Shows / Founder F**K ups
Founder F**K ups
Behind every glossy founder story is a graveyard of mistakes, missteps and meltdowns. Founder F**k Ups digs them up.
Every week I sit down with a Founder who'll tell you what actually went wrong - the hire they kept too long, the co-founder they gave half the company to, the pivot they made two years late. No humble bragging. No highlight reel. Just the decisions that cost real money and what they'd do differently.
Most of my guests are building in Southeast Asia, and most are early enough that…
Episodes
Founder F**K upsHarvard. McKinsey. Her Own Advisors Nearly Bankrupted Her | So-Young Kang, Gnowbe
She was the expert in the room. Then the experts nearly sank her company. So-Young Kang has a Harvard MBA, spent years at McKinsey, and was named a World…
Founder F**K upsTook Down Wirecard, Still Too “Local” For Singapore VCs | Pav Gill, Confide
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…
Founder F**K upsThousands On Meta Ads, Then The Leads Ghosted Him | Maurizio Rosini, My Masterman
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…
Founder F**K upsDon't Hire Your Friends, My Intern Was Texting Clients Behind My Back | Firdaus Mohamed, GoBarakah
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…
Founder F**K ups10 Years Feeding Google and AMEX, But Her Team Kept Walking Out | Yuet Kim Lim, PichaEats
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…
Founder F**K upsTheir meeting room is an ice bath, and they're married | Lyv & Paul, The Contrast Club
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…
Founder F**K ups15 Years In Private Equity, One Year Lost To A Dev House | Wes Barnes, Associum
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…
Founder F**K upsWorth €67 Million On Paper, Firing Staff The Same Week | Chris J Reed, Black Marketing
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…
Founder F**K upsMy CTO quit with no runeway left with Glenn Tan
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…
Founder F**K upsRight Partnership, Wrong Timing with Dan Gericke
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…
Founder F**K upsLowering Recruitment Standards with Sugasini Kandiah
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…
Founder F**K upsThe Founder Commitment Gap with Lizzie Tan
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…
- Founder F**K ups
The Hidden Cost of Shiny Object Syndrome with Adam Chambers
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…
- Founder F**K ups
Building the wrong solution with Jingjing Zhong
The conversation delves into the proven hypothesis trap, the challenges of solving the scheduling problem, the pivotal moment of pivoting the business, and the…
- Founder F**K ups
5 Red Flags Killing Your Startup (Before You Even Know It) - With Admond Lee
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…
- Founder F**K ups
The "Firefighter" Trap Killing Your Startup - With Tiffany Khoo
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…
- Founder F**K ups
The Hustle Culture Lie: Why Your Startup is Failing - with Donald Ng
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…
- Founder F**K ups
"I gave away 50% equity to the wrong partner" - With Reuben Liu
The conversation delves into the pitfalls of early equity distribution, its impact on company operations, and the transition to a new partnership. Reuben's…
- Founder F**K ups
The EXPENSIVE "Applause" Trap. Why Your Customers Love you, BUT WONT PAY - with Simone Macario
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…
- Founder F**K ups
Stop Building Zombie Startups: How I Learned to Give Up Fast - With Daniel Cerventus Lim
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…
- Founder F**K ups
#15 "I built THEIR brand with my BLOOD & SWEAT - But they tried to sue" - With Selina Chew
The conversation with Dr. Selina Chew revolves around the journey of transitioning from a franchise to an independent brand. It explores the challenges…
- Founder F**K ups
#14 "Venture Capital is a People Business (AND MOST PEOPLE ARE F**KING UP)" With Kevin Brockland
The conversation delves into the world of venture capital, exploring the complexities of betting on people, misjudging human nature, the psychological trap of…
- Founder F**K ups
#13 "My team was 66% sales, & 33% product, and we still couldn't scale" with Max Armbruster
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…
- Founder F**K ups
#12 "I Didn’t Ask for Help… and Paid for It as a Founder" with Joseph Chin
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…
- Founder F**K ups
#11 "We got so focused on distribution that our product caused high churn" with Ashvin Praveen
The conversation delves into the challenges of achieving sustainable growth and the importance of user retention as a key metric for product success. It…
- Founder F**K ups
#10 "I didn’t protect my IP, and lost to my own materials in a pitch” with Adrian Waters
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…
- Founder F**K ups
#9 "I accidentally built a charity that nearly burnt all our cash away" with Le Yi Khor
Join us as we dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Lei Ye, founder of OttoDot, a company revolutionizing education through math and science on Roblox…
- Founder F**K ups
#8 "Trust Too Early, Autonomy Too Fast — When “Hands Off” Becomes the F**k Up" with Deric Yee
In this episode, Ben Bagg interviews Deric Yee, founder of Sigma School, about the challenges and lessons learned in scaling a startup. Deric shares his…
- Founder F**K ups
#7 "Building businesses purely to make money burnt me out" with Serena Lam
Is your startup idea actually aligned with who you are? In this episode, Serena Lam, founder of Fuzzy AI, gets candid about the messy reality of…
- Founder F**K ups
#6 "Running out of runway, whilst NOT focusing on distribution" with Thalia Bondoc
In this episode, we sit down with Thalia, the founder of Eduloco, who shares her journey from burning cash on a promising idea to transforming her business by…
- Founder F**K ups
#5 "Expanding too quickly nearly broke us" with Michael Helfman
Join us as we dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Michael Helfman, the visionary behind Mikey's, one of Malaysia's most iconic pizza brands. Discover how…
- Founder F**K ups
#1 “The Horizontal Monster" with Shuk Huay Koh (Jensi.io)
in this episode, I sit down with Shuk Huay Koh, Co-Founder of Jensi.io, a project management tool built with big ambitions — and an even bigger lesson. Shuk…
- Founder F**K ups
#2 "Bad advice leads to Pivot Nightmare" With Ajinkya Bhat
Join us on Founder Fuckups as we dive into the journey of Ajinkya, a deep tech founder in healthcare. Discover the challenges faced during a pivotal moment in…
- Founder F**K ups
#3 "A Partnership that turned into a cash flow nightmare" with Reuben Chn'g
oin us as Reuben Chung, founder of Daily CMO and Underdog Con, shares his inspiring journey from a failed partnership to creating a successful community-led…
- Founder F**K ups
#4 "Burning cash to keep my scaled chaos alive" with Pradesh Raj
oin us in this insightful conversation with Pradesh from Stratos Trading as he shares his journey of rapid growth and the hard lessons learned from scaling too…