Founder f**K ups

Pav Gill blew the whistle on Wirecard. Singapore VCs still treated him like he was too local. As General Counsel for Wirecard’s Asia-Pacific region, Pav found what he wasn’t supposed to find. He spoke up, lost his job, and watched one of Europe’s biggest corporate frauds collapse. Then he built Confide, an all-in-one agentic governance, risk and compliance platform designed to replace the patchwor...

He spent thousands of ringgit on Meta ads. The leads came in, then went quiet. Maurizio Rosini spent 17 years in fashion with Prada and Gucci, rode the highs of money and fame, and came back from addiction. He now runs My Masterman, the men's circles that a thousand men have been through in four years across Kuala Lumpur, Penang and abroad. But when he took it to paid ads, he hit a wall. Men messa...

He spent 20 years assessing risk for Malaysia's banks. Then he hired his friends. Firdaus Mohamed built a career on one skill: knowing what could go wrong. Corporate strategy at Bank Islam, Zurich, Etiqa and AmBank. Credit committees. Zakat committees. Then he left to build GoBarakah, a fintech that turns donations into trackable, traceable e-vouchers, and his team went on to launch Impakrintas, M...

She hired hundreds of people. Most of them gave her one good year. Kim Lim co-founded PichaEats in 2016 with two fellow volunteer teachers, to keep refugee kids in school. Refugees can't legally work in Malaysia, so PichaEats lets refugee chefs cook from home and get paid properly for it. Ten years on, they've partnered with 45 chefs from 7 countries and fed clients like Google, AMEX and Bank Nega...

One in five startups dies of co-founder fallout. Most co-founders at least go home to different houses. Lyv and Paul go home to the same house, and the same dog. They met through a work enquiry that produced no business whatsoever. Seven years later they were married, and three months ago they opened The Contrast Club, an ice bath and sauna studio in Kuala Lumpur. So for this episode we did the wh...

In 2022, Wes Barnes had everything a Founder is supposed to need. He just had no way to build it. Wes spent 15 years in private equity. He built and sold a fund platform he had been quietly trying to make smarter with AI back in 2018, years before anyone was calling that a category. When he started again he knew the customer, because he had been the customer. He had a network that opened doors to...

In 2016, Chris J Reed was worth 67 million euros. He couldn't touch a single one of them. Chris had built Black Marketing from nothing in Singapore. Three profitable years in, one of the founders of a roll-up called The Marketing Group approached him with a plan: buy four agencies, list on the Nasdaq in Sweden, scale everybody. Chris said yes. He owned 25% of a company that hit a quarter of a bill...

Glenn Tan is co-founder and CEO of Zavior, the Singapore RegTech using AI to get teams compliance-ready on PDPA, ISO and everything buyers ask for. He is a sales and partnerships founder. So he did what almost every non-technical founder does: he left the building to the person who builds. Then the product ran badly behind, the money ran out, and his technical co-founder left. Two options. Ship fa...

Dan Gericke, co-founder of Shift Control and former CTO at Express VPN, shares his experience with AWS partnership, compliance challenges, and the impact on sales. The conversation explores the partnership mirage, compliance issues, and the importance of early sales cycles. The conversation delves into the challenges and insights of partnering with AWS and the impact on a startup's growth. It expl...

The conversation delves into the challenges of bad hiring choices, the impact of bad hires on business growth, the consequences of lowering the hiring bar, the cost of bad hires and self-doubt, overcoming hiring mistakes, rebuilding the recruitment process, assessing critical thinking and problem-solving, the importance of methodical hiring, and lessons learned for moving forward. Takeaways The im...

Lizzy Tan, co-founder of Cleve AI, shares her experience with the co-founder commitment gap and the challenges of early stage recruiting. She discusses the impact of juggling multiple responsibilities and the importance of effective communication in building successful business relationships. Takeaways Co-founder commitment gap Effective communication is key Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Co-foun...

Are you a founder constantly looking for the "next big thing"? You might be suffering from Shiny Object Syndrome. In this episode of Founder F**k Ups, Ben Bagg sits down with Adam Chambers, serial entrepreneur and founder of Nurse Recruitment Experts, to discuss the dangerous trap of chasing new ideas instead of focusing on what actually works. Adam shares his costly $7,500 mistake of investing in...

The conversation delves into the proven hypothesis trap, the challenges of solving the scheduling problem, the pivotal moment of pivoting the business, and the strategy of building in public. Jing Jing shares insights on the pitfalls of assuming a proven hypothesis, the complexities of scheduling solutions, the need for pivoting to address customer needs, and the benefits of building a business in...

Admond Lee, founder of The Runway Ventures, shares insights on the five most common red flags that signal a startup's path to failure. These red flags include growing too fast, spending too much, pivoting too slow, an unsustainable business model, and lack of governance. Admond provides examples and practical advice for founders to avoid these pitfalls. Takeaways Pattern recognition is crucial for...

Tiffany, the founder of WeAssist, shares her experience with the Founder's Fix-It Trap, the process of restructuring her company, and the shift in leadership and empowerment. The conversation delves into the challenges faced by early-stage founders and the transformation of leadership style to build a successful team. Takeaways Founder's Fix-It Trap Building a Team Leadership and Empowerment Chapt...

Stop burning out and start building—hustle culture is a recipe for disaster that leads to poor sales and hiring chaos. Get your AI Founder Coach at: www.ai.founderfuckups.co In this episode of Founder F**k Ups, we break down why most founders fail by choosing "hustle" over sustainable business fundamentals. We explore the common startup mistake of scaling too fast and how AI automation can help SE...

The conversation delves into the pitfalls of early equity distribution, its impact on company operations, and the transition to a new partnership. Reuben's experience highlights the importance of shared vision and values in partnerships, as well as the emotional and financial costs of ending a partnership. The key takeaways emphasize the significance of careful equity distribution and the impact o...

The conversation delves into the challenges of building a company on the frontier, the discovery of Sharly, the gravity gap, the challenges of building from Malaysia, the pivot from B2C to B2B, the impact of distance, the shift to San Francisco, and advice for founders. It provides insights into the strategic decisions and challenges faced by the founder, Simon Macario, as he navigates the complex...

Success is the ultimate blindfold. Daniel Cerventus Lim reveals how a 20-year track record of winning almost led him off a cliff—and why the smartest founders are the ones who know how to give up fast. 👉 Join the mission: We are helping 1,000 founders break the meta-cycle of team chaos and lack of focus. Subscribe to Founder F**K Ups and stop making mistakes in a vacuum. In this episode of Founde...

The conversation with Dr. Selina Chew revolves around the journey of transitioning from a franchise to an independent brand. It explores the challenges, realizations, and strategic decisions involved in building and owning a brand. The key takeaways highlight the risks of building a brand on someone else's equity and the importance of careful planning and execution when transitioning to an indepen...

The conversation delves into the world of venture capital, exploring the complexities of betting on people, misjudging human nature, the psychological trap of the savior complex, the reputational cost of a bad bet, and the strategy of moving slow to move fast. Takeaways Betting on people in venture capital Misjudging human nature Psychological trap of the savior complex Reputational cost of a bad...

The conversation delves into the drive of entrepreneurs to control their own destiny and the strategic blind spot in non-technical founders. It also explores a decade of hiring mistakes and the impact on business growth and profitability. Takeaways Strategic Blind Spot Hiring Mistakes Chapters 00:00 Decade of Hiring Mistakes

Joseph Chin shares his journey of self-reliance and the hidden costs associated with it. He discusses the challenges of realizing the mistake, the process of delegation, and the turning point in his approach to recruiting and managing a team. He also provides valuable advice for founders based on his experiences. Takeaways The hidden cost of self-reliance The value of delegation and hiring around...

The conversation delves into the challenges of achieving sustainable growth and the importance of user retention as a key metric for product success. It explores the illusion of growth through virality, the reality of churn, the pivotal moment of product realization, and the balance between growth and product focus. Takeaways Virality without a durable product isn't growth User retention is a key...

Join us as we dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Adrian, founder of Whizbang Idea and partner at Nexia Corporate Innovation. Discover the lessons he learned the hard way about intellectual property and the importance of protecting your business assets. From his early career in corporate strategy to the challenges of entrepreneurship, Adrian shares his story of resilience and growth.