Founder Mode - 29 Oct 2025

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Hi there,

Welcome back to Founder Mode, every week I’ll keep you updated on the top finds and opportunities, so that you save time and stay in the know.

It is a busy week with SWITCH happening in town and interesting side events. A good chance to catch friends who are here for SWITCH and hope to meet you too.

Thanks for reading, and let’s dive in!

🔥 Top Finds

A Builder’s Guide to Living a Long and Healthy Life
Building anything worthwhile demand long hours and relentless focus, but burning the candle at both ends isn’t sustainable. This guide reminds founders that protecting your health is protecting your long-term output because you can’t build great things if you burn out before the finish line.

How to Keep Winning
Winning isn’t about avoiding failure, it’s about learning how to lose and keep going. Replit founder Amjad Masad shares six principles that help sustain a winning mindset, including one inspired by Steve Jobs, “put something back into the pool of human experience.”

Saudi Arabia’s New Power Play
Saudi Arabia is investing billions in data centers and collaborating with U.S. and Chinese tech giants to become a global AI exporter. Its growing influence places it right at the crossroads of a major geopolitical power shift in technology and na

Do the Hard Part First
Immad Akhund, founder of Mercury, shares his lessons from four startup journeys on finding product-market fit. His advice: do the hard part first because the hardest problems are usually the ones worth solving and this is true in company building and life in general.

Good Leadership Is Calm in Chaos
Fires aren’t emergencies for firefighters, and incidents shouldn’t be for engineering teams either. True leadership means staying calm while everything around you feels like it’s crashing (looking at AWS). Reminder that panic spreads fast, but composure leads to clarity.

Do Something Important, Quickly
Momentum is not the same as speed. You can move very fast in the wrong direction. This is a great reminder that urgency only matters when it’s paired with purpose move quickly, but make sure it’s toward something that matters. So when people tell you that ideas don’t matter, only execution, they are only half right.

🎫 Events

AI Salon is coming to Singapore. We’re thrilled to host Chris Yeh (Co-author of Blitzscaling with Reid Hoffman) and Jeffrey Abbott (Co-founder of Blitzscaling Ventures) from Silicon Valley, as they share insights on the future of AI, investing in cutting-edge startups, and the different innovation landscapes.

🎤 Keynote by Jon Sugihara (BCGDV) | 💬 AI Panel | ⚙ AI Builders Showcase | 🤝 Networking

📍 StartupX Space | 🗓 1 Nov, Sat | 🕒 2:30–5:30 PM

Digital Transformation & AI adoption for APAC Startups & SMEs Join experts from StartupX, MP Group, AIMX Network, and CPAIT → Exploring how digitalisation, data, and responsible AI can drive long-term growth for SMEs.

📍 StartupX Space | 3️⃣ 3 Nov, Mon | 🕒 3:00–5:00 PM

If you’re building, funding, or scaling with AI these are the rooms to be in. ⚡

🎯 Startup Opportunities

🚀 Go Beyond Borders — Join the China Scale-Up Program 2025

Apply for a unique Scale-Up Programme in China this November 2025, designed to accelerate your business growth by connecting you directly with key government authorities, local partners, and potential clients in three major Chinese cities: Zhengzhou, Chongqing, and Suzhou — some of China’s fastest-rising innovation hubs. If you’re keen on scaling into China, this is for you.


Programme

📒 Online prep and pre-matching: 7 - 14 Nov 2025
🗓 Programme dates: 25 Nov – 1 Dec 2025
📍 Cities: Zhengzhou → Chongqing → Suzhou
🎯 Focus sectors: Agritech | Advanced Manufacturing | New Materials | AI | Biopharma | New Retail | VC & Fund Management

This intensive programme offers:

• Online discussions and preliminary business matching with local government authorities and companies.

• Full-day business conferences and workshops in Zhengzhou, Chongqing, and Suzhou.

• Networking and one-on-one business matching sessions with 200+ vetted local enterprises.

• Exclusive access to local government officials and industry leaders to deepen market insights and possible partnerships.

• Site visits, inspections, and cultural tours to maximise your understanding and connections within the Chinese market.

👉 Limited seats for high-potential startups and growth-stage founders.

More Startup Opportunities

🛠 Tool of the Week

MiniMax

China-based AI startup MiniMax has launched its open-source LLM, MiniMax M2, optimized for agent workflows and coding tasks. It claims twice the inference speed of Claude Sonnet 4.5 at just 8% of the API cost and it’s currently free to use for a limited time. Part of my weekend plan to test this!

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