An Asian Entrepreneurship Programme.
Calibrated to Your City. Built for Every Stage.
Founders of Asia is the only entrepreneurship programme built city-by-city — Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City. For Asian MBAs and recent graduates, family-business heirs, returning diaspora, corporate intrapreneurs running internal ventures, and serious operators building independently. Open cohorts and closed institutional programmes. 90% local. Built around the analytical depth of Oxford and twenty-eight years of mentorship across seven Asian markets.
Four Gaps in Every Asian Founder Cohort. Closeable.
Asian entrepreneurs — at every stage, from MBA students to senior corporate intrapreneurs to family-business heirs — are increasingly building venture-scale, globally competitive businesses. The frameworks they are using to do it are calibrated for elsewhere. Four gaps recur in every cohort we run.
The Western Playbook Problem
Lean Startup, YC essays, the MBA-curriculum founder frameworks — calibrated for a specific founder context that does not transfer to Asian markets. Network density, capital availability, cultural permission to fail, family dynamics — all shift. The frameworks are not wrong. They are not yours.
The Local Capital Map Is Not in the Books
The family-office regime in Hong Kong. The ONE Pass transition in Singapore. The CVC ecosystem in Tokyo. The Greater Bay Area integration. The actual capital and regulatory map of your city changes every year — and the books are written three years late, by people who do not operate here.
The Network Density Illusion
Most founder programmes treat network as a count. In Asian markets it is a depth- and-access measure: can you make five consequential calls within forty- eight hours, to people who will advocate for you, not just take the meeting? The honest answer is the diagnostic — and the gap is the work.
The Family-and-Lifestyle Reckoning
The conversation most founders skip is the one that derails the most ventures. In Asian contexts, family is a multi-generational system, not a unit. The alignment work has to happen before the venture, not around it — and it has to include parents, in-laws, and the failure case.
Most Asian founders I have mentored across twenty-eight years are not held back by their ideas or their work ethic. They are held back by playbooks built for other places, capital maps three years out of date, and family conversations they have not yet had. The work this programme does is operational — and once you have done it, the ventures compound differently.
Ten Modules. One Capstone.
Calibrated to Your City.
A coherent progression from founder readiness through venture architecture to exit pathway. The same ten modules across every city cohort — with local case material, local capital and regulatory specificity, and local faculty supplements for each of the six cities.
Founder Readiness — The Foundation
The honest analytical work that has to be done before commitment. Five-dimension readiness audit; four founder profiles in your city’s context; integration decision.
Venture Selection & Market Fit
Mapping readiness pattern to credible venture archetypes. Local cases of ventures that fit and ventures that fight the founder’s actual position.
Co-founders, Teams & Equity
Founder pairing in your city’s talent market. Equity architecture for cross-border teams. Senior hires under capital constraint and visa reality.
Capital & Cap Tables
Your city’s capital ecosystem mapped: family offices, regional VCs, corporate VCs, government schemes. Term-sheet realities in 2026.
Customer & Product Validation
Validation in your city’s B2B and B2C contexts. The introductions that produce genuine signal versus those that produce noise.
Operating Models for Your City
Holdco/opco architectures specific to your home market. Hybrid teams across cost-arbitraged geographies. Treasury, banking, payroll under cross-border constraint.
The Six-Markets Reference
Where your city sits within the wider Asian competitive context. The Six-Markets Framework as comparative reference — used when the venture’s reach extends beyond home.
Cross-Border Strategy
Greater Bay Area, ASEAN integration, China-plus-one supply chains, diaspora-network-mediated market entry. Architectures that compound regional position.
Governance & Compliance
Boards, advisors, family-office constraints. Your city’s regulatory navigation as ongoing operational practice — not one-time setup.
Exit Pathways
HKEX, SGX, NASDAQ, dual-listing structures. Strategic acquisition by Asian and global corporates. Timing the exit window from your city’s vantage.
The Capstone — Venture Proposition Panel
Each cohort participant presents a venture proposition to a panel of three practising investors — a structured assessment of strategy, architecture, and founder readiness against defined criteria. The integration of everything the programme has built.
Why Sigma. Why This Programme.
Every accelerator has a founder offer. These are the specific reasons the Founders of Asia programme produces what most do not.
City-Specific, Not Asia-Generic
The Hong Kong cohort runs on Hong Kong cases, Hong Kong capital ecosystem, Hong Kong family-office regime, Hong Kong-Shenzhen architecture. Same for the other five cities. Calibration is structural — not cosmetic.
Field-Built, Not Desk-Built
Every framework was developed in the room — in boardrooms in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur. Twenty-eight years of mentorship history, not a research synthesis.
Cohort-Anchored, Locally Dense
Every open cohort is 90% local. Twenty-seven of thirty founders from the host city. The remaining ten percent are regional founders or returning diaspora — calibrated to add value, not dilute the local register. Your peers are your peers.
Cases Over Lectures
The programme is taught through cases — composite founder situations, working sessions, peer-dialogue exercises. Six city-specific cases per cohort, plus cross-cutting Sigma simulations. Frameworks are taught through application.
The Mentorship Layer
Every participant is matched with a senior practitioner — typically twenty-plus years operating in your sector and city — for the duration of the programme and six months following. The frameworks compound through the access.
The Oxford Pathway
Top cohort participants are invited to the Sigma Oxford Pathway — a residential programme at Hertford College, University of Oxford, applying the frameworks in cross-cultural cohorts drawn from Sigma’s full Asian network.
Seven Frameworks.
Developed Across Asia. Owned by Sigma.
Every framework in the Founders of Asia programme is proprietary — developed through direct mentorship of Asian founders across twenty-eight years.
The Five-Dimension Readiness Audit
Capital, network, expertise, lifestyle, resilience. The personal due diligence founders skip — and the cost of skipping it. Calibrated for Asian-context realities.
The Four Founder Profiles
Asian MBA, Family-Business Heir, Corporate Defector / Intrapreneur, Returning Diaspora. Distinctive strengths, distinctive blind spots, distinctive failure modes.
The Five-Call Test
The network-readiness diagnostic. Five consequential conversations, five names, forty-eight hours — and the depth, relevance, and renewability overlay.
The Pattern-to-Architecture Map
Five mappings from readiness pattern to credible venture archetype. High capital + low network → slow-burn product. Low capital + high network → velocity fundraising. And three more.
The Four-Signal Decision Framework
Capital sufficiency, network density, sector window, personal window. Green-yellow-red — and the integration that produces a defensible start-now / defer / build-deliberately decision.
The Six-Markets Framework
Comparative reference for the wider Asian competitive landscape. Thirteen operational dimensions across six markets, refreshed annually. Used when the venture’s reach extends beyond home.
The Capstone Assessment Architecture
Three readiness questions, five framework applications, three investor-panel criteria. The integration of every prior module into a defensible venture proposition.
Six Cases. Six Cities. Specific Founder Dilemmas.
Founders of Asia is taught through cases — composite founder situations drawn from twenty-eight years of mentorship history, calibrated to each city. Each cohort works through six city-specific cases plus cross-cutting Sigma simulations. Frameworks are taught through application, not lecture.
The Sai Ying Pun Fund
A third-generation Hong Kong family office offers HK$30M with conditions: a board seat for a family member and right of first refusal on Series B. Accept, negotiate, or walk?
The Tanjong Pagar Pivot
Fifteen months in. Traction but no Series A. The MAS regulatory window is closing on the founder’s category. Three pivot options. Which one?
The Shibuya Accord
A returning diaspora founder offered keiretsu distribution at standard CVC terms. Strategic asset or strategic capture? The Module 8 cross-border decision in compressed form.
The Pudong Bridge
A Shanghai-based founder building for Greater China. VIE structure under regulatory scrutiny. HK holdco available. Eighteen-month decision window.
The KLCC Question
A Malaysian founder at MSC tech status. Singapore looks attractive at scale. What are the structural reasons not to leave? The case the cohort argues both sides of.
The Bến Thành Brief
HCMC manufacturing scale decision. Compliance pathway tightening. Cost arbitrage with Singapore holding available. Compound the architecture or simplify the structure?
Plus the Sigma Simulation Library
Founders of Asia integrates the wider Sigma simulation catalogue. The Niigata Accord — Sigma’s signature Stag Hunt negotiation simulation used in Oxford teaching — applies in Module 8 (Cross-Border Strategy). The Capstone Investor Panel is the Module 11 integration simulation. Cohort-specific cases are refreshed annually based on each market’s current capital, regulatory, and exit-environment realities.
Built for Founders at Every Stage. Open Cohorts and Closed Institutional Programmes.
Five Founder Profiles
The Founders of Asia framework recognises five distinct starting positions. Most founders are hybrid; the dominant profile is what calibrates the readiness work and venture-architecture decisions.
Asian MBA & Recent Graduate
For founders within five to seven years of an MBA or strong undergraduate degree — including young hopefuls and aspiring founders at the early stage of venture exploration. The programme sharpens analytical depth into operational intuition.
Family-Business Heir
For founders building independently of, alongside, or as a generational evolution of an established family business. The programme treats the heir profile as a structural starting position with distinctive strengths and blind spots.
Corporate Defector
For senior operators leaving multinationals or large Asian corporates to start independent ventures. The programme handles the corporate-to-founder identity transition operationally.
Corporate Intrapreneur
For founders running ventures inside large institutions — bank employees on internal fintech teams, corporate innovation leads, intrapreneurship cohort members. Calibrated for venture-building under institutional constraint.
Returning Diaspora
For founders returning to Asia after extended time in North America, the UK, or Europe. The programme addresses cultural recalibration explicitly and treats bicultural fluency as a structural asset.
Hybrid Profiles
Most founders are combinations — a returning diaspora founder who is also a corporate defector; a family-business heir who is also an MBA graduate. The programme is designed for hybrid identification.
Two Delivery Modes
Founders of Asia is delivered in two contexts. Open cohorts are filled by individual application from across the host city. Closed institutional cohorts are delivered for a single sponsoring organisation — calibrated, on-site, and confidential.
Individual Application by City
The default offering. Approximately thirty founders per city per cohort, 90% local. Selected through individual application and a conversation with Sigma faculty. Cohorts run on the city’s own calendar.
- Six city cohorts: HK, SG, Tokyo, Shanghai, KL, HCMC
- Approximately 30 founders per cohort
- 90% local · 10% regional or returning diaspora
- Selected by application + faculty interview
- Ten modules + capstone over the cohort window
- Mentor matching for each participant
Delivered for Your Organisation
Founders of Asia delivered as a closed cohort for a single sponsoring institution — Cyberport, HKSTP, an investment bank’s intrapreneurship programme, a corporate accelerator, or a government-backed venture initiative. Calibrated to the institution’s specific founder population and strategic context.
- Cyberport / HKSTP / SGX-aligned ventures / corporate accelerators
- Bank intrapreneurship programmes (internal fintech, payments, wealth)
- Government innovation cohorts and sovereign-backed venture programmes
- Family-office in-house entrepreneurship development
- Customised cohort size, schedule, and case library
- Confidential delivery; outcomes shared only with sponsor
Six Cities. Six Cohorts.
One Methodology. Local Throughout.
Each Founders of Asia cohort is anchored to a specific Asian city. The cohort is 90% local — approximately twenty-seven of thirty founders from the host city, with the remaining ten percent regional founders, returning diaspora, or international founders preparing to base in the city.
All six city cohorts launch together as the 2026 inaugural cohort. Application is by city; participants apply to the cohort that matches their home market and venture context.
Hong Kong
Family-office concentration capital. The natural HKEX listing route for Greater China-positioned ventures. The legal-tax wrapper for Greater Bay Area integration.
Singapore
The structural answer for Southeast Asian gravitational centre, US-VC alignment, or wealth-management positioning. ONE Pass transition under way.
Tokyo
The deepest capital pool in Asia. The strongest IP regime. Distinctive go-to-market dynamics. Post-2024 startup visa reform reshaping the foreign-founder reality.
Shanghai
The world’s deepest engineering and manufacturing talent pool. WFOE versus VIE architecture. Post-correction VC ecosystem. Cross-border pathways through HK.
Kuala Lumpur
The most under-rated market in the framework. Strong foreign-ownership rules, MSC tech status, founder lifestyle competitive with the region’s best.
Ho Chi Minh City
The fastest-growing Southeast Asian market. The dominant cost-arbitrage destination for hybrid operating teams. Cross-border architectures with Singapore.
Beyond the Programme. Oxford.
Top cohort participants from each Founders of Asia cohort are invited to the Sigma Oxford Pathway — a residential programme at Hertford College, University of Oxford.
Brendan McMahon is Visiting Lecturer at Hertford College, International Programme, Oxford University. The Oxford programme extends the Founders of Asia frameworks into a residential setting with access to Oxford’s entrepreneurship and finance academic community, governance and AI masterclasses, and a cohort drawn from across Sigma’s Asian network.
The Oxford Pathway is designed as the senior capstone for founders who have completed their city cohort and are ready to apply the frameworks in a high-challenge, cross-cultural academic environment alongside founders from the other Asian markets.
The Hertford College Residential
- Three-day intensive residential at one of Oxford University’s historic colleges
- Cross-Asian cohort drawn from HK, SG, Tokyo, Shanghai, KL, and HCMC networks
- Access to Oxford’s entrepreneurship and finance academic community
- Sigma’s signature governance and negotiation simulations
- The Niigata Accord — Sigma’s Stag Hunt simulation used in Oxford teaching
- Sigma Oxford alumni network access
- Certificate of completion — Hertford College, University of Oxford
What Cohort Founders Leave With.
Most founder programmes promise transformation. Founders of Asia produces specific, observable, defensible outputs from each module — measurable from week one.
| Output | Before the Programme | After the Programme |
|---|---|---|
| Founder Readiness Score across five dimensions | Implicit, often dishonest | Defensible to a credible mentor |
| Pattern-to-venture-architecture mapping | Aspiration-led venture choice | Readiness-led venture choice |
| Five-call test for the specific venture | LinkedIn-count thinking | Five named introductions, deep, renewable |
| Local capital ecosystem map | Generic VC list | Family offices, regional VCs, government schemes specifically named and ranked |
| Cross-border architecture decision | Single-market default | HK-Shenzhen, SG-Vietnam, or city-specific architecture chosen and justified |
| Family alignment — including failure case | Conversation deferred or skipped | Explicit conversation completed; spouse/partner aligned on failure case |
| Capstone venture proposition | Pitch deck | Defensible to three-investor panel against five framework criteria |
| Mentor relationship | Aspirational | Matched senior practitioner — six months post-programme minimum |
Six Cities. One Programme. No Generic Application.
Every cohort is delivered with a city-specific overlay. Cases, capital map, regulatory environment, and cultural register all change. The frameworks stay the same.
Hong Kong
Family-office concentration · HKEX 18A/18C exit · GBA gateway · TTPS & QMAS visa pathways
Singapore
SEA gravitational centre · Tech.Pass→ONE Pass transition · MAS regulatory regime · 17% CIT with SUTE
Tokyo
Deep capital pool · CVC ecosystem · Post-2024 startup visa reform · Strong IP regime
Shanghai
Engineering depth · WFOE/VIE architecture · Post-correction VC ecosystem · HK gateway pathways
Kuala Lumpur
MSC tech status · Strong foreign-ownership rules · Lifestyle competitive · Bahasa support
Ho Chi Minh City
Fastest-growing SEA market · Cost arbitrage with Singapore · Hierarchy-navigation reality
The Credentials Behind the Frameworks.
Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Every framework was built from direct mentorship in these markets — not from published research about them.
Founders of Asia compounds with the wider Sigma curriculum — SM-DTL-01 (Digital Transformation Leadership), SM-LAC-01 (Leading Across Cultures), SM-NEG-01 (Negotiation), and twenty-plus programmes in the Atrium. One vocabulary. One framework architecture.
Brendan McMahon is Visiting Lecturer Hertford College, International Programme, Oxford University. The Sigma frameworks are used in Oxford teaching. The Oxford Pathway brings Asian founders into the University environment for the cross-cultural capstone.
Six Cities Launching Together. Inaugural Cohorts 2026.
Register your interest to access the Founders of Asia programme preview — full curriculum, sample frameworks, city-cohort details, and Oxford Pathway access. Open cohorts and closed institutional programmes both available. All six city cohorts launching across 2026.
