A licence is a set of promises. The systems have to keep them.
AugmentumLucens is Sean Tan’s advisory practice in Hong Kong: technology, operations and governance for licensed financial firms and growth companies, from someone who runs them for a living.
Regulators don’t inspect intentions. They inspect the gap between what the manual says and what the systems do. That gap is my job.
Three disciplines. One operating model.
In a small licensed firm, most problems sit between departments. The technology works, the process works, the manual reads well, and none of them describe the same firm. I work across all three.
Technology
Architecture and vendor choices. Build and integration on a stack a team of ten can run. AI in production, with the oversight an inspector will ask for.
Operations
Onboarding, KYC and professional investor assessment, the CRM, reporting, and the data behind them. Client and fund operations that run on the day they are supposed to.
Governance
Policies that describe the firm as it is. Manager-In-Charge oversight, inspection readiness, cybersecurity review, and the climate and ESG disclosures that now sit in the same file.
Some firms need the seat itself. For those I take fractional CTO and COO positions: a named, accountable executive for a few days a month, with the Manager-In-Charge designation where the licence calls for one.
Three rules, in order
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Listen first.
I start inside the firm, with the licence conditions in one hand and the team’s working week in the other. The difference between them is the brief.
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Simplify.
Fewer systems, clearer owners, less to maintain and less to explain. Every extra tool is another line in the questionnaire.
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Ship.
Working increments that go live and stay live. The board sees progress at the next meeting, and so does the inspector.
Sector experience
Work across investment management, fiduciary services, payments, fintech and family offices.
AugmentumCRM
The CRM I built because none of the others knew what a professional investor was.
Onboarding, professional investor assessment, KYC workflow, the product universe and every interaction in one system. An AI layer reads the meeting notes and drafts the summary, the concerns and the next actions; a person approves them before they are saved.
Essays that show their sources.
AI, markets and the companies in between. Every figure has a date and a source.
Start with a conversation.
Two or three sentences about the firm and the problem is enough. I read every message and reply myself. If it is a fit, the first step is a two-week diagnostic and a written assessment. If it is not, I will say so and suggest who to ask instead.