#848: A Russian's Real View On S'pore & What Money Can't Buy Billionaires ft. Max Chernov

**Haresh** (0:00)
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**Terence** (0:51)
Good old humor.

**Haresh** (0:53)
Good old humor, man.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:54)
Yeah.

**Haresh** (0:54)
You know, we talk a lot about issues in Singapore, international, but today we have someone who brings a very special lens.

**Terence** (1:01)
I know. And the timing is great because like, National Day is around the corner. Nobody loves Singapore more than this guy.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:07)
Nobody. I've been accused all the time.

**Haresh** (1:12)
Well, that's the best. That's a one-liner description of someone who's in front of us as a content creator, entrepreneur, YouTube legend in Singapore, Max Chernov. Welcome to Yah Lah But. Should we start with the pledge?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:28)
Let's wait until the National Day.

**Terence** (1:30)
But the context of like, loving Singapore is because you've created so much content in and around Singapore, talking to expats and all. You know, people have lovingly referred to you as like the chief expat, right? You know, I think on Daily Ketchup and all. What was your first impressions of Max Chernov when you started seeing his content?

**Haresh** (1:46)
Before I met him or after I met him?

**Terence** (1:48)
No, no, no, like before when you just started seeing his content and all.

**Haresh** (1:51)
I mean, I actually thought it was an interesting thing because it's always nice to see an external take on Singapore. So yeah, there are some people who I see at the start, I'm like, screw this guy, you were not one of those.

**Terence** (2:06)
You were not one of those.

**Haresh** (2:08)
I was like, actually this guy is making thoughtful content and all. So I felt like, and it's always nice to see a new type of YouTube format. I think for a while in Singapore, YouTube, everything started looking the same. And in this case, long-form interviews, I mean, I've always loved long-form interviews. So yeah, I thought, actually, it's kind of cool that now we are seeing more variation in the Singapore YouTube scene.
Terence, what was your cynical take?

**Terence** (2:30)
I mean, like, agent for a foreign agent, sent here to tell Singaporeans how stupid you are for not loving a country at all. But no, I mean, like him, even the way you were placing the camera and making it feel like you're sitting at the table talking to somebody and all that, I found that quite, it was quite a breath of fresh air, for real.

**Haresh** (2:53)
Yeah, shooting in hawker centers, that's always cool.

**Max Chernov** (2:56)
Yeah, that's what people say, they like the throwiness of the content. So we don't, yeah, we do it in the random places. And then, especially when I start like making show more like high level people, so it's cool to sit in some coffee shop with the like the multi-millionaire just chatting about like stuff, different stuff. So people are like, oh, this is cool.

**Haresh** (3:15)
Yeah.

**Max Chernov** (3:15)
Yeah.

**Haresh** (3:16)
But that's what everybody has come to know you for, but your first iterations of YouTube were very different, right? Because you had your channel for a while.

**Max Chernov** (3:24)
Like, yeah, maybe I upload first video maybe five years ago, five years ago.

**Haresh** (3:29)
And what was that about?

**Max Chernov** (3:31)
Actually, I had a Russian channel before, a channel in Russian, but completely different topic and format. So it was more like educational content, talking head, like expert content.
But then I was in Singapore for a couple of years already, so I wanted to start something here. And then I kind of started testing the different formats and topics and niches. So I did like street interviews in Singapore, for example, Sentosa and then Orchard Road. So I asked people about like, like how much money they make, let's say. And that was very tiring.