The Ecosystem Builder Running APAC's Startup Bridge Solo: Chi Chi Wong's Cross-Cultural Playbook

🎙 EP 9a: You Can’t Copy-Paste Trust | Chi Chi Wong on Cross-Border VC, Founder Support, and Building the Human Infrastructure Behind Southeast Asia’s Startup Ecosystem

🛰 Everyone’s chasing unicorns. Chi Chi Wong is building something rarer: real cross-border trust.

This week, Kim Yeoh sits down with Chi Chi Wong — the one-man APAC ecosystem team at Huawei Cloud — to unpack what ecosystem building actually means in Southeast Asia. No buzzwords, no frameworks, just the human infrastructure that keeps startup bridges standing when MOUs fade and headlines shift.

Chi Chi is the Ecosystem Lead for Huawei Cloud’s Startup and Developer Programs, driving initiatives across Asia-Pacific and beyond. With experience spanning New York University, Singapore military service, and a Master’s from Tsinghua University, he now works across governments, startups, VCs, incubators, and media to build a more resilient, inclusive tech ecosystem.

This episode is a rare inside look into:

How cultural fluency, emotional infrastructure, and patience matter more than pitch decks

What Hong Kong founders keep missing about Southeast Asia

Why 2AM founder calls beat demo-day soundbites

And what most “regional strategies” get dangerously wrong

💡 What You’ll Learn

Why “Singapore ≠ Southeast Asia” — and what Hong Kong startups often get wrong

What a 240:1 competition ratio in China teaches you about resilience and restraint

How Chi Chi reverse-engineered a Huawei job offer from a Tsinghua thesis interview

Why trust travels slower than capital — but compounds harder

The difference between ecosystem optics and actual founder support

Why showing up in hard times > big headlines

🔎 Key Takeaways

“Regional-first” strategies often fail without local presence and emotional bandwidth

Southeast Asia is not a monolith — scaling across cultures requires more than translation

The best ecosystem builders aren’t chasing visibility — they’re chasing reliability

Trust is your true moat in Asia-Pacific’s fragmented, high-context markets

🧠 Sound Bites

“I wasn’t there to compete. I was there to connect.”

“Most people try to stand out. I tried to disappear — and learn from the room.”

“Southeast Asia isn’t one market. It’s hundreds. With real people, real pain points, and real pace.”

“Ecosystem building is 2AM calls, not conference panels.”

“The job came not because I pitched well, but because I listened better.”

⏱ Chapters

00:00 – Kevin’s Intro: Why Chi Chi Isn’t Your Typical Ecosystem Builder01:20 – Kim’s Welcome: From NYU to Tsinghua to Huawei04:45 – How a Thesis Turned into a Huawei Job Offer10:15 – What Most Founders Get Wrong About Scaling Regionally14:30 – Emotional Infrastructure > Regional Strategy PDFs19:10 – Founder Support at 2AM vs Demo Day Theater24:00 – Hong Kong’s Blind Spots in Southeast Asia29:30 – Why Local Trust Takes Time — But Outlasts Capital35:00 – Building Human Systems for the Long Game

🙌 Support the Show

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💬 Let’s Connect

🎙 Kim Yeoh → https://www.linkedin.com/in/weiisyuenyeohacmacgma/🎙 Kevin Brockland → https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbrockland/📬 Join 500+ founders & VCs reading our newsletter → Subscribe on Substack-https://seaofstartups.substack.com/

🌊 SEA of Startups is where the region’s real startup stories live.No puff pieces. No fluff. Just what’s actually happening under the surface.

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