Callum Laing

Stop collecting vanity certificates. They aren't getting you on a board. I’ve spent 25 years in M&A and leadership. I see professionals spend thousands on governance exams, yet 12 months later, they’re still "aspiring" directors. If you want a seat, you don't need another exam. You need a different strategy. 🧵

Building communities is one of the highest return activities for your career progression that you can do: GetLaunched.org

@jonaswillett1 @Tinder Great point. I've shown many people how they can run profitable in person events through GetLaunched.org - It can be immensely rewarding.

The IRL connection economy is a $400B+ market. And companies are racing to own it. In the last 6 months, $800M+ in capital was deployed on "IRL" bets. @Tinder invested $60M into a new Events feature for connecting matches in-person. They're pivoting to IRL and offering experiences such as speakeasies, raves, and pottery classes. @222place: raised a $10.1M Series A to curate blind social experiences for Gen Z. Personality-matched groups sent to hyperlocal nightlife events. @JagermeisterUSA launched BestNightsVC - the only venture fund in the world dedicated solely to nightlife and IRL connection. 16 portfolio companies across 4 continents. @timeleft: dinner with 5 strangers, every Wednesday. €18M ARR. 6,500 dinners/week across 200+ cities. Dion: members-only social app where the first move is buying someone a real drink, redeemed IRL. 10K members, 30K+ on the waitlist founded by @revekkapal. Pie: Bonobos founder @dunn built an IRL friendship app. $24M raised. 130K+ MAU. @weroad_official: group trips for 20-30 year olds who don't know each other beforehand. $150M valuation. Matchbox: is an algorithm-powered matching platform for IRL events and has powered over 100,000 connections. founded by @liamjmcgregor (prev @MarriagePact) New dating apps like Known @Celesteamadon, Cerca @MylesCerca, and Ditto @AllenWangzian are aiming to improve connection amongst young people. Billion-dollar companies are paying $$$ for community and events leads: - @AnthropicAI: Marketing Events Manager ($255k) - @tryramp: Community Manager ($223k) - @tryramp: Events & Culture Manager ($181k) - @duolingo: Senior Community Manager ($193k) - @NotionHQ: Community Programs Lead Everyone knows the more time we spend online, the more valuable real-life connection becomes. The question isn't whether IRL wins. It's who facilitates it best.

The most expensive board advice is free advice from people who've never been directors. Just like any other role, governance has specific skills and responsibilities. Taking advice from outsiders is like getting surgery tips from someone who's never held a scalpel.

Board papers tell you what management wants you to know. Board discussions reveal what they're actually worried about. Smart directors read between the lines and ask questions that surface the real issues. The agenda is just the starting point. Listen for what's not being said.

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The best pitch deck I've ever seen wasn't a deck - it was a one-line text from a trusted introducer. "You need to meet this person" from the right source opens more doors than any presentation. Relationships trump presentations. Solve for relationships, not pitchdecks.

My day today: AI is amazing! I'm going to kill my Claw! AI is amazing What a #$%^&* moron!

Until you've proven product-market fit, you're not raising growth capital - you're raising experiment money. Different stages require different investor types. Seed investors and growth investors evaluate completely different things. Match your stage to your investor type.

Good synopsis. Guess a couple of other points worth considering, most young Singaporean's live at home so with that substantial cost covered that would be the ideal time to try entrepreneurship, but rare are the Sg parents that would encourage it! On the other side of things, despite the media portrayal of 'young' entrepreneurs, most successful entrepreneurs actually get successful much later in life (40's & 50's). And a lot of employed Sg's do have a 'side hustle' these days (go to any networking event and ask someone what they do and no one is ever just their career, it is always 'I'm an accountant but I also do X'), so there's hope that we will see some of turn into something more.

Was asked today on how the start-up space in Singapore looks among youth 🇸🇬 From my lens, peers from top universities rarely go after the entrepreneurial route. The default path is still clear: internships → grad role → climb. Safe & predictable. and I do think Singaporeans are far more risk-averse than they should be. A few reasons. Firstly, National Service. Two years from 18–20 sounds small on paper, but it removes a critical window, the most “risk-free” years of your life. By the time men graduate at 24–26, the clock already feels like it’s ticking. Less room to experiment, more pressure to settle down and to get it right immediately. Secondly, cost of living. Singapore is expensive. Every year a startup isn’t profitable, it’s not just “experience”, it’s real financial pressure. Rent, lifestyle, expectations. Combine that with graduating later, and suddenly you’re expected to think about stability, housing, and long-term commitments right out of school. Risk becomes a luxury. Thirdly, culture. Singapore prides itself as a talent hub. However, if we’re honest, it’s a hub for world-class employees, not risk-takers. Our system trains you to follow rules, optimise for grades, and win in structured environments. Not to break things and build from zero. Even at a personal level, I remember making my first 10k months at 19 running a sneaker shop. Instead of pride, it was met with skepticism. “Not stable.” “Not a real path.” The expectation was always: go corporate, climb the ladder, earn your stripes. That mindset is deeply ingrained. And it’s a shame, because Singapore has insane talent density. Smart, driven, resourceful people. Yet so many end up as middle/upper management in overseas giants instead of building their own. Of course, there are exceptions. The hungry few who take the leap and make it work. I can’t help but wonder, if even a fraction more took that risk, Singapore would not just be a “talent” hub, it would become the epicenter of innovation in Asia. The ingredients are already here: dense talent, strong infrastructure, smart capital, global connectivity. If that mindset ever shifts, Singapore become more than just a place that produces talent. It starts becoming the place where Asia’s next generation of iconic companies are born.

Most companies don't fail because of bad ideas - they fail because they can't scale. The skills that get you to £1M revenue are different from the skills that get you to £10M. Most founders never make this transition. Few teams can survive it either.

The Scale Paradox: Every profitable SME eventually hits the same ceiling - the founder's capacity. You become the bottleneck in your own business. Breaking through requires systematising yourself out of daily operations. Systems thinking beats harder work.