The Fifty

We love reading those annual lists of the most interesting people. You know, lists like the TIME100 list of the top 100 most influential people or PEOPLE’s Most Intriguing People of the Year. There are also specialized lists for creators and designers and athletes, such as Sports Illustrated’s 50 Most Influential Figures in Sports.

Then there are lists and recognitions that have become notorious. Take the Heisman Curse where the most highly awarded college football athletes usually go on to have forgettable professional careers. Then there is the Forbes 30 Under 30, known more for the recipients that earned criminal records than those that stayed above the law as entrepreneurs.

I have also encountered times when I have been generously nominated for some prestigious award. I am not sure who nominated me or what the organization is behind granting such accolades. However, when I inquired as to how I was to receive this most honorable distinction, I was instructed to wire $500 to secure my nomination. Geez, thanks a lot!

Before the holidays, I shared my thoughts on the entrepreneurial journey and the help we get along the way. Success is hard won and often comes with a fair share of luck. Behind the good fortune though is usually a helping hand or two (or more) that nudged us in the right direction to allow us to reach our goals and fulfill our dreams.

One thing that I neglected to talk about though were the people that helped me along the way. There are the usual suspects like my family, various teachers (especially the ones that did not want to kill me), a handful of managers (that I did not drive crazy), quasi-mentors that did not realize they were helping me, and many friends that cheered me on. Then there were those that I was lucky to work alongside that made it possible for me to do my thing.

With that in mind, I want to take a different approach with this edition of the newsletter to recognize some of the amazing people in my life that made 2024 such a rewarding and adventurous year. I call this list The Fifty.

Why? Because the list is fifty people. And before you ask why just fifty people, it’s because if I had to thank everyone, well the list would be called the Five Hundred. Nobody has time for reading that. It also meant making some hard choices and there were plenty of people that I wanted to include but couldn’t. Fortunately, most people I thanked in posts during the year, like I did for my AWS colleagues when I announced my resignation.

It is important to point out that this list includes people from around the globe and across all stages of the career journey. Some are more recently out of school, and some are long-time workforce veterans. Some have exited startups, and some are just getting launched. The one common thread is they each did something meaningful for me last year for which I am thankful for and that is worthy of praise.

Without further ado, here are The Fifty awesome people listed in alphabetical order by last name, what makes them awesome, and a link to their LinkedIn profile so you can learn more about their work and backgrounds:

1. Derek Andersen - Founded Startup Grind impacting startups around the world

2. Poe Aye - Gathering a community of decision makers & startup leaders in Bangkok

3. Bruce Bateman - Advising & building multiple startups in Taiwan

4. Arnaud Bonzom - Presenting excellent talks about startup ecosystems & innovation

5. Thibaut Briere - Tackling the challenge of eldercare in Singapore with tech

6. Kevin Brockland - Funding great startups in Malysia and SE Asia

7. Sandra Buckingham - Promoting startup successes in Cape Town's top startup hub

8. Shannon Burch - Wrote an insightful article about startup customer experience

9. Andrew & Dorothy Chang - Re-energizing the NYC startup community

10. Iris Chang - Aiding people applying for the Taiwan Gold Card with amazing service

11. Aim Charoenphan - Accelerating the Thai startup ecosystem as a top connector

12. Amy Chen - Organizing community for founders & builders at a leading VC firm

13. Anita Chen - Guiding one of the key launchpads for startups in Taiwan

14. Kyle Chen - Boosting the Taiwan startup community via awesome events & content

15. Abby Chittams - Selling cloud & tech services with a true dedication to the customer 

16. Elias Ek - Helping companies big & small build their brand & market in Taiwan

17. Kenny Estes - Leading a community of investors & founders for global collaboration

18. Basil Fateen - My former partner-in-crime helping developers build on AWS using AI

19. Ethan Ferdosi - Managing teams that aid startups to optimize their cloud usage

20. Jeff Friedman - Bridging the divide between public sector & startups for innovation

21. Terry Hsiao - Educating budding entrepreneurs from his deep startup experience

22. Holly Hudson - Building vibrant startup community in Brisbane for Queensland

23. Ghazanfar Iqbal - Helping startups build & scale on the cloud globally from Malaysia

24. Chi Ko - Launched & growing the first AiSalon community in Taiwan

25. Elaine Lai - Helping startups to get setup and compliant in SE Asia

26. Lisa Lee - Steering the largest global community of cloud partner alliance leaders

27. Yan Lee - Funding the best early-stage tech startups in Taiwan & SE Asia

28. Norman Liang - Funding startups with seed capital using cross-border strategy

29. Jonathan Liao - Leading the effort to bring top talent to Taiwan via the Gold Card

30. Bobby Liu - Built the Vietnam startup community, now back to his founder roots

31. Preedanan Liu - Fostering connections among the Taiwan entrepreneur community

32. Jesse Middleton - Investing & supporting startups as an OG NYC startup guy

33. Aleksandar Nikolic - Growing opportunities & revenue for enterprises out of HK

34. Greg Ohan - Creating impact through coworking and education in Vietnam

35. Chok Ooi - Builder of successful startups launching a new one to ease build with AI

36. Jeremiah Owyang - Launched the best AI community in SF/Bay Area

37. Nikola Pavesic - Leading developer experience for a Croatian unicorn from Tokyo

38. Lauren Razavi - Sharing knowledge on digital nomads & countries on the Internet

39. Javier Ruiz Jimenez - Mentor to the Malaysian startup community

40. Thorsten Schaeff - Growing a community through HackerHouses around the globe

41. Terence Tan - Raising a health & biotech community for Asian startups to scale globally.

42. Binh Tran - Investing in the next great Vietnamese startups & founders

43. Giang Trinh - Relaunched Founder Institute Vietnam to great success

44. Jordi Vallejo - Being a stellar human to help foreign founders navigate life in Taiwan

45. Daan van Rossum - Creating an amazing community for executive to learn AI

46. Axel Winter - Igniting tech innovation within Thai enterprises & startups

47. Amy Wong - Organizing great events in HK for developers & startups

48. Jovy Yu - Building a valuable app to find hidden pockets of developer talent

49. Henri Zietsman - Catalyzing startups in Sub-Saharan Africa to build and scale

50. Mark Zmarzly - Enabling better results for startups building in Australia for the globe

There is one last person I need to mention. As I used up all my fifty slots, I cannot include this individual above, but he is more in the all-time Fifty list (I can do this because I make up the rules here). This wonderful human is Dan Bravo, a long-time friend of mine since the days we worked at a sleepy downtown NYC software company. No one pushes and prods me, asks me the tough questions, or challenges my inane ideas like Dan does. We could all use more friends like that. He is also looking for a new role in 2025, so if anyone reading this has any leads on job opportunities for remote solution architect or tech sales, let me know or connect with Dan.

That’s all for 2024. Now it is time to focus on the year ahead. Thank you again for your support of this newsletter and sticking with me week after week. Cheers!

MARK BIRCH

P.S. Just to be clear, no one was asked to wire $500 to be included in this list 😂

P.P.S. OK, there are 51 people officially, but two are married doing the same thing 😉

I am heading to Silicon Valley next week to participate in the opening of the Startup Island TAIWAN Silicon Valley hub in my first work trip of the year!

Startup Island is an organization that promotes Taiwan as a startup hub, helping Taiwanese startups to go global and inviting global startups to come to Taiwan. Opening the Silicon Valley hub allows the team to support more collaborative efforts between Taiwan’s emerging startup ecosystem and the tech ecosystem in the Bay Area.

The official launch event is Tuesday, January 14th featuring a fireside chat, a startup showcase with 20 startups presenting, and plenty of networking with startup founders, tech leaders & investors. Use the following link to register.

On a personal note, it has been a while since I have visited the San Francisco area without a completely PACKED schedule, so looking forward to catching up with friends. If you are around and want to chat, I land evening Jan 12 and leave morning Jan 15. See you soon!