I Pitched My Deck in a Singapore VC Whatsapp Group. Wayne Wee VP from Talino Fintech Foundry Kicked Me Without a Word.

What happened when an Indonesian cloud infrastructure founder entered a Singapore investor community, shared his work, and was silently removed. No warning. No reply. Just gone.

What Happened

On a recent morning, I shared my company deck inside a Telegram investor community called VC Investor: Ask Me Anything, a group linked to Echelon and populated by Singapore-based investors and founders. The group had been used by others to share funding-related content. I posted a brief note describing Infraloka's work in cloud infrastructure, AI, and legal tech. Then, seconds after a shared LinkedIn post from the community appeared in the chat, a system message appeared at the bottom of my screen: "Wayne Wee removed you." And then: "You can't send messages to this group because you're no longer a member."

No Warning. No Message. No Reply.

There was no prior message telling me the group had a no-pitch rule. There was no warning, no DM, no moderation notice of any kind. One moment I was a member. The next I was not. The person who removed me, based on what the Telegram system log shows, was Wayne Wee, who appears in the group as an administrator.

I am not here to claim that investor communities cannot set their own rules. They absolutely can. What I am here to document is that silence, followed by a silent removal, is not a reasonable way to moderate a professional community, especially one positioned as a space where founders can ask VCs anything.

"Ask Me Anything implies a two-way street. Being removed without explanation is not an answer. It is a door being shut in your face."

Who Is Wayne Wee?

Wayne Wee describes himself on LinkedIn as a dad, founder, and investor with a focus on payments and stablecoins. His profile notes a background at Vertex Ventures, the Temasek-backed venture capital firm headquartered at Raffles City Tower in Singapore, as well as a current role at Talino Fintech Foundry, a fintech infrastructure platform building stablecoin-based payment rails for emerging markets and diaspora communities.

He is a Stanford University alumnus and is based in Singapore with over 500 LinkedIn connections. His professional identity is built around the idea of building infrastructure that matters, as reflected in his cover photo tagline "Building What Matters."

Wayne Wee

Founder and Investor | Payments and Stablecoins | Singapore

• ▶VP of Corporate Development and Strategy, Talino Fintech Foundry
• ▶Former Investment Analyst, Vertex Ventures SEA and India (Temasek-backed)
• ▶Stanford University alumnus
• ▶Previously a startup founder with NUS Enterprise incubation history
• ▶Published VC thought leadership on Vertex Ventures website (July 2022)
• ▶Focus: Pre-A to Series B, SEA and India, USD 2-8M first cheque

At Vertex Ventures, Wee wrote publicly about what founders need to know when fundraising, emphasizing the importance of founder and investor fit, the value of warm introductions, and the idea that a good VC walks with founders through the highs and lows. He noted that only 0.25% of companies Vertex spoke with ultimately received funding, and encouraged founders to keep pitching, keep building, and not see VC funding as an end in itself.

That writing paints a picture of an investor who values open dialogue and transparent communication. What happened in that Telegram group is a contradiction of that public-facing identity.

The Context: What I Was Pitching

Infraloka, the company I co-founded and lead as CEO, is a cloud infrastructure, AI, cybersecurity, and legal tech company registered in Indonesia as PT. Infrastruktur Digital Nusantara. Our product suite includes Pathway AI and Somasi as a Service, a legal tech platform for automated demand letter generation.

I shared our deck in the group because the community was described as one where investors are willing to engage. I was not flooding the group. I was not impersonating anyone. I shared one pitch, which is, to my understanding, precisely the kind of thing you do in a community called "VC Investor: Ask Me Anything."

Why This Matters Beyond One Incident

Southeast Asia's startup ecosystem is still maturing. Indonesia specifically is working to close the gap between the depth of founder talent and the access those founders have to regional capital networks. Singapore serves as the financial and VC hub for the entire region, and communities like this Telegram group are one of the few informal access points for founders outside the inner circle.

When gatekeepers remove founders without explanation, particularly founders from non-Singapore markets, it reinforces the same access inequality that makes it harder for Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Filipino startups to compete for early-stage funding on equal footing with Singapore-based peers.

"Access to capital in Southeast Asia is not just about merit. It is about proximity. And proximity is increasingly gatekept by communities that say they are open but behave otherwise."

What Should Have Happened Instead

If the Telegram group has rules against pitching, those rules should be pinned, visible, and communicated before anyone joins. If someone violates them, the appropriate response is a private message explaining the community guidelines, not a silent removal.

1. Post community rules visibly. Every moderated group should have a pinned message stating what is and is not permitted. If pitching is prohibited, say so. If pitching is welcome in certain formats only, explain that.
2. Send a warning before removing. A first violation, especially from someone acting in apparent good faith, deserves a message, not a removal. Treat founders as professionals who can understand and follow a correction.
3. Align public identity with private behavior. Publishing articles about supporting founders and then removing them without a word is a contradiction that damages the credibility of the broader investor community.
4. Acknowledge the power imbalance. Investors hold structural power in these interactions. Using that power to silence rather than redirect is a choice, and founders have every right to document and discuss it.

A Note on Documentation

I am documenting this because accountability in the startup ecosystem requires that these patterns be named when they occur. I carry no personal animosity toward Wayne Wee. What I carry is a record of what happened, a screenshot of my removal, and a belief that professional communities should be governed by the standards they claim to hold.

Talino Fintech Foundry recently closed a USD 7.5 million Series A round. Wayne Wee's professional profile is one built on access, networks, and the stated mission of building what matters. I would invite him to reflect on whether removing a founder from Southeast Asia's emerging market with zero communication is consistent with that mission.

This article documents a personal experience. All facts are based on direct observation, publicly available LinkedIn profiles, and published press releases. The author welcomes any corrections or responses.

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