"I just want to build a company like Google. That was very naive. But that was my passion."

Google engineer turned founder Sega Cheng on what happens when you leave the Valley to build an AI startup in Asia — and why the hardest part of the journey was not learning new skills but unlearning the DNA of deterministic code to lead with probabilistic uncertainty.

Based in Taiwan, Sega spent six years at Google (Mountain View and Taiwan) working on Android before co-founding iKala in 2012. Fourteen years later, iKala serves over 1,000 enterprises across Asia-Pacific with AI adoption platforms and operates Kolr, the world's largest influencer marketing platform with data on 300 million creators. From cloud infrastructure to AI-powered marketing, Sega has navigated multiple pivots, five funding rounds, and the reality that building a team in Asia with Silicon Valley speed requires finding traits most education systems do not cultivate: adaptability, bottom-up initiative, and tolerance for shipping imperfect products.

In this episode:

Why the Valley-Asia gap is not about technology, but about digital transformation readiness — and how that gap created iKala's first business model
The hidden cost of technical founder → CEO transition: from writing code to allocating resources, from deterministic logic to probabilistic leadership
How to hire for adaptability in top-down cultures: why CVs are now useless, what open questions reveal, and why Sega listens more than he talks in interviews

If you are a technical founder navigating the shift to CEO, building teams across Asia-Pacific markets, or trying to balance Silicon Valley speed with local talent realities, this conversation will reshape how you think about leadership, hiring, and what it takes to scale a startup when systems break at borders.

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If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners to set up a consultation.

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Produced by Bonjour Podcast (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

14. From Coder to CEO: AI Startups, Cross-Generational Leadership, and Building in Asia with Sega Cheng

Leaders in Motion - How Global Executives Reinvent Leadership in the Age of AI and Market Disruption

14. From Coder to CEO: AI Startups, Cross-Generational Leadership, and Building in Asia with Sega Cheng