Martin Tang
Martin is the Co-Founder and Partner of Genesis Alternative Ventures, where he leads the firm’s strategic vision and financial operations.
Before co-founding Genesis in 2018, Martin played a key role in establishing venture debt in Southeast Asia, helping launch DBS Venture Growth Partners. His leadership contributed to landmark deals that expanded the region's funding options for VC-backed startups
Martin’s career began at Lazard, where he advised on significant M&A, asset disposals, and restructuring transactions across Southeast Asia. He later joined Standard Chartered as a FIG banker, leading high-profile M&A, equity, and debt transactions for top Asian financial institutions. He holds a degree in Economics and Finance from Curtin University of Technology in Perth and sits on the Advisory Board of the University’s School of Accounting, Economics and Finance
Through this article, Martin Tang demystifies financial modeling, explaining it as predicting outcomes based on variables. He emphasizes that proficiency comes from iterative building, strong finance knowledge, Excel mastery, commercial acumen, and attention to detail. Tang also shares pro tips for creating usable, legible, and presentable models, highlighting clear communication as crucial.
“John is a modeling guru.” “Sally can model anything you ask her to.” Sounds familiar?
In the course of my banking career, I have met many people whose names end with “Financial Modelling Guru.” Such people always made the art of financial modeling sound like an easy task. Is it really? Perhaps some more than others. Having gone through the financial modeling crucible for years, I learned it is not a black art reserved for the select few cerebral beings/boffins.
What is Financial Modelling?
It is the process of predicting an outcome given certain variables/assumptions. For instance:
• What if this and that situation happens? How does that change a company’s cash flow or earnings?
• The potential returns of an investment based on specific entry valuation multiples, cost of capital, hold period and eventual exit multiple
• The ability of a company to repay debt based on certain assumptions of business growth
How to get good at it?
A good financial modeler would have gone through:
• Build, make mistakes, build again: Financial modeling is similar to coding- one will occasionally make mistakes or take a long road. It is essential not to give up, as one will get better over time
• Mastery of finance / subject matter or situation that needs to be modeled
• Translate what we see in real life/business to excel. Then, input realistic assumptions to get some “what if” answers
• Modeling in real life is very different from “textbook classroom” modeling, as there will be situations where variables are unclear, and judgment calls/adjustments need to be made.
• Sound understanding of Excel functions/shortcuts is essential
• Good commercial acumen/sense to deduce or fact-check that a model is throwing off wrong information because the back of the envelope seems too different
• It is a widespread rookie mistake to build a model and take the outputs for whatever it is
• Pay attention to detail - models could fail to give an output just because an input formula/link is not working / faulty
Pro Tips
• Anyone can build a financial model. But the pro creates a usable, legible financial model that is easy to navigate and understand. Gold standard- less is more
• A good model means that someone can take the model and drive even if the author is not around to guide
• Building a model where only the author understands it is of little value.
• A good model should have a cover page with instructions on the tabs, color codes, versions etc.
• More important than building a good model is to be able to present and walk through the financial model in a concise manner
• This means not taking the audience through every tab/cell – the big picture is key.
• If a layman can understand it, you are set!
• Build a model where the outputs can easily be copied and pasted into Word or PPT, ready to be presented to a Board or Committee.
• Big fonts that can be read—do not be stingy with virtual real estate…it is free.
