In the 1990s, Yen Liow, a hedge fund manager in New York, worked as a consultant for Bain & Co in Silicon Valley, helping the next batch of superstar companies capitalise on the emerging internet economy.

As the dotcom boom intensified, Liow worked closely with Dell Computers, then a scrappy start-up that became a household brand by selling PCs directly to consumers, circumventing the distributors relied upon by its rivals.