The Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) Programme, part of the Strengthen Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pillar under the Enhancing Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Investments (3Ei) initiative, connects international experts with local actors to deepen technical expertise and build ecosystem resilience.
Mr. Sathis Manoharen is an executive with over two decades of experience across diverse industries and geographies. He is currently the Country Head of a USD 100 million fund and an investor and board member of a technology company focused on digital transformation and agentic AI. He is recognized for expertise in strategy, corporate finance, acquisitions, and operational excellence, and has held senior roles at MR. D.I.Y., AirAsia, Grab (MyTeksi), Accenture, and Creador, leading growth strategy, market entry, and transformation initiatives across multiple regions.
His engagement began on 16 March with a full day workshop on Operational Excellence: Managing the Levers that Drive Business Growth, co-hosted by Swisscontact and Khmer Enterprise. The workshop was designed to help founders and business owners understand operational levers that affect growth, cost efficiency, and scalability, strengthen prioritization across people, processes, and systems, and link daily operations to strategic outcomes and financial performance. The session agenda covered core operational excellence levers, key growth levers including revenue, cost, and productivity levers, execution across people, processes, and systems, and links between operations and financial performance.
The workshop was attended by 46 participants from 42 small and growing businesses (SGBs), including early-stage startups and SMEs. Participants reported improved knowledge and positive satisfaction. They considered the workshop likely to support business growth, and women entrepreneurs reported increased confidence in decision-making.
On 17 March, Sathis delivered the workshop Storytelling Your Slides for Investors in collaboration with Swisscontact and AUPP Technology Center (ATC) at the American University of Phnom Penh Technology Center. The workshop was designed to help founders build an investor ready pitch deck with an appropriate number of slides and a clear logical flow, communicate with one strong message per slide, and apply practical do and do not guidance for investor storytelling through examples. The agenda included why pitch decks fail, deck structure, communicating with precision and impact, and a group exercise on drafting and peer exchange. The workshop was attended by 10 small and growing businesses (SGBs), who expressed high satisfaction and found the content highly relevant, especially on pitch deck structure and investor expectations. Overall the workshop significantly improved their preparedness and perceived business readiness.
Following the workshop, Sathis conducted a one-to-one mentoring session with 10 startups under the ACTSmart Incubation Program, designed to deepen learning through personalized guidance and problem solving. The one-to-one mentoring continued on 18 March as a full day of tailored support for participating startups.
On 19 March, Sathis facilitated the workshop Structuring Business Strategies for early-stage Startups and SMEs at Smart Startup Space, in collaboration with Swisscontact and Smart Axiata. The workshop was designed to help founders translate vision into practical strategy, define target customers and value propositions, understand competitive positioning, and make strategic choices under resource constraints while linking strategy to execution. The agenda included translating vision into priorities, customer segmentation and value proposition development, competitive positioning, and structured reflection with peer feedback. The workshop was attended by 12 small and growing businesses (SGBs) who reported strong learning across all strategy modules. Satisfaction was consistently high, and the majority indicated clear improvement in understanding.
In the afternoon, Sathis delivered one-on-one mentoring for 3 startups under Smart support programmes, focused on deepening learning through guided discussion and feedback.
On 20 March, Sathis continued to provide one-on-one mentoring to 1 startup and 1 SME who sought support on operation, business development, and investment opportunities. This was followed by a wrap up session with the Swisscontact team, designed to provide feedback or guidance to the programme team for future improvement.
Later that day, Sathis delivered Investor Storytelling and Pitch Deck Design at Techo Startup Center (TSC), cohosted by Swisscontact and TSC. The workshop was designed to help founders structure a clear investor narrative, design a concise investor ready pitch deck, and communicate complex ideas simply and confidently. The agenda covered what investors want to hear, structuring and designing an investor ready pitch deck, simplifying complex ideas and data, and group work on drafting pitch decks and live pitching. The workshop was attended by 14 small and growing businesses (SGBs).
Sathis Manoharen’s EiR mission contributed practical frameworks on operational performance, strategic structuring, and investor communication, delivered through workshops and mentoring engagements hosted with key ecosystem partners.
The Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme is part of the Strengthen Entrepreneurship and Innovation initiative under the Enhancing Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Investments (3Ei) project. It is funded by Khmer Enterprise (KE), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and co implemented by Khmer Enterprise and Swisscontact.