welcome to my corner of the internet :)

hey it's ash, i like making things

hey it's ash,
i like making things

hey it's ash,
i like making things

Sharing lessons & reflections from my adventures in business, startup and life :) Currently building Cleve.ai, a second brain for creators.

if you're a nice person and are doing cool things in life I'd love to meet you!

Try Cleve (Free) ->

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In this page

My interview with BFM 89.9 →

My fav creators →

My product recs →

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what i'm up to

what i'm up to

building cleve

Cleve is an all-in-one workspace for modern thought leaders & creators.

We're building ground-up with Generative AI at the core of the software. It's a venture-backed startup (pre-seed) which I started with 2 friends in Dec 2023.

I spend 99% of my time on this.

Try Cleve (Free) →

building whacked

I started whacked as a side hustle 4 years ago with my co-founder lizzie. It's an agency that helps CEO's and business leaders scale their personal brands & thought leadership online.

Currently we've got an amazing team continuing to build that and I support mainly with advisory related roles.

Visit whacked.co →

working out haha

Trying to get from 68kg to 75kg this year. Yeah so muscle, ideally lean mass.

Learning a lot about how muscle growth works, diet, training routines, hypertrophy v endurance.

Also hiking, badminton & running more now :)

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Podcasts and fun

Podcasts and fun

BFM

had loads of fun chatting with Richard Bradbury from BFM (a popular Malaysian Business radio station) on our early stages of building Cleve, and the product direction and stuff.

what we're building with cleve

what we're building with cleve

Honestly so excited to be on this journey. Here's a quick demo :)

Try Cleve (Free) →

what i'm learning atm / curiosities

what i'm learning atm / curiosities

I'm a generalist with a lot of odd skills in random places, who's really curious about lots of things.
(btw, feel free to use these as conversation starters so it's less awkward when we meet 🥹)

I'm a generalist with a lot of odd skills in random places, who's really curious about lots of things.

(btw, feel free to use these as conversation starters so it's less awkward when we meet 🥹)

product design / pm

How do great product designers think. What is tech capable of doing, and what are the constraints in which we can design web applications. Why are product managers so cool. Should your product go horizontal or go deep vertical. How do you identify market opportunities effectively. What makes a great product.

growth & marketing

Is retention editing phasing out of trend as people get tired from excessive stimulation. How do you scale on tiktok. How are people so creative with some ads. Why are copywriters so good at getting my attention. Can anyone become a copywriter. How do you manage attribution when it's multi-touch. How do demand gen teams quantify their effectiveness. How much of marketing can be gut feeling vs data driven.

generative ai

How are people pushing the limits of what GenAI systems can do. What are interesting ways people are orchestrating LLM's (routing, prompt self-optimisation, multi-expert structures). How do companies build . Why did Facebook open source Llama 3. Will a GPT10 AI CEO be more effective than me, provided sufficient context about the business and market. What will humans do. Why is adoption so slow, and why hasn't the world changed that much after LLM's technology.

startups & business

How do startups really create value fundamentally. What if big companies build the feature and kill the startups. How do you get your first 10, 100 customers. What problems are worth investing time in. How do you build for a market of one, but still ensure you're able to scale to 1000000

videography

Why is @lifeofriza so damn good at storytelling and videography. How does she do lighting, camera angles, music choices, design. How do you storyboard effectively, and visualise your scenes well. What makes a good story fundamentally.

science & tech

How crazy is it that we have a giant rock hovering above us, stuck orbiting perpetually. The world recently saw auroras everywhere due to a solar emission which affected satellite communications for a day. Stuff. of. movies. Was interstellar right about black holes.

sales

What makes top salespeople so good? I'm starting to get that sales is about psychology and good processes - which is kinda inspiring. Do I need charisma? How do I start conversations. Why do people seem so scary. How do you do outbound effectively without it affecting your brand too much.

music

I've always been into music, also as a generalist; tho my main instrument is piano/keyboard. Currently learning the drums, getting better at improvisation on piano & learning to play more intuitively in different keys (other than C, G, A, E). I can't sing btw, but trying to learn how to harmonise too.

philosophy & econs

How do you play the game of life. What exactly is value and how does it play out in the economy. What would a world with universal basic income be like. Why does Naval have so many good quotes.

my story

my story

The story starts on a cold, windy day in 1998, August 23rd specifically in a small town in Borneo called Kuching. Twas the night the world got an Ashvin…

the short story:
I'm an engineer who became obsessed with marketing & startups. Helped drive 5mil+ views to a Youtuber's channel, scaled a personal branding agency to 6 figures & worked with 40+ CEO's and Founders, and now studying & building a GenAI tool (Cleve) for creators and personal brands.

the (really) long story:
I loved engineering & tech. Like I'm the nerdiest kid you could imagine. Growing up, I used to design lots of random stuff around the house, solder my own electronics, was obsessed with physics, chem, bio, maths - learned everything without feeling like I had to study.

Did pretty ok as a student, 8A+1A spm, 4A* a-levels, 1st class mech engineering degree, yada yada - was kinda on track to getting a decent job in a cool mnc.

But halfway through my degree, I got curious. I always wanted to learn about how people made money & how business worked.

Joined a few student startup programs, binged a lot of y-combinator, lenny's podcast, gary vee, etc, helped my flatmate shoot some youtube videos, interned at a small agency & a startup, and realised I realllly loved this stuff.

The game of building a company seemed like a fun game to play, especially on the growth side of things. How people grow something big out of nothing.

Then came along GenAI and it felt reallly interesting.

I'm particularly interested in the creator space & thought leadership. The greatest gift the modern internet has given us is free access to the world's greatest minds, and I want to contribute to that - both personally through my writing/content, but also with the tools I build.

Anyways, I think there's always been two things in common throughout my journey - I really like creating things, and following my curiosities.

Excited for the next adventures - and hope you're a part of my next one :)

my current fav creators

my current fav creators

I'm trying to be a bit more intentional about who I follow & have in my digital circle of influence. Here's my list, lmk if you've got recs!

Lenny Rachitsky

Where I learn everything about product & growth; Lenny's podcast and Lenny's newsletter are both must-reads/watches for me.
Listen on Spotify ↗

Cleo Abram

Cleo's such a vibe. I see myself in her so much, and reallly love her energy, and she's got super interesting videos around science and tech.
Watch on Youtube ↗

Ali Abdaal

Ali was the first online person I saw who was actually really cool and nice. Before discovering his channel, I thought that you had to be like GaryVee to build a brand online.
Watch on Youtube ↗

Life of Riza

She's soooo good at making videos that just immerse you in the story; that you just can't stop watching.
Watch on Youtube ↗

Sam Altman

Interesting interviews and tweets, and perspectives on the AI space.
Watch on Youtube ↗

3 Blue 1 Brown

Cool channel to learn the fundamentals on machine learning & GenAI.
Watch on Youtube ↗

y combinator

Really inspired by their content marketing efforts - crazy. And actually good content for early stage startup advice. Highly recommend Paul Graham's lecture videos on their channel.
Watch on Youtube ↗

Cleve

:P trying to post more of Cleve's build in public process
Watch on Youtube ↗

my current fav products

my current fav products

Products are either a love or a meh for me. Here's my list of loves, lmk if you've got recs!

Arc (Browser)

tbh their marketing and fine details in their ux is so good, I can't even tell if I like the product more than chrome or i just enjoy being part of the cult. Also it's free. The affiliate link below just gives me access to nicer app icons XD
arc.net ↗ (affiliate link)

Framer (Website Builder)

by far my favourite website builder. I cannot believe how capable it is and the things I can do with it. Building websites (like this) has gotten so fun. There's a learning curve tho.
framer.com ↗

Pen and paper

I use pen and a highschool notebook for most of my design, journaling and thinking work. I think there's still something very much magical about distraction-free, plain old pen and paper. I carry it everywhere.

Cleve (Content system)

For content ideas, Cleve has totally become my second brain, and where I get drafts of my posts.
www.cleve.ai ↗

Figma (UIUX design)

I'm not sure if it needs to be on this list anymore since it's already pretty much a monopoly in the design space. But yeah. I love the product, brand and community around it too
www.figma.com ↗

Tally (Form builder)

Tally has prettty much replaced google forms for me. It's so much cleaner, faster to create, easier to integrate with additional software and prettier.
tally.so ↗

Notion calendar (Calendar)

Notion calendar is my primary calendar tool right now. I think it has a few features I quite like like the quick agenda, click to open google meet, etc. I was really inspired by Cron's (the company notion acquired for calendar) design process.
calendar.notion.so ↗ Cron's design process ↗

Notion

Notion has been the operating system of every company I've run, and it's pretty incredible.
notion.so ↗ (affiliate link)

other aspects of my life

other aspects of my life

maybe we could connect over too :P

Hiking

I like to go anywhere, more frequently Bukit Gasing now. It's one of my favourite things to do when travelling to - exploring the nature in foreign places. I do a bit of trail running too.

Houseplants

I like to sit and watch our plants all day sometimes. Watering them is my Sunday morning ritual. Recently been trying to learn more about different varieties and stuff

Journaling

I started journaling a lot more recently with pen and paper - not just about to-do's, but also writing about feelings, energy and brain clutter. I find it helps a lot :)

Music (Listening)

I listen to a bit of everything - and particularly like to listen for great, or interesting arrangements. Recent interests: K-pop - NewJeans, 80's rock, John Mayer, Folk, Harry Styles.

Music (Jamming)

I play the keyboard / piano mainly & have a bunch of band instruments at home. hmu if you're a musician/singer too! I'm not an expert btw, more of a hobby.

Mamak chats

We don't have to meet for coffee / someplace expensive. I love a good roti telur, teh tarik & mixed with good conversation. Kopitiam and mamak food is still my favourite stuff to eat.

Badminton & Squash

I enjoy playing these, looking for friends in KL to play with.

Running

My fav kind of running is where I'm able to see new places or explore the world.

Have anything you'd like to chat about?

Have anything you'd like to chat about?

Have anything you'd like to chat about?

Whatsapp me

Whatsapp me

Whatsapp me

Interested in staying in touch?

Interested in staying in touch?

Interested in staying in touch?

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© Ashvin Praveen 2024

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