Founder fears and stresses: A Long Submarine Ride

Yesterday I was on a panel sharing with Khailee, talking about founder well-being. The panel was part of a 500 startup course on startup growth and founder mindsets. Then I sat in for the afternoon session on "founder fears, anxieties, identities, attachments" facilitated by Justin from the Good Culture. This morning, I woke up to …

ChatGPT’s advice on evaluating an Angel Investor

At a recent sharing session, I was asked how to evaluate if an angel could be a good investor. It’s not the first time I was asked this, and I thought I should write up something to share. But I had been lazy… Then I thought, why don’t I ask ChatGPT to write the article …

My Angel Investment Evaluations – Step by Step

JUST HOW DO ANGELS EVALUATE STARTUPS? - an active angel with over 40 startup investments shares her process and thinking. Very early stage private investing, or more commonly known as angel investing, has gained momentum among the investment community in the past few years. However, due to the “early nature” of the potential investee firms, …

What needs to be in a pitch deck? How do you pitch?

The pitch deck is a tool to help you present and communicate to the persons sitting across the table what your business is about. Not exactly a 5min summary, but the pitch (and deck) should not be too long too. Such meetings are usually not more than 45min to maximum an hour long. You should …

Words that inspire

These are quotes or comments or statements that I come across. They inspire me at that moment and I would like to remember them. I am using this page to record these instances and will be updated as and when, then and there. I will try to attribute the source where possible. The only prison …

Gratitude

Stole this photo off Jack's facebook. It's a photo of us having dinner a few weeks ago at Dempsey. Jack and Steph were both our former staff from JobsCentral. They are now expecting a baby girl!! We asked them out for dinner to catch up + to celebrate their new milestone! Steph now is a …

VC vs Angels

Who do I fund raise with ? I thought to just share the key differences between these two distinct groups of investors, to help fund-seeking founders navigate the space better. This list is done with the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem in mind. Who are they? Venture Capitalists (VCs): The person(s) running the fund are called …

Building up business resilience during downturns

Few days back, Sequoia sent a letter to its portfolio companies advising founders on cash preservation, making swift decisions and adjustments to ensure the businesses can weather this virus downturn. The memo also reminded the startups to consider a scenario where new investments are hard and will take more time to raise. And it ended …

pause to take note

Sitting at legian cafe. After breakfast. A quick recap of past few days + what I think I am going to do starting now. Past few days: 1) kai O level graduation. It’s a milestone for him and also for DS and me. We are proud parents of a O level grad! Despite Kang being …

Gift of Failure

Read this book twice and took some notes. Here are notes / excerpts for personal reminders. "Kids who are praised for effort are more likely to have a growth mindset, the understanding that intelligence and capability can be improved with effort. "Praise for efforts: The kids who had been praised for their smarts tended to …

Cashflow is King. The importance of positive cash flow.

I was moderately surprised when Professor Warren McFarlan said at our first Accounting class at the HBS GMP program,”if there is one thing that I would like you to remember from my class, it’s that cash flow is king.” Then he showed us the short clip of Cuba Gooding dancing “Show me the money” in …