Meet Michael! 🙋🏻
I am a serial entrepreneur and cosmopolite, incessantly looking for ways to improve life; for myself and the people around me.I love finding my way in the world’s subway systems. 🚇
Learn more:
🧦 This Is Not Fashion
Currently, I'm looking to disrupt the most under-appreciated piece of garment. This Is Not Fashion is a brand aiming to bring back comfort, functionality, and durability to both your sock and your feet. TINF does this with the help of the eco-friendly fiber lyocell.
👷🏻 Products I've built
👽 About me
🤷 He/him
🇳🇱 Dutch national
🇸🇬 Living in Singapore
🇲🇾 With my lovely Chinese-Malaysian wife and beautiful daughter
👶 Born in 1986
🧪 Myers-Briggs E/INTJ
🏫 Formative years
Aerospace Engineer: BSc at the Delft University of Technology 🇳🇱. Philosophized on aircraft in 2050.
Linguist: BA at the University of Amsterdam 🇳🇱. Compared how the noun plural behaves in the Scandinavian languages.
Sustainable Energy Engineer: MSc at the Royal Institute of Technology 🇸🇪🇳🇴. Assessed the viability of a net-zero energy building in Gothenburg.
Process Engineer: Employed at ExxonMobil in Rotterdam 🇳🇱 and Fairfax, VA 🇺🇸. Did troubleshooting and wrote an operational guide on (lubricant) hydrocrackers.
🌏 Countries I have lived
🧐 Areas of Interest
Fintech/Payments: Big believer in account-to-account transfers and a post-credit card world 🚫💳🌏 Advocate for financial transparency, financial literacy, and financial hygiene.
Languages: Love acquiring new languages. In order of command: 🇳🇱🇺🇸🇩🇰🇸🇪🇩🇪🇪🇸🇫🇷. Current target: HSK4 in Mandarin Chinese 🇨🇳. Particularly nerdy about historical linguistics.
💆 Free time
✈️ Traveling
🥶 Scandinavia
🔤 Typography
✍🏽 Writing
🤓 Reading
🧘 Meditation
🎨 Contemporary Art
🏋️ Strength
🏃 Running
📚 Books I have recently read
🚀 Startups
Over the course of 6 years, I have (co-)founded 3 startups.The first one is Virgla, a Flipboard for fans of brands. We went through Startupbootcamp's accelerator in 2016.In 2017, with a university friend, I worked on the second: HitchFly, a last-minute flight ticket startup for students.Maesh — an online payment gateway in Singapore — is my latest and most successful. Starting out as a one-man show in 2019, I have been able to partly exit the business to Rapyd in 2021.As founder/CEO, I was fortunate to:
Raise US$75K in pre-seed funding 💰
Lead a team of 7 Maesh potatoes 🥔
Build the company to 63 active merchants and US$110K in GTV (Gross Transaction Volume) 📈
In a post-mortem article, I shared my learnings and f*ck-ups during my 2-year journey with Maesh:
I spoke about my ambitions for Maesh on the 10Fin.Tech podcast:
After Maesh, I joined Brick for 9+ months as VP of Commercial to build the financial infrastructure of Southeast Asia. I shared how I look at Open Finance here:
End of 2022, through serendipitous circumstances, I joined my brother's longevity e-commerce business For Youth. The first stint was for 6 months, the second stint was for 9 months. I spearheaded Operational, Technical, and some Strategy projects.In that first half year, we grew revenue 3.5x by churning out 3 additional products all the while improving operational efficiency. I also built our proprietary Inventory Management System from scratch.In the second ¾ year, I focused on solidifying operational excellence by improving supply chain, logistical, and customer care processes.
VC Scout at Saison Capital
End of March 2022, together with 15+ others, I started in Batch 3 as one of Saison Capital's VC Scouts.Having been a founder myself, I know what it's like to be in the throes of startup life. Fundraising is no picnic.While I won't be able to solve all of your problems...let me be your friendly neighborhood founder!Are you looking to fundraise? Do you think SEA's leading corporate venture capital arm can be that strategic partner for your startup's journey?Feel free to ping me on LinkedIn or e-mail and let's chat.P.s. Do you want to know more about what it's like to be a VC Scout (at Saison Capital)? Have a peek at the article below!
Content
Lately, I am writing short-form content on LinkedIn. But I've also penned down a couple of longer articles in the past. Plus, my friend Santiago and I had our very own podcast!
Long-form content
Or go to my Medium account to see even older stories. 😃
Podcasts
LinkedIn posts
Michael's Founder Profile
On this page, I have tried to summarize who I am as a founder.While I'm aware the perfect one doesn't exist 😉, I've also gathered my thoughts around who'd be my ideal co-founder.
🙋 Michael as Founder
🟢 Strengths
Leadership
Hands-off
No micromanagingNo bullshit
TransparencyClarityFairnessHonestyPersonally engaged in people
Vested in their successCaringInterestedOpen/vulnerable
Personal lifeStrugglesAsking for feedbackStrong communicator
VisibleAvailableResponsive
Organization
Creating structure out of nothing
Using thought patterns to solve problems
Execution
Relentless, even when I don’t feel like it
DedicatedPassionatePersistentOwnership
Creativity
Combining the verbal with the visual
Attention to detail
Comment by a fellow entrepreneur: “You are a true artist”
Product / Customer focus
Caring about their experience
UI/UXUnderstanding their needs/wants
Product ManagementWorked in the hospitality industry for 7 years
Michelin restaurant
Troubleshooting
Highly analytical
Quickly getting to the root cause of issues
Startup Expertise
Understanding all the ins and outs of starting a business
Connected with fellow entrepreneurs
SGSEANL
🔴 Weaknesses
Extrovert and Introvert
Not somebody who wants / can be “on” 100% of the time
May be shy and/or observant under circumstances
I can be too serious. I can smile / relax more often
Good sleep is very important for my mood. Poor sleep can make me grumpy
Planning and structure
Don't always plan ahead, as I like to do things on the fly
But I can also be too rigid in an effort to keep myself away from chaos
Should apply tight deadlines/schedules more to improve speed
I tend to synthesize much more bottom-up than top-down
Competitive
I tend to compare myself a lot with others and have that determine my success
I rely on praise / recognition
Areas of Responsibility Exercise
I am a true jack-of-all-trades. As a former single founder, I am familiar with all aspects of running a business. I know how to sell to customers and I have been able to setup a website, database, and cloud environment. However, out of the 3 personas Hipster, Hacker, and Hustler, I lean most towards Hipster (Product).
🤝 My perfect co-founder
My perfect business partner in crime might be you! But who are you? Although I know I might be asking for the moon, it's the only way we can make this company a moonshot 🌚🌝 You can be either of these 2 types:
1. sales and marketing guru
You are very comfortable selling to people. You love setting yourself targets and overachieving them. You enjoy prospecting and bringing a sale to a close. You might even call yourself a "hunter" 🎯
2. Strong Technical Leader
You are well-versed in development and technology. You enjoy drawing out the big-picture architecture and finding the right stack. You take pride in choosing the best tools to enforce code practice. Scalability, reliability, and maybe even security are second nature to you 💻
Other Values and Traits
Company values
The following company values might resonate with you:
Radical Transparency
Open to feedback / Humility / Willingness to learn
Loyalty / Trust / Keeping promises (not flaky)
Leadership
Meritocracy
Personality traits
You might identify with the following personality traits:
Bubbly / Cheerful
Decisive / Driven
Reflective / Self-aware
Structured
More rational than emotional
Bias for action
Interest piqued? Awesome!
Let's grab a coffee! ☕️
