Asia · Europe · Australia · 25 years building

You've built something solid.
Let's find the next move.

Somewhere along the way, the next move stopped being obvious. That's usually when people find me. I'm a venture builder and strategic investor, the person founders call at a crossroads.

Read my story Work with me
25
Years building businesses
IPO
Founding team, Australia
3 continents
Cross-border capital
Joanna Soh Joanna Soh · Eight Mercatus
Joanna at the LITO Retreat in Finland
Meet Joanna

25 years of noticing what's shifting before it's obvious.

I've spent 25 years building businesses at every stage: some from scratch, some already running, some ready to exit. Early on, I was part of a founding team that took a tech company to IPO in Australia. I built one of Singapore's early ecommerce ventures, back when nobody quite knew where online retail was heading.

I spotted the wellness travel trend before it had a name, bringing Singaporeans to Lapland, Finland for transformational retreats when deep rest wasn't yet a conversation. Maybe it's curiosity. Maybe it's a hunch I've learned to trust.

"I don't chase quick wins. I care about building something that matters and lasts."

I've identified and invested in early-stage companies that are now substantial businesses, helped foreign founders land in Singapore, and connected European startups with Asian capital. I've advised my father on the divestment of our family's investment in a palm-oil plantation in Malaysia, a business my grandfather was involved in for more than 40 years, where its shareholders are finally able to take their profits. So when an owner tells me that letting go feels complicated and personal, I know exactly what they mean.

Now I work with owners standing at a crossroads. Do we scale? Do we sell? Who's the right partner? I help them see the move in front of them, pull the right people together, and make it happen.

If you're wondering what comes next, let's talk
How I help

Not a consultant who hands you a deck, but a partner who co-builds with you.

Most owners don't know what they don't know. You're either new to the next move, or so deep in the business you can't see it clearly. I get to know you, find the real problem, and help you make the move: strategy, practical steps, and the right people, alongside you the whole way.

01

Raising for the first time

You've built something real, but fundraising feels like a foreign language: the deck, the partners, the expectations. I help you prepare properly: the strategy, the practical steps, the pitch, and the mindset to walk in ready.

02

Too deep to see it clearly

You've run this for years and can't see outside the ring: how good it really is, how hard it would be to replicate. Maybe you're fed up, maybe you're at a crossroads. I partner with you to steer it somewhere better.

03

Brilliant at the craft, not the growth

You're a clinician or an operator, all-in on the work itself, with no bandwidth for marketing or strategy. I step in as a hands-on partner and grow the business with you.

I get deeply involved. Your business becomes my business. That only works on trust, so we always start the same way: a real conversation to understand each other. Often over a round of golf, where I do my best thinking and build my best relationships.
Where I'm focused

Two spaces I know and love.

The industries I understand from the inside, where I can add the most, fastest. Not the only doors open, but where I go deepest.

Lifestyle

Luxury & golf travel

Businesses built around how people want to live: premium and golf travel, and the wellness and longevity experiences fast becoming the real luxury.

Healthcare

Dental & TCM practices

Dental practices, and Traditional Chinese Medicine: products, clinics, and practices grown and scaled without losing what makes them trusted.

A common thread

Across both, AI and automation increasingly shape how I work, helping good businesses run leaner and scale further.

Track record

Built, backed, and scaled.

Twenty-five years as an operator, a founder, and an investor. A few of the chapters that shaped how I work today.

TODAY newspaper feature: E-retailer gets more clout
Founder · with Singapore Post

Ecommerce before it was obvious

Before online retail was a thing here, I pitched SingPost, won their backing, and built an ecommerce venture inside one of Singapore's most established institutions.

Joanna handing the first cheque to Mighty Jaxx founder Jackson Aw
Early investor · Mighty Jaxx

The first cheque, when others wouldn't

We backed founder Jackson Aw early, then helped turn a toys collectibles business into a deep-tech, blockchain-native one, now a globally recognised pop-culture company.

A Golf Traveller event, golfer mid-swing beside the brand flag
Investor & Asia partner · Golf Traveller

Luxury golf travel, scaled into Asia

I led the first round, helped build its tech team, and brought the business into Asia, bringing in Asian investors and setting up its operations in the region.

A joyful moment at the LITO Retreat in Finland
Co-founder · LITO Retreat

Wellness travel, before it had a name

My partner Daniel Lim and I built LITO Retreat, a series of transformational retreats deep in Finnish Lapland. Quietly life-changing for everyone who came.

More on the record
2003 · Founding team

From an algorithm to an IPO

Seed-funded the inventor, raised the first ~US$1M, and ran the corporate side to a listing in Australia.

Acquisition · W. Australia

Emperor's Crown

A Western Australian hospitality business, acquired with an equity partner.

Cross-border · Market entry

Landing in Singapore

Helped international founders and investors make Singapore home.

On golf
"Golf is where I do my best thinking, and build my best relationships."

Some of my most important partnerships began on a fairway, not in a boardroom. Eighteen holes tells you how someone thinks, how they handle a bad lie, whether you'd want to build something together. It's slow, it's honest, and it's where trust gets made. That's exactly why golf travel is one of the spaces I back.

Joanna with her group out on a links golf course
Podcast · Launching late 2026

The Good Spirit

Conversations with people who built something real from nothing, and the patterns the rest of us can learn from.

I'm fascinated by one thing across every business I've touched: how an idea becomes something real, then something big. The Good Spirit is my search for that pattern: conversations with people who started with nothing and built something respectable and lasting. From first-generation immigrants who arrived with empty hands, to founders today building at the speed of AI.

The name is the point. Good Spirit means doing business with sincerity, honesty, and integrity, and with real care for the people it touches. Doing good isn't an afterthought; it's part of the work. The world can feel short on that right now, but I've always believed in the better side of people. If even one listener comes away with something they can use (an idea, a lesson, a bit of courage), it will have been worth making.

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The Good Spirit group in branded hoodies at the LITO Retreat in Finland The Good Spirit, at the LITO Retreat in Finnish Lapland.
Work with me

If you're wondering what comes next.

I work with a handful of owners and founders at a time, people I can genuinely help, in businesses I understand from the inside. Send me a message, or let's grab a coffee.

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