
General Partner @PlayVentures, all tweets personal. 📍 London / Singapore
Singapore
Joined April 2010
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Since the start, @PlayVentures has this unique term that we include in our term sheet: the 2 year vesting cliff. Many founders get surprised by it.
The 2 year cliff is the ultimate Founders Insurance and protects YOU from your co-founder.
Why we insist on it:
1/ The brutal truth: we estimate that 15%+ of startups have founder breakups AFTER year 1.
2/ The danger zone for early founder breakups is Month 9-18. The cliff approaches, runway starts looking short, tension peaks
3/ Departing founder walks away with big chunk of equity even though company value is built in the years after
4/ Cap table dynamics, fundraising prospects for those who stay to build are weakened
Most founders think they're different. "We'd never break up!", "We've worked together before, it'll be fine." But hope isn't a strategy. Contracts are. Even if you don’t raise from Play, sign a 2 year cliff. A cofounder who plans to stick around won’t fight you on it.
Protect yourself before you wreck yourself.
Full breakdown on @DeconFun with real founder stories:
deconstructoroffun.com/blog/…
At our recent Play Summit, I shared a shift I’m betting on: apps we operate > agents that act for us.
The app becomes the companion: approve, review, take back control from the agent.
Tech always changes, but our desires remain the same: become wealthy, feel desired, be entertained, feel safe.
Here's three connected opportunities I’m watching:
1/ Managing and building wealth with agents
A personal CFO could follow you from your first paycheque through borrowing, buying a home, investing, and retirement.
Different institutions supply the products. One business (agent) earns the trust and captures value across your financial life.
2/ Protecting consumers and their agents
Giving agents access to our accounts, conversations, and money creates new vulnerabilities.
The opportunity: consumer-grade protection without making everyone a security expert.
We need to go beyond 2FA and password managers.
3/ Insuring agents
As agents become ubiquitous, insurance for losses from errors or unauthorised actions could become a new financial product.
Clearer guardrails and risks is needed to make underwriting viable first. Meaningful cover could then give people confidence to delegate more.
If you’re building in any of these spaces, let’s talk.
Phylicia Koh (She/her) retweeted
We now have:
• Muse
• Grok Bot
• Hermes
• Dots
• Cue (by Manus)
• Openclaw?
If you're not using at LEAST one of these, it's official: you're falling behind in tech and leaving massive productivity on the table as a result.
Most expensive mistake you could make.
Phylicia Koh (She/her) retweeted
If you reach generational wealth status and aspire towards being patriarch of a Singaporean family, know that of your sons:
> at least 50% will be wastrels
> the other 40% will want to be their own man and want nothing to do with your family business
> 70% chance the one that wants the family business is incompetent (and might be wastrel)
> 100% chance you fight with the competent one bc he tries to fire your entourage of retard uncles farming your family
> at least one son will be gay
Of your daughters:
> 50% chance they will look like you, a bloated toad instead of your beautiful wife
> 80% chance they will start a beauty/aesthetics or f&b business you will have to subsidise forever
> one will be gay (likely a toady looking one)
> one will consider marrying an ang moh (if sent overseas) or Indian (if local) to spite you
> 10% chance they might be interested in your family business
> 100% chance there’s a fight over a pre-nup
> 50% chance your family business gets co-opted by your son in law if she’s the sole heir
> 70% chance they are both incompetent and run it to the ground.
Of your family (assuming you didn’t get a divorce):
> your main successor will have a dispute with his/her useless siblings
> upon your death there will be politicking over your wife
> an uneasy peace will end when your wife dies
> a lawsuit will happen either amongst your children, or your grandchildren after both your deaths
Have more children to maximise chances of a worthy heir but it is often as they say - 富不过三代.
Small table. No panels. No pitches. Just good conversation.
Monday night in SF, I'm co-hosting an intimate dinner with @gracegongGG for founders from Seed through Series E, plus a curated group of VCs.
If you're building and this sounds like your vibe, please join us: luma.com/se0g7q1w
So we're hiring a Junior Investment Analyst to join @PlayVentures in Singapore.
Only the hungry and the curious need apply. linkedin.com/jobs/view/44153…
🎞️ video made with @trysecretsauce
Phylicia Koh (She/her) retweeted
⚡️This chart is the early shape of corporate extinction.
The real signal is that a cognition gap is opening between firms, and once that gap starts compounding it stops behaving like a normal productivity upgrade. It becomes a separation event. One group is building with machine leverage inside the operating system. The other group is still paying full price for human bottlenecks.
That is why the curve matters. The line does not rise steadily. It pulls away. That is what compounding looks like when intelligence itself becomes infrastructure. Faster analysis. Faster iteration. Faster customer response. Faster coding. Faster sales prep. Faster research. Faster internal coordination. Faster decisions. The revenue line then feeds back into more AI spend, more talent, more experimentation, and even more speed. Once that loop starts closing, weaker firms do not merely lose ground. They fall into a different era.
This is about organizational metabolism. The firms spending hard on AI are usually the firms willing to redesign workflows, management habits, and decision structures around it. They are not just buying tools. They are replacing drag. That is why the laggards are in more danger than they realize. They think they are delaying a purchase. What they are actually delaying is a change in operating model, and by the time they finally move, the leaders may already be playing a different game.
There is selection in the chart, of course. The stronger, more ambitious, more tech-forward firms were always more likely to buy first. But that does not soften the implication. It sharpens it. A force multiplier landed in the hands of the already capable. That is how class divisions get violent. The best firms get stronger first, then the gap itself becomes a weapon.
So my real view is simple.
AI is already splitting the corporate world into augmented firms and exposed firms.
One side is learning how to operate with an extra cognition layer.
The other side is slowly discovering that “waiting” was never neutral.
This does not end with everyone getting a little more efficient.
It ends with a lot of companies realizing too late that they were competing against businesses that had already become part-machine.
Phylicia Koh (She/her) retweeted
So excited to finally introduce @trysecretsauce to the world. We were our own first customer, a game studio that needed millions of assets that matched our game world without looking generic. Nothing out there could do it, so we built it ourselves. Now we're 100% focused on bringing it to everyone else.
Read about us in Forbes. Link below ⬇️
$4B ARR. 265M users. Canva's core product is great. I use it weekly.
Their COO says they're becoming "an AI platform with design tools."
But Canva AI is giving "we have AI at home."
"Suggest a layout." → "Your slide is text heavy." Thanks, I'm aware.
"Change title font to Montserrat." → Can't.
"Make fonts consistent across slides." → Nope.
A $42B company that can't change a font.
The positive: $4B in ARR, potentially a long runway, and Canva seems to be willing to invest in capabilities. They acquired Cavalry (2D motion animation), and MangoAI (video ad performance).
But something's not working with the core Canva AI product and its development.
Rooting for @canva. Plz fix.
In the age of agentic AI, the bar is higher than "helpful tips you already knew."
Big fan of taking leaps of faith, from growth to product to VC, to investing in apps like @BibleChat_app and more.
In my latest In Dialogue conversation, I spoke with @ppphyl, General Partner at @PlayVentures, about where she sees the next wave of growth in gaming and venture capital 🎮📈
While many investors are focused on traditional console or mobile hits, Phylicia is betting on “playable apps,” platforms that apply gaming’s engagement mechanics to everyday life, from language learning to wellness and finance. It is a compelling example of how innovation often happens at the intersection of industries.
We also discussed her unconventional path into VC, her decision to embrace a “Year of Yes,” and how that leap helped her build one of the top-performing gaming venture funds.
If you are curious about where technology, lifestyle, and human behavior are headed next, I invite you to read our full conversation here: linkedin.com/pulse/dialogue-…
#lizelting #DREAMBIGANDWIN #womeninbusiness #gaming #femalefounder
Kicking off 2026 talking about my fave topic - playable consumer apps.
We cover lots in this one, including:
- Analysis of why consumer in-app purchase spending now exceeds gaming IAP spending.
- 4 key characteristics of a successful playable app
- Impact of AI on user acquisition and creative fatigue
- The metaverse....(spoiler: it already exists)
- Future of product discovery
Pick your poison, it's on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.
youtu.be/hLBPrUukvk8?si=tQGq…
open.spotify.com/episode/2Aj…
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
🎙️ Gamification of Consumer Apps
In 2025, consumer app in-app purchases (IAP) surpassed gaming in-app purchases for the first time ever.
I sat down with @ppphyl, General Partner at @PlayVentures, to talk all about it.
Link👇
Relationships are co-op games with no tutorial, and a constant boss battle against routine.
Loved hearing @offeryehudai's take on how @AryaFYI was built brick by brick, and how they bring ‘play’ into real relationships by understanding human motivations, habit-building, and creating 'wins' for their users.
The clever bit IMO: you will always win using Arya.
Goes well? You're a hero.
Goes badly? Arya's fault, you tried.
Have a listen here: youtu.be/Vw8oto8VGMA?si=OQT5…
After 36 years as a public company, EA's $55B take-private is historic, but here's the tension: going private *theoretically* gives breathing room to innovate beyond quarterly earnings pressures, except they're servicing $20B in debt with three buyers who have different economic and strategic priorities.
fwiw EA generated about $2B in free cash flow in 2024, just enough to cover the annual interest of the debt, but time will tell how EA serves 3 masters.
Talked to @pcgamer: pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/…
Back to regular 2 Player Mode programming after a summer break, with 2 amazing guests @yoitsOG, @ElizaCrichtonS, and a whole lotta news.
🗓️ 8am EST / 12pm UTC on 10 Sep
Looking forward to 2P Mode this week with @ppphyl @yoitsOG and @ElizaCrichtonS at 8AM EST/12PM UTC/8PM SGT on Wednesday. Come get involved!
Building on @eigen_moomin and @0xRyze 's brilliant analysis of Singapore's "air-conditioned nation" - there's a disease at work.
Language reveals mindset:
Growing up, everyone knew what the 5 Cs were (Cash, Car, Credit card, Condo, Country club)
Today, the fatal 4 Cs killing us: Comfort, Conformity, Complacency, Incuriosity
This incuriosity manifests everywhere, no questions, no second-order thinking:
→ MNCs extract subsidies and tax rebates to set up shop here in Singapore. When the milk and honey stops flowing, they leave. We repeat the same failed playbook a few years later. Why?!?!?!
→ I watched a government agency spend ~6-figures (if memory serves) on a "collaborative" coffee machine for Fortune 500 CEOs (they had to put their hands on it together, for the coffee to flow) 🤡 ROI? A vanity marketing award. * slow clap * for taxpayers money
→ But hey, forget improving social safety nets because "unemployment benefits will give people a crutch mentality". People accept this blindly and at face value. So one of the world's richest countries continues to perform poorly for its lowest income and most at-risk citizens. In 2024, we were ranked 102 out of 164 for our efforts to reduce inequality.
The terrifying combination: Widening inequality + population trained NOT to question + leadership that avoids debate + geopolitical instability + technology and job disruption (AI)
As @0xRyze said: "The plant in the greenhouse cannot withstand the storm."
The greenhouse is burning. 🔥
Lee Kuan Yew said "whoever governs Singapore must have iron in them." That's true for ALL Singaporeans now. Start questioning.
Singapore is an air-conditioned nation. The plant which grows in the greenhouse cannot withstand the storm.
Its citizens suffer from two malaises:
Comfort and Conformity.
Everything is much too comfortable. A Singaporean can go an entire lifetime without coming into contact with reality.
The prosperous, comfortable lives of Singaporeans comes from subsidy by the state, & yet this prosperity is more of a socialist prosperity, which is distributed in service of social outcomes, rather than a prosperity that is generated through the +EV effort of Singaporeans creating economic value.
This leaves Singaporeans often with a feeling of “unreality”, working bullshit jobs, being comfortable, sleepwalking their way through life.
Beyond getting your home, or your next trip to Japan or a festival, there is not much to strive for. The government works hard to ensure employment for Singaporeans, by bringing in foreign companies to start branches here (with tax incentives) & forcing them to hire locals, and even employing vast swathes of locals in the government with jobs that pay enough to upkeep their lifestyles.
As an engineered economy, it’s fantastic and stable. But it’s a greenhouse, which explains why all seems to wilt.
It is hard to find truly generational talent and ambition here, it is much too comfortable. As a startup, it’s nigh impossible to hire in Singapore because to many, why grind at a startup, if you can afford everything while working a job that gives you prestige?
Singapore is one of the few countries in which a person can live their entire life within this bubble. Everyone comes to you. Many never have to work part time. Jobs come to you. The schools are right here. You never have to leave your family home. As such you have grown adults who never learnt to cook, do laundry or accept discomfort and solitude.
Comfortable.
Although we develop much human capital, we also do not really provide the preconditions for greatness to emerge.
Non conformity is often punished, or at the very least, judged. Intense academic competition, and being judged for every activity since you were 12. You are forever on a scorecard. You are always assigned a rank at every turn. A series of Pass/Fail gates every few weeks, until you’re middle aged with children in a government subsidized, allotted and ballotted HDB. This requires you to make and clear a certain amount of income as well, and we all know that means sitting in an air conditioned office 99% of the time. Hence the dearth of musical and creative opportunities outside of state sponsorship.
Every dollar spent is ruthlessly optimized, to the point where credit card points conversations are a common topic.
As @hoeflatoor mentions as well, “Sinkie pwn Sinkie” is a common phenomenon.
Some of the smartest, most capable Singaporeans are sniped and brought into government service at an early age.
Others opt out and move elsewhere, most often to America or the UK. I’ve met some brilliant Singaporeans out in SF.
There are no strong incentives for a Singaporean to pop out their head, for the cost of failure is often much too high, and the benefits reaped do not outweigh the sheer comfort. They’d much rather trade, live lives of quiet comfort & anonymity despite their immense privilege, which does not much to inspire the next generation of thinkers, darers, and doers.
Many of them moved away.
One must have enough chaos within oneself to give birth to a dancing star.
🎯 "World's biggest little gaming VC"
As @henricgames put it: "We've been intentionally keeping our fund sizes modest because we're focused on what actually matters: real returns to our limited partners."
Plot twist: @PlayVentures Fund III = $142M (OK ngl it was 5% larger than Fund II at $135M, keeping up with inflation)
Every IC meeting: "Can this be a $B+ returner or just a game you want to play?"
Team growth: 4→15 (still refusing to bloat headcount)
Matt Gardner spills the tea on our *revolutionary* strategy of... being disciplined 👇
forbes.com/sites/mattgardner…
Fastest way to find your next billion-$ idea? Look where others are too afraid to.
Sex. Intimacy. Faith. Finance. Where others saw taboo, I saw opportunity and wrote checks @PlayVentures
🎯 Vote for our SXSW panel participate.sxsw.com/flow/sx…
Learn about
👁️ Spotting unmet user needs hiding behind stigma
✏️ Turning discomfort into daily use products
🧱 Creating category defining innovations and getting funded for it
From @Anamlakhani_ , CEO @alineainvest_ , @shanboodram , Chief Intimacy Officer @Arya_fyi, @rileyraygriffin
AI is enabling new ways to make, distribute, and play games. Some of the things we’re seeing teams building and using under the hood in game dev is incredible fr 🤯
“AI is transforming the gaming industry in massive ways."
@PlayVentures General Partner @ppphyl told #FortuneAISingapore that recent advancements in artificial intelligence are leading to one of the most “pivotal inflection points that we’re seeing in decades.” trib.al/DOI1tyi



















