A conversation with Lennard Yong, Co-Founder & Group CEO of Ascentium
Why do some companies keep founders after an acquisition?
A: Founders are a unique set of individuals. After years, sometimes decades, spent solving a problem, building a product, or creating a niche, they’ve honed skills that are hard to find anywhere else. That’s why their ability to generate value is so difficult to replicate.
So, when we acquire a business, our intent is not to fold them into a rigid system. Our intent is to harness that talent. But doing that must be mutually beneficial. That’s why we apply a very specific model to ensure alignment and longevity.
How do you align founders and entrepreneurs after an acquisition?
A: It starts with financial alignment, both short-term and long-term.
When we acquire an asset, we assess the horizon of the partnership. If we see a multi-year path together, the founders reinvest by making a corresponding co-investment into Ascentium.
This creates dual alignment. In the short-term, they receive a payout for their sale, and in the long-term, they’re financially tied to Ascentium’s future success. Once financial alignment is set, the rest - brand
alignment, personal alignment, operational alignment - becomes much easier. This foundational structure is what allows us to build trust and collaboration across a broad founder community.
How do companies retain founders after acquiring a business?
A: We don’t just keep founders, we empower them.
Every acquisition brings in leaders who step into meaningful roles within Ascentium. Some take on commercial responsibilities. Others take on functional leadership. The organisation is essentially a hybrid, consisting of approximately 60–70% founder and acquired leadership and around 30–40% externally hired market talent.
This hybrid model gives us both continuity and uplift. It’s one of the biggest reasons our founders stay and thrive. They aren’t absorbed into a machine; they become captains within it.
What results can a founder-led acquisition model deliver?
A: Let me start with our own founding story.
Before Ascentium even officially launched, our first team of seven or eight people were squeezed into a tiny 300-square-foot office. We built everything ourselves, literally assembling computers on one-meter-wide tables.
Fast-forward 2 years later, we have over US$200 in revenues, operating in over 27 markets, powered by over 2,900 people.
This momentum wasn’t driven by me alone. It was powered by the founders who joined us along the way, people like George in the Middle East and K.G. in Singapore, each amplifying our presence and capability in their markets.
That’s the founders’ edge: a network of entrepreneurial operators who multiply impact across markets and business lines.
Why is a founder-led team a competitive advantage when scaling a business?
A: Ascentium is scaling at speed. What usually takes companies a decade, we’re doing in a fraction of that. When the business evolves that quickly, we need leaders who can thrive in ambiguity, who can build,
who can scale, and who can take ownership.
That’s why we use a hybridised management model. Entrepreneurs anchor us in the markets, where instincts, networks, and market-making capabilities matter, while functional specialists from diverse
backgrounds strengthen the spine of the organisation as we go from US$200m to US$500m to eventually a billion.
Some employees even tell us that Ascentium today feels like a completely different company from just 12 months ago, yet it’s still the same place. That pace of evolution requires captains, not passengers.
Conclusion
Acquisitions often slow businesses down by removing what made them strong in the first place.
Ascentium takes a different approach. It keeps founders involved, aligns them for the long term, and gives them space to continue building.
For businesses looking to scale quickly, that model offers a different way forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Scaling through acquisitions but losing momentum?
Build a structure that keeps leadership aligned and growth moving after every deal.
