02-14. There is a room on the second floor of the Unicorn Building, if you walked past it, you would probably mistake it for just another office.
White tables. A sole Bloomberg Terminal humming quietly in the corner. Coffee cups that never seemed to stay empty for very long. Wires snaking across desks. Half-finished company one-pagers left open on someone’s laptop screen. A whiteboard carrying ideas that would (hopefully) translate into alpha-generating investment theses.
To most people, it was Unit 02-14. To me, however, it slowly became something different. A place where I would find curiosity if it were to have an address.
Every Monday and Friday, the team and I gathered for training sessions. Actually, calling it ‘training’ almost feels misleading to me now. I had expected PPT slides and structured lessons coming my way. Instead, I got the opportunity to participate in such rich conversations. One moment, Julian, Senior Investment Lead, would be sharing why, when AI can think but not want, the questions you ask become the last thing that’s scarce. Before I had even finished writing down the point and how I should learn from it, we were somehow talking about Nietzsche. The next would be about Hyperliquid and Bitcoin. Then AI. Then fitness and health philosophies. Then Mongolia and Julian’s travel experience there. These conversations simply flowed because every subject somehow or the other connected back to the central question which was the pattern I saw emerging: How do thoughtful and curious people think?
Julian spent more than two decades as an institutional portfolio manager. That experience certainly shined. But what grounded all of us interns more was that his curiosity has survived success. He still asked questions. Like curious kids do. Still experimented with new AI tools before most people had heard of them. Still became excited over obscure market structures. Still shared travel photographs with the same enthusiasm as significant investment charts. These served as poignant reminders to me. To travel while we’re still in the capacity to explore fully. To collect and cherish experiences before significant responsibilities come our way. He once told us that looking back, time has become more valuable than money. And this sentence stayed with me since then.
On the contrary, Mr Seow Kek Wee, our Chief Investment Officer, taught differently. Given that Julian expanded the way we thought, Mr Seow quietly shaped the way we behaved and conducted ourselves. His lessons arrived in the most ordinary of moments. One evening, I admitted that I hadn’t properly documented a process another colleague had explained. It was an honest mistake. His response was simple. Far from what I’d expected. “Always assume people will only teach you once. Write things down. Ask questions immediately, and don’t rely on memory.” I found it difficult to believe that he wasn’t angered or annoyed. But gave me advice about taking complete responsibility, even in that moment. So, the assumption was that one’s future competence is one’s own responsibility. And that nobody owes one a second explanation. I think about that life lesson surprisingly often.
Even the office itself developed its own personality. There was always somebody presenting. Somebody wrestling with Bloomberg. Somebody trying to finish one more one-pager before the day ended. Somebody inevitably asking, ‘Are you done using Bloomberg?’. The Bloomberg Terminal quickly rose to governing significant authority over us interns. Thomas and Lincoln both somehow possessed an almost supernatural ability to already be using it whenever anyone else on the team needed it. It became an office joke that Thomas even monopolized it. But the Bloomberg Booking Sheet prevented Bloomberg diplomacy from Bloomberg warfare. Also, on another note, this could sound hopelessly nerdy to everyone else outside 02-14 but starting to use ASKB Bloomberg AI changed our morning workflow almost overnight. News summaries and market outlooks became much sharper, and prompt engineering quietly became another skill. Inside 02-14, this felt like discovering electricity.
Now, on the team. It seemed to always actively invest in sharing rather than gatekeeping knowledge. Every presentation or conversation invited inclusion, and of course, questions. Well, when I later asked them about their experience a common thread emerged despite all of us covering different sectors. So, here it is, in their own words:
Gracie (Investment Research Analyst, Sector: Financials): I truly felt honored to be able to work under the guidance of Julian and Kek Wee! From the weekly meetings to sharing of opinions on company news from various sectors, I have absorbed a lot of precious knowledge coming from their expertise. Being able to receive feedback from them directly has also been very helpful whenever I encounter difficulties in completing my tasks, especially since the team has made it a conducive environment to discuss thoughts and voice questions!
Thomas (Investment Research Analyst, Sector: Industrials): I really appreciate the training I’ve received under Julian and Kek Wee, whose guidance has shaped both my skills and my way of thinking. Their patience in explaining not just the method but also the rationale behind each decision has given me a foundation I continue to build on every day. They challenged me to think more rigorously, held me to a higher standard, and generously shared hard-won lessons that would have taken me years to learn on my own. I will always be thankful for their investment in my growth.
Radu (Investment Research Analyst, Sector: Healthcare): I have learned an incredible amount from both Julian and Kek Wee over the past two months. Through their mentorship, I’ve been able to take my high-level interest in the stock market and translate it into tangible, rigorous investment theses that can be directly applied in practice. It is rare to find mentors who are willing to break down complex market dynamics step-by-step, but their patience and continuous guidance have been invaluable. They are actively molding me into a more confident professional, and I feel vastly more prepared to enter the finance workforce thanks to their support.
Aanya (Investment Research Analyst, Sector: Consumer Staples): A typical day in the office started with catching up on the latest Bloomberg updates before diving into work, with plenty of learning along the way. Between Julian’s post-meeting stories, coffee runs to PLQ, Jeriel’s witty remarks, and Pamela dropping by, it was these little moments and people that made every day enjoyable.
Remarkably similar conclusions, no? Well, the real curriculum was never sector-specific but a way of thinking for all of us. People sometimes describe investing as learning to understand companies. I beg to differ that’s true anymore. At least to me. Companies are simply collections of people, and markets collections of decisions. Every investment thesis hence depends upon understanding how human beings behave under uncertainty. Perhaps that’s why our conversations so often wandered beyond finance. To become a better investor, one must first become a better observer of oneself, of trade-offs, of people. Overall, 02-14 and its people simply made growing feel like the most natural aspect of my journey at Unicorn.
