93. Bringing The Venture Studio Model to Southeast Asia: A Conversation with Nick Ongkowijaya

The Disruptive Voice

Southeast Asia is a vibrant, fast-growing, and diverse region of the world, home to vast opportunities, particularly for those supporting market-creating innovations. In this episode, Nick Ongkowijaya - an HBS and BSSE alumnus who also worked as an Associate at Innosight - joins host Katie Zandbergen to share the story of the new venture studio that he's building in Southeast Asia, called Gradient. Nick discusses the local context, including the drivers of non-consumption of entrepreneurial opportunities in the region; how he's building his venture studio to bring more would-be entrepreneurs into the startup ecosystem; the many BSSE frameworks that he regularly draws upon, both in building Gradient and in thinking about the venture studio's pipeline of companies; and the potential of market-creating innovations in Southeast Asia, particularly as they relate to solutions for the informal economy. Through the founding of Gradient - and drawing on the work being done there to foster entrepreneurship and innovation - Nick presents listeners with a number of great examples of theory in action out there in the world!