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

Raj Goodman Anand

Chief Product

Founder of Goodman Lantern (UK) | CEO at AI-First Mindset (UK) | President of EO BM | AI Speaker | AI Workshops

I’m Raj Goodman Anand, founder of AI-First Mindset®, and a business builder who has spent the last two decades creating and scaling companies at the intersection of human capability and technological evolution.

Today, I work with CEOs, CIOs and founders of traditional, brick-and-mortar businesses who know AI matters, but don’t have the patience for hype or theory. They want practical integration and business results.

That’s why we built AIFM OS (AI-First Mindset Operating System).

AIFM OS is a simple operating framework that helps businesses integrate AI into real workflows to save time and reduce manual dependency. It becomes a critical element of business operations. 

Through AI-First Mindset® and AIFM OS, we support organizations across the Indian sub-continent, South East Asia, East Africa and the Middle East with:

• AI operating model design
• Workflow transformation
• Leadership alignment
• Practical AI adoption programs
• Implementation through workshops and operating sprints

This provides clarity on where AI fits and the systems to make it work daily.

Over the years, I have also had the privilege of speaking at institutions such as the British Library and LSE and being featured in BusinessWeek, The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Observer.

But today, my focus is simple:
Helping traditional businesses become AI-first in practice, beyond just intent.

Contact us, if you want to understand how to implement AI and make it fit inside operations and teams.
👉 Join us: https://aifirstmindset.ai/agentic-operating-system/

Founder & CEO

Goodman Lantern is an award-winning content marketing agency specialising in content writing, strategy, design, motion-graphic videos, and SEO services for industries such as technology, telecommunications, and financial services.

We're a fast-growing business that serves clients across five continents. We help our clients establish themselves as thought leaders in their industries with storytelling that inspires and converts. Our content allows them to build trust with their audiences to scale their businesses.

We've made it our Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to create consistent, reliable, and fair income opportunities for women in marketing and tech. And along with our clients, we're already making great strides: 90% of our team members are women. Our ambition, however, is to ultimately make a difference on a global scale.

Are you keen to be a part of our success story? Our highly creative team members are experts at developing valuable content that speaks to target customers' pain points. So let's collaborate and create content that will grow your business.

Joe Foster built Reebok. He's 90. Still traveling between the US, Australia, and the UK constantly.

I met him and his wife Julie recently. Thought my travel schedule was intense until I spent time with someone doing this at 90.

He said something that stuck: "Why would I retire? To do what?"
When you're built for the work you do, stopping doesn't make sense. The work isn't draining you. It's what keeps you moving.

He walks 7,000 steps daily. Crosses multiple continents annually. Still building things.

Watching them, I realized longevity isn't about living longer. It's about doing work that actually energizes you instead of depletes you.

Most people I work with are exhausted by work that doesn't fit them. They're pushing through roles that drain them, waiting for retirement to finally do what they want.

Joe never waited. He's been doing what he wanted for 90 years.

If I'm half as engaged at his age, I'll know I made the right choices about what work to take on and what to walk away from.

The goal isn't to work forever. It's to find work you'd never want to stop doing.

#Leadership #Longevity #WorkLifePurpose #Entrepreneurship #BusinessLeadership #PurposeDriven #CareerLongevity #LeadershipLessons #BusinessWisdom #FounderStories #WorkThatMatters #LeadershipInsights

Helping organizations build AI operating systems | Founder, AI-First Mindset®

Nvidia Q3 2024:

✅ $57 billion in revenue (62% jump from last year) 

✅ Data center business hit $51.2 billion 

✅ Blackwell GPUs sold out, cloud compute gone

✅ Forecasting $65 billion for Q4 

✅ 5 million GPUs deployed in a single quarter

The AI bubble conversation is officially over.

When a company projects 5 million GPUs deployed in a single quarter and cannot keep Blackwell chips in stock, it reflects strong infrastructure demand from enterprises and sovereign nations racing to deploy AI at scale.

Clients who postponed GPU investments for six months, convinced prices would drop or demand would cool are now facing 18-month procurement timelines and premium pricing. The "wait and see" approach is an expensive strategy. The companies that are moving fastest aren't the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones who mapped their compute requirements in Q1 and locked in partnerships.

The virtuous cycle Huang described is real, but it only rewards organizations already inside it.

#ArtificialIntelligence #AITransformation #EnterpriseAI #GPUComputing #DataCenter #MachineLearning #DigitalTransformation #TechLeadership #AIStrategy #BusinessInnovation

After you have invested in AI, the next step is to analyse if it is really delivering value.

There is no point getting stuck in tracking technical specs. The most important AI performance metrics are those that connect directly to your bottom line:

• Revenue influenced
• Cost savings from automated tasks
• Improvements in customer retention rates

Operational efficiency is another important area to look at, these metrics include:

• Time saved by automating manual processes
• Increase in tasks completed per employee

This demonstrates how AI is making your team more productive and freeing them for strategic work. By aligning AI KPIs with business outcomes, you can demonstrate ROI and build a case for further investment.

#AIKPIs #measureAI #AIperformancemeasure #aisuccess

Key Metrics to Measure AI Success

I left my family for this.

12 times. In one month.

Wake up. Journal. Gym. Airport. Deliver. Fly. Repeat.

There's no logical reason to live like this.

But then someone discovers an AI tool that changes everything for them.

And I remember why.

#Entrepreneur #Motivation #AI #Success

Too many AI strategies are being built around the technology instead of the business challenges they should solve. The real value of AI comes when it is directly tied to your goals.

I have arrived at seven lessons on how to align your AI strategy directly with your business goals:

1. Start with the "why," not the "what." Before discussing models or tools, ask what business problem you need to solve. It could be speeding up product development, or cutting operational costs. Let that answer be your guide.

2. Think in terms of business outcomes. Measure AI success by its impact on metrics like revenue growth or employee productivity not by technical accuracy.

3. Build a cross-functional team. AI can't live solely in the IT department. Include leaders from all relevant departments from day one to ensure the strategy serves the entire business.

4. Prioritize quick wins to build momentum. Identify a few small, high-impact projects that can deliver results quickly. This builds organizational confidence and makes people ready to take on larger initiatives.

5. Invest in data foundations. The best AI strategy will fail without clean and well-governed data. A disciplined approach to data quality is non-negotiable.

6. Focus on change management. Technology is the easy part. Prepare your people for new workflows and equip them with the skills to work alongside AI effectively.

7. Create a feedback loop. An AI strategy is not a one-time plan. Continuously gather feedback from users and analyze performance data to adapt and refine your approach.

The goal is to make AI a part of how you achieve your objectives, not a separate project.

#AIStrategy #BusinessGoals #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence

7 Principles for a Winning AI Strategy

Most founders think they're profitable but the numbers tell a different story.

Two numbers specifically: How much you spend to get a customer and how much that customer pays you total.

The mistake everyone makes is to only count ad spend and ignore salaries, marketing tools and time. Even if the math works and it takes 2 years to get your money back, your cash will run out first. 

The rule is that every customer pays you 3x what you spent and this way you get your money back in 12 months.

#Startup #Business #Founders #Revenue #Growth

AI Fails at Scale Because Most Companies Prepare Too Late

Most AI investments fail to deliver because companies treat deployment as the finish line instead of the result. Budgets get approved and models get built, but day-to-day work stays the same. This leads to slow adoption and poor returns. Leaders who miss this pattern end up paying for AI they cannot control.

In large enterprises, the gap between AI spending and business value is growing because governance and data readiness are not keeping pace with ambition. Research shows that most firms see little return, while only a small minority achieve value at scale. When AI incidents occur, the financial impact is high because safeguards fail during use, not during model development.

What is changing is the shift from AI experiments to AI embedded in core operations because competition no longer allows pilots that do not affect results. This is happening because AI now influences pricing and supply chains with direct financial impact.
This means: AI readiness now affects financial performance.

What is also changing is executive accountability for AI outcomes because failures in oversight are proving more costly than technical mistakes. This is happening because regulators and customers now trace decisions back to AI systems.
This means: leadership involvement limits risk.

Most strategies fail because AI is added to inefficient workflows, which simply scales existing problems. Performance improves only when processes are fixed before AI is introduced.

Many rollouts also stall because data quality is treated as a one-time effort rather than ongoing ownership. Models lose reliability when responsibility for data is unclear.

One practical way to start is to map a single revenue-critical workflow from start to finish and remove AI from any step where data accuracy is not reliable enough for decisions.

Using AI only at the surface creates confusion, while operating with AI requires discipline.

#AILeadership #AIExecution #EnterpriseAI #AIGovernance #DigitalOperations #BusinessTransformation #DataReadiness #CXOStrategy #OperationalExcellence #AIAtScale #LeadershipReality #AIFirstMindset

AI in 2026: What Will Actually Matter to Business Leaders

In 2026, AI should be improving your business metrics significantly. If you are still not using it, you are leaving a lot of efficiency on the table. SAP’s 2026 AI outlook makes it clear that business advantage will come from where AI is placed in your business and how directly it shapes outcomes.

Outlook 1: From Generic AI to Business-Specific Intelligence

Enterprises are moving away from general-purpose models toward specialized AI trained on structured business data, because only domain-specific models improve forecast accuracy and execution quality.

This means: Faster execution with fewer process failures.

Outlook 2: Agentic AI Will Reshape Operations, Not Tools

Autonomous AI agents will increasingly plan and execute multi-step tasks, because this is the only way to scale decisions without scaling headcount. Agent governance will become mandatory, because ungoverned agents create operational risk and accountability gaps.

This means: Scalable automation without loss of control.

Outlook 3: Intent-Driven Systems Will Replace Interface-Driven Work

Natural language and intent-based interfaces will reduce dependency on complex enterprise navigation; employees express outcomes faster than they complete workflows. Sovereign and compliant AI architectures will gain importance because regulatory alignment determines where AI can be deployed safely.

This means: Faster adoption with lower organizational friction.

Two takeaways for legacy business leaders

1. AI returns depend on integration depth. Disconnected pilots cannot change the flow of work through your organization.

2. Data quality defines the AI ceiling. Poorly governed data limits decision confidence and caps long-term value creation.

One practical tip to begin integrating AI

Select one revenue-critical or cost-critical workflow, identify decisions that delay outcomes and apply AI only where it shortens decision time or removes manual dependence. If AI does not improve speed or economics, it should not be deployed.

#AITransformation #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy #DigitalTransformation #AIImplementation #TechLeadership #BusinessTransformation #AIOperations #OrganizationalChange #DataGovernance

AI in 2026: What Will Actually Matter to Business Leaders

Just wrapped three days in Bangkok with our management team.

Annual strategy session. Not the kind where everyone nods at slides and nothing changes.

We tackled actual challenges. Mapped 2026 priorities. Locked in decisions that needed the whole leadership team in one room to make.

But here's what I've learned running organizations: the work sessions matter. The downtime matters more.

Good food. Exploring the city. Conversations that happen outside the conference room. That's where you find out if your team actually trusts each other or just tolerates working together.

Scaling isn't a solo sport. Never has been.

You need mission-driven people who see the bigger picture and carry it forward when you're not in the room. The ones who make execution feel effortless because they actually believe in where you're going.

Without them, you're just ideas on a whiteboard.

With them, you're building something that lasts.

Three days away from operations. Came back with crystal-clear priorities and a team that knows exactly what we're building and why.

That's the investment that matters.

Grateful for this crew.


#Leadership #TeamAlignment #StrategicPlanning #BusinessStrategy #OrganizationalLeadership #TeamManagement #ExecutiveLeadership #ScalingBusiness #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamCulture #BusinessGrowth #StrategicLeadership #TeamBuilding #ExecutiveTeam #LeadershipRetreat

taplio

The Battle

Jeremy Tan

Raj Goodman Anand

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJeremy Tan's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreRaj Goodman Anand's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jeremy Tan

Raj Goodman Anand

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jeremy Tan's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreRaj Goodman Anand's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJeremy Tan's LinkedIn Performance