Posts by Stephanie Irvin
Every confident founder I know learned these 7 lessons the hard way
Confidence in startups rarely looks like bravado. It looks quieter than that. It shows up as decisiveness under pressure, calm conversations with investors, and the ability to say no without overexplaining. If you are early in your journey, it can feel like confident founders were simply born that way. They were not. Almost every confident…
Read MoreHow to validate your business idea using customer interviews
You probably already know the advice: “Don’t build until you talk to customers.” And yet here you are, with a Notion doc full of ideas, a half-built MVP, and a quiet fear that you’re still guessing. Customer interviews sound simple, but most founders either avoid them or run them so poorly that they get false…
Read MoreWhat great founders do differently in their first 90 minutes of the day: 7 patterns that compound over time
Most founders don’t lose the day at 3 p.m. They lose it before breakfast. The first 90 minutes of your morning quietly decide whether you spend the day reacting to noise or building real leverage. It’s when anxiety is loudest, willpower is highest, and the temptation to “just check Slack” feels harmless but isn’t. After…
Read More9 things that feel productive but secretly slow your startup’s growth
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from doing everything right and still not moving forward. Your calendar is full, your Notion is immaculate, your Slack never stops. From the outside, it looks like momentum. Inside, it feels like running on a treadmill set slightly too fast to step off. Most early founders…
Read More7 reasons founders confuse lean with cheap
At some point early on, almost every founder convinces themselves they are being “lean” when what they are really doing is just avoiding spending money. Not only does this feel responsible, but it also feels disciplined. It even feels virtuous when your bank balance is staring back at you every morning. But over time, this…
Read MoreWorld’s largest pig breeder Muyuan up 3.9% in Hong Kong debut; Han’s CNC jumps nearly 15%
Muyuan’s HK$10.7 billion listing proceeds makes it the largest IPO since Zijin Gold International’s debut last September Published Fri, Feb 6, 2026 · 07:57 PM [SINGAPORE/HONG KONG] The shares of China’s Muyuan Foods closed slightly higher in their Hong Kong trading debut on Friday (Feb 6), after the world’s biggest pig breeder raised HK$10.7 billion…
Read MoreKeppel’s special dividend yet to include billion-dollar sale of M1
[SINGAPORE] Keppel’s proposed special dividend of S$0.13 per share helped push the company’s shares up over 6 per cent in a single day. The special dividend, driven by Keppel’s “strong progress in asset monetisation”, is based on 15 per cent of the S$1.6 billion in gross monetisation value netted from transactions completed in FY2025. The…
Read MoreSingapore, Asia markets bleed as Wall Street rout deepens; YZJ Shipbuilding sinks over 5%
[SINGAPORE] Asian markets took a beating at the open on Friday (Feb 6) after a new round of heavy selling hit US tech stocks and crypto. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the worst hit on the Singapore Exchange as at 9.30 am, with a 5.3 per cent drop erasing over S$700 million in its market capitalisation. The…
Read MoreWorkplace romance: When boards must step in
When do workplace relationships cross the line – from being a personal issue to a boardroom concern? COLDPLAYGATE was a standout moment in 2025. Astronomer’s CEO and chief people officer were caught on camera in an intimate embrace at a Coldplay concert and left the company within days. More recently, PropertyLimBrother’s CEO and chief strategy…
Read MoreHow to protect your intellectual property as a new founder
You finally have something real: a prototype, a name, maybe your first customers. And then it hits you. What if someone copies this? What if a contractor walks away with the code? What if an investor asks whether you actually own what you’ve built and you don’t have a clean answer? Most founders think about…
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