About
Alex Miller
I've been building software products for over 25 years. I've served as CTO, Head of Product, and Chief Growth Officer at companies across Asia and beyond. I've run VC accelerator programs with 56 portfolio companies and designed training programs for global organizations like Lenovo and Volvo.
Today I focus on helping founders and CXOs revamp their organizations for AI — starting with the people they have. I train engineers, product managers, and leadership on using AI tools to ship faster and think bigger.
I'm also an active investor through Particle Alliance, and I build products like HabitCal and FlexBike.
New York Roots
I grew up in New York. Growing up in the city shaped my hustle and gave me the foundational drive to start building things early. Before I was running startups, I was just a kid in a Yankees cap swinging for the fences.
I got started programming in Visual Basic at 12, which quickly led to my first programming job at 16 in a Silicon Alley startup (thanks for the intro, Dad — I miss you).
My First Exit
When I was 13, I came into a little money from my family and I invested it all. A whole $800 in Apple stock.
A few years later, I got my first exit. I sold that stock to fund a train trip across China. That's where I met my wife and built my career, so you could say it was a good investment.
However, that stock would be worth over $10 million today.
Harvard Summer
In the summer of 2004, after my train trip to China, I studied travel writing and photography at Harvard Summer School.
It turned out to be an incredibly fun and formative experience, laying the groundwork for how I frame stories and document my travels across Asia years later.
My Time In China
As I wandered across China for the next 11 years, I met many amazing people and got many amazing opportunities. My first key opportunity was joining Oak Pacific Interactive, the company behind Renren.com.
Luckily, I had chosen to take a lower salary and more stock with that job, and I made my second exit when they raised $743 million in their NYSE IPO. It wasn't a massive one because I was employee number 800, but I learned to lead teams and build technology at scale.
I also learned what it means to have a great mentor. My boss Donna (离普庆) embedded me in our media planning team, brainstorming ad campaigns for international brands like Nike and Estée Lauder, and local ones like Haier and Nongfu Spring all day. She made me write sales decks for our 70-person sales team before ever letting me build a single product. That foundation paid off: the team I led ended up building an ad engine that served billions of daily impressions and helped drive our growth from $5M to $50M ARR in 3 years.
I also married my wife Yan around that time. Since then, I've lived and worked in a half dozen companies and advised over 60 startups from seed stage to Series A.
500 Startups
At 500 Startups, I had the privilege to learn directly from Dave McClure, the founder (now running Practical Venture Capital). AARRR is his famous framework for growth.
The fundamentals of this framework are really just about building a better product, going to market better, tracking users better, monetizing them better, and retaining them better. You haven't seen it? You gotta watch this video.
Accelerating Asia
In my time at Accelerating Asia, I trained entrepreneurs from over 60 startups, teaching them the fundamentals of company building, fundraising, management, dealing with stress and mental strain.
I've reviewed about 3,000 decks, interviewed more than 500 founders, and sat in and advised IC meetings for almost 50 investments into companies from Seoul to Dhaka.
As an advisor, I also worked with them on GTM, product, tech, and HR strategy. I tell founders I always have 8 minutes for them if they ever need me, no matter the time of day or night—though the real heavy lifting happens in our dedicated, hour-long strategy sessions every week.
25+ Years In Asia
I've lived and worked across Asia for over two decades. I've worked out of offices in New York, Austin, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Mountain View, Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Dhaka, Bali, Jakarta, Danang, Manila, Penang, KL, Bangkok and now Chiang Mai.
I speak fluent Mandarin, conversational Indonesian and Malay, and "Singlish lah". I can also successfully order a meal in Thai, Japanese, Korean, and Bengali — and, having worked intimately with founders in every country in Asia, I intimately understand the unique dynamics of building technology businesses in the region.
This experience gives me a perspective that most Western advisors don't have. I understand the markets, the cultures, and the pace at which things move in Southeast Asia and Greater China.
AI Advisor
Now I work with the best founders across Asia as an advisor, and I train their teams on AI. Building the future is no longer just about hiring more engineers; it's about augmenting the capabilities of the people you already have.
"You didn't just talk about AI, you showed how leaders can actually use it to think faster, decide better, and execute with clarity. That shift from information to real capability is what matters. This wasn't training for the sake of learning. This was capability building for scale."
Beyond Work
When I'm not building software or advising startups, you can find me practicing yoga, exploring the outdoor landscapes of Southeast Asia, or picking up new physical disciplines.
I believe in building physical and mental resilience alongside professional growth. (Oh, and I occasionally run a triathlon ad-hoc).
Languages: "I Speak Computer"
With AI we can now talk to any computer, Just like C3P0
How many languages does a protocol droid speak in Star Wars? C-3PO is fluent in over six million forms of communication. But R2-D2? He speaks computer. He plugs into the main frame, and things just start happening.
Now, with AI, we can all speak computer. If you know what to ask for, and how to command the machine, we can build incredible things.
Want to connect?
I'm always happy to chat with founders, operators, and anyone building interesting things. If you want to learn more, hit the CTA below or just run this curl command:
curl -X POST https://aimhuge.com/api/v1/leads \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"email": "your@email.com", "message": "Let's chat."}'