Brinc, Hardware & IoT in Asia with Bay McLaughlin

Bay McLaughlin, COO and co-founder of Brinc joined us in a conversation to discuss the evolution of his company, Brinc and where it is now heading across Asia from China to southeast Asia and other parts of the world. In our conversation, we dived deep into major trends and challenging issues on hardware and Internet of things (IoT) in Asia, from debunking one of the major myths of some investors about hardware commoditisation to the major opportunities for IoT startups to capture across Asia.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

• Bay McLaughlin, COO & co-founder of Brinc (@betabay , LinkedIn)
  • Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [1:08]
  • Heard that you have become a KOL for Huawei, what is that about? [2:33]
  • How has Brinc evolved since our last conversation? [3:46]
  • Outside China, where does Brinc operate across in Asia? [6:06]
  • Understand Brinc have started their operations in China, what’s the footprint over there and what are the key activities within China? [7:05]
• On Hardware, Internet of Things and Asia
  • I want to start with hardware and I believe that most of the venture capital firms out there share what I called “business truths” (which are not). One of them is about hardware commoditization. A lot of VCs use this to dissuade themselves from funding hardware companies. What are your thoughts on the issue? [9:01]
  • In what you have worked on, you have worked with IoT startups that touched on interesting areas such as agriculture, can you share some interesting examples on that area? [12:30]
  • In your opinion, do you think that the IoT startups picking up steam in Asia given that most solutions are business centric rather than consumer centric? [15:01]
  • What are the challenges of IoT startups in Asia? [16:01]
  • What are the interesting trends in hardware or software across Asia? [17:36]
  • How are your interactions with startups across Asia? Where do you see their strengths and weaknesses? [20:47]
  • Where do you see things go into the next year with respect to hardware, IoT in Asia? [23:35]
• Closing [25:05]
  • Can you recommend a book, podcast or anything that is useful to you in your work or personal life? [25:26]
    • Bay’s recommendation on Youtube channels: Motherboard, Vox and Vice. Of course, check out Brinc’s blog.
  • How can my audience find you? [26:40]

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The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Altizen and sign up for their mailing list. Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.