A founder talks about the ‘F’ word

In On the Rise this week, we explore learnings from a startup’s failure, analyze Y Combinator’s receding numbers in SEA, and Adobe’s new AI. [Read from your browser]( On the Rise 🚀 Welcome to On the Rise! Delivered every Tuesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in emerging tech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Collin Furtado Journalist Hello {NAME} Fresh out of college after completing my degree in mass media, I wanted to become a copywriter and enter the glamorous world of advertising. It was the creativity that attracted me to the field and my limited knowledge of the job told me it would be fun. But when I joined an ad agency, I found it daunting to write about products I wasn’t familiar with. The copy I thought was interesting would be thrown out the window by the client, which meant I had to go back to the drawing board numerous times. Within a year, I loathed writing descriptions of products and I wasn't doing well at the role, so I quit. I’m glad that I failed at that job as it led me to find a career in journalism. Similarly, in this week’s Big Story, my colleague writes about Michael Luhukay, a serial entrepreneur in Indonesia. He opens up about the startup failures he has gone through and what he learned from them. Luhukay has built multiple companies, including two startups he was running at the same time in 2010. While some of his ventures are still standing, like luxury-car community Speed Creed, two of them - Gobann and Kartoo - were forced to shut down. He doesn’t see these closures as a bad thing. In fact, investors are now looking for founders who have previously failed, he says. Speaking about investors, Y Combinator - one of the top global accelerators - has seen a drop in the number of startups from Southeast Asia and India in its cohorts recently. We explore to see if there is more to these figures and if it is steering clear of the region. Meanwhile, Adobe has launched its own generative AI model, Firefly, which is trained on the company’s own data sets. Unlike other models, Adobe looks to put ethics at the center of its product. More on this in AI Odyssey. -- Collin PS: Wishing you a Happy Easter in advance. We’ll be taking a short break next week and be back in your inbox on April 18.  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Why this serial entrepreneur keeps going after 2 failed startups]( For Michael Luhukay, failure is an option, since investors today want to back founders who can bounce back. “The more you fail, the better,” he says.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  MAKING WAVES [YC shrinks cohorts, sees less SEA, India investments]( The California-based accelerator has seen a dwindling number of startups from Southeast Asia and India in its recent cohorts.  --------------------------------------------------------------- AI ODYSSEY Promising AI projects we’re noticing.  The ethics of a Firefly When we had several assignments to do in high school, I would procrastinate and sit on them until the last moment. A day before the submission deadline, I would scramble to complete them by quickly finding things on the internet and just putting them together without rewriting them. I also didn’t properly attribute these texts to their sources. While that strategy worked in high school, it didn’t fly with professors in my first year of college who quickly pulled me up for it. Though it was an uncomfortable moment for me, I’m glad that it happened as it taught me the ethics of attribution and respect for someone else's creation. This is why my thoughts about generative AI projects are split. While I have been amazed at what tools such as ChatGPT 4, Midjourney, and Stability AI can do, it has also made me question the ethics of these large language models, which were trained on data without any consent from the original creators. This is especially disturbing since many of the companies behind these AI tools look to make a profit out of them. While I hate saying this, [I agree with Elon Musk]( on nonprofit firms suddenly turning into for-profit enterprises. As my wife is an artist and designer herself, I understand that it takes years to hone such skill. To see someone without any artistic skill replicate her designs using such tools is a disservice to people like her. This is why several artists have [filed lawsuits against AI art tools]( such as Stability AI and Midjourney for copyright infringement. That said, players such as Adobe are looking to steer clear of the copyright issues and lawsuits. The company launched its own generative AI tool called [Firefly]( two weeks ago. It says that the AI model has been [trained exclusively on its royalty-free media library, Adobe Stock]( as well as on images that are openly licensed and on public domain content where copyrights have expired. The company looks to integrate the tool to its suite of products such as Photoshop, Express, and Lightroom. Adobe says that it is also exploring a way to compensate contributors to Stock, which would allow them to earn from their submissions. This is expected to be similar to [Shutterstock’s Contributor Fund]( which reimburses creators for work used to train AI models. Currently, Firefly is in beta mode and only available on Adobe’s website, but it will be soon integrated into its products. Like other AI art tools, it can generate images and text, but it’s also able to create graphic designs, 3D models, illustrations, and video edits. Some of these models have yet to be introduced by the company but are in the works. Once made available with its suite of products such as Illustrator, Premier Pro, Photoshop, and Lightroom, these features can help creators in improving the time and efficiency on projects. While some say that Adobe’s ethical route is the reason it is [late to join the text-to-image generative AI space]( it seems to be a safer route given that the company’s products are used by several businesses who don’t want to be tied up legal issues. And unlike other players, it already has a massive base of paid users - [600 million monthly active users]( of Creative Cloud and 12,000 customers of Experience Cloud. Also, a majority of the Fortune 100 companies use its products. Firefly will definitely open up a new revenue stream for Adobe as it looks to tap into the global generative AI market, which is expected to be valued at [US$126.5 billion]( by 2031. That said, there are several hurdles for Adobe such as copyright ownership of AI-generated art, costly computing power of generative AI models, and intense competition in the space. -- Collin  --------------------------------------------------------------- FYI 1️⃣ [Malaysia’s government shouldn’t directly invest in startups, says insider]( The country has to take some adventurous steps to make an impact. 2️⃣ [Mapping funding flows into generative AI]( Hundreds of startups in the nascent sector have each raised at least US$5 million, with the big bucks flowing to firms providing AI infrastructure. 3️⃣ [I’ve been around some of the best venture builders. Here’s what makes them great]( Picking the right CEO, not relying too heavily on one person, and creating a structured foundation for scale are key to venture builder success.  --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Also check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here](. 1️⃣ [Betterplace recruits troopers]( Troopers is the second startup from Southeast Asia that the India-based workforce management firm has acquired. 2️⃣ [A distress sale]( GoMechanic, a distressed vehicle-servicing firm based in India, has been acquired by a consortium led by auto parts company Lifelong Group. 3️⃣ [UpGrad scoops $36.4m from existing investors]( Temasek invested about US$9.8 million as part of the fundraise. Meanwhile, upGrad co-founder and chairperson Ronnie Screwvala poured US$25.7 million into the company. 4️⃣ [Charging a partnership]( Taiwan-based Gogoro has established a partnership with Indian food delivery major Zomato and its bank subsidiary, Kotak Mahindra Prime. The collaboration aims to increase electric vehicle adoption among Zomato’s delivery partners. 5️⃣ [Back on the IPO track]( India-based hotel chain Oyo has refiled for an IPO, which is expected around November. It aims to raise between US$400 million and US$600 million.  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preference center. See you on April 18th! [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. 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