Huiting Koh is the Founding Managing Partner of Blueprint Ventures, an early-stage regional venture capital firm based in Singapore. 

Blueprint invests across Southeast Asia in consumer and consumer-tech businesses for the new Southeast Asian consumer.

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I invest in very young consumer companies (one to two years old) across Southeast Asia. 

Well-known consumer companies are Nike, Apple, Neutrogena, MasterClass, Glossier, etc. We are looking for those types of companies in Southeast Asia.

So what I do is run a fund—which consists of money from a group of people—my investors (high net worth individuals, other funds, or corporates) and I use their money to invest in companies that I believe will grow faster than the market. 

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

It is the most draining yet energizing and challenging job I've ever had. 

How well you do is based on how quickly you can connect the dots, how creatively you think (to find new ways of doing things), and how well you can read people. 

I love it because the only person you are competing with is yourself—how much better, faster, smarter can you be today than you were yesterday.

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

I think it would have to be starting Blueprint Ventures despite the environment and seeing the amount of support it has garnered. 

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

More brand-led businesses coming out of Southeast Asia that are designed to look and feel like they're not from Southeast Asia. 

It's time for Southeast Asian businesses to play on the global stage and there is certainly demand from Western consumers.

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💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

Just start. Be scrappy, be curious, and never stop asking why. 

Assume you know nothing and that everything is a learning opportunity. 

Build up the experience and confidence to form informed convictions that become strong convictions, and hold those convictions loosely. 

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

What makes people buy what they do and why price means nothing when trying to drive consumer loyalty. 

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Recently, Yellowstone! 

It's like Succession for cowboys. I'm gutted I did not ration the current seasons, and now I have to wait a whole year for Season 6. 

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

I don't like ice cream! 

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FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.