Company | Driftwood Co — Founder Advisory Bangkok

Our Story

Built from firsthand experience of the early-stage fog.

Driftwood Co came out of a fairly simple observation: the early phase of building a venture is genuinely hard, and most of the support available either arrives too late or assumes a level of progress that most founders haven't reached yet.

We started working with founders in Bangkok in 2019, initially through informal conversations and introductions. Over time it became clear there was a real need for something more structured — not a big consultancy, not a startup accelerator, but a small, accessible advisory presence that could sit alongside someone through the messy early work of figuring out what they're building and how.

Today Driftwood Co works with a small number of founders at a time. We keep it that way intentionally. The work requires genuine attention, and that's hard to maintain if we're spread thin.

Mission

To provide early-stage founders with a thoughtful, non-pressured advisory presence that helps them move from uncertainty to clarity — one honest conversation at a time.

Approach

We ask honest questions, listen carefully, and help founders think things through rather than hand them answers. The best founders we've worked with do the real work themselves — we just help them see the terrain more clearly.

Values

Honesty, patience, and respect for where each founder actually is. We don't push a pace that doesn't fit. We don't sell certainty we don't have. And we don't stay in the relationship longer than it's useful.

The Team

Small by design

We keep the team small so that every founder we work with has direct access to experienced thinking — not a junior account manager.

JM

James Maitland

Founder & Lead Advisor

James spent twelve years across early-stage B2B ventures in the UK and Southeast Asia before founding Driftwood Co. He works directly with founders on sounding sessions and advisory retainers.

NP

Nattaya Prueksachat

Advisory Associate

Nattaya brings deep familiarity with the Thai business environment and supports early business setup engagements. She focuses on operational groundwork and local market context.

RP

Rohan Pillai

Operations & Client Relations

Rohan handles the practical side of how Driftwood Co operates — scheduling, client communications, and making sure every engagement runs smoothly from the first contact onwards.

How We Work

Standards we hold ourselves to

These aren't policies posted to a website. They're the actual habits and commitments that shape how we conduct our advisory work.

Confidentiality, taken seriously

What founders share in sessions stays in sessions. We don't discuss one client's situation with another, and we never use client information for any purpose outside the engagement.

Clear scope, no scope creep

Every engagement has a clear description of what's included. If a founder's needs grow beyond the scope, we discuss it openly and agree on next steps — rather than quietly expanding and invoicing later.

Honest feedback, delivered with care

Founders come to us partly to hear things they might not hear elsewhere. We make a point of sharing difficult observations — but we're thoughtful about how and when we do it.

Data and privacy protection

Personal data is handled in line with Thai PDPA requirements. We retain only what's necessary and never share or sell founder or client information to third parties.

Regular reflection on quality

We review our advisory work together as a team on a quarterly basis — looking at what's working, what isn't, and where our thinking could be sharper or more useful.

No conflicts of interest

We don't accept referral fees, commissions, or other financial arrangements that could compromise the independence of our advisory. Our income comes only from the founders we work with.

Our Perspective

What good founder support looks like, in our view

Building a venture from scratch involves a particular kind of uncertainty that's hard to describe to someone who hasn't been through it. The questions don't arrive one at a time — they pile up, interrupt each other, and resist the kind of structured thinking that business books tend to recommend. What early founders often need isn't a framework. It's a reliable place to think out loud.

The advisory work we do at Driftwood Co is shaped by that reality. Sessions are conversational rather than structured. We bring relevant experience and honest questions, but we don't pretend to know your market better than you do. The aim is always to help the founder in front of us think more clearly — not to demonstrate how much we know.

We focus specifically on the non-regulated commercial side of early ventures: how you describe and price what you're offering, how you find and talk to early customers, how you organise the basics of how the business operates. We don't provide legal, accounting, or financial services advice, and we're clear about where our scope ends.

Bangkok is a genuinely interesting place to build a business. The city has a growing early-stage ecosystem, a mix of local and international founders, and a business culture that rewards relationships and directness in roughly equal measure. We find it a good environment to do this kind of work — and we're glad to be based here.

Work With Us

If this sounds like the right kind of support, we'd like to hear from you.

A brief message about where you are and what you're building is the best place to start.

Start a Conversation

We exist to give early founders a steady place to think.