After more than two decades of investing...
I believe we’ve found the next big hidden opportunity:


Most LPs exploring venture capital funds as an investment vehicle are concerned with media sentiment.

"Capital at risk"
"Growth at all costs"
"Long-term"

The numbers don't lie. If well managed, venture investing reaps very attractive ROI versus most other alternatives.

And, you won't even need to find the next unicorn to do that.

Today, sustainable, sticky growth is the holy grail for any investment office looking for longevity with attractive returns.

Some years ago my partner, Murli, and I started Tin Men Capital in pursuit of that.

Our fund's unique focus:
- B2B and Enterprise Tech Startups
- With a strong focus in Southeast Asia
- Who are in Series A stage and beyond

Our thesis:
SouthEast Asia's legacy industries are still largely undigitised.
B2B tech in large TAM > High-gross margins > Sticky recurring revenue > Quicker pathway to profitability

We've already proven that these ideas our sound with measured results from our inaugural fund.

Family offices and institutions that work with us appreciate our ethos in running the fund:

⚙️ DISCIPLINED DEAL-SOURCING : 
Carefully scrutinising every deal for the right valuations, founder mix, and expertise. No exceptions.

⚙️ HIGH-CONVICTION: 
We only invest in a handful of teams that apply. Sounds counterintuitive, but It's seeing above-market returns with below-average failure rates.

⚙️ EXPERIENCED B2B OPERATORS AT THE HELM: 
Murli and I bring collectively more than 40 years of experience in investing and management, having sat on boards and brokered large M&As. Our thoughts have also been featured on TechInAsia, Peak Magazine, and more.

Some of our portfolio companies:

🔵 Hubble (Series B)
Resource management platform for parties in the construction value chain to track and optimise processes

🔵  Zipline (Series A)
Australia's #1 workplace management platform for the aged care and health sectors

🔵  GlobalTix (Series A)
Software and marketplace software for tourism attraction operators and travel product distributors 

We’re always on the lookout for new partners and startups to join us.

If keen to chat, shoot me a DM/email or head over to our website to drop us a line.

Jeremy Tan

What no one tells you about running a VC fund (until you find out yourself).

People who’ve founded, or started, a VC fund know this:
It doesn’t just take a good investing team to run a fund.
You need an army of professional services firms to keep the clockwork going.

Most people see the obvious work.
 - Fundraising
 - Sourcing
 - Investing
 - Exiting

But there’s so much more running behind the scenes.

+ Capital calls
+ KYC / onboarding investors
+ Periodic reports to Limited Partners
+ Regulatory filings
+ Audit

None of these are optional.
If we want a well-functioning ecosystem, we need dependable service providers who can do these at a cost structure that makes sense.

However, that’s not we see today.
Come audit season, we’re still getting questions like:

“Why are your startups burning cash?”
“Can I have a DCF model for your investment?”

Audits are important. They’re a third-party opinion on how we value the portfolio.

But many auditors here are still (stubbornly?) looking at VC portfolios with a mature company lens.
And the pricing often follows: ~US$2k per year per company for a fair market valuation.

For VC funds (typically smaller than PE funds), that adds up fast and eats painfully into net returns.

It’s not sustainable. 
We’re in severe need of a step change in approach.

One bright spot for us has been working with good folks like those at Carta. (this is not a sponsored post 😅)

They’ve taken a tech-enabled approach to an archaic part of fund admin.

🔺 Capital call calculations done faster, with fewer errors.
🔺 Financial details available online, with enough granularity.
🔺 Onboarding, KYC, subscriptions, all in one platform.

To be clear, they’re not perfect.
Beyond the tech, the people we interface with…
They listen. They hear the pain points. 
And they keep iterating.

Eventually, investors should be able to access investment-level financials seamlessly, straight from source data.

If SEA wants a world-class VC ecosystem, the services layer around fund management, legal, accounting etc. has to keep evolving.

As it is right now, there is much room for improvement. 

For an aspiring financial hub of Southeast Asia, I don’t think this is too much to ask.

PS. If you know good individuals who are bright spots in the services layer of tech in SEA, do tag them in the comment section for visibility.

Backing brilliant B2B founders 🦓 in Southeast Asia | Co-founder at Tin Men Capital | Linkedin Top Voice

The Growth Project

TheGrowthProject is an end-to-end HR consultancy that helps company leaders grow through optimising their HR strategies and operations with our People-led Growth framework.

We help SMEs:
- Devise strategies to get the best out of their existing workforce
- Measure performance of teams to make leaps in progress without supervision
- Create processes so they eventually can step away from the day-to-day
- Breakthrough growth that has been stalled by 'People Problems'
- Retain their best talent and build lasting culture and loyalty

We believe every firm can only grow if their best talent are aligned and put to work.

We've helped multiple companies diagnose HR challenges and systematically fix them to bring peace of mind and P&L growth.

Founder

Payboy Pte. Ltd.

Founded in April 2016, Payboy took a fun, unique spin to HR management software in Singapore. 

With a core focus on user experience and compliance, we built the most user-friendly payroll software used by >1,000 companies today like Carro, Vulcan Post, Mothership, Gushcloud, Subway, Furama and more. Our software saves managers and owners hours every month with a one-stop dashboard for all reporting and compliance requirements in HR.

I lead the overall direction and strategy for our product and growth.

Find out more at https://payboy.biz

Chief Executive Officer

Co Founder

I knew nothing about managing people when I first started.

Leaving my business stuck and floundering. I’m not alone on this...

Things only changed once I discovered this:
🟦 The #1 reason why businesses struggle to grow is because of People.

↳Not having the right talent.
↳Not paying them enough or overpaying them.
↳Not having an HR structure for less reliance on the owner.
↳Not having a strategy to get the best out of them.

I’ve dedicated the next leg of my career to help CEOs/GMs leverage their best resource: 
Your Company’s People.

We call it People-led Growth.

When applied right, you’ll:

✅ Attract the best talent and keep them for the long-term
✅ Identify areas truly holding you back from growing and fix them
✅ Know that your team is doing the right work to get the right results
✅ Build a business that runs on its own with plans for succession
✅ Finally uncap your business’s growth potential

No more:

❌ Feeling like you’re the only one pulling all the weight
❌ Constantly hitting roadblocks because you’re understaffed
❌ Frustration from having hires leave, wasting more time to train someone new

And experience results like:
- SME CEO losing clients and staff after restructuring → Grew topline by 6-figs
- 15 pax agency facing staff crunch → +$200k new business

If you want to take the business from 12-20 people to 50-100, 
From a million in revenue to five,
You’ll need all hands on deck.

🟦 OUR PEOPLE-LED SERVICES:

1. Talent Attraction & Recruitment

Build magnetic employer brands so your talent pipeline’s always full. Get clear on the exact role you need to fill to grow exponentially and how to avoid over-paying.

2. HR/People Strategy & Consulting

We become your HR partner and collaborate to build structures, systems and strategies that propel your company into sustainable growth for the next 5-10 years.

3. Payroll Management & Operational Optimisation

Focus on your business while our team handles your monthly payroll operations and shapes systems and policies reclaiming your time. We use our own proprietary software used by >1,000 businesses.

🟦 It’s something I wish for all business owners:
Peace of mind that you have the right people on the job to take the company to the next level. 
And, to eventually step away.

🟦 My background:
Singaporean born and bred. HR entrepreneur for close to a decade. Started a payroll software company (Payboy) and transitioned into HR consulting for growing SMBs. New dad to a cute little daughter.

I’m always looking to connect with interesting folks in the region.

Drop me a DM here or just hit Connect!

taplio

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Nigel Lim 🚀

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