ASN Masterclass: Serve the Startup Industry as a paid Mentor
🌟 ASN Masterclass: Serve the Startup Industry as a Paid Mentor
Discover how your experience can empower the next generation of founders.
Are you an industry practitioner, business leader, or seasoned professional who’s curious about mentoring startups — and being paid for your expertise?
Join us for the ASN Masterclass: Serve the Startup Industry as a Paid Mentor, a practical and inspiring session designed to help you understand how your skills, knowledge, and lived experience can meaningfully support early-stage founders.
Whether you come from corporate, SME, tech, finance, product, operations, HR, marketing, or any specialised field — there is a founder out there who needs what you know.
This masterclass helps you understand where you fit, how you add value, and what opportunities exist within the startup ecosystem.
🚀 What This Masterclass Is About
Entrepreneurs may be visionary, but no one builds alone.
At Asia Startup Network (ASN), we believe that entrepreneurs are bred, not born — and that the right guidance at the right time can drastically change a founder’s trajectory.
But even the most business-savvy person struggles the first time they attempt to build a company. That’s where you come in.
This masterclass is designed to:
✔ Help you identify what you can offer as a startup mentor
✔ Show you the real needs, challenges & patterns early founders face
✔ Explain how paid mentoring opportunities work at ASN
✔ Clarify the standards, expectations & boundaries of effective mentoring
✔ Equip you with frameworks to support founders confidently
If you’ve ever wondered,
“Do I have enough experience to mentor?”
or
“What exactly do founders need from someone like me?”
— this session gives you the clarity you’ve been seeking.
📘 Curriculum Overview
1️⃣ What Makes a Successful Founder (and where mentors fit in)
Common mistakes first-time founders make
What separates those who scale from those who stagnate
The role mentors play in reducing risk & accelerating progress
2️⃣ Identifying Your Value as a Mentor
Mapping your career experience to founder needs
Skillsets founders consistently seek (and why)
Understanding your “mentor archetype”: strategist, operator, specialist, coach, connector
3️⃣ The Startup Lifecycle & Where You Add the Most Impact
Idea validation
MVP & early traction
GTM strategy
Fundraising
Hiring & leadership
Systems & scaling
4️⃣ How Paid Mentorship Works at ASN
Honorarium structure (starting at S$100/hour)
Matching process
Expectations & guidelines
Best practices for impactful mentorship conversations
🎯 Who Should Attend
This masterclass is perfect for:
Mid-career or senior professionals
Operators, managers, or specialists
Corporate leaders transitioning into advisory roles
Entrepreneurs, ex-founders, and domain experts
Anyone seeking meaningful, flexible paid work supporting startups
No prior mentoring experience required.
Cost: S$798 in Skills Future Credits or S$600 in cash (additional $60 in Stripe fees) (payment by Skills future available-please email us at [email protected])
Our Trainers
Elise Tan
Elise is the Founder of Asia Startup Network (ASN), a fast-growing platform of over 4,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem partners across Southeast Asia. With more than a decade of experience spanning venture capital, startup incubation (NUS Enterprise), startup acceleration (Entrepreneur First, Longhash Ventures) and entrepreneurial education, Elise has designed and delivered numerous bootcamps, accelerator programs, and community initiatives for universities, corporates, and government agencies.
Previously, Elise was Director of Community and Communications at Vertex Ventures, where she produced the Hard Truths podcast (a top 10 entrepreneurship podcast in Singapore) and spearheaded ecosystem-building efforts. She also held roles at Entrepreneur First (fundraising lead) and LongHash Ventures (VP of Investor Relations), where she supported startups in fundraising and scaling.
Through ASN academy, she empowers aspiring founders, mid-career professionals, and SMEs to explore entrepreneurship via structured bootcamps, thematic programs, and venture-building support.
Andrew Tan
As the Co-Founder of Asia Startup Network, Andrew is passionate about building ecosystems to help people help others. He also serves as the Country Manager of Wantedly, a HR Tech company from Japan, where he takes on international expansion and operations to help Startups Founders match with the right talents. Prior to Wantedly, Andrew co-founded a Social Enterprise, The Shiok Collective, served as Head of Southeast Asia at BeMyGuest, and was Investment Director at One Belt One Road Venture Capital. Aside from his professional experience, Andrew was on the Board of Directors of the University At Buffalo Alumni Association with over 200,000 members globally, and now serves as International Presidential Advisor to the University. Having accumulated international experience in his entrepreneurial journey, Andrew gives back by mentoring startups and provides career advisory for youths.
Tse Kai
Kai currently specializes in Product-Market Fit (PMF) coaching for startups, bringing 8 years of experience in product design, product management and entrepreneurship. He holds an Engineering degree from the University of Nottingham and serves as an active instructor teaching UX Design at General Assembly.
Kai regularly mentors design beginners transitioning into tech and career switchers, as well as facilitates workshops for early-stage entrepreneurs. His expertise spans user research, design and prototyping, information architecture, and agile product team methodologies plus AI workflows. With a strong background in startup fundamentals including Lean Canvas and design sprints, Kai is passionate about helping others develop practical skills for the modern economy through design and entrepreneurship. Kai was also a founder at the Antler program and deeply understands how the program supports founders from scratch to realising real world solutions.
Our mentors and Judges
Zhiying Chua
Zhiying is currently leading investor relations at GSR Ventures, a global VC firm focused on early-stage technology companies developing AI-enabled consumer platforms, healthcare technology and fintech in the US and China. Prior to GSR, she previously spent four years at Neuron Mobility, holding various roles including Head of Corporate Development, Chief of Staff, and Head of Finance. Earlier, she was an investor at SeedPlus, a seed-stage VC firm and started her career in corporate and investment banking at OCBC and Credit Suisse.
Adrian Thoo
Adrian Thoo is a seasoned strategist and visionary leader with a proven track record in guiding startups to success. As a Business Strategy Director at Blazing Conversions and Senior Advisor at Beltap Capital, Adrian brings a wealth of experience across diverse industries, including luxury fashion, education, media, finance, consulting, and technology.
Author of the Amazon #1 "Smart Business Startup Founder's Guidebook," Adrian's expertise lies in crafting effective business strategies, mentoring startups, and fostering entrepreneurial growth. With a deep understanding of the startup ecosystem, he works closely with Venture Capital firms to create accelerator and mentorship programs that empower entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential.
Join ASN masterclass as an individual but expect to graduate into a large vibrant and supportive startup ecosystem and mentorship support.
Interested to take it to the next step? Simply sign up on Lu.ma!
What happens after this masterclass
Continue to join us for our second program. We understand that entrepreneurship demands more than just business savvy—it requires strong leadership and communication skills. That's why our second course includes advanced topics and workshops focused on enhancing your leadership abilities and communication prowess.
If you're ready to embark on this transformative journey or have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to [email protected]. Let's unlock your full potential together. Visit www.asiastartupnetwork.com/accelerate for more details.
Why The ASN Masterclass?
Our curriculum stands out for its blend of Eastern and Western philosophies, offering a comprehensive approach that extends beyond technical skills. Led by a team of seasoned operators and investors, we prioritize not only business acumen but also personal development, helping you uncover your passions and craft a sustainable business idea aligned with your life goals.
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 > 4,000 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.
Sign up at now on Lu.ma here!