F is for fake: investors on why founders cry Ivy League

In July, Tech in Asia broke the story on how Anne Cheng, a Singaporean entrepreneur and AI startup founder, fabricated her doctorate from Stanford University. It marked the fourth time this year that we had questioned education-related claims made by founders in Southeast Asia.

The three prior instances involved founders from different industries. Vizzio CEO Jon Lee’s University of Cambridge Ph.D. proved to be a sham, and he later stepped down from the Singapore-headquartered AI firm.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Various online sources cited that Moehammad Ichsan, CEO of Indonesia-based waste management startup Octopus, has a master’s in business from the University of California at Berkeley, but Tech in Asia could not find any records indicating that.

We also could not confirm whether Amir Ali Salemizadeh, CEO of Qatar-based investment firm JTA, has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University as he claims. JTA led the series D round of Investree, a peer-to-peer lender focused on Indonesia.

For sure, the “fake it till you make it” culture is not entirely exclusive to the region. Silicon Valley has had its fair share of startup founders who have extensively stretched the truth. After all, it wasn’t too long ago when Elizabeth Holmes of US biotech startup Theranos was all the rage, only to be unmasked as a fraud.

Dropouts are also celebrated over there. Big Tech bigwigs like Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg were touted as prime examples of founders who didn’t need higher education to find success.

Yet in the relatively nascent Southeast Asian startup scene, is it worth it for founders to fabricate degrees from illustrious institutions?

Prestigious degrees = a proxy for experience?

Several investors interviewed for this story told Tech in Asia that during the due diligence process, they focus more on the startup’s financial performance and often do not verify the founder’s educational background.

While an Ivy League education isn’t a primary criterion for investment, some believe it can enhance a founder’s visibility and increase their chances of securing a pitch meeting.

A founder who attended an Ivy League institution “shows they have ambition and drive because getting into these schools can be tough,” says Joash Lee, venture partner at investor community VNTR Capital.

Investors like Lee agree that for startups in sectors where products are rooted in scientific research, a founder’s educational background may play a more pivotal role.

For example, “in verticals like advanced manufacturing, biotech, and climate tech, you would want a founder who understands what they’re doing,” Lee adds.

Data from Tech in Asia shows that between 2014 to 2024, only 16 out of the 92 unicorn founders in Southeast Asia graduated from an Ivy League school. More than half also graduated from an institution outside their home country.

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