Amin Nordin
Operator, builder, sell-side M&A advisor for SEA founders.
Three markets.
Nothing alike.
I run Papertoaster, a sell-side M&A advisory for SEA SMEs in the SGD 1M–30M EV range. My deal flow sits across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia — three markets that get lumped together as "Southeast Asia" but behave nothing alike, which is a large part of why founders come to me for cross-border transactions.
Before Papertoaster, I spent a decade in the operator seat. I built Qiscus, a messaging platform, from zero as CEO — the company is now estimated at ~$55M in valuation. I grew Octifi, a fintech, and helped grow it to a $26M acquisition. I've held Head of Growth or GTM roles at Vybes (Sequoia Surge-backed influencer commerce), Maxis (telco), AhaSlides (SaaS), Levels Group (fintech), and Helperchoice. Between companies I've built and companies I've advised, I've been part of four exits — Qiscus and Octifi are the public ones.
Fifteen years,
on the record.
Companies built, grown, and sold — as CEO, as operator, and as advisor.
| Papertoaster | Sell-side M&A | Founder · 2024– | |
| Lustre | E-commerce | Acquired, undisclosed | Advisor/Growth · 2025–2026 |
| Pullupstand | Printing | Acquired, undisclosed | Advisor/Growth · 2024–2025 |
| Spears Security | Manpower | Acquired $5M | Advisor/Broker · 2023–2024 |
| AhaSlides | SaaS | Growth/Builder · 2022–2024 | |
| Helperchoice | Maid Agency | Growth/Builder · 2022 | |
| Octifi | Fintech | Acquired $26M | Growth/Builder · 2021–2022 |
| Vybes | Influencer Commerce | $1M raised, Sequoia Surge | Growth/Builder · 2019–2021 |
| Maxis | Telco | GTM · 2017–2019 | |
| Levels Group | Fintech | Growth/Builder · 2015–2017 | |
| 1.618 Pte Ltd | Software Agency | CEO · 2013–2015 | |
| Qiscus | Messaging | Valuation est. ~$55M | CEO · 2011–2015 |
Peer, not process manager.
Founders who've spent five, ten, twenty years building something don't need a process manager. They need someone who understands what they're actually selling, what a buyer will pay for it, and how to protect them through the negotiation. That's why my engagements look more like an operator working with the founder than a banker running a process.
I'm actively in the seat, running a handful of smaller ventures under Papertoaster's umbrella. Staying in the operator seat while advising is intentional — it's what keeps my read on markets, valuations, buyer psychology, and post-deal life current. When I sit across from a founder considering their exit, I'm sitting across from them as a peer.
Hundreds of founders.
One long education.
I've mentored hundreds of founders through Founder Institute, Khazanah Nasional, and NTU (via NTUitive Ventures) — and I keep doing it for two reasons. The first is that I enjoy it: there's a particular kind of satisfaction in being in the room when a founder works out what their business actually is.
The second is more self-interested. Every founder I sit with is a live case study in a market, a model, or a failure mode I haven't seen firsthand, and mentoring is the only way I've found to accumulate hundreds of them without living through each one myself. It compounds into a sharper instinct for what makes a company scalable, sellable, and worth building — which is exactly what I'm paid to have when a founder brings me a deal.
Recent mentees