Eight blocks, thirty-six articles, one curriculum
The Global Venture Playbook is the curriculum I have spent the past several years building. It was originally taught by Kasper-Tanakrit Sermsuksan at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Engineering and now are available at many instituition, and the full reading library is available online for anyone who wants to follow along, study independently, or use the structure for their own students.
This article is the index. Every block, every article, in the order they were designed to be read.
If you are a current GVP student, this is your reading roadmap. If you are a self-learner, you can work through the blocks at your own pace — Blocks B and C are the most independently useful. If you are an educator or institution evaluating the curriculum for your own program, start with Block A to understand the philosophy, then scan the objectives for each block.
The frameworks are taught not as theory, but as tools you will use on the same day you learn them.
The GVP is a practitioner-first entrepreneurship curriculum. It is built on the assumption that entrepreneurship cannot be taught from a textbook alone — it has to be learned through real conversations, real decisions, and real pressure to ship something.
Over the course of the program, students complete twelve customer interviews, one entrepreneur interview, one ASEAN friend interview, identify their own Angel Customer, build a working prototype, and deliver five progressive pitches to real audiences. The frameworks come from years of practitioner experience across Southeast Asia, the United States, and beyond — and they are designed to work the day you learn them.
The Global Venture Playbook (GVP) sits inside a three-phase journey. GVP focuses on ideation and validation. Global Venture Sprint (GVS), which begins after GVP ends, focuses on execution. Global Venture Growth (GVG), the third phase, focuses on growth and scale. Each phase is independently useful. Together, they form one of the most complete entrepreneurship journeys available in the ASEAN region.
The reading library was designed for three groups.
If you are a current GVP student, read your block's articles before each class session. Bring questions. The articles are designed to give you the foundation so that class time can go deeper.
If you are a self-learner, follow the blocks in order. Each one builds on the last. Block B teaches you to understand yourself. Block C teaches you to understand your market. Block D teaches you to design a business. Block E teaches you to find opportunities. Block F teaches you how ventures grow. Block G teaches you to tell the story. Block H closes the journey. You can register as part of the SEA Bridge NextGen Affiliates program to join our learning community.
If you are an educator or institution, start with Block A to understand the philosophy. Then read the objectives for each block. The objectives describe what students should be able to do at the end of each block, which is the only honest way to evaluate a curriculum.
Each block has a clear learning objective and a set of articles that build toward it. Below is the full reading list, in the order designed for the course.
OBJECTIVE
Students understand what entrepreneurship is — and is not — and whether it is the right path for them. They meet their instructor, learn the expectations of the course, and begin their first two interview assignments: one with a working entrepreneur, and one with a friend from another ASEAN country.
▸ Get to Know Kasper-Tanakrit Sermsuksan: Your Main Instructor
Background, experience, and the philosophy that shapes the course.
▸ Entrepreneurship Demystified: Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
The answer is yes — but not the way most universities try to teach it.
What SEA Bridge is, and why it was the last company I wanted to start.
An honest self-assessment before you commit years of your life.
▸ Global Venture Playbook: About the Course, Expectations & Learning Goals
What you will actually do, read, and deliver over the term.
▸ The Entrepreneur Interview: The Conversation That Teaches More Than a Book
Why we assign this, how to secure your first interview, and what to listen for.
▸ The ASEAN Friend Interview: Understanding the Region You Are Building In
Learn the region from the inside — one conversation at a time.
OBJECTIVE
Students develop an honest, evidence-based picture of who they are as a founder — what capital they actually have (FISHE), what role they naturally play (TeamFlow), and how their cultural background shapes their blind spots and advantages. They leave this block knowing their biggest constraint and their most underused leverage point.
▸ The Global Entrepreneurial Mindset [+ VIDEO]
A two-year journey to the most expensive lunch.
▸ TeamFlow: Your Best Role in the Innovation Team
The SEA Bridge framework for understanding which role you naturally play in a startup team.
Understand yourself through MBTI, BOSI DNA, and assessment tests — with the caveats they do not tell you.
▸ FISHE Capital × CSTO (Personal Edition) [+ VIDEO]
The personal SWOT replacement — for founders who want to know what they actually have.
Completing the roles in a startup venture.
▸ The Culture Map: Your Global Advantage (and Weakness)
Based on Erin Meyer's framework — adapted for ASEAN founders.
Why every new team feels chaotic at first — and what to do about it.
OBJECTIVE
Students stop guessing and start listening. They learn how to run customer interviews that produce signal instead of validation, and how to map the competitive reality without drowning in research. This block ends with the beginning of the twelve-interview customer discovery requirement.
▸ Market Research: Research Foundations That Work [+ VIDEO]
Primary, secondary, qualitative, quantitative — used the way practitioners actually use them.
How to run an interview that surfaces the truth.
▸ Why We Ask You to Do 12 Customer Interviews
The research, the math, and the judgment behind the number.
▸ First 10 Customers & the Secret of Angel Customer
How to find your first customers — and why convenient customers are useless.
The Milkshake Theory, applied in a Thai context.
▸ Competitive Map: The Competitive Reality Map
Finding the gap competitors cannot see.
▸ Double-Diamond & Design Thinking
Discovering and defining before developing.
OBJECTIVE
Students convert customer understanding into business structure. They learn the difference between startups and SMEs, identify who the actual customer is (not just the user), choose a business model, and complete the company-level FISHE × CSTO strategic assessment. They leave this block able to describe their business in one page without hand-waving.
▸ Startup vs. SME: What the Difference Is and Why It Matters
Two different games. Different playbooks. Pick deliberately.
Do all startups have to be tech companies? Short answer: no.
Users are not payers. Consumers are not customers. The difference costs real money.
▸ Business Models: B2C, B2B, B2B2C, D2C
What each model actually means for your daily operations.
▸ Lean Canvas & Business Model Canvas
It starts from the right — and most people fill it out wrong.
▸ FISHE Capital × CSTO (Company Edition) [+ VIDEO]
The strategic map every venture needs.
OBJECTIVE
Students zoom out from their own venture to the regional landscape. They learn how to read industry trends without getting fooled by hype, how to leverage social capital as a strategic asset, and how to design an MVP and UVP that actually differentiate. They close the block by mapping their opportunity against ASEAN, APEC, and other regional frameworks.
Go where the money is heading. Be one of the first ones.
One of the most overlooked tools for success.
People believe in what they can see and experience.
Stand out from the crowd — with clarity, not adjectives.
▸ Regional Frameworks for Growth
ASEAN, APEC, BIMSTEC, Thai-Africa Initiative.
OBJECTIVE
Students learn how ventures actually grow — through customer revenue, strategic funding, partnerships, or acquisition. They learn the metrics that matter and the growth hacks that do not. They leave this block able to articulate their funding strategy, their growth model, and their exit hypothesis in plain language.
Grants, angels, financial VCs, CVCs, debt financing, bootstrapping.
How thinking about exits can help you focus, raise funds, and grow.
Partnership, acquisition, joint venture — how you scale is a strategic decision.
▸ Metrics & Growth Hacking Tips
DAU, MAU, CAC, LTV — which matter, and when.
OBJECTIVE
Students learn that the pitch is not about them — it is about earning the next conversation. They master the structure of a working pitch, the discipline of restraint, and the Amazon 6-Page Memo as a forcing function for clarity. They close the block by delivering a pitch in front of a real audience and receiving direct feedback.
Format, structure, and the art of earning the next conversation.
▸ Why You Should Not Tell Everything at Once
The art of pitching less — why restraint wins meetings.
Writing that forces clarity.
OBJECTIVE
Students reflect on how they have changed from Day 1, build the networks that will carry them through the next decade, and decide what is next. This is the block where the course becomes a beginning, not an ending.
▸ Identity & Reflection: What Has Changed From Day 1?
Why you should care that it did.
Building long-term relationships and a global network.
How writing a letter could shape your future and lift your spirits.
Staying engaged. Keep contributing. Start building with SEA Bridge.
GVP is the first phase of a longer journey. It is also the foundation.
After GVP comes GVS — the Global Venture Sprint. Where GVP focuses on understanding yourself, your customer, and your business model, GVS focuses on building. Students from GVS work on real ventures, deliver four progressive pitch days, and develop the operational discipline that turns a validated idea into a working company. GVS is where the real cap table conversations happen, where unit economics stops being theoretical, and where students learn what it actually feels like to run a company in motion.
After GVS comes GVG — the Global Venture Growth phase. This is where ventures that have proved their model start to scale. Regional expansion, fundraising, hiring, growth strategy, and exit planning all live in GVG.
Each phase is designed to be useful on its own. Together, they form a multi-year journey that takes a student from "I have an idea" to "I am running a real company."
GVP is the foundation. GVS is the build. GVG is the scale. Each is its own course. Together they are a journey.
The full GVP curriculum is also being developed into a book. The book brings together fifteen years of practitioner experience across ASEAN into a single structured volume, expanding the articles in this reading library with deeper case studies, frameworks, and examples.
If you would like to be notified when the book launches — or if you represent a university interested in licensing the GVP curriculum for your own program — you can reach the team at team@seabridge.space.
📘 A Note for GVP Students
If You Are Reading This as a GVP Student
This article is your reading map. Bookmark it. Come back to it before each block.
Read the articles in your current block before class. Bring at least one question per article.
If you read ahead, that is fine. But the order matters — the blocks build on each other.
If you read this from outside the GVP, you are welcome to follow the same path. The articles are written to work for self-learners as well as enrolled students.
Your job is not to memorize the frameworks. It is to use them. The articles give you the tools. The work you do between articles is what turns the tools into skill.
