The Man Who Took RM 20 Billion Off A National Balance Sheet Is Coming To Dinner. Nine Seats Are Left.
For most of his career he sat on the side of the table that says yes or no to raises the size of the one you're trying to close. Barrister. City of London investment banker. EVP of a Gulf commercial bank. Turnaround CEO of a state-owned enterprise.
On 14 August he answers questions for three hours. Not from a stage. Across a dinner table, at arm's length, with a glass in his hand.
9 seats left · USD 50 covers dinner, not the seat
He has never done a stage, a podcast, or an interview. This is the closest he gets to public.
GMT+8
Kuala Lumpur
Reservations close Tuesday 11 August, 11:59 PM
Not a marketing deadline. The restaurant needs the final headcount three days out — and the seats that are left usually go before then.
Your Deck Isn't
The Problem.
You've built something real. Revenue, assets, a team, a track record. You've been told the money is out there and that all you need is the right introduction.
So you polished the deck. Ran the model again. Sat through the coffee with the "funding consultant" who wanted a retainer. Got warm-introduced to a family office that went quiet after the second call. Maybe you even paid a broker who is still, technically, "working on it."
Here's what almost nobody will tell you to your face: at eight figures and above, deals don't die on the pitch. They die on structure.
They die because the risk sits in the wrong place. Because the security package doesn't survive a credit committee. Because the cap table makes the next round impossible. Because the number you asked for tells the man across the table you don't understand your own balance sheet.
None of that is visible from your side of the table. All of it is obvious from his.
Which is why the useful thing isn't another course on how to pitch. The useful thing is three hours with the person who used to approve or kill raises the size of yours — close enough to ask him what he'd have done with your deal.
The Guest Of Honour
You Get The Record.
The Name Comes At The Table.
He is still active. The counterparties he deals with, the mandates he sits on, and the families he advises are the reason his name is not on this page. It is not a marketing device — it is a condition of him showing up at all.
- trending_up RM 20 billion turnaround. CEO of a state-owned enterprise — debt restructured, national assets sold, balance sheet rebuilt.
- workspace_premium Executive Vice President of a major Gulf commercial bank — the seat where credit decisions actually get signed.
- account_balance Investment banker at a top-tier French bank in the City of London.
- gavel Barrister-at-Law, trained at two of London's most prestigious institutions — which is why he reads your term sheet differently than you do.
No stage. No slides. No recording. If you want to know what he thinks, you have to be in the room.
What Actually Happens
At This Table
Three hours at one table, small enough that everyone gets heard — with the man who has already made the decision you're about to ask someone else for.
Your Deal, Seen From The Other Side
Describe your raise in two minutes and hear how it lands with someone who has declined hundreds of them. Where the risk actually sits. What a committee would ask that your advisor never did.
How Eight-Figure Money Is Structured
Debt, equity, mezzanine, sovereign and Gulf capital, asset-backed paper. Not the textbook version — the version he used to restructure RM 20 billion.
Why Fundable Businesses Get Declined
The reasons that never make it into the rejection email. Governance gaps, related-party mess, unbankable collateral, founders who ask for the wrong number at the wrong stage.
The People Beside You
Everyone at this table is raising at eight figures or holds capital that goes to work. Over three hours, seated, you will actually get to know them — not collect a business card in a hotel lobby. That has its own arithmetic.
Read This Before
You Reserve.
If you are picturing a cheque, put it down. Here is exactly what this dinner is not.
Nobody is funding you at dinner. No term sheet, no commitment, no introduction to his mandates. He is not there to look at deals. He is there to answer questions.
Nothing is sold at this table. No back-of-room offer, no programme, no upsell, no deck at the end of the night. If that's the business model you were expecting for USD 50, it isn't this one.
There is no recording and no replay. He speaks candidly on the condition that the evening stays in the room. That is the trade you are accepting by taking a seat.
It will not fix a business that isn't raising yet. If you're pre-revenue and hoping someone will fund an idea, this is the wrong table — and Ching Yu will tell you so rather than seat you.
USD 50 Buys
The Dinner.
Not The Seat.
If you're the kind of person who should be at this table, USD 50 already looked strange to you. Good. It should.
The number is not a valuation of the evening. It covers a plate at Chalet Swiss and nothing else. The seat itself isn't for sale at any price — it is given, by the host, to people he is willing to put in a room with this man. That is the only currency in play here.
So the USD 50 does one job: it separates the people who show up from the ten times as many who say they will.
How A Seat Gets Confirmed
Reserve. USD 50, one seat, thirty seconds.
A short WhatsApp conversation. Ching Yu's team confirms who you are and what you're raising. Two minutes, not an interrogation.
Your seat is named. Venue details, arrival time, and who else is at the table.
Your Seat Is Named, Not Numbered
Once step 2 is done, the chair has your name on it and it stays yours. The table is small enough that Ching Yu knows who is sitting in every seat, and who he put next to whom. That is the whole reason an evening like this is worth three hours of your Friday.
Your Host
The Person Who
Opened The Room
Ching Yu Tan
Business Consultant & Strategist
Ching Yu works with founders, owners and executives on how to grow — and on using technology and AI to do it faster than their competitors can react.
His real asset is access. He spends his time building relationships with people who don't take meetings, and occasionally opens one of those relationships to a small group. This dinner is one of those occasions. He approves every name on the list, and he is the reason the man at the head of the table said yes.
He also has to sit next to you all evening. That is the whole vetting policy.
Who Gets A Seat
Nine seats left and a three-hour conversation force a choice. Read both columns honestly before you reserve.
Take The Seat If…
- checkYou are raising eight figures or more — now, or inside the next 12 months
- checkYou own or run the business, and you can say yes to a deal without a committee
- checkYou hold capital and want to hear how the other side underwrites risk
- checkYou'd rather ask one uncomfortable question than sit through a hundred slides
- checkYou can be in Kuala Lumpur on the evening of Friday 14 August
Leave It If…
- closeYou're pre-revenue and looking for someone to fund an idea
- closeYou came to pitch him, corner him, or hand him a deck
- closeYou want a recording, a summary, or a friend to attend for you
- closeYou're here to sell something to the rest of the table
- closeYou're curious, not raising
The Questions We Actually Get
9 Seats Left
One Evening. One Man Who Has Already Made The Decision You're About To Ask Someone For.
Friday 14 August, Chalet Swiss, Kuala Lumpur. USD 50 covers dinner. The seat is Ching Yu's to give — and there are nine left.
chat Ching Yu's team confirms your seat on WhatsApp and sends the venue details.
P.S. The reason to be there isn't the dinner. It's that for three hours you can ask the person who used to sign off on raises like yours the one question your advisors keep answering vaguely — and watch his face while he answers. There is no recording. After the 14th, the only people who know what was said are the ones who were at the table.