OM DENNE EPISODE
Tony Tjan is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Cue Ball – a private investment firm based in Boston – and the CEO and Co-Founder of MiniLuxe, a personal care and lifestyle brand that seeks to transform the nail care industry. With a focus on purpose-driven long-term investments, Cue Ball has committed more than 50% of its capital for women-led, inclusionary ventures, most notably MiniLuxe, whose company’s core purpose is to empower and enrich lives through self-care and self-expression. The company is achieving this through medical-grade hygiene standards, safe products, an employee-first model, and a data-driven and predictive booking platform for beauty professionals.
As a multiple-time founder and a trusted strategic counsellor to numerous CEOs, leaders and entrepreneurs, Tony is known for driving business transformations and for his human-centric, multidisciplinary approach. His professional and personal focus is to use capital and entrepreneurship as a force for good.
Tony is also a prominent author and speaker, having written 125 articles for the Harvard Business Review, the author of Good People and co-author of Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck (a New York Times bestseller and one of Fast Company’s ‘Best Business Books’ of the year). Tjan holds AB and MBA degrees from Harvard University, where he served as a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government. He sits on the Advisory Council for the MIT Media Lab and is board member The Tory Burch Foundation that focuses on empowering the next generation of women entrepreneurs. In 2018, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
During this episode, we discuss:
- What inspired Tony to start his entrepreneurial journey
- How he uses entrepreneurship and capital for good
- When he started MiniLuxe
- How he balances between MiniLuxe and Cue Ball
- His investments he’s been proud of
- Tony’s full circle moment of working in self care
- What it was like to start his fund
- The flexibility of doubling down on what’s real
- What he looks for when finding potential
- How he learned from investments that didn’t work out
- What’s next for MiniLuxe throughout 2026
- Where Cue Ball is going in the next year
- His advice for getting into private investment
- What he’s learned through being a franchisor
And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things private investment!
