I started my career at Temasek in Singapore working on global consumer investments and did a stint in Shanghai focused on Chinese consumer investments. After seeing how startups had developed in the United States and China, I was positive that Southeast Asia was where we’d see the next wave of tech unicorns. SoftBank was driving that shift in the region, so I was eager to join. The company’s existing portfolio, coupled with its laser-focus on AI was also a huge draw.

The biggest takeaway for me was the importance of listening to and understanding the founder from the get-go. I want to make sure the founders I work with have the right mindset: a drive to succeed and, most importantly, unparalleled integrity.

The ecosystem isn’t as mature in Southeast Asia as it is in the West, so we end up being surprisingly sector-agnostic. SoftBank is focused on AI, so we look for those opportunities in a variety of industries, including super app ecosystems, fintech, health tech, and vertical e-commerce.

Southeast Asia is an incredibly diverse region — every country has a different native language and culture. When you’re growing a company in the U.S., the language is the same throughout, and it’s easier to scale. It’s similar in China. But a business model that works in Singapore may not work in Indonesia, Thailand, or Vietnam.

In terms of diversity, a high degree of localization is necessary. The earlier a company realizes that Southeast Asia isn’t just one culture, the better off it is. One way to navigate the region’s diversity is by finding a local business partner in the new country, which significantly reduces the risk of something going wrong.

Another strategy is to learn from the experience of SoftBank veterans in more mature ecosystems, like China and the U.S. They’ve already been through these cycles, so we’re not starting entirely from scratch. This becomes a proprietary source of information for us as investors. We don’t need to mimic it exactly, but we can get a sense of what’s worked and what hasn’t with similar business models overseas.

The best way to understand a new region is to listen — to founders, to peers, and to other people you encounter. I try to view each conversation as a learning opportunity.