asia first · a global family founding

The frontier’s family in
Asia.

Small hosted rooms where the people building the frontier, the people running it, and the people who decide, sit at one table. AI, digital money, robots, energy, biology, space and what comes next. Kuala Lumpur first. Then Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul.

Ask for a seat

Run by Aaron Teng, former APAC CEO of Pudgy Penguins. Every application is read by a person.

10 / 10 seats H B O I B O I S B you
B builderO operatorI institutionH hostS guest of the hostyou · one open seat
02 · who sits at the table

Three kinds of people. One table.

B

Builders.

Founders across the eight fronts who ship.

  • agent-infrastructure founder
  • humanoid startup CEO
  • battery founder
O

Operators.

Senior executives inside established crypto, AI and robotics companies.

  • APAC head of an exchange
  • GTM lead at a model lab
  • country manager for a robotics maker
I

Institutions.

The people who decide inside banks, conglomerates and funds.

  • digital lead at a national bank
  • innovation head at a consumer conglomerate
  • portfolio manager at a sovereign or private fund

Founding members do not pay. They are the reason the room exists.

03 · eight fronts

Eight fronts.

The frontier is wider than any one industry. Rooms are themed by front, so the right decision-makers meet the right builders.

  1. 01

    AI and agents

    Models, agents that do real work, the compute and data behind them

  2. 02

    Digital money

    Stablecoins, tokenised assets, on-chain settlement, prediction markets

  3. 03

    Physical AI

    Robots, humanoids, drones, autonomous vehicles, industrial automation

  4. 04

    Energy

    Nuclear and small reactors, batteries, grids built for data centres

  1. 05

    Biotech and longevity

    Diagnostics, new medicines, gene and cell therapy, healthspan

  2. 06

    Space and earth

    Satellites, low-earth-orbit connectivity, earth sensing, climate data

  3. 07

    New manufacturing

    Factories re-tooled with AI, robots and sensors; semiconductors; materials

  4. 08

    Human interfaces

    Wearables, glasses, voice, brain-computer interfaces

Started with AI, digital money and physical AI. The rest as the rooms demand it.

If the people who decide will have to decide about it within five years, it is frontier.

04 · how a room works

Ten seats. One host. One rule.

  1. 01

    The host sets a theme. Each room has one front. A room about physical AI seats a robotics founder next to a factory owner next to a fund manager who has to decide about automation. One frontier company is the host’s guest for the evening and pays for the dinner.

  2. 02

    The host seats ten people on purpose. Builders, operators and institutions in balance, chosen for that theme. One table, so everyone is in one conversation.

  3. 03

    Nobody pitches. What the guest company builds is part of the conversation, not a presentation.

  4. 04

    Introductions happen after, and only when asked. The concierge follows up with each guest. A meeting is arranged only when both people say yes.

Every introduction is asked for first. Nobody, ever, buys the member list.

05 · between rooms

The concierge.

After each room, a concierge keeps track of what every member is building, backing and looking for. When two members should meet, it asks both of them, in a private message, before anything else happens. No cold intros, no member directory to scrape, no forwarding your details. In each city a host you already know makes the introductions in person.

membermember both say yes concierge
06 · cities
100°E110°E120°E 10°N20°N30°N KULSINBKKSEL

Where the family meets.

  • KULKuala LumpurSeptember 2026first room
  • SINSingaporeOctober 2026
  • BKKBangkokplanned
  • SELSeoulplanned

Want to host a city? Write to us.

07 · founding members

Founding members.

Four founding rooms, forty seats, across Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Names appear only with each member’s consent.

08 · questions

Questions.

Does it cost anything?
Founding members pay nothing. Each dinner is paid for by the host’s guest company. A membership fee may come later, for later members, once the rooms have proven their worth.
Who decides who gets a seat?
The host of each city, with the concierge’s notes. Every application is read by a person. We say no often and kindly.
Will my details be shared?
No. No company, guest or otherwise, ever receives the member list. An introduction is only made after you say yes.
What is expected of me?
Show up to the rooms you accept. Reply to the concierge. Be generous with what you know.
Where does this come from?
frontier.family is run by Aaron Teng, former APAC CEO of Pudgy Penguins, who writes in public about frontier technology and Asia at aaronteng.com.

Ask for a seat.

Tell us what you are building, backing or deciding, and which city you are in.

Ask for a seat Host a city