Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition

Heard about baby boomers selling their businesses and feel curious to find out more?

​Know that you are meant for more?

​​​Wish to run a business but don't think that building from scratch is really for you?

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​In this masterclass, discover how you can become a CEO or business owner in our Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) class. It offers a path to business ownership by acquiring and managing an existing company, rather than starting from scratch.

​This will help you understand how to seek potential companies to acquire, based on your goals, evaluate the prospective businesses and network with several successful entrepreneurs :) And potentially become the CEO you could be.

​This isn’t just another course. It’s a comprehensive year long program designed to kickstart your personal journey, and get you started, together with like-minded others who are also beginning their startup journey.

​Since our last two masterclasses, we are excited to share the following achievements/ features:

• ​The Business Times - https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/singapore/smes/new-wave-sme-buyers-mining-diamonds-rough-singapore-asean
• ​One of our participants have acquired a SME!
• ​Search Fund News - https://searchfundsnews.com/interview-zachary-lee-eric-koh-founders-of-gen-capital-partners

​Join us for our third ASN Masterclass (ETA Edition), in collaboration with Gen Capital Partners, a search fund!

​Program Highlights

• ​Pre-masterclass learning: 6 days of Self-paced materials introducing essential startup concepts to fast-track your progress.
• ​In-person masterclass on ​Feb 28, 10am- 5pm

​Here's what you’ll gain:

​1. Engaging & Interactive masterclass experience taught by experts

​​2. Solid Conceptual Foundation and Practical Frameworks for SME Acquisition

​✅ Our masterclass teaches how to identify, evaluate, and acquire small businesses using proven search frameworks.

​✅ ​Covers everything from industry hunting grounds to seller psychology, with actionable tips.

​3. Real-Life Application and Teamwork

​✅ ​Participants work in groups to create acquisition strategies, identify targets, and pitch to facilitators.

​​✅ Facilitator feedback offers valuable real-time insights and coaching.

​4. Tactical Execution Training

​​✅ Covers advanced topics like:

​​✅ Financial screening & business valuation

​​✅ Industry analysis & competitive positioning

​✅ ​Seller readiness & trust-building

​​✅ Funding prep & investor communication

​5. SEA-Relevant, Results-Oriented

​​✅ Tailored to Southeast Asia’s business landscape and acquisition opportunities.

​​✅ Equips professionals with practical, immediately applicable strategies to enter entrepreneurship through acquisition confidently.

​​✅ Post-masterclass support

• ​Stay connected with a supportive network via groupchat, get tips and recommendations for services and products you need when starting your business (legal, incorporation etc)

• ​Regular meet ups with like minded we make sure you keep going - organised specially for our participants to discuss challenges and small/big wins
• ​Monthly events such as pitching events, panels and fireside chats with investors and entrepreneurs to continue learning and growing.

• ​Personalised mentorship (Optional)

​Investment in Your Future - choose from the following options:

• ​S$650 (7 days self paced learning +1 day masterclass)

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Why Now?

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Entrepreneurship doesn’t wait for the “perfect time.” If you’ve been searching for a sign, this is it. Gain clarity, confidence, and a concrete plan to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

​Spots are limited, so act fast! Sign up here and join a growing ecosystem of aspiring founders who are turning their ideas into thriving businesses.

​Don’t let another year pass you by. Take charge, take action, and make 2026 the year you finally bring your dream business to life!

Speaker: Eric Koh | Co-Founder & CEO, Gen Cap

​A seasoned operational leader with 10 years as COO across multiple high-growth startups in Web3, SaaS, adtech, and payment infrastructure. Eric's achievements include transforming a struggling business from -80% to +30% profit margins and successfully raising over US$10M in funding from Seed to Pre-Series B rounds.

​At GenCap, Eric leverages his experience acquiring and operating Southeast Asian SMEs to preserve and scale lifelong business legacies. His versatility shines through his experience as a fractional COO across diverse sectors including corporate secretarial firms, AI-based startups, IT management ventures, angel syndicates, and biomedical device companies. Having led a startup to successful acquisition by a European multinational corporation, he has built and managed diverse teams of 50+ professionals spanning eight countries throughout Southeast Asia.

​With an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business & Technology and a Bachelor of Engineering from the National University of Singapore (where he studied as an ASEAN Scholar), Eric combines practical operational expertise with strategic vision to help SMEs reach their full potential through acquisition and operational excellence.

​His LinkedIn profile is accessible on https://sg.linkedin.com/in/koheric

​Video Interviews with Eric Koh

​Visit www.instagram.com/asiastartupnetwork

​Weng Leong Kam

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​Weng Leong is an accomplished executive with extensive experience spanning entrepreneurship, private equity, and investment banking. As CEO of Grof (formerly a small corporate services business he acquired), Kam has demonstrated exceptional leadership and business acumen over the past five years. Under his stewardship, the company has achieved remarkable growth, expanding revenue by more than 20-fold. He has successfully scaled the organization to 35 full-time employees and extended operations into Malaysia.

​Prior to his entrepreneurial venture, Kam spent six years as a private equity and buyout investment professional at The Riverside Company, a global investment firm. During this tenure, he specialized in the corporate services industry and also worked with EDBI. Kam began his professional journey in investment banking, where he built a solid foundation over six years before transitioning into private equity.

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​What our past participants said

​Average Rating: 5.0/5.0 on Luma

​Chris: 1. Better clarity on deal lifecycle - from sourcing to closing. The most important aspect for me was the deal structuring part as the ETA model is fairly unique. For instance, I want to know how much equity is a searcher entitled to and how it evolves over time with vesting

​2. Search criteria - how to identify a high quality business and how much to acquire them for

​Natalie: "the workshop felt welcoming and I was blessed to connect with 2 lovely ladies who shared similar interests with me. And got to know everyone with their self introduction was likeable, friendly, willing to learn despite being in various backgrounds regardless from finances, tech, VC investments and startup scenes. I was in awe that everyone was very experienced and had individual learning objectives."

​Join ASN Pre-founder Catalyst program as an individual but expect to graduate into a large vibrant and supportive startup ecosystem and mentorship support.

​About Asia Startup Network

​ASN didn’t start as an educational institute or training centre. ASN is a living, thriving startup ecosystem. Their founders have spent more than one decade coaching and supporting entrepreneurs and created one of the largest communities of > 3,000 startup founders, operators, investors and partners in Southeast Asia to collaborate and support each other’s growth. Since 2020, ASN has been organising 100s of startup workshops, events and programs to help entrepreneurs leapfrog their growth and raise funding. Join ASN for the knowledge, but stay because of the network. These are the reasons why taking a course at ASN and quickly plugging into the community would move the needle more than you expect.

​ASN is founded by Elise Tan and Andrew Tan. Elise has experience designing programs and personally coaching hundreds of founders at incubators and accelerators for over 10 years. She assisted more than 40 companies in raising more than US$1 million each. Andrew has more than 10 years of leadership experience founding his own social enterprise, building start ups and managing scale ups, as well as running ground up initiatives and communities, Andrew has a proven track record of driving growth and success and this will be transferred directly to this accelerator and its startups.

​ASN began firstly with Mentor For Hope in 2020, an impactful mentoring initiative initially supported by the Temasek Foundation under the OSCAR grant. The initiative facilitated 525 mentoring hours for 300 founders adversely affected by the COVID crisis, connecting them with invaluable insights from 250 investors, partners, and experts.

​In 2021, Elise and Andrew organised Makan For Hope Festival (with zero budget), a series of 30 virtual roundtables featuring VC managing partners and founders from notable startups like PropertyGuru, Shopback, and Carousell. The festival drew participation from 500 attendees, raising $123,000 in charity donations.