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Steven Goh | CEO

Steven Goh | CEO

World's laziest CEO. Before starting the highly-successful Proxycurl and Sapiengraph, Steven founded 5 other startups: Gom VPN, Kloudsec, SilvrBullet, NuMoney, and SharedHere.

325 posts published

Sales and marketing are from Mars, and the engineers are from Venus

I almost lost a potential hire today because of a miscommunication between the designer and the business development team during the negotiation process. But what was intriguing about the episode today was that I never had problems in hiring, and leading a team of designers and engineers. And I think

We automated our managers away.

We automated our managers away.

I have not felt the flutter of excitement that I used to feel when I automated something menial away. Today I felt that again when my intern, Mario, demoed the Task Management Platform (TMP). The problem with managers In our growing company, the list of tasks being worked on by

I was in the special forces and ...

I was in the special forces and ...

This is the line that I will preface my pitches from here on. People over product I was at the gym today, catching my breath in between sets, and I can't help but remembered the times back when I was still a Naval Diver trainee. In a span

The only easy day was yesterday

The only easy day was yesterday

There is a sense of permanent strength in CEOs as we stride into the office every day, and I never go to work without this facade of strength. However, not every day is a bed of roses. Most days aren't. And when that tank of eternal optimism runs

The bootstrapper's hierarchy of needs

The bootstrapper's hierarchy of needs

It takes 10 hours a day, seven days a week, and two years of computer time to get good at programming. For a bootstrapper, it is that, and everything else. I didn't choose the startup life, the startup life found me. I was 17, sitting on the cold

I will be happy with $3000 / month

I will be happy with $3000 / month

That is a lie I earnestly believed right after I graduated. The goal was to build a product business that will make me $3000 a month, and that will mean I can spend my entire life building my business. And $3000 was the magic number that I believe I needed

Slack is Magical

Slack is Magical

No, It has nothing to do with Slack being the fastest growing startup. No, it has nothing to do with the fact that Slack went from product launch to IPO in just five years. As a product CEO, I have nothing but good things to say about Slack. Where do

I can see your bikini pictures

I can see your bikini pictures

We don't have to be friends on Facebook, but I can still see hundreds of pictures of you. You do not have to follow me on Instagram, but I can download your stories and pictures even if you have a private profile. Give me a phone number, and

4867 users read my bullshit last week

4867 users read my bullshit last week

Hitesh is an acquaintance that I knew from university who bullshit-ed everyone that he is a partner at a venture capital fund -- of his own companies that never worked out. Don't be Hitesh because he cannot bullshit. If there is one hack you need in life: get

A lesson no one taught me - Don't be a bangla

A lesson no one taught me - Don't be a bangla

Being a programmer is both the biggest bane and boon in my entrepreneurial journey. There ought to be more tutorials on how a programmer should run a company. Because this tutorial can be easily written in a single sentence: If you want to be a CEO, don't be

It is better to be feared than to be loved

It is better to be feared than to be loved

Right after I graduated, I had a belief that I have to "love" the company that I work at, "love" my manager, and "love" my job. It didn't help that the only company that I have ever worked in was a Swedish

I accomplished nothing today and it is probably ok

I accomplished nothing today and it is probably ok

Most days at work is straightforward. An email arrives, and it will take me a few minutes to respond. Another minute and a colleague will have a question that involves a spot decision with guidance. Then there are days like today where there isn't an obvious answer to

Fuck correctness: I made my money through porn

Fuck correctness: I made my money through porn

I would not be who I am today if I had listened to what people have preached to be the "right thing". When I was 15, my mom caned me for using the computer all day. I would run home right after school so I could play Diablo

How I had my second company stolen. Also, bonus office scandal

How I had my second company stolen. Also, bonus office scandal

This is my story of how I lost ownership of Unifide, my second company. I began my entrepreneurial journey in 2015 with Spawt, a Foursquare for Food. Spawt was my first full-time venture as a naive, fresh graduate. Like every virgin entrepreneur hopelessly hooked to startup porn, I believed with

I am not the CEO anymore

I am not the CEO anymore

With the Bitcoin crash of 2018, NuMoney was at the crossroads. Do we persist with the vision of building the largest cryptocurrency exchange for Southeast Asia, or do we move on? These were decisions I had to make as the CEO of NuMoney. Putra is the CEO of NuMoney Indonesia,

I hate startups

I hate startups

Paul Graham's definition of a startup is a company designed to grow fast. But I hate startups, where do I begin? Let's start with Crystal Horse Investments (a venture capital firm). Crystal Horse invested S$25,000 for equity in Spawt around seven years ago at

Once, I got a girl's number on the bus

Once, I got a girl's number on the bus

(She didn't turn out to be the one, this girl in the picture did) Back when I was 15, my delinquent friends and I would go to our favorite mall to "fish" for numbers from cute girls. It took guts and a thick skin. Usually, if

I was all for bootstrapping until I raised 500k
fundraising

I was all for bootstrapping until I raised 500k

(Picture above shows Putra, who is CEO of LandX, and I incorporating the company in Jakarta) I am bad at fund-raising. A backchannel source told me that I am uninvestable because I look like a person who will rip my investors off. Then I raised half a million dollars for

The database is corrupted, what do we do?

The database is corrupted, what do we do?

He came sheepishly to me and told me he corrupted our Postgresql database, what do we do now? Ok, time to backtrack. A while ago, we built Kloudsec, a CDN product with a vision of the CDN operating as an operating system on the edge, not unlike what Cloudflare is