Interconnected

SPAC-ing the Southeast Asia Story

The market frenzy around SPACs may have subsided somewhat, their effects on tech companies are far from over. In fact, their focus has simply shifted away from the US to other regions. Where? Apparently, Southeast Asia. I’ve been bullish on Southeast Asia as

Topics: Cloud Industry• ByteDance•

Is “ByteDance Cloud” A Good Idea?

When I first started writing Interconnected a little over a year ago, two of my favorite analyses that I wrote were why Facebook and Dropbox don’t offer their own cloud platforms. Given their scale and expertise in infrastructure operations, building a cloud seems

Topics: Meta• Geopolitics•

So What Is The American Dream?

Every July 4th, America’s Independence Day, always puts me in a reflective mood. I’ve sworn the oath to protect the US constitution three times in my life -- once to become a naturalized citizen, once to work at the Commerce Department, once

Topics: Developer• Open Source• For Founders•

Surfing the Wave of Developer Relations: Part 2

Today’s post is a guest contribution from Kevin Chen. He was the first Developer Advocate at the now-unicorn open source company Kong and currently works at smallstep, an early stage open source startup. In Part I of this two-part series, I discussed the

Topics: Low Code No Code• Developer• VC•

Low Code No Code, Part II: How to Ride This Wave

Today’s post is a guest contribution from Shawn Xu (no relations). Shawn is one of the early engineers at Ascend.io, got his Masters in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon, and writes an informative WeChat public account on SaaS called 硅谷成长攻略. In

Topics: Industrial Planning• Semiconductor•

Can the US “Out China” China?

The passage of the US Innovation and Competition Act by the US Senate last week generated a lot of media attention. It’s a unique piece of news in that it’s newsworthy both as a “process story” and a “substance story.” By process,

Topics: Developer• Open Source• For Founders•

Surfing the Wave of Developer Relations: Part I

Today’s post is a guest contribution from Kevin Chen. He was the first Developer Advocate at the now-unicorn open source company Kong and currently works at smallstep, an early stage open source startup. (The audio version of a similar discussion between me and

Topics: Low Code No Code• Developer• Guest Post•

Low Code No Code, Part I: Use Cases and Landscape

Today’s post is a guest contribution from Shawn Xu (no relations). Shawn is one of the early engineers at Ascend.io, got his Masters in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon, and writes an informative WeChat public account on SaaS called 硅谷成长攻略. The

Topics: Announcement• ByteDance• Developer•

The New Interconnected; Zhang Yiming's Resignation

This Interconnected post may be the most “disconnected” yet, but I will do my best to connect everything anyway. First of all, I want to share that I started a new role as the senior director for International Expansion strategy at GitHub earlier this

Topics: Alibaba• Cloud Industry• Open Source•

May 16, 2021: AliCloud, JEDI, HarmonyOS, Hillhouse Capital, Tencent Cloud

Hello Interconnected Readers: I have not written a bilingual news source summary and commentary in a while -- my apologies. Interconnected, as a newsletter and product, will be going through some changes, which we will announce later this week. I’m also going through

Topics: TSMC• Semiconductor•

Morris Chang, Global Semiconductor Competition, Make “Making Stuff” Cool

(The audio version of this post can be found on the Interconnected YouTube channel): Morris Chang, the founder and two-time CEO of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC), gave an hour-long speech to a room of Taiwanese government and business leaders a couple of

Topics: For Founders• Developer• Open Source•

Distributed Engineering Management Best Practices with Justin Cormack

On April 6, I hosted the 3rd session of a monthly Company Building webinar series for founders and operators of developer-focused and/or commercial open source startups. The goal of this series is to share tactical knowledge -- the nitty gritty know-hows that can

Topics: Meta• Alibaba• LATAM•

Two Week Break; No New Post

Dear Interconnected Subscribers and Readers: We are going on a two-week break (first break since starting this newsletter more than a year ago), because I am working on a few personal and professional transitions, moving to a different city (Seattle), and planning some new

Topics: LATAM• Mexico• Developer•

Engineering Talent Distribution: Mexico and LATAM

Last week, I published a post on the US-Asia-Latin America (LATAM) tech nexus I witnessed during my visit to Mexico earlier this year. (The piece was first published on TechCrunch the week before.) Today’s post is a follow-up observation on the engineering talent

Topics: 5G• Open Source• Antitrust•

April 11, 2021: OpenRAN, Google vs Oracle, Mexican Unicorn, Alibaba Antitrust Fine

Hello Interconnected Readers: This weekly issue has a little bit of everything: possible US investment into OpenRAN, the monumental Google vs Oracle Supreme Court decision, Kavak the Mexican Unicorn getting bigger, Alibaba’s antitrust fine, Chinese engineers fleeing tech to work in civil service,

Topics: Mexico• LATAM• VC•

Tech in Mexico: A Confluence of Latin America, the US and Asia

This article was first published on TechCrunch on April 1, 2021. Mexico has been known as an up-and-coming tech hub and a gateway to the Latin American market. As an investor focused on developer-centered products, open source startups, and infrastructure technology companies with a

Topics: Audio• Meta•

Announcing: Interconnected Voices

Hello Interconnected Readers: I’m thrilled to launch our audio product: Interconnected Voices. All episodes are hosted on the Interconnected YouTube channel, so please subscribe to it! Each episode is the recording of a discussion I had with top analysts, investors, entrepreneurs, and senior

Topics: Developer• Open Source• Audio•

Discussion Transcript: Global Developer Growth

This is the transcript of a discussion I did with Rui Ma of Tech Buzz China and Monica Xie of Matrix Partners China on the trend of global developer growth, recorded on February 18, 2021. It is based off of a previous post: "Where

Topics: Agora• Developer• Audio•

Discussion Transcript: What Does Agora ($API) Do?

This is the transcript of a discussion I did with Rui Ma of Tech Buzz China on the company Agora (stock ticker: $API) on February 11, 2021. It is based off of my previous post on the company. The discussion transcript is organized into

Topics: Tesla• China•

Elon’s "Place" in US-China Relations

Elon Musk has become the focal point of US-China relations once again. The Wall Street Journal reported a couple of weeks ago that Tesla’s will be banned from military and some state government employees in China for fear of spying. Elon responded one

Topics: Xiaomi• Huawei• EVs•

March 28, 2021: Global Startups; Xiaomi > Huawei; Next Phase of China’s EVs Market; No-Code

Hello Interconnected Readers: This weekly issue has a nice balance of news commentary from the rise of international startups as evidenced by the most recent YC batch, to Xiaomi racing ahead of Huawei, to the next phase of China’s EVs market, to the

Topics: For Founders• Open Source• Developer•

Building A Global Company from Day 0 with Clint Smith

A few weeks ago, I hosted the 2nd session of a monthly Company Building webinar series for founders and operators of developer-focused and/or commercial open source startups. The goal of this series is to share tactical knowledge -- the nitty gritty know-hows that

Topics: Meta• Weekly•

March 21, 2021: Lived Experience Quotient

I debated all week whether to write about tech news and China today, per usual, or share something more personally and philosophical, given the violence against Asian Americans that reached a new height last week with what happened in Atlanta. I decided on the

Topics: For Founders• Open Source• Developer•

Developing Commercial Product from Open Source Technology

Taking a break from my recent spurt of writing on the semiconductor industry in China, today’s post discusses the difference between an open source technology and a commercial product that leverages said open source technology. It’s an important, but often not well

Topics: Semiconductor• Open Source• IPO•

March 14, 2021: State of the Cloud; More Semiconductor Investment; Open Source in China

Hello Interconnected Readers: This Interconnected Weekly issue covers more news on China’s semiconductor industry as it continues to balloon. I also shared some thoughts on Bessemer Ventures’ 2021 State of the Cloud report, the Apache Software Foundation, and yet another Chinese tech company

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