INVESTMENT APPROACH
Investment approach.
I invest early in digital consumer businesses in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, alongside founders who can execute and think long term. Capital is the smallest part of what I bring. The value lies in distribution, network, key hires and operating experience built over close to twenty years across three roles: building, investing and governance.
Investment thesis
I focus on four sectors I have built and operated in directly, where network and operating experience make a material difference to portfolio companies.
E-commerce and D2C
In e-commerce and D2C, the product is rarely the deciding factor. Margins are decided by distribution, operations and cash flow. I favour teams that have these three under control before they scale.
Digital media and performance marketing
This is the growth infrastructure of the digital consumer economy, the industry that sells what every business has to buy: customers. The durable advantage is not the technology, which anyone can purchase, but data, network and the ability to measure results down to each unit of spend.
Consumer internet
User scale is easy to create and easy to lose. The real value of a digital product lies in retaining users and turning their return into revenue. I assess retention before growth.
Gaming
Gaming generates cash early but product cycles are short. Good titles are not rare. Publishing capability and discipline on user acquisition cost are. I assess a studio on its ability to produce the next title, not on the title that is currently succeeding.
Geography: founders in Vietnam, or founders of Vietnamese origin expanding across Southeast Asia. Stage: pre-seed and seed with personal capital; seed to Series A through VIC Partners.
Assessment framework
Traditional financial analysis treats a company as a closed system: the metrics describe how the internal machine is running. Companies do not operate in closed systems. I add two governance-layer factors: pressure from the external environment, and the organisation's capacity to withstand it.
Two companies with comparable financial metrics can still differ materially in the durability of their results and their resilience to shocks. Three questions apply to every investment.
How substantive is the financial result?
After separating what the market delivered from what the company generated, how much is sustainable?
How much volatility can the organisation absorb?
To what point do the team and the operating structure remain stable before a break occurs?
What must change for the result to repeat?
Which adjustments at the governance layer keep today's result valid in three years, rather than for a single favourable cycle?
At the early stage I assess the founder before the company: execution, consistency between plan and numbers, and a long-term mindset. A company only scales once its founder does.
After the investment
I act as an active shareholder in a small number of companies rather than spreading capital thinly. Four things I work on directly with founders after investing:
Distribution and partners
Introductions to sales channels, platforms and commercial partners across the network built through Ecomobi, Coolmate and Funtap.
Key hires
Candidate introductions and participation in assessing the roles that decide outcomes.
The next round
Preparing materials, structuring the round and connecting with institutional investors suited to the company's stage.
Governance
Board or board-advisory involvement where needed, focused on strategy, structure and M&A.
Scope
I do not invest in companies without a Vietnam connection, in sectors outside digital consumer such as traditional manufacturing, banking, pharmaceuticals or pre-commercial technology, or in transactions that place short-term gains above long-term value.
For submissions outside this scope, I will say so and refer you to a better-suited investor where I can.
A playbook for founders
Experience from founders I have worked with over many years is being systematised into a playbook. Part of it is already published on Insights. The rest will follow on Resources.
The first step is
a deck.
No NDA required. No need for a polished deck. What I assess is real numbers and a real team.