Singapore Works Too Well To Be A Great Startup Hub? | Adriel Yong - E705
episodePreviously titled “Singapore Works Too Well To Be A Great Startup Hub | Adriel Yong - E705” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
35 min
1 speaker
6 chapters
transcribed 18 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why did Adriel Yong claim Singapore would never be a great startup hub?
I see we have an X tweet and then after that you triggered lots of angry comments. You wanna read it out?
As I paid my Singapore taxes last weekend, I realized Singapore would never be a great startup hub because everything just works too well here. It takes me sub five minutes to file my taxes. This would have cost thousands and way more hours in the US. Right hailing and micro mobility are just capped because of great public transportation. And healthcare here is so cheap, you don't even think about trying to use AI to compare and navigate the entire care system. system like in the US.
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on success. I'm Jeremy Al, Venture Capitalist, Sierra founder, Harvard MBA, science fiction nerd, and dad of two daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000 members and get transcripts, resources, and community at www.bravesdea.com. Um Stay well and stay brave. Hey Adriel, welcome back to Singapore.
Yeah, I'm surprised I haven't been lynched and mobbed after my latest viral tweet, which was really more shower thought and a tongue-in-cheek comment than being very serious, but also just clarify that I do not mean it in any shape or form.
Ah, I think you meant this something. Okay. But I'm glad I lined up for our regular catch up to also talk about this. So I see we have an X tweet and then after that you triggered lots of angry comments. You wanna read it out?
Yes. As I paid my Singapore taxes last weekend, I realized Singapore would never be a great startup hub because everything just works too well here. It takes me sub five minutes to file my taxes. This would have cost thousands and way more hours in the US. Right hailing and micro mobility are just capped because of great public transportation. And healthcare here is so cheap, you don't even think about trying to use AI to compare and navigate the entire Cas system like in the US.
So now as a context, what you were showering or something?
Yeah. I think it was one day before the deadline to file taxes and I was out with dinner friends. I was like so stressed out. It's like, oh no, I haven't done it. And my was like, Don't worry, la Singapore, just press a few buttons, done already. And you know, this added complexity to it because I have like investments and a whole bunch of other sources of income. So I was like stressed about it. It was like my first time like going through it. Uh in the past if you just CPF just like automatically files and deduct. Yeah, so you know, I went back home pulled up my computer, opened the iris portal, sign in with my sync pass, and just click click click. There's like four boxes. I fill it in, voila, less than five minutes and I'm like, okay guys, I'm done.
Let's go out for drinks. And I was like on the way I was like tweeting is like Singapore tax systems thumbs up man. Like Sync Pass thumbs up. Like love you guys at open government products and GovTech like making all this thing work. But obviously that triggered a lot of like people who thought that oh we can't be a great startup hub. That's not necessarily a bad thing and I think we can talk about it more. But yeah, curious to hear your comments. Uh did a lot of people send you my hot take.
Yeah, some people sent me the hot take and I was like, oh, I know this guy and he's coming on the podcast. I feel like this is a bang on topic that you manage to get yourself in. And but I think it's interesting because for me when I read it, I was like, Yeah, I see different threads of it, right? I think to me the three pillars in this conversation that you have is one is Singapore is efficient for many public services. I think that's one. Then the second layer was they're saying market inefficiency or government incompetence equals startup operation. For example, you were using an example of healthcare or micro mobility because of poor public transportation, right?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why did Adriel Yong claim Singapore would never be a great startup hub?
0:00–4:11
2
How did the viral tweet spark a tech‑Twitter flame war and shape the conversation?
4:11–9:43
3
Does Singapore’s 5‑million‑person market cap the upside for founders?
9:43–15:47
4
In what ways does extreme comfort dull the founder mindset in Singapore?
15:47–24:37
5
Why is edtech disruption especially hard in Singapore’s GovTech‑driven ecosystem?
24:37–35:09
6
How do Temasek, family wealth, and the equity culture gap affect startup financing?
35:09–35:37
Speakers
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