Boutiques, the Minor Prophets of Today

Friday, 20th February 2026

Regular readers of my blog will note that I usually blog about spiritual matters.

But today, God has placed in my heart to blog about something more secular in nature.  He destined me away from following the footsteps of my dad, who in his latter years said, "Son, it is better for you to be a good accountant than a bad doctor".  (I do not believe he was not referring to a certain Goh Jr who ventured into routes made of silk because he said that to me sometime in the early 2000s, unless dad was a prophet haha). 

So for today, and today only, please indulge me to put on my accountant's hat.

Many of us have this habit of "jumping on the bandwagon".  We "follow the crowd" and take pride that we drive the latest Tesla, or bought the latest iPhone 17 Plus Pro, or use the latest Lab Putter.

I myself am guilty of 2 of the above.

But what God has placed in my heart recently is that there is a place for what are known as the "boutiques" of the world. Read on.

The word "boutique" originated from the Greek word for "storehouse" but has morphed into the French word for "small shop".

A fellow colleague of mine from legacy Price Waterhouse went on to work for DBS corporate finance in the late 1990s.  After that, a handful of them came out to form a boutique fund management company, offering the same expertise as the big boy yet at a fraction of the cost.  His boutique helped to take many local SMEs public, including BreadTalk, Old Chang Kee and Soup Restaurant, just to name but a few.

Just last month, my wife and I attended a talk conducted by a rather large bank and I noticed an intentional focus and shift towards what is commonly known as "private markets". The bank even invited its partners in the private market space to set up booths, and for some reason God only knows, I took selfies in front of Blue Owl, KKR, and even BlackRock and Pimco (yes, the latter two have jumped onto the private market bandwagon).

Frankly speaking, I had only heard of Blue Owl that evening (which goes to show I am not really well-versed). But everyone will have heard of it today because it just made the headlines for the wrong reasons, viz:

Those close to me got a bit concerned because we are currently very, very exposed in the private credit space.

But the difference is this. We have invested not via a big boy like Blue Owl or KKR but via yes, a boutique player, which we will not mention the name of because it wants to remain so and its existence is known very much by word of mouth.

While they are seemingly in the same space, their investment strategies are like chalk and cheese.

The big boys take in tens of billions of dollars and have no choice but to deploy them into hundreds of private companies, hoping that one in ten will turn out to be a unicorn with maybe a 10x ROI to more than cover the other 9 that go belly-up. Many a times, it is a win-lose outcome.

The boutique takes in at most a hundred million dollars from investors.  They carefully select which company to partner with (yup partner with, not invest in), and run the race alongside them to the finishing line of going public, and even beyond! It is a win-win-win for the private company, the boutique and the investor.

Thank God for boutiques!

Oh ya, I cannot end this post without bringing up a biblical parallel, so please indulge me again.

Much is said about the "big boy" major prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and even Jeremiah.

But let us not forget the "boutique" minor prophets like Micah, Joel or even Malachi.  They also had a part to play in pointing us to Jesus and His finished work, Amen?

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel,

Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” Mic 5:2 (NKJV)

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams,

Your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28 (NKJV)

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house,

And try Me now in this,”Says the Lord of hosts,

“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing

That there will not be room enough to receive it. Mal 3:10 (NKJV)