Section
Stoicism
An applied philosophy for people who still have to make decisions, treated as intellectual discipline rather than wellness.
StoicismEssay
Handed a term sheet at 40 times revenue? Price what the extra money costs before you sign.
Sophrosyne is the Stoic word for knowing how much is enough. Southeast Asia’s venture market, chasing its biggest rounds ever into its fewest companies ever, just forgot it.
StoicismEssay
Down round cutting your draw? Pay yourself a rider’s US$7.10 wage first
On voluntary discomfort, and the two weeks a Jakarta delivery founder paid herself what her lowest-paid rider earns, before her investors could set that number for her.
StoicismEssay
Nexperia’s chip ban hit every carmaker the same way, so why did only Honda lose US$969 million?
On premeditatio malorum, and the single chip that cost Honda US$969 million while two of its rivals, paying yuan into the same blocked factory, lost nothing at all.
StoicismEssay
Indonesia’s capital rule hit every P2P lender the same way, so why did twelve fold?
On the dichotomy of control, and the year Indonesia’s regulator rewrote what a Jakarta lender could charge and how much capital she needed to keep lending it.
StoicismEssay
Eighteen months into a raise budgeted for six? Zoom out to the decade.
On the view from above, and the Series A that ran eighteen months past the six she budgeted.
StoicismEssay
Cambodia’s US tariff swung from a threatened 49 percent to a negotiated 19 percent, then to a new decree entirely (twice more since).
On amor fati, and the sixteen months in which Washington rewrote the cost of shipping out of Cambodia five separate times.
StoicismEssay
Trusted the founder’s numbers? Four Jakarta venture executives went to prison for the US$25 million they never checked.
MDI Ventures and BRI Ventures, the venture arms of Indonesia’s state telecom and state bank, put US$25 million into TaniHub on numbers nobody independently checked. In June 2026, a Jakarta court convicted four of their executives for exactly that omission.
StoicismEssay
Bank froze your account with suppliers waiting? Call each one with the truth, not a promise
On apatheia, and the bank de-risking sweep that froze a Southeast Asian founder’s account mid-invoice, with three Guangzhou suppliers waiting on the money.
StoicismEssay
Got a will? A Malaysian tycoon had one, and nobody could sign in his name for 634 days
On memento mori, and the 634 days between a Malaysian tycoon’s death and the morning a court let anybody sign in his name.
StoicismEssay
Would you borrow for 20 years on a 5-year licence? Five solar firms said no, and Singapore waits.
On phronesis, and the five companies that judged Jakarta’s five-year solar export permit unfit to carry a twenty-year loan to Singapore.
StoicismEssay
Grade A warehouse rent in Ho Chi Minh City runs about US$5.30 a metre. One founder paid herself as if she already owed triple that.
On voluntary discomfort, and the warehouse lease a Ho Chi Minh City founder tested before she agreed to sign it.
StoicismEssay
Indonesia halved e-commerce platform fees. Cross-border sellers got none.
On the inner citadel, and the week Jakarta decided which e-commerce sellers count as local enough for a fifty percent discount.
StoicismEssay
Singapore fintech raised US$499 million in six months. One June round was two-thirds of it.
On the dichotomy of control, and the six months Singapore fintech spent raising US$499 million while the money went to Jakarta and Shanghai.
StoicismEssay
Courage in a down market is a speech act, and most founders spend it a quarter too late
On andreia, and the six months in which Southeast Asian founders raised less than the year before while one data-centre round made the tape look fine.
StoicismEssay
Fed hike odds went 35 to 57 percent in an afternoon. Your loan still floats.
Premeditatio malorum, applied to a floating-rate facility and a Fed chairman who will not tell you what he is going to do.
StoicismEssay
Jane Ng paid one company to learn who to build with
On amor fati, and the December a co-founder walked out.
StoicismEssay
1982 Ventures says early stage. It bought into a $5.4 billion Series B.
On sophrosyne, and the Singapore seed fund that wrote into a $400 million Series B led by DST Global.
StoicismEssay
Two days after a Cat A COE closed at S$128,501, Jardine agreed to sell Cycle & Carriage to an Indonesian petrochemical group.
On amor fati, and the S$265 million a 127-year-old Singapore car business fetched from an Indonesian petrochemical group.
StoicismEssay
Three lenders put up S$60m to buy Singapore SMEs off founders with no successor.
On dikaiosyne, and the August week three lenders priced your exit above your growth.
StoicismEssay
The Philippines’ AI hub starts digging in 2028. Your plan runs three years.
The view from above, applied to a 1,620-hectare AI zone in Tarlac and to the three-year plan you built on top of it.
StoicismEssay
Google’s SEA accelerator gives 25 founders $350,000 in credits and takes three months.
Memento mori, applied to an acceptance email: the cohort takes no equity, and the one thing it does take is the only asset you cannot raise more of.
StoicismEssay
Singapore opened 200MW to new data centres. One Batam campus contracted 450.
On apatheia, and the compute money landing across the strait from a business it is never going to touch.
StoicismEssay
Vietnam pays 12.5 percent to the US now. Malaysia pays 10.
The inner citadel, and the morning a Vietnam assembly line found out its cost advantage was a number Washington had rewritten three times in twelve months.
StoicismEssay
Absorbing Singapore’s 12.5 percent tariff keeps the customer and moves the loss onto you.
On andreia, and the phone call a Singapore founder owes an American buyer three days after MAS steepened the dollar band.
StoicismEssay
Anthropic prices what you sell at $15 a million tokens. You get no vote.
On the dichotomy of control, and the founder whose gross margin is reset each morning by a price she gets no vote in.
StoicismEssay
Kenneth Tan left DeNA and learned how much of his judgement was the job title.
On phronesis, and the month a Singapore founder found out how much of his judgement had been his job title.
StoicismEssay
The Network School lost its licence on the 21st, and moved to a new country by the 22nd
On amor fati, and the day an Iskandar Puteri council pulled the licence of the loudest build-your-own-country experiment in the region.
StoicismEssay
A Singapore consultant never asked what happens if his old clients pause.
On premeditatio malorum, and the year a Singapore consultant spent building new business without once asking what happens if the old business pauses.
StoicismEssay
The Fed held rates in June. A Singapore founder had timed her raise to a cut.
On the dichotomy of control, and the rate path you cannot vote on.
StoicismEssay
Four frontier models shipped in ten weeks. From high enough, not one of them happened.
On the view from above, and the summer four frontier models shipped while a founder built nothing.
StoicismEssay
Southeast Asian funding doubled to US$7.4 billion. One company took US$4.5 billion of it.
On voluntary discomfort, and the run rate you tighten while a boom that isn’t yours tempts you to loosen it.
StoicismEssay
Venture funding in Southeast Asia fell almost 80 percent. Keep deciding anyway.
On apatheia, and the Southeast Asian funding winter that has run long enough to become a climate.
StoicismEssay
Indonesia capped ride-hailing commission at 8 percent. Founders got no vote.
The inner citadel, and the Labour Day speech in Jakarta that repriced a founder’s business between one morning and the next.
StoicismEssay
SenseTime’s co-founder died at 55. Three more Chinese AI figures died under 50.
On memento mori, and the founders who die with the company still open on the desk.
StoicismEssay
Thinking Machines raised $2bn before shipping a product. Some rounds you refuse.
On sophrosyne, and the AI mega-round whose valuation would set your pace for you.
StoicismEssay
The WTO put 2026 trade growth at 1.9 percent. Make the cut before it makes you.
On andreia, and the cut a founder keeps postponing until a thinner second half of 2026 makes it for him.
StoicismEssay
Your whole company runs on one input. A memo can delete it by morning.
On premeditatio malorum, and the founder whose single dependency a regulator can delete with one memo overnight.
StoicismEssay
The View From Above
On the view from above, and the weekend a founder spent refreshing a status page.
StoicismEssay
The term sheet expires Friday. The macro will not be clear by then.
On phronesis, and the term sheet that expires before the facts come in.
StoicismEssay
The best month just happened since 2023 and the boom that isn’t yours
On amor fati, and the boom that isn’t yours: Singapore’s May export print, and the founder locked out of it.
StoicismEssay
What You Owe the Room You Built
On dikaiosyne, and the team you cannot afford to keep.
StoicismEssay
Seneca was the richest man in Rome. He still set aside three days a month to eat dry bread.
On voluntary discomfort, and the two weeks a Singapore founder spends paying for her own coffee.
StoicismEssay
A Singapore founder ran the AGM and the oncology ward off one calendar.
On memento mori, and the week a Singapore founder ran the AGM and the oncology ward off the same calendar.
StoicismEssay
Stockdale at Hỏa Lò.
James Stockdale spent seven and a half years in a Hanoi prison cell. The discipline he came home with has a name now. The discipline still works.