
Customer Care
Tech
Strategy

16. Karma has everybody’s address

17. At all times:
Be cognizant of how you treat others
You never know when you will cross paths again
You may eventually work with, be bought by or merge
with competition
The world is smaller than you think

18. Luck is also useful but karma is the precursor

19. People always make the difference

20. Look at character as much as tech/business skills
Groom the up and comers for greatness
Despite the hype - it’s usually a marathon and not a sprint - therefore
build a culture of longevity
Help people lead themselves (act like a coach)
Empower employees to make decisions
If you are a young/new management team - get help in building the
right people culture

21. Data can no longer be an side project

22. No matter what your product/service - data is key to your long term
success
It is always better to augment decisions with data - this helps to
support a gut reaction - or helps you to confirm when your gut was
wrong
Instrument everything even if you can’t deal with analysis now.
Some day you will (simply store logs on S3 for later import into
Redshift for example)
Share data internally and externally if possible (feedback helps)
Hire people who also care about data

23. Tech ideas for data:
Do not try and invent everything
Check out Segment - instrument once, plug in anything later. You can use
any sort of dashboard tool with it
Google analytics okay for web but not for apps
Some of the built in AWS data tools are pretty good - just know what you
are getting into with them
Figure out early how to track, archive and derive dashboards from the stuff
you know is important. You can save the rest for later

24. Keep it simple, stupid

27. Pro-tip: Green is good. Red is bad

28. Customer delight is the best form of virality -
Andy Rachleff (Benchmark & Wealthfront)

29. Very few startups make it
Very few startups become a runaway success
However, apart from creating a great product one could also
focus on amazing customer service
It is imperative to cultivate a process of customer service in
everything you do
Takes time to bear fruit but is the best marketing ever

30. Tech ideas for customer service:
You can start by being available via email or social
CEO or exec team should start dealing with answering customers first - this
helps to establish a culture of customer service & great product learning
If needed install zendesk or something else you think works but DO NOT
hide behind automated answers or hide behind the tech
As you scale, make your entire company share customer service and then
eventually institutionalize it - also check out customer centric engineering

31. Outsource your tech!

32. I mean your servers not your coders

33. Old World:
Buy servers, software licenses, racks and data - code practically
everything
One of my first startups we spent 2M usd on servers, software,
rack space and internet before even launching
New World:
Rent the whole stack - close to having a serverless world but
which technique should you take to building out your product?
How much do you build?

34. The money quote!
http://startupljackson.com

35. The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do -
Michael Porter (founder of The Monitor Group)
Pro-Tip: Competitive Strategy is a must read

36. If you are building a 1 country business then make sure it is the biggest 1
country business ever (gojek) (Massive TAM)
Pro tip: VC’s love massive TAM
If you are going regional - think cities instead of countries since this is where
the masses are. (SEA is all about the cities)
Force yourself early to test new cities & determine the playbook city by city
After SEA possibly consider ANZ region as a good entry into the US or
North America
Get strategy help from your network, advisors, angle & VC’s

37. Tech ideas for tech experimentation:
In your early days you don’t have the customers but you have incredible
freedom
Create as many experiments as possible - hack them, hand code, fake them.
The goal is to test, measure and then operationalize what works
As you grow it will get harder and harder to experiments but great
companies find a way to experiment without harming the core operations
that are working
Pro tip: Listen to the new Reid Hoffman podcast, Masters of Scale for a
better explanation

38. What I asked earlier:
Can Thailand build a GDT?

39. No time like the present!

40. Struggle more, hustle less...

41. Q and A