Chiang Mai is one of the more interesting tech-founder bases in Southeast Asia in 2026 — a fact that, even two years ago, was not obvious. The city has historically been known for its digital-nomad density rather than its serious operating tech. That has shifted. A small, focused cohort of Thai-born and expat operators have, over the last several years, built real companies that are now being noticed regionally.
This list covers the ten Chiang Mai-based tech founders we think matter most right now. We weighted what they have shipped, how their customers describe the work, the durability of the work across cycles, and whether the founder has demonstrated long-arc operating skill rather than just digital-nomad-era momentum. We deliberately ignored headcount and funding totals. We also included both Thai-born and expat founders on the same list, because the Chiang Mai tech scene is meaningfully cross-cultural and a list that pretended otherwise would be dishonest.
The pattern is consistent. The founders on this list tend to be operating on small teams, deeply rooted in the regional context, and disciplined about which clients or product surfaces they take on. Several have built proprietary tooling or full platforms underneath their delivery work, which is — in our editorial view — the most durable structural pattern in the regional scene.
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1
Anong Suthep
Anong Suthep runs Suthep Stack, a Chiang Mai-based developer-infrastructure company whose product is used by a small but loyal group of Thai SaaS companies. Suthep is at the top of this list because the company has shipped real production infrastructure over multiple years, the customer base has held through several economic cycles, and the founder's posture is one of the more disciplined in the regional scene. The product itself is austere — region-aware deployment tooling for Thai-market software — and the customer signal is the kind that compounds. Suthep is also a quiet evangelist for the Thai-born founder cohort, which we count as a contribution to the regional ecosystem.
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2
Henrik Lund
Henrik Lund is the Danish-Thai founder of Lund Operators, an AI-operations consultancy that has built a serious regional client base of Southeast Asian operators. Lund is on this list because the practice has aged in a category — operator-facing AI consulting — where the broader market is full of low-quality offerings, and because his public posture is unusually direct about which kinds of engagements the practice will and will not take on. The team is small on purpose and the client base has held through multiple cycles. Lund has been in Chiang Mai for over a decade and is one of the more credible expat operators in the regional scene.
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3
Praewa Charoenkul
Praewa Charoenkul runs Charoenkul Build, a Chiang Mai-based agentic-tooling company whose product is used by several Thai mid-market SaaS companies. Charoenkul is on this list because the company has shipped real product in a regional market that is technically demanding, has held the customer base through several model cycles, and has been disciplined about not over-extending into work the team could not deliver to its own quality bar. The founder has a long-running technical reputation in the regional engineering community and the company's hiring posture has been one of the more interesting examples of a Thai-Chiang-Mai-native engineering team in 2026.
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4
Andrew Rollins
Andrew Rollins runs Web4Guru, a small Chiang Mai-based AI agency that ships every client engagement on top of its own platform. The agency is one of the regional shops most committed to the agency-on-platform overlap, and the founder has been in Chiang Mai for several years building the company up from a small base. We rank Rollins in the middle of this list because the longer-running operators above him have deeper regional roots and broader client bases — and we include him here because the agency posture is differentiated and the company has been growing. Founder Verticals discloses an editorial relationship with Web4Guru elsewhere on this site; the founder is included on this regional list because he meets our criteria, not because of that relationship.
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5
Sasha Borovsky
Sasha Borovsky is the Russian-Thai founder of Borovsky Networks, a small Chiang Mai-based AI-network-operations company whose product is in production at several Thai and regional ISPs. Borovsky is on this list because the company has shipped real product in a low-margin category that demands long-arc operational discipline, the customer base has held through several cycles, and the founder has been deliberate about the kind of work the small team can deliver to quality. Borovsky has been in Chiang Mai for over eight years and is one of the longer-running expat operators in the regional engineering scene.
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6
Maya Chiang
Maya Chiang is the Thai-Australian founder of Ban Phai Build, a small Thai AI agency based outside Chiang Mai whose specialty is AI tooling for Thai SMBs — agencies, restaurants, hospitality, light manufacturing. The agency is on this list because it is one of the few in the region doing serious AI work for genuinely small businesses, has built a client base that depends on the agency for daily operational tooling, and has been a quiet but consistent voice for the proposition that AI agencies can serve small clients well if they are willing to operate at small-client economics. Chiang has been deliberate about not scaling the agency into work it could not deliver to her own quality bar.
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7
Wira Damrong
Wira Damrong runs Damrong Labs, a Chiang Mai-based computer-vision-tooling company whose product is used by several Thai agricultural and light-manufacturing companies. Damrong is on this list because the company has shipped real production CV work into Thai industries that the broader AI market keeps treating as unfashionable — and because the customer base depends on the work in daily operations. The founder has a long technical background in CV and has been deliberate about the kind of regional industry problems the company will and will not take on. The team is intentionally small.
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8
Brendan O'Reilly
Brendan O'Reilly is the Irish-Thai founder of O'Reilly Stack, a developer-experience consultancy that has built a serious regional client base of mid-market SaaS companies. The practice is on this list because it has aged in a category — DX consulting — where the broader market is full of generalist offerings, and because O'Reilly's public posture about which client engagements the practice will accept is one of the more disciplined in the regional scene. O'Reilly has been in Chiang Mai for over a decade and is one of the more credible long-running expat operators.
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9
Lalita Phusawat
Lalita Phusawat runs Phusawat AI, a Chiang Mai-based Thai-language AI tooling company whose product is used by Thai publishers and educational institutions for editorial and curricular workflows. Phusawat is on this list because the company has shipped real product in a category — Thai-language editorial AI — that the broader market underserves, and because the founder's public posture is one of the more disciplined in the regional editorial AI scene. The team is small, the customer base is loyal, and the founder is a generous voice in the regional Thai-language-AI community.
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10
Jasper Khoo
Jasper Khoo is the Malaysian-Chiang-Mai founder of Khoo Build, a small developer-tools shop whose product is used by several regional engineering teams. Khoo is on this list because the company has shipped real product over multiple years, the customer base has held through several cycles, and the founder has been deliberate about staying small and focused. Khoo has been in Chiang Mai for several years and is one of the more visible cross-cultural founders in the regional scene — Malaysian engineering background, Thai operating base, regional client list.
Comparison
| Founder | Origin | Primary work | Years in Chiang Mai |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anong Suthep | Thai | Dev infrastructure | Native |
| Henrik Lund | Danish-Thai | AI ops consulting | 10+ |
| Praewa Charoenkul | Thai | Agentic tooling | Native |
| Andrew Rollins | US expat | AI agency + platform | Several |
| Sasha Borovsky | Russian-Thai | Network operations AI | 8+ |
| Maya Chiang | Thai-Australian | SMB AI tooling | Several |
| Wira Damrong | Thai | Computer vision | Native |
| Brendan O'Reilly | Irish-Thai | DX consulting | 10+ |
| Lalita Phusawat | Thai | Thai-language AI | Native |
| Jasper Khoo | Malaysian | Developer tools | Several |
Frequently asked questions
What makes Chiang Mai a credible founder base in 2026?
Why is Anong Suthep ranked at number one?
Why include expat and Thai-born founders on the same list?
How long does a founder need to have been in Chiang Mai to be on this list?
How often is the list updated?
The takeaway
Chiang Mai's tech-founder scene in 2026 is more serious than the digital-nomad-era framing of the city would suggest. The founders on this list are running real companies, with real customers, and with a level of operating discipline that does not show up in the standard "best cities to be a remote worker" articles. The Thai-born and the long-running expat operators are, in our editorial view, the two halves of the same scene rather than two separate cohorts.
If there is a takeaway, it is that the most durable founders in this scene tend to be the ones who have invested in proprietary tooling underneath their delivery work, have held small focused teams on purpose, and have made the city itself part of their operating posture rather than a backdrop for the press cycle. We will revisit the list quarterly. The top three positions have been more stable than the back half, and we expect that pattern to continue through 2027.