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Steven Goh | CEO

Steven Goh | CEO

World's laziest CEO. CEO of NinjaPear. Ex-Founder of Proxycurl (10+M), Steven founded 5 other startups: Gom VPN, Kloudsec, SilvrBullet, NuMoney, and SharedHere.

335 posts published

I found a million-dollar idea, but I said no

Our little internal project got a customer without us asking for it. Remember TMP [https://nubela.co/blog/we-automated-our-managers-away/]? Right after I shared it, our staff shared his experiences with another startup, and the CEO of the other startup demonstrated immediate interest. Insofar that he got his team to build

Why we do not have deadlines

It is my opinion that deadlines belong to an undisciplined company. I have no good stories of deadlines Against the backdrop of the Bitcoin bull run of December 2017, we were racing against time to finish building NuMoney, our cryptocurrency exchange. We wanted to ride the wave and capture as

Anger

Everyone has at least one inner demon, and it is usually an embellishment of one of the seven deadly sins. My inner demon is wrath, and anger is a helluva drug. The time I screamed "get the fuck out" and have an employee fired Today I want to

The exchange is down, now what?

We will wait till Monday when the engineers are in the office. That is what. If you have been in the game long enough like I have, you will learn that it is impossible to be "always-on". It helps that NuMoney Exchange has been deprecated. Most things can

I asked my staff why he stopped taking initiative

I asked my staff why he stopped taking initiative Once, I asked my staff why he stopped taking the initiative at work. He replied that he learned not to do it because most things get canceled anyway. Then, I brushed it off as a poor attitude, until it happened to

You know I am a jerk, right?

I have been using this excuse for the longest time as an excuse to speak my mind without care for the hurt that it might inflict on other parties. Last Friday, I wrote a post titled "Sales and Marketing are from Mars, and Engineers are from Venus [https://nubela.

I do not quit

I cannot remember how many times I have told myself that I will find myself a comfortable job after X stint. I do not quit. The more rejections I suffer, the more fired up I become. When I had my first profitable company stolen from me by a conniving couple

What I learned from NuMoney

> He who doesn't take risks, never drinks champagne An old Russian saying, quoted by Vladimir Putin in his Financial Time's interview on Russian intervention in Syria. And the risks I did take with NuMoney. Two years later today, I no longer have bank accounts with

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