Before he ever hit “publish” on a newsletter, Michael Fritzell spent 15 years inside the global finance machine — working in investment banking, buy-side funds, and eventually managing money for a wealthy family in Singapore. A European native who studied Chinese at Peking University and later worked on the ground in Shanghai, he built a rare specialty: identifying overlooked equities across China and Southeast Asia long before most Western investors paid attention..
In 2021, he walked away from that career path and launched Asian Century Stocks, a paid newsletter focused on deeply researched reports about undercovered Asian companies. What began as a risky bet in an expensive city has since grown into a roughly $180,000–$190,000 annual recurring revenue business built almost entirely on subscriptions.
In an interview, he explained how he went from anonymous finance professional to six-figure recurring revenue newsletter operator, why he ultimately left Substack for Ghost, and what it takes to monetize serious financial research in a tightly regulated industry.
Let’s jump into it…
Building a Rare Skill Set on the Ground in Asia
Fritzell’s edge didn’t come from branding or media savvy — it came from geography and language.
After studying finance in the UK, he moved to China and immersed himself in Mandarin at Peking University. “During that year, I spent almost the full year speaking nothing but Chinese,” he recalled. “At the end of it, I started dreaming in Chinese.”
That immersion gave him unusual access. He joined a Luxembourg-based mutual fund investing in Asian equities, including locally listed Chinese A-shares at a time when foreign participation was still limited. His job was to analyze companies in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen and determine where the fund should be positioned long term..
Later, he moved to Singapore to work for a Swedish family office managing roughly $1 billion in assets, much of it allocated to Southeast Asia. He traveled throughout Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, meeting management teams and evaluating opportunities.
Over time, he noticed something: these markets were thinly covered and often ignored by global capital.
“These markets are very niche,” he said. “Nobody else really cares about these stocks.”
That neglect would eventually become his opportunity.
Paywall incoming…
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