New marketing consultancy CoInside opens shop in Singapore

Singapore has welcomed a new marketing consultancy with the launch of CoInside, a diagnosis-first marketing strategy and go-to-market (GTM) firm founded by former Lendela head of marketing Vanessa Ng and former Golden Equator head of marcomms Szecindyo Chewandi (Chin).

Based in Singapore, the consultancy works with growth-stage and scaling businesses, helping them identify the commercial challenges underpinning their marketing before recommending whether they need an agency, an in-house hire or another solution.

CoInside offers services across commercial narrative development, growth and distribution strategy, as well as revenue expansion through product commercialisation and go-to-market planning. The consultancy said it aims to help businesses identify commercial constraints before building strategies and execution plans that are directly tied to business outcomes.

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The launch comes as businesses face tighter budgets and leaner marketing teams. According to the founders, conversations with founders and marketing leaders revealed a recurring challenge where marketing activities were failing to translate into tangible business outcomes.

"We've been fortunate to be close to the business to understand the challenges founders and marketing leaders face - marketing activities aren't translating into results. The more we talk to different businesses, we keep hearing different versions of the same thing," said Ng. 

"With layoffs, cost-cutting, and leaner marketing resources, the gap between commercial intent and marketing execution is widening. So it's even more important now to slow down enough to start diagnosing the right problem first," she added. 

According to the founders, CoInside was built on the belief that many marketing briefs are developed before the core business problem has been properly identified, resulting in businesses investing in the wrong solutions.

The consultancy is industry agnostic, working primarily with founders and senior leadership teams that are preparing to launch products, refining their go-to-market strategy or seeking senior commercial expertise without committing to a full-time hire. The consultancy's ideal clients also recognise the importance of investing time upfront to diagnose the underlying business challenge before moving into execution, said Chin. 

The founders bring experience spanning startup growth strategy, commercial communications and go-to-market execution. Prior to launching CoInside, Ng served as head of marketing at fintech startup Lendela and regional head of marketing at Workmate. She also held the role of group marketing lead at Golden Equator Group and began her career at OCBC Bank, according to her LinkedIn.

Meanwhile, Chin previously served as head of marcomms at Golden Equator and held communications roles at Edelman Singapore.

"It's easy to mistake activity for progress. We've seen businesses spend months executing beautifully on the wrong problem. By the time they realise it, they've lost more than money — they've also lost time," said Ng.

"The first brief is rarely the real brief and the diagnostic work of finding what's underneath it isn't glamorous. But it's the difference between marketing that looks good and marketing that actually works."

Chin echoed the sentiment, arguing that unclear thinking often leads to ineffective communications.

"When the thinking isn't clear, the instinct is to say more, so the messages get longer, and no one remembers them. We call it polished confusion," he said.

"Our job is to help them get the thinking right first so that everything sharpens with it; people understand the product faster, deals move, and the team stops pulling in different directions."

Since launching, CoInside has secured clients across financial services, education, non-profit and technology, working on projects spanning positioning, marketing strategy and go-to-market planning in both Singapore and overseas.

Looking ahead, the consultancy plans to remain intentionally lean, allowing clients to work directly with its founders while continuing to collaborate with partner agencies on execution, explained Chin. He added that CoInside may expand its team with additional senior hires as the business grows.

The founders also believe the rise of AI is making strategic diagnosis more important rather than less.

"AI has changed so much in just the past year, and we have incorporated it in our workflow, from building our own CRM system to AI solutions for ourselves. But through these, it reinforces our position that AI remains a tool - it doesn't replace judgment that comes from lived experience and expertise built over years of work," said Ng.

"It does raise the floor on output because everyone can generate a decent-looking deck now. So if anything, it makes the diagnostic work more valuable because the harder, more human work entails identifying the underlying problem, stress-testing it, reading the room, and building a sound solution that fits the business stage and objective, and that's where we sit," she added. 

CoInside joins a growing wave of specialist consultancies launching in Singapore as businesses seek more targeted strategic advice beyond traditional agency offerings. In recent months, boutique reputation advisory firm The Brand Imprint opened its doors to help organisations navigate reputation risks in the digital and AI era, while brand and growth consultancy MOMENTRA launched to support founders and businesses in translating strategy into commercial growth. The launches reflect a broader shift towards niche consultancies offering specialised expertise in areas such as go-to-market strategy, reputation management and business transformation.

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