Tangent 9
The operating system for a business with no back office.
28 Sep 2026 - Tan Han Kiong
The signals
The economics of work are changing.
One view of the future
“Money won’t matter in 2036.”
Elon Musk
Interviewed by The Economist, August 2026
The policy conversation
“Some sort of UBI, some sort of lifelong learning mechanism as well so people can retrain.”
Lord Jason Stockwood
UK Minister for Investment, Financial Times, February 2026
97,006
US job cuts announced in May 2026, the highest May total since 2020
40%
of the cuts were attributed by employers to AI
87,714
AI-attributed cuts announced Jan–May 2026, versus 54,836 in all of 2025
Job-cut data: Challenger, Gray and Christmas, 4 June 2026. US announced cuts; the reason is self-reported by the employer.
The shift
More people are choosing to work independently
5.67M
US business applications filed in 2025, an all-time high and 62% above 2019.
39%
of US workers surveyed had done some freelance work in 2026.
179K
Singapore residents whose main job was running a one-person business, up from 169,000 in 2024.
Sources: US Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics; Upwork Future Workforce Index, surveyed March to April 2026, n=2,400; Singapore Ministry of Manpower Labour Force Survey 2025.
The gap
Building software got dramatically cheaper and faster.
Running a business didn’t.
What got easier
A shopping centre operating platform covering tenant services, customer engagement and day-to-day operations.
49 apps. 8 agents. Three interfaces. One person. A few weeks.
A year ago, this would have required a much larger team and several months.
What didn’t
Winning customers.
Delivering consistently.
Managing cash flow.
Keeping customers coming back.
The operational burden of running a business remains.
Our vision
AI should expand what people can do.
Our goal is to give smaller businesses greater capability today, while building an ecosystem that connects businesses and consumers over time.
The opportunity
Small businesses are under increasing pressure to operate efficiently, win customers and stay resilient. TINA addresses this through the two goals below.
Goal 01
Give every business the capabilities of a larger organisation
AI workers and business tools that are accessible and affordable. People bring the judgement, relationships and expertise. TINA handles the operational work.
Goal 02
Build an ecosystem where businesses grow and consumers connect
Businesses gain new ways to be discovered, serve customers and grow. Consumers get one place to discover, connect with and use the businesses and services around them.
TINA
The operating system for a business that has no back office.
The product
TINA is the shared environment for your AI workforce.
Built for business users, not developers.
01
The conversation
Your people and AI agents work together in one familiar chat. Every agent operates within the permissions of the person giving the instruction.
02
The tools
Everything a business needs to get work done.
CRM · Leads and opportunities · Appointment booking · Digital business card · Workflow automation · Expense tracker, all included from day one, so a business gets value immediately.
03
The ecosystem
Businesses can build, offer and sell apps through the marketplace, while consumers discover the products and services they need.
A tool solves a problem. A marketplace creates opportunities.
Live
One email in. One order out.
A Singapore food distributor. One salesperson. Watch what he does, but mostly watch what he does not have to do.
After the demo
What you just saw
01
It spotted the missing detail
The customer said which day she wanted the goods, but not what time. Rather than guess, it picked a slot inside her delivery hours and put that in the quote.
02
It ran the checks before anyone asked
Credit limit, stock on hand and contract pricing, all verified while the quote was being written. The three lookups a salesperson does by hand, or skips.
03
It waited for a person to say yes
The agent wrote the quote. Our salesperson read it and approved it. The prices came from her contract, not from the AI.
04
The order created itself
She emailed back to say yes, and the order was created straight from the quote. Nobody typed it in again.
Where the gaps are
Three gaps TINA is built to close
Most AI tools still leave important gaps when businesses need AI to do real work, safely and as part of a team.
01
AI for teams, not just individuals
Most AI tools are built for one person at a time. TINA lets people and AI agents work together in the same conversation, with shared context, roles and responsibilities.
02
Governed AI without an IT project
Small businesses still need permissions, approvals and accountability, but they should not need an enterprise IT team to set them up. TINA builds these controls into the platform from the start.
03
AI across the whole workflow
Today AI sits inside individual apps while people still carry information between them. TINA connects the workflow, so AI can follow the work from conversation to data, documents, approvals and action.
Our own LLM gateway, ORCA, is Singapore-hosted, model-agnostic and IMDA-aligned, so governance holds whichever model runs underneath.
Market
Singapore has a large and highly concentrated SME market.
That is why TINA starts here: a concentrated business entry point before broader public and enterprise use.
369.5K
Singapore SMEs in 2025
78,146
business formations in 2025
~99.6%
SMEs as a share of all enterprises
Why this matters
A dense SME market gives TINA a focused starting point to acquire businesses, prove repeatable workflows and expand through each business into more users.
Source: Singapore Department of Statistics, Enterprise Landscape by SMEs and Non-SMEs, 2025; SingStat business formation data.
Market opportunity
A focused entry into a large market.
TINA starts with SMEs in Singapore, proves a repeatable model, then expands across Southeast Asia and into broader consumer use cases.
TAM · Southeast Asia
~S$15B
The market TINA can ultimately serve
Businesses, households and individuals across Southeast Asia, as TINA expands from an AI workforce into a broader platform ecosystem.
SAM · Singapore
~S$665M
Our initial addressable market
369.5K SMEs at ~S$1,800 per year.
SOM · Singapore
~S$7.2M
Our realistic revenue target
Around 4,000 paying customers, about 1% of Singapore SMEs.
Bottom-up market sizing
TAM: ~7M digitally ready businesses × ~S$1,800/year + ~7.5M digitally ready households × ~S$360/year
SAM: 369.5K Singapore SMEs × ~S$1,800/year = ~S$665M
SOM: ~4,000 customers × ~S$1,800/year = ~S$7.2M
Go-to-market · Beachhead
Start narrow. Then scale wide.
Build distribution through businesses first, before expanding into the broader consumer market.
First · SMEs
Acquire through partners, existing relationships, MVP conversions and grant-supported deployments rather than broad paid marketing.
Land with the business. Prove the value. Build repeatable use cases.
Next · Consumers
Businesses and communities introduce TINA to employees, customers, residents, families and individuals.
Broader consumer adoption follows once TINA has established useful, recurring reasons for people to engage with the platform.
Then · Enterprise + region
As TINA builds proven workflows, governance and reference customers, we expand into larger organisations.
Regional resellers and partners extend distribution into new markets.
Vertical validation
One platform. Multiple industries.
Customer demand and partner opportunities are already taking TINA into different vertical workflows.
Vertical
Use case
Opportunity
Warehouse and e-commerce fulfilment
Inventory, order processing, fulfilment and delivery operations
Yenisei Express (Proposal submitted)
Food distribution and delivery
Sales enquiry, order capture, stock checks, quoting and delivery coordination
Polar Puffs & Cakes (Proposal submitted)
Oriental Food (Price negotiation)
Retail and shopping centres
Customer engagement, loyalty, tenant services and mall operations
Tasek Central Shopping Mall, JB (Product demo)
Condominium and property management
Resident services, operations, facilities and service workflows
Accrete Technology (POC)
Each new vertical reuses the same agent, workflow and governance foundation, reducing the cost and time to enter adjacent markets.
Revenue Rails
Start with SaaS. Grow into a platform economy.
Recurring subscriptions create the base. Usage, marketplace and transaction revenue expand as adoption grows.
01 Subscriptions
Predictable recurring revenue
Core subscription plans for businesses, teams and users.
02 AI usage
Revenue grows with usage
Customers top up or move to higher tiers as AI consumption increases.
03 Marketplace
Earn from every app sold
TINA takes a share of mini-app subscription and marketplace revenue.
04 Resellers
Scale through channel partners
Regional partners distribute TINA under reseller or revenue-share models.
05 Payments
Earn when commerce happens
Transaction fees as TINA-powered apps facilitate payments and commerce.
06 Mini-app builder
Monetise creation on the platform
Usage and hosting revenue as customers and partners build their own apps.
Roadmap
From product to platform to ecosystem
Prove demand. Expand the platform. Build the ecosystem. Scale distribution.
Q4 2026
Prove the model
Initial paying customers
Launch TINA for SMEs
Convert the existing customer pipeline
Launch subscriptions and usage billing
Validate partner-led distribution
Q1 2027
Open the platform
Partner-built apps
Mini App Builder with managed hosting
TINA SDK and reusable agent capabilities
Permissions and governance managed by the platform
Faster partner and customer app delivery
Q3 2027
Build the ecosystem
Marketplace transactions
Grow the Mini App Marketplace
Businesses and service providers join
Embedded commerce and payments*
Businesses, consumers and agents connect
Q1 2028
Regional + Enterprise
Regional distribution
Regional reseller networks
Local data residency options
Enterprise security and compliance
Expand into larger organisations
Each stage builds on the same core platform, adding new revenue, distribution and network effects without rebuilding the foundation.
*Commerce and payments are subject to legal and regulatory review.
Defensibility
Why this is hard to copy
None of these is a patent. They are structural, which is why they hold.
01
The tools are the channel
Free business tools give us a practical way to reach customers that traditional sales teams may not reach efficiently. This gives us a lower-cost route to customer acquisition than relying only on a conventional sales-led model.
02
The ecosystem compounds
Every vertical reuses the same agents, workflow engine and governance, so we do not start from scratch each time. As we enter more markets we reuse what we have already built, while adding apps, integrations and partners that strengthen the platform for the next one.
03
Built around different economics
Most incumbents are optimised for selling more software seats. TINA is built to earn as customers use AI, apps and transactions across the platform. The technology can be copied. Changing the economics of an established software business is much harder.
Traction
From validation to commercial launch.
TINA builds on earlier market validation, with the core platform now complete, prototypes and POCs developed from real industry requirements, active commercial opportunities across target verticals, and partner-led routes to scale.
01 · Product readiness
Core TINA platform completed
The core TINA platform is complete and being prepared for launch.
Its design was shaped by two MVPs built in Q2 2026 and validated with industry experts and businesses.
02 · Commercial validation
Four industry prototypes shaped by real business requirements
Developed from live customer and partner use cases, then used in demos, proposals and commercial discussions.
03 · Strategic ecosystem discussions
Lowering the barrier to trial
Discussions are underway with Singtel Digital InfraCo and Google around AI token support for customer trials, reducing the upfront cost of adoption.
04 · Partner-led scale
Building sector expertise and routes to market
Solutions4U — reseller network for Southeast Asian expansion.
Accrete Technology — AI condo platform replacing its legacy product.
Ascentis — talks to reach its 100+ mall customers.
Faest AI — AI messaging partner and Mini App developer.
The next milestone
Building the engine for growth
Raising S$2M to turn early product and market validation into a scalable commercial model.
01 · Commercial
Build repeatable customer and revenue growth
Generate and convert new SME opportunities across the first proven verticals, while building toward ~S$7.2M annual revenue by Year 5 through subscriptions, AI usage and platform revenue.
02 · Platform
Build the platform ecosystem
Launch the Mini App Builder, partner tools and marketplace foundation so customers and partners can build and extend TINA.
03 · Regional expansion
Scale through partners and new markets
Establish repeatable acquisition in Singapore, then expand through selected regional reseller and partner channels.
04 · Enterprise readiness
Build trust for larger customers
Achieve the security, governance and compliance readiness required for enterprise adoption, including recognised certifications and stronger deployment controls.
This raise is designed to prove repeatable growth, expand the platform, enter new markets, and achieve enterprise readiness.
Team
The capability to take TINA from product to platform
Founder and product lead
Tan Han Kiong
For more than two decades, Han Kiong has built technology that helps businesses operate better, from enterprise systems and SaaS platforms to CRM, commerce and large-scale digital transformation. He has led product and engineering teams at ST Engineering, SPH Media, Ascentis, Ogilvy and Avanade, across both large enterprises and growing businesses in Asia. TINA brings capabilities once available only to companies with large technology teams within reach of every business.
Certified Enterprise Architect · ITIL 4 Practitioner · Advanced Scrum Product Owner · Registered Management Consultant
Head of engineering
Hmu
Left medical school to pursue software engineering, and has since spent more than 15 years designing and building cloud systems for high-traffic enterprise workloads. Owns TINA’s platform architecture: multi-tenant isolation, horizontal scaling and durable job processing. Built the first version of TINA end to end.
Commercial and partnerships
Augustine Ler
A serial entrepreneur with two exits, and a commercial leader across telecoms, enterprise software and digital platforms, including iPass and Syniverse. Owns commercial strategy, enterprise acquisition and the partner rails.
Most new businesses will not fail because the idea was bad.
They will fail because of everything that comes after the idea.
That is the part we are building.