What Doesn't Kill You (And What Just Might)

Cheatsheet is a bite-sized companion podcast to WDKY where we get straight to the point and reveal actionable tips and best practices that can help your company cheat death.

We know that investors evaluate startups all the time. In this episode of Cheatsheet, my guest Jeremy Tan and I tell you how founders should evaluate prospective investors – and why.

Jeremy Tan and Murli Ravi of Tin Men Capital

Jeremy, my friend and co-founder at Tin Men Capital, is a corporate finance expert. He has been a sell-side banker, a buy-side investor at some of the world’s largest financial institutions, an angel investor and now a venture capitalist. Jeremy has worked on multibillion-dollar IPOs and M&A deals in the US and Asia, as well as raised capital for high growth startups.

Resources

Jeremy's profile: Linkedin

Questions? Criticism? Beer recommendations? Send them to [email protected]

As a newly minted graduate during the dot com boom, Huang Shao Ning co-founded the jobs portal, JobsCentral, with her husband Lim Der Shing. After several years running the company, CareerBuilder approached them with an offer to buy the business, giving Shao Ning and her team a well-deserved exit. Shao Ning is now an angel investor and mentor to fellow entrepreneurs at her angel club called AngelCentral.

Resources

Shao Ning's profile: LinkedIn

Shao Ning's book recommendation: The Second Decision by Randy Nelson

Episode transcript: Download

Shao Ning's chosen charity: Shao Ning supports a number of charities. Two she mentioned on the show are the Singapore Children's Society and the Association for Persons with Special Needs. Please join Shao Ning in donating to these charities if you are able to. Alternatively, listeners may like to join Murli in donating to the UN’s World Food Programme (winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize), which does important work distributing food to approximately 100 million hungry poor around the world.

Questions? Criticism? Beer recommendations? Send them to [email protected]

Tan Teik Guan is a hardcore computer scientist. After earning a degree in computer science at the National University of Singapore, he worked in IT Security at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, before being bitten by the startup bug. He then became the CEO and CTO of the security software startup DS3 for about a decade. Teik Guan led the sale of DS3 to the security multinational Gemalto and continued there for three years in VP roles. But this success came only after two earlier failed startups - a mobile payments company and a B2B fintech startup. In recent years, he has been mentoring a number of tech startups while pursuing a PhD in quantum cryptography.

Teik Guan may be in academia now but one could never mistake him for an ivory-tower theoretician – he is a "doer" by temperament. Listen to this episode to learn why everyone can benefit from being an entrepreneur at some point in their lives.

Resources

Teik Guan’s profile: LinkedIn

Episode transcript: Download

Teik Guan's chosen charity: Teik Guan is a volunteer, committee member and donor of the Association for Persons with Special Needs. He encourages others to get involved with the APSN. Alternatively, listeners may like to join Murli in donating to the UN’s World Food Programme (winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize), which does important work distributing food to approximately 100 million hungry poor around the world.

Questions? Criticism? Beer recommendations? Send them to [email protected]

An accountant by training, Chris Collins is an entrepreneur not in the traditional sense of the word. In fact, hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, he was the black sheep -- he spent several years in corporate finance and M&A advisory at PWC. But perhaps DNA is destiny. In 2016, he was recruited by one of his clients, tech-for-logistics company Containerchain. From that, there was no looking back; starting as Chief Strategy Officer, Chris then took on the COO role and eventually became CEO. He eventually led Containerchain through its sale to WiseTech Global, an ASX-listed software group. Learn from Chris why one does not have to be a founder to have a founder mindset.

Resources

Chris's profile: LinkedIn

Chris's book recommendation: Tribes by Seth Godin

Chris's plug: Souszen by Xinova

Episode transcript: Download

Chris's chosen charity: Chris has been donating to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation in Singapore for many years and encourages others to do so too. Alternatively, listeners may like to join Murli in donating to the UN's World Food Programme (winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize), which does important work distributing food to approximately 100 million hungry poor around the world.

Questions? Criticism? Beer recommendations? Send them to [email protected]

If there’s anyone who knows how to start companies, it’s serial entrepreneur Ben Tan, co-founder of Tin Men Capital. Ben started his first internet company in 1995 while still in university, and got hooked. In all, he’s started and sold three companies, incubated many more, and been an angel investor in others. Take away tips from the 26-year veteran for startup success: from how to prioritise, pitching the right pitch, to thinking about life before taking the big leap.

Resources

The Emotional Journey of Creating Anything Great

Ben's profile: LinkedIn

Episode transcript: Download

Ben's chosen charity: Ben recommends making donations in cash and kind to needy people one knows personally. Alternatively, listeners may want to join Murli in donating to the UN's World Food Programme (winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize), which does important work distributing food to approximately 100 million hungry poor around the world.

Questions? Criticism? Beer recommendations? Send them to [email protected]