Trust is the real currency of complex markets.

I'm Tony Zhao. I work as an independent strategic partner to AI-native founders — usually at the moments when market entry, partnerships, and trust need to come together.

My background is an operator's, built over more than twenty years. I've run internet products at real scale — including products serving over 100 million daily active users — and I've been through the full arc of a company's life: two companies I helped build were acquired by publicly listed companies, and I've been an early investor in several companies that went on to become unicorns.

I live between Tokyo and Silicon Valley, and my working ground runs across Japan, Greater China, and Southeast Asia — markets where relationships are infrastructure and trust is the real currency. Much of that work has been at the intersection of technology, media, and the creator economy — close enough to the ground to know that the structure behind an opportunity matters more than the introduction that opens it.

Today I work with a small number of founders and companies at a time, by design.

I know acquisitions from the seat that teaches the most: the seller's. Having been through two acquisitions by publicly listed companies from the inside, I've lived the full arc of a deal — positioning, diligence, negotiation, and the human dynamics that decide whether a transaction actually closes.

Today I also work on the buy side, helping acquirers search globally for the right targets. That search network runs deepest in Southeast Asia — Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia — where my working relationships center on M&A and distribution.

Behind every serious opportunity there is a map: who actually decides, what trust is missing, where leverage sits, and what sequence makes a path real. I spend my time on that map — before anyone is introduced to anyone.

I believe in accumulation over noise. Every serious conversation should leave something behind: a person, an insight, an opportunity, a method, or trust. Work that accumulates compounds; work that doesn't is just motion.

And I believe in defining roles before effort. Clarity up front — on role, attribution, and economics — is what allows a collaboration to stay generous over time.

AI is collapsing the cost of output. Code, content, analysis — even strategy documents — are becoming abundant. What does not scale with compute is judgment, alignment, and trust: knowing who to believe, who to build with, and who will still be there when the market turns.

For AI-native companies entering complex markets, the scarce asset is not another introduction. It is a relationship that carries context, timing, and mutual stake. That is the layer I work on.

My current work centers on AI-native companies entering Japan and Southeast Asia: partnerships, distribution, creator ecosystems, strategic market entry — and, where it fits, M&A.

Alongside client work, I'm building a long-term trust network across these markets — founders, operators, and investors who take the long view — so that when the right opportunity appears, the right people already know each other.