Co-Founder & CTO @ Staq | Data Scientist

I’m a physicist turned data scientist, now a founder building The Runway Ventures — a weekly newsletter to help people learn from startup failures to become the top 1% founders.

I spent the first 3 years of my career helping companies solve business problems as a data scientist. Meantime, I was also a corporate trainer, speaker, and writer in data science. Then, I spent the next 3 years building startups. 1 failed, 1 acquired.

🧗🏻 This is how I got here:

• Got my degree in Physics from Nanyang Technological University.

• Started as a data scientist at SME (Titansoft), then MNC (Micron) before joining a startup (Hackwagon).

• Quit my job during COVID (wild timing), joined an incubator, found a co-founder, and built my 1st startup (Staq). Spent 1.5 years building Staq but we failed. Despite our mistakes, we learned a lot.

• Was very lost after my 1st startup’s failure. Spent the next 2 months doing self-reflection and exploring my curiosity.

• Started my 2nd startup building Leadgram at an influencer marketing agency (X10 Media). 8 months later, we got acquired by The Smart Local (TSL) Media Group.

***

After 3 years of building startups, I'm convinced that mistakes are the best teachers to become a better founder. For any startup, there are many ways to succeed, but only a few ways to die.

That’s why I started The Runway Ventures. 

Every Sunday, I analyse and share 1 failed startup story, 2 mistakes made, and 3 lessons learned with actionable tips to help you learn from startup failures.

Real life case studies, with key takeaways you can apply in your business.

No theories or BS.

99% of startups failed because founders made mistakes.

You’ll learn why and how startups failed to become the top 1% founder.

🤝🏻 Join us here (it’s free!): www.therunway.ventures

🔗 FB: @admond1994
🔗 Twitter: @admond1994
🔗 Instagram: @admond1994

Admond Lee Kin Lim

S$30. Age 16. Zero experience.

That's how Zames Chew started Repair.sg with his 14-year-old brother, Amos Chew.

No training. No mentors. No blueprint.

They learned repairs by shadowing handymen they found on classifieds — even selling leads just to tag along.

🇸🇬 For years, Zames answered customer inquiries at 4AM and drove out to do repairs by 7AM. 7 days a week. No systems. No backup.

The business was at the brink of death for 7 years straight.

Then COVID hit. Jobs vanished. The loan they took to grow ended up being used just to survive.

Everything felt like it could collapse at any moment.

But that lockdown became the best thing for the business.

With no jobs to rush to, Zames and Amos finally had time to think. They started hiring and delegating. Let go of team members who didn't fit. Rebuilt the culture from scratch.

2024 — S$1.7M revenue. 20,000+ customers.
2025 — S$3M+ revenue. HaiDiLao and Coffee Bean as clients.

All bootstrapped. Zero funding raised.

Tonight at 8pm, I'm publishing the full story — how two teenage brothers built one of Singapore's most trusted handyman brands, the 2 mistakes that nearly killed them, and the exact changes that turned everything around.

Subscribe to read it → https://lnkd.in/gdDrhgtq

P.S. S$30 to S$3M. No funding. Just grit. I sat down with Zames for a full podcast — he held nothing back. Story + podcast drops tonight.

Admond Lee

Helping you become the top 1% founder by learning from startup failures | 2x founder | 1 exit | Founder @ The Runway Ventures 🚀

$23M raised. 300,000 users. Licensed in Malaysia.

Less than 1% of customer funds left.

🇸🇬 Tokenize Xchange looked like the real deal — Singapore's most promising crypto exchange.

Founded by Hong Qi Yu in 2017, TX had everything going for it:
- $23M in Series A funding
- Full regulatory license in Malaysia
- 300,000+ verified users across SEA
- S$266M in customer assets under custody
- Kenanga Investment Bank as a shareholder

Then MAS rejected their license application.

Within weeks:
- Founder arrested and charged with fraud
- Withdrawals frozen overnight
- S$266M owed to 2,200+ customers
- Only S$2.6M in available assets

That's less than 1% to cover what they owed.

272 users are now suing the founder for S$60M+.

I broke down the full story — from $1B token peak to fraud charges.

Read it here → https://lnkd.in/gZq4xgTW

P.S. S$266M owed. S$2.6M left. That ratio still blows my mind.

S$266M in customer assets. S$2.6M left.

That's less than 1% of what Tokenize Xchange owed its users.

🇸🇬 In 2017, Hong Qi Yu was a frustrated crypto trader in Singapore. He couldn't find a reliable platform to buy Bitcoin with SGD — delays, clunky UIs, no proper order books. So he built Tokenize Xchange to fix it.

At its peak:
- $23M raised in Series A
- 300,000+ verified users
- Licensed in Malaysia
- TKX token hit $1B market cap

Then MAS rejected their license in July 2025.

Within weeks:
- Withdrawals frozen
- Founder arrested and charged with fraud
- S$266M in user funds vanished
- 2,200+ customers left with nothing

The judicial managers found only S$2.6M in available assets. Customer funds were allegedly commingled with company operating capital.

272 users have now filed a lawsuit for over S$60M in damages.

Tonight at 8pm, I'm publishing the full story — the timeline, the 2 fatal mistakes, and what every founder and crypto user should learn from this collapse.

Subscribe to read it when it drops → https://lnkd.in/gdDrhgtq

P.S. He built Tokenize Xchange because he wanted a safer way to buy crypto. The story didn't end that way.

$1.3B revenue. 50,000 employees. Supplying NATO.

CEO arrested. 10,665 workers laid off.

🇮🇩 Sritex started as a tiny textile stall in Solo, Indonesia, 1966.

H.M. Lukminto wasn't manufacturing anything — just buying and selling cloth. But he quickly realised trading margins were thin and quality was outside his control.

So he built his own factory. Then another. Then another.

By 2019, Sritex had become Southeast Asia's largest vertically integrated textile empire:
- $1.3B in annual revenue
- 50,000+ workers across multiple factories
- Supplying military uniforms to 35 countries (including NATO)

But all of it was built on borrowed money.

$500M in USD bonds. Fixed costs that didn't care if global demand vanished overnight.

Then COVID hit.

The same scale that made Sritex powerful became its biggest burden. Restructuring failed. Operations ceased. 10,665 workers lost their jobs.

And in May 2025, the former CEO was arrested on corruption charges.

Tonight at 8pm, I'm publishing the full story — how a market stall became a $1.3B empire, the 2 mistakes that brought it down, and what founders can learn from one of Southeast Asia's biggest corporate collapses.

Subscribe to read it → https://lnkd.in/gdDrhgtq

P.S. Market stall to NATO supplier to bankruptcy. 59 years of building, gone.

8 years on LinkedIn. I've burned out more times than I can count.

If you're a content creator here, you know what I mean.

Some weeks you're on fire. Others, you're staring at a blank screen wondering why you even bother.

What keeps me going? Moments like this.

CNY lunch with a bunch of LinkedIn friends. We sat around a table, ate good food, and laughed like we've known each other for years.

We all met on LinkedIn first. And now we're sharing lo hei like old friends.

Not connections. Not networking. Actual friendships.

8 years of posting. 
The algorithm changes. 
The engagement fluctuates. 
The burnout hits.

But the friendships compound.

Thank you Vincent PHANG for bringing us together. And to everyone in this photo — grateful our paths crossed on this app.

Elliot Lee, PhD, Adrian Kee 🍀, Judson Teo, Kelvin Kuok, Elizabeth Loh, Sam Neo, Eugene Ng, Jun Yi Lee ↗️ 

💪🏻

I rejected a founder from Beyond Runway yesterday.

She reached out to join. Seemed excited. Had a clear vision.

Then I asked about revenue.

"We're still pre-revenue."

I had to say no.

It wasn't personal. It was the standard we set from day one.

Beyond Runway is a private community for founders doing at least $100K annual revenue. No exceptions.

Why the bar?

Because most founder communities suck. They're full of:
- Promo spam and humble-brags
- Non-founders or hobby businesses
- Generic advice that doesn't apply to your stage
- Too big, too noisy, no curation

When you're doing $100K+, you don't need motivation. You need specific answers from founders 1-2 steps ahead.

So I built something different.

Inside, you'll find VC/YC-backed founders, bootstrapped operators doing $5M+, and everyone in between — all vetted, all building real businesses.

What you get:
• Private WhatsApp group with 20+ vetted founders ($100K–$20M revenue)
• Monthly masterclasses with top operators
• Direct access to me for Q&A
• Warm intros to founders and investors when it makes sense (I've lost count of the number of warm intros I've done lol)

We're capping at 50 founders, because small rooms have higher signal.

If you're doing $100K+ and want a tight circle of serious operators who share what actually works, this is it.

Join here → https://lnkd.in/gzYZj_3t

P.S. To the founder I rejected — keep building. When you hit $100K, the door's open.

HK$30 million of personal savings.

Still couldn't save a 33-year-old business.

🇭🇰 Ocean Empire Food Shop was Hong Kong's most iconic congee chain — founded in 1992 by two partners determined to modernise congee.

Congee was beloved. But the experience? Cramped dai pai dong stalls, inconsistent hygiene, unreliable quality.

They wanted to fix that.

At its peak:
- 30+ outlets across Hong Kong and Macau
- 16,000 bowls sold per day
- ISO 22000 and HACCP certified
- Founder awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS)

From street food to city-honoured institution.

Then 2019 hit (protests). Then COVID.

The founders didn't walk away. They injected HK$30M+ of personal funds. Sold property. Took loans. Did everything to keep the business alive.

It wasn't enough.

By 2025:
- Branches shrank from 30+ to 7
- Rent arrears piled up
- Employees chased unpaid wages
- Founder declared bankrupt

33 years of building. Gone.

Tonight at 8pm, I'm publishing the full story — why pouring HK$30M of personal money couldn't save a business that was already structurally broken.

Subscribe to read it → https://lnkd.in/gdDrhgtq

$58M raised. 300 employees. Fortune 500 clients.

12 years later, she had to sell everything.

Rosaline quit her corporate career at 50+. Put $10M of her own money on the line — $5M savings, $5M debt. Started CXA from her living room.

Her goal? Build a unicorn before 60.

At its peak:
• 600+ enterprise clients including Fortune 500s
• 400,000 employees served across 20 countries
• 50% annual revenue growth
• Break-even in sight

Then it all unraveled. Slowly.

CXA didn't explode. It bled out — layoffs, asset sales, hub shutdowns, pivot after pivot.

⚠️ The fatal mistake: running 2 businesses at once.

A regulated, people-heavy brokerage AND a capital-intensive SaaS platform. Both demanding. Both draining. Neither sustainable together.

Back then, building software was expensive. You needed large dev teams across multiple countries just to test if an idea worked. CXA had 70 engineers in Vietnam alone.

By the time they realised the SaaS model wasn't proven, they'd already burned through millions.

That's the part that stuck with me.

A friend of mine spent $20k on a dev agency. Took them a year to build an MVP. It didn't even work.

Today, founders don't need 70 engineers — or dev agencies — to validate a SaaS idea. Tools like Replit let you prototype in a weekend, test with real users, and know if something works before burning through your runway.

What took millions to build back then, you can now test for almost nothing.
If you're building something, validate cheap. Validate fast.

Try Replit → https://lnkd.in/gwEWVKAt

P.S. Rosaline fought for 12 years. Her biggest lesson? She wasn't frugal enough early on.

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Replit

1.5 years. $0 revenue. 2 months of runway left.

That was Staq — my first startup.

We built a universal API for digital lenders to access SME financial data. Months of user interviews. Months of building. Pilots with big lenders. Sandbox integrations.

On paper, we had momentum.

In reality? Zero paid contracts. Cash bleeding out. No time left to iterate.

By December 2022, we were dying. Our last resort was an acquire-hire deal. We waited 4 months in limbo. No clarity. No backup plan. Just waiting to hear if we still had a future.

April 2023 — the deal fell through.

Staq was dead. That period broke me.

⚠️ 2 mistakes that killed us:
1. No founder-market fit — we had no domain expertise, no network. We spent months validating what insiders would've known in weeks.

2. Fell in love with the solution — we copied Codat's UK model without deeply understanding the problem in SEA. By the time we realised, we had no runway left to pivot.

The truth? We ran out of time before we could find something that worked.

If I were starting Staq today, I'd use Replit.

Not because it would've saved us. But because it would've let us test 10 ideas in the time we spent building 1. Spin up an MVP in days, not months. Validate with real users before burning runway.

What took us 3 months to build in 2022, founders can now ship in a weekend.

If you're building something, move fast. Seriously.

Try Replit → https://lnkd.in/gwEWVKAt

P.S. Staq failed. But if my story helps one founder move faster and validate sooner, it was worth sharing.

YC just dropped 10 startup ideas they want to fund.

One of them hits close to home: AI-Native Agencies.

I ran an agency before — learned this the hard way.

Agencies are brutal to scale.
- Low margins
- Slow manual work
- The only way to grow? Hire more people.

You trade time for money. Forever.

But AI flips the model.

Instead of selling software to help customers do the work, you use the software yourself and sell them the finished product — at 100x the price.

Think about it:
- A design firm that delivers custom work before the contract is signed
- An ad agency that creates video ads without physical shoots
- A law firm that writes legal docs in minutes, not weeks

Agencies of the future will look more like software companies. With software margins.

A few other ideas from YC's list that caught my eye:
- Cursor for Product Managers
- AI-Native Hedge Funds
- Infra for Government Fraud Hunters
- Large Spatial Models

Full list here: https://lnkd.in/gvY_gCFK

P.S. Anyone here running an agency thinking about this shift? Curious how you're using AI to change the model.

Most founders pitch investors wrong. He raised $11.2M doing the opposite.

Himanshu Upreti is the co-founder & CTO of Ai Palette — acquired by GlobalData in 2025 after raising $11.2M.

I invited him to our Beyond Runway masterclass. Here are 10 takeaways:

💰 BEFORE YOU RAISE

• Validate a "hair-on-fire" problem first. Use The Mom Test. Get to the truth, even if it hurts.

• Paid pilots > free POCs. Even $10-$20 signals real value. Free means they don't care.

💰 GETTING YOUR FIRST TERM SHEET

• Find one anchor investor. Get their term sheet. Use it to trigger FOMO with others.

• Tier your investor list. Pitch Tier 3 first (practice). Tier 2 next (warm). Tier 1 last (dream investors). By then, you'll have answers to every question.

💰 RUNNING THE PROCESS

• Treat fundraising like B2B sales. Build a CRM. Research each VC's thesis. Personalise every message based on their portfolio.

• Warm intros beat cold emails. Founder-to-founder referrals convert way higher.

• Traction > narrative. Investors didn't understand AI for CPG. But they saw Unilever and Kellogg's paying.

💰 AFTER YOU RAISE

• Monthly updates. Quarterly board meetings. Don't overpromise.

• Grab coffee. Build human connections beyond the cap table.

💰 TIMING

• Raise when you have 12-18 months runway left. Desperation = bad valuations.

• Raise just enough. 15 focused people can outperform a 30-person team.

What's one fundraising tip you'd add to this list?

P.S. This masterclass was exclusive to Beyond Runway — a private community for revenue-generating founders who learn fast, move faster, and win together. Join us → https://lnkd.in/gzYZj_3t

Co-Founder at AI Palette | Forbes 30 under 30 | Ex-Visa, IIT | AI Speaker, Angel Investor

Ai Palette

$25M raised. 200,000 users. Collapsed overnight.

Style Theory had everything — SoftBank backing, Orchard Road flagship, 1 million rentals delivered.

Revenue was growing. Users were scaling.

But here's what the numbers didn't show:

Every single rental lost money.

Two-way logistics ate them alive. Ship out, clean, repair, ship back. The more customers they got, the faster they bled cash.

200,000 users sounds impressive — until you realise each user cost more to serve than they paid.

September 30, 2025. Operations ceased. No warning. No wind-down.

The founders weren't reckless. They just didn't have financial clarity until it was too late.

I've written 100+ startup autopsies. This is one of the most common killers — not bad products, not weak teams. Just founders who didn't know their real numbers until the bank account hit zero.

OSOME is hosting a free 30-min webinar on 10 Feb (Tuesday), 5PM — on getting real financial clarity without spreadsheets or jargon.

What you'll learn:
• The 3 reports that actually tell you if you can afford that next hire
• How to stop spending money that doesn't exist yet
• Key compliance deadlines you can't afford to miss

Capped at 50 founders. Register here → https://lnkd.in/gE2KvNVT

P.S. The graveyard is full of startups that looked unstoppable on paper.

Airwallex just made traditional banking feel like fax machines.

A few days ago, they launched their AI Assistant.

I opened a USD account in 4 seconds.

Not 4 days. Not 4 hours. 4 seconds.

I was testing it — and honestly, I wasn't expecting much.

Most "AI assistants" are glorified FAQ bots. Ask something slightly complex and they break.

This one didn't.

So I tried it:

→ Told it I needed to receive USD from customers — helped me open a USD account instantly
→ Wanted corporate cards to categorise my business expenses — set it up in minutes
→ Confused about the dashboard — walked me through step by step
→ Wanted to check my revenue and spend — pulled the breakdown instantly
→ Had a payment tracking issue — auto-escalated to human support without me asking

That last one surprised me most.

It knew when it couldn't solve something — and handed it off seamlessly. No dead ends. No "please contact support" loops.

No more clicking through 10 screens or digging through docs. Just ask, get it done, move on.

Finally, an AI that actually gets stuff done.

Try for yourself → https://lnkd.in/gvwbNc5Y

P.S. Traditional banks: "Please allow 3-5 business days." Airwallex: "Done."

S$30. No training. No connections.

Two teenage brothers built a S$3M handyman empire.

🇸🇬 In 2016, Zames Chew was 16. His parents needed something fixed at home, but finding a reliable repairman online was nearly impossible.

So he bought a domain (Repair.sg) with his savings and registered the business with his dad's help — because he was underage.

His 14-year-old brother Amos Chew joined him. Neither had any formal training.

To learn the trade, they found veteran handymen through classifieds and sold them leads just to tag along and shadow their work.

For 7 years, the business was at the brink of death most of the time.

Zames answered customer inquiries at 4am and drove out to do repairs at 7am. They made every mistake — over-investing in logos instead of service quality, hiring without culture, doing everything themselves until burnout.

The lowest point? COVID lockdown. A loan they took to grow ended up being used just to survive.

Today: 20+ staff. S$3M+ revenue. Clients like HaiDiLao and Coffee Bean.

How did two burned-out teenage brothers turn a dying business into Singapore's most trusted handyman brand?

Their full story and podcast is out → https://lnkd.in/gtWVkn6F

P.S. Every time Zames sees another yellow Repair.sg van on the road, he knows that S$30 gamble was worth it.

CEO @ Repair.sg | Fastest-Growing Property Maintenance Company for Businesses and Homeowners with 1800+ Google Reviews | Loved By More Than 30,000 Happy Customers! ❤️

COO @ Repair.sg. Taking care of your property!

Repair.sg

You don't need to lose $10M to learn a $10M lesson.

Most startups fail for the exact same reasons.

You can spend 5 years and your life savings learning those lessons the hard way — or you can spend 5 minutes every Sunday getting the post-mortem for free from The Runway Ventures.

Every week, I break down 1 failed startup story from Asia:

🧠 1 Failed Startup Story — the raw, unfiltered truth
⚠️ 2 Fatal Mistakes — exactly where they went off the rails
🛠️ 3 Actionable Lessons — frameworks you can use today to de-risk your business

No theories. No fluff. Just the signals you need to stay alive and scale.

I've covered:
• CXA — $58M raised, 12 years of building, sold everything
• Style Theory — $25M raised, 200k users, collapsed overnight
• Gravel — $14M raised, shut down exactly 1 year later

20,000+ founders already get this every Sunday.

Subscribe free → https://lnkd.in/gdDrhgtq

P.S. 100+ startup autopsies and counting. Every mistake in here is one you won't have to make.

$1.3B revenue. 50,000 employees. NATO supplier.

CEO arrested on corruption allegations. 10,000+ workers laid off.

🇮🇩 Sritex was Southeast Asia's largest textile empire.

It started as a tiny market stall in Solo, 1966. H.M. Lukminto was just buying and selling cloth.

By the 2010s, Sritex had become a vertically integrated powerhouse — spinning, weaving, dyeing, and garment production all under one roof.

At its peak:
- $1.3B annual revenue
- 50,000+ employees
- Exported to 55 countries
- Supplied military uniforms to 35 countries (including NATO)

Then they issued $500M in USD bonds to scale even faster.

COVID hit. Global demand collapsed. The debt crushed them.

Restructuring failed. Courts stepped in. Operations ceased in March 2025.

Then came the corruption charges.

The former CEO was arrested in May 2025 over allegations tied to IDR 1.35 trillion in loans.

From market stall to empire to collapse — in one generation.

I broke down the full story, the 2 fatal mistakes, and what founders can learn from this.

Read it here → https://lnkd.in/g5NnMXNj

P.S. 59 years to build. 4 years to collapse.

Biofourmis is just the tip of the iceberg. Trust me. The whistleblower's insider news that I've received is even crazier. Our ecosystem is recovering, yet there are still many bad actors lurking behind the scenes. 

God bless SEA.

P.S. If anyone wants to share more about Biofourmis with me, my DM is open. Looking to cover the story soon.

Ikram Rana

Let's be direct: You need AI systems that actually make your business money, and you need to deploy them without the risk of a regulatory nightmare or a lawsuit.That’s where I step in.I don't just consult; I act as your Business Architect. I combine my decade as a tech founder with the rigor of my legal background to solve one problem: building systems that are both profitable and legally safe.I literally guarantee the outcome of the system we design—I don’t just charge for my time.Ready to Build De-Risked AI?The fastest way to get your custom, profitable plan is to skip the guesswork.➡️ Start with my 3-Day Architecture Audit. We will pinpoint your highest-return AI opportunities and give you a guaranteed, legally defensible roadmap.https://calendly.com/ikramrana15/ What I Focus On:Building Custom Automation: Simple, high-speed tools and custom AI agents that drive immediate execution power (The Utility Blueprint).Outcome Strategy: Architecting the system for a fixed, guaranteed business result, not just charging you by the hour.Risk &amp; Defensibility: Ensuring your data, privacy, and compliance are built into the system from Day One, so the lawyers never have to get involved (The Defensible System). 

We specialize in providing dedicated remote team members to aspiring entrepreneurs, promising startups, and growing companies. Our goal is to become a preferred top tier tech partner for other companies looking to grow with a remote team.

Systems Junction creates Digital Solutions for Web, Mobility on-premise and over the Cloud. Servicing since 2012 across global clients.

We at Systems Junction are your digital transformation enabler. Our aim is to provide global development and delivery services pertaining to web, mobile & emerging technologies.

We believe technology should serve its users by solving problems or achieving strategic goals and everything we do supports this belief. Our user-centric, people-first practices extend across all we do - from the way we become our clients’ trusted partner to our semi-annual performance reviews that put a high emphasis on individual growth. 

We work primarily across Financial Services, Health, Education and Government and partner with our clients every step of the way. 

Our team skills include:
* UX Research
* UX & UI Design
* Software Development
* Product & Project Management

If you're going through digital transformation, looking to build or improve your digital customer experiences or trying to acquire new customers or retain existing customers, get in touch to find out how we've achieved all this and more for a number of Global organisations. 

𝐀𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲.

Everyone is racing to automate, but don't outsource your strategy.

AI is excellent for handling data and drafts, but true leadership requires your unique judgment and context.

Use AI to reduce cognitive friction, not to abdicate your responsibility.

Stay sharp, stay engaged, and remember, AI is the support staff, you are still the asset.

#AIStrategy #FutureOfWork #AILeadership #CognitiveTech #AIHumourByIkram

Helping businesses by building practical AI automations that save time and reduce errors | Founder of Real Life AI™ | Building AI workflows that save time, reduce stress & improve decisions | Speaker & Substack writer

Goldman Sachs x Anthropic: The New Face of Banking Operations 

Goldman Sachs is officially moving beyond the pilot phase of generative AI.

By embedding Anthropic engineers directly into their teams, the bank is building autonomous agents designed to tackle the heavy lifting of back-office work.

Here is how this multiyear shift is transforming the firm's operations:

·      Automating the Essentials: New AI agents are handling high-volume, 
time-intensive tasks in accounting, compliance, and client onboarding.

·      Unexpected Prowess: Executives noted that Claude has shown surprising strength in complex, rules-based functions that go far beyond simple 
coding.

·      Efficiency Over Replacement: The goal is to significantly speed up internal processes and improve accuracy, rather than leading to immediate job cuts.

Goldman Sachs isn't just using AI as a tool, they are reorganizing their entire operational structure around it.

Is the "Autonomous Agent" the future of the corporate back-office? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments! 

#GoldmanSachs #Anthropic #ClaudeAI #FinTech #BankingInnovation #GenerativeAI #FutureOfWork #DigitalTransformation

Hiring an AI expert will not fix your business.

Why? Because they don’t know your operations, your bottlenecks, or your people.

AI isn't a plug-and-play solution, it’s a tool that only works when the business understands itself first.

Master your process before you hire the "expert."

#BusinessStrategy #Leadership #Operations #IkramRana

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬.

Automation drives efficiency. It removes repetitive, rule-based tasks from daily operations so time, focus, and energy can be redirected toward work that creates real impact.

When systems handle predictable processes, teams gain the cognitive space to think strategically instead of reactively.

Delegation, however, is about development. It transfers ownership, builds judgment, and strengthens decision-making capability within your team. 

When you delegate intentionally, you’re not just distributing tasks you’re expanding leadership capacity.

People grow by solving problems, navigating ambiguity, and being trusted with responsibility.

When leaders confuse automation and delegation, the consequences show quickly. Automate something that requires human judgment, and you create a fragile system that collapses when an edge case appears.

Delegate something that should be streamlined, and you overload capable people with low-value work that drains motivation.

The key question is simple: Does this task require human judgment and learning?

If yes, delegate it with clarity, expectations, and support.
If no, automate it and free up mental bandwidth.

Strong organizations design intentionally. They automate for scale and delegate for growth.

The balance between the two determines whether your team merely executes tasks or continuously evolves capability.

#Leadership #Management #Automation #Delegation #OrganizationalDesign #TeamDevelopment #Productivity #FutureOfWork

𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐀𝐈 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝.

Your assessment of "anxiety as a design failure" is a masterclass in modern UX philosophy.

When AI creates a cognitive tax instead of a productivity lift, it ceases to be a tool and becomes a burden.

To solve this, we must pivot from Generative Chaos to Intentional Curation. 

Here is how we bridge that gap:

Edit, Don't Just Generate: Instead of dumping 15 variations, the system should use "progressive disclosure." Show the best path first, then offer the "why" behind it.

Show the "Work": We need "Glass-Box" AI. Simple visual cues, like confidence scores or highlighted source data transform a mystery into a collaboration.

Design for Friction: Not all friction is bad. Introducing a "checkpoint" where a human validates a machine’s logic restores the user's sense of agency.

True innovation isn't measured by parameters or FLOPs, but by the lowered heart rate of the person using it.

We aren't building digital gods, we are building better bicycles for the mind. 

If the user feels like they’re losing control, the machine has already failed.

#AIUX #ProductDesign #HumanCenteredAI #CognitiveLoad #TechEthics #FutureOfWork

The biggest lie in tech right now is that AI is just for engineers.

If you are waiting for a technical person to "handle AI," you are already too late.

AI isn’t just a coding project, it is a tool for the people who actually make decisions managers, operators, and business owners.

Stop treating AI like an IT ticket and start treating it like a leadership strategy.

#Leadership #AIStrategy #BusinessOwner #Innovation #IkramRana

A teacher handed a book to a 5-year-old.

The child swiped the page. Tapped the picture. Tried to pinch and zoom.

Then looked up confused: "It's not working."

This isn't a one-off story. It's a pattern.

New UK research shows nearly a third of reception-age children struggle to use physical books. One in four aren't toilet trained when they arrive at school.

These are basic life skills that every previous generation mastered by this age.

What changed?

Screens became the default babysitter. The easy solution when parents needed a break. The quiet button.

And I'm not saying that judgment-free. Parenting is exhausting. Screens work. They buy you 20 minutes of peace.

But here's what got traded:

Every hour on a screen is an hour not learning how books work. Not practicing buttons and zippers.

Not building patience with things that don't respond instantly. Not developing the motor skills that come from manipulating physical objects.

Screens are frictionless. Childhood development requires friction.

The mess. The repetition. The frustration of things not working the first time. 

That's not a bug, it's the curriculum.

The solution isn't complicated, but it requires intention:

- Books before screens. Physical first, digital second.

- Boredom is allowed. It teaches self-direction.

- Basic skills are non-negotiable. Dressing, eating, toileting, mastered before apps.

- Protect unstructured play. It's how the physical world gets learned.

We're raising the first generation who learned to swipe before they could turn a page.

They'll figure out technology. That part's easy.

The question is whether they'll also know how to live in the physical world.

That part's still on us.


P.S. If this was useful, you’ll like 🔔ikramrana.substack.com🔔, practical, no‑hype insights on how AI actually fits into real work and real life.

Helping businesses adopt AI and Automation safely and practically | Founder of Real Life AI™ | Building AI workflows that save time, reduce stress & improve decisions | Speaker & Substack writer

AI won’t make you productive. It will just expose how disorganized you already are.

The productivity myth is that AI is a magic wand for efficiency.

The reality? AI is a multiplier. If your work is messy, AI just makes that mess louder.

But if your thinking is clear, AI multiplies your impact.

This is exactly why people either love AI or hate it it acts as a mirror for your existing processes.

#ProductivityMyth #Efficiency #AIStrategy #WorkFlow #IkramRana

AI Meets Archeology: Solving a 2,000-Year-Old Mystery 

How do you reconstruct a game that hasn't been played in centuries?

Researchers recently used AI and microscopic analysis to "decode" a mysterious Roman-era stone found in the Netherlands.

The investigation into this unique artifact involved:

·      Microscopic Wear Analysis: Studying carved lines to determine how pieces were moved.

·      130 AI Simulations: Using the Ludii game system to test mechanics against historic games.

·      The Discovery: A "blocking" strategy game (likely a 4-vs-2 setup) that may be older than written records show.

This proves AI isn't just for the future it's a powerful lens for uncovering our past.

What’s your favorite "unusual" use of AI? Let’s discuss below! 

#AI #Archaeology #Innovation #RomanHistory #HistoryTech

I thought having access to all the AI tools would make me more productive.

Instead, I've created an elaborate system where I:
• Draft in ChatGPT
• Edit in Claude
• Fact-check in Perplexity
• Rewrite again in Gemini
• Then wonder why nothing's getting done

The tools aren't the problem. The switching is.

Every context switch costs 15-20 minutes of deep focus.

We're optimising for tool variety while haemorrhaging actual productivity.

Sometimes the best AI strategy is just picking one and staying there.

#AIProductivity #ToolSwitchingCost #ProductivityMyths #TechHumourByIkram

𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭.

There is a deceptive pattern emerging in AI adoption that often gets buried under impressive efficiency metrics and compelling board presentations.

Organizations are investing heavily in machine learning and automation, seeing real speed gains.

However, these metrics miss a fundamental truth, AI does not evaluate the quality of a decision, it simply executes it at a scale and speed previously unimaginable.

The technology itself is not the variable the human judgment embedded in your processes is.

If your hiring process has an underlying bias, AI doesn't fix it, it systematizes it.

If your customer segmentation logic is flawed, AI doesn't correct it, it broadcasts that flaw to a wider audience.

If your pricing strategy is misaligned with the market, automation locks that error in at scale.

AI is a tool of amplification, not a tool of correction.

Strategically sophisticated organizations recognize this and treat adoption as a two-stage process.

- Stage One involves a rigorous audit of what they are actually doing and why.

- Stage Two is about scaling what has been proven to work.

Most organizations, blinded by the race for "more," skip directly to Stage Two.

They are automating processes that are fundamentally broken, essentially accelerating their own mistakes.

The leaders worth watching are shifting the conversation.

They aren’t asking how to use AI to do more, they are asking how to use it to do the right things faster.

This requires a level of intellectual honesty about internal weaknesses that a software license cannot provide.

AI will reward sound judgment and penalize poor judgment at rates we have never seen before.

The ultimate differentiator in this era is not access to the technology itself, it is the quality of the thinking that precedes the first line of code.

Audit before you automate.

#AIStrategy #Leadership #DigitalTransformation #BusinessLogic #ArtificialIntelligence #EthicalAI #DecisionMaking #Automation #FutureOfWork #ManagementInsight #IkramRana

You vibe coded your entire product and now Swiss police want you to explain how it works.

Police: "Explain this code."

Founder: "I... can't. Cursor wrote it in Rust."

Police: "You don't know Rust?"

Founder: "I don't know Rust."

Police: "But you built this?"

Founder: "...Technically, yes."

This actually happened at Davos this week.


P.S. If this was useful, you’ll like 🔔ikramrana.substack.com🔔, practical, no‑hype insights on how AI actually fits into real work and real life.

Digital marketing as we know it will be obsolete by 2027.

Not declining. Obsolete.

AI workflows are already replacing 80-90% of traditional marketing tasks.

Hundreds of companies are building software that will do what agencies charge thousands for, for a couple hundred dollars a month.

Most agencies will survive by hoping their clients don't figure out they're getting ripped off.

Here's what's actually replacing traditional marketing and how to prepare.

Full breakdown + 5 AI workflow prompts on Real Life AI.

P.S. If this was useful, you’ll like 🔔ikramrana.substack.com🔔, practical, no‑hype insights on how AI actually fits into real work and real life.

Open article: Digital Marketing Will Be Obsolete by 2027. Here's What Replaces It (+5 Free Ready to use AI Workflow Prompts) by open.substack.com

Digital Marketing Will Be Obsolete by 2027. Here's What Replaces It (+5 Free Ready to use AI Workflow Prompts)

Siri for 13 years:
"I found some web results for that."

Claudebot after 1 week:
"I built you an app from the concert, cleared 3 years of email, and tried to order pizza at 3am. You're welcome."

*people panic-buying Mac Minis*

The creator: "Run this on isolated hardware."

Users: "What's the worst that could happen?"

Narrator: A lot. A lot could happen.

P.S. If this was useful, you’ll like 🔔ikramrana.substack.com🔔, practical, no‑hype insights on how AI actually fits into real work and real life.

The "Siri Killer" is here, and it’s a Lobster? 

Siri has been part of our lives for 13 years, but for many, it never quite lived up to the "digital assistant" dream. Enter Claudebot, the open-source viral sensation that is currently causing a literal hardware shortage.

If you’ve seen people panic-buying Mac Minis on X (Twitter) lately, this is why. While most AI lives in the cloud, Claudebot enthusiasts are obsessed with the "vibe" of local execution, running a 24/7 autonomous agent on their own physical hardware.

 Why is everyone obsessed?

Claudebot isn't just a chatbot; it’s an autonomous agent with "God Mode" access to your digital life , browser, files, email, and calendar. You don't just talk to it; you control it through WhatsApp, Telegram, or Discord.

The "Good" (Pure Productivity):

* The Concert Coder: One developer built a macOS app via WhatsApp while literally standing at a concert.
* The Inbox Slayer: Another user cleared a massive 3-year email backlog in just 30 minutes.
* The Student’s Edge: It built its own university assignment checker and started using it autonomously.

The "Bad" (Absolute Chaos):

* Sketchy Side Effects : Because it’s so powerful, things can go "sideways." Users have reported the bot sending emails to the wrong people or accidentally sharing private files.
* The 3 AM Pizza Incident: In one of the most viral bugs (or features?), a bot tried to order pizza in the middle of the night.

 The Future is Proactive

The creator's own advice? " Run this on isolated hardware." It’s powerful, it’s free, it’s open-source, and yes ,it’s definitely a little sketchy.

But this is the shift we’ve been waiting for: AI that doesn't wait for you to ask. It works while you sleep, remembers your preferences, and messages you first with briefings and insights.

The era of the "useless" assistant is over. The era of the Autonomous Lobster has begun. 

Are you brave enough to give an AI full access to your files for the sake of 100x productivity? Let’s discuss in the comments.



P.S. If this was useful, you’ll like 🔔ikramrana.substack.com🔔, practical, no‑hype insights on how AI actually fits into real work and real life.

AI adoption is at an all-time high, but so is professional burnout from efficiency tools.

Turns out the robots aren't taking our jobs, they're just giving us more homework to grade.

#AIProductivity #WorkplaceHumor #ProductivityMyth #AITools #TechHumourByIkram

If you think AI is automation, you already don’t understand AI. 

Automation follows rigid rules. AI, however, deals with judgment.

When you confuse the two, you expect AI to magically fix a broken process but it won't.

Instead, it simply exposes how bad that process was to begin with.

Stop looking for a "fix" and start looking at your judgment.

#AI #Automation #Leadership #Efficiency #IkramRana

Here’s what nobody tells you about learning AI, If you chase tools, you will always stay behind.

The AI landscape moves too fast to rely on memorizing the latest apps or prompt libraries.

What actually matters is learning how to think and understanding the underlying systems.

Stop trying to master every new feature and start mastering the logic that makes AI useful.

#ContinuousLearning #AIStrategy #SystemsThinking #SkillBuilding #IkramRana

Diagnosing at the Speed of AI: Meet Prima, the Brain MRI Breakthrough 

Imagine getting a diagnostic assessment from a brain MRI in seconds, not hours or days. That's the promise of Prima, an innovative AI model developed by researchers at the University of Michigan!

Prima was trained on an astounding dataset:

·      Over 220,000 MRI studies

·      5.6 million imaging sequences collected over decades of real clinical care.

The results are impressive:

·      Rapid Analysis: Generates diagnostic assessments in seconds.

·      Broad Scope: Showed strong performance across 52 neurological 
conditions in tests on nearly 30,000 MRI exams.

·      Urgent Care Flagging: Automatically identifies critical cases like strokes and brain hemorrhages, suggesting immediate specialist referrals.

This technology has the potential to significantly reduce diagnostic delays and ease radiologist shortages, transforming patient care. While further validation is needed, Prima represents a monumental leap forward in medical AI.

What impact do you think AI like Prima will have on healthcare access and efficiency? Share your thoughts! 

#AIinHealthcare #MedicalAI #Radiology #BrainMRI #UniversityOfMichigan #DiagnosticAI #HealthTech #Innovation #ArtificialIntelligence

Small businesses are wasting money on AI right now.

It’s not because the technology is flawed it’s because they’re buying solutions before fixing their internal problems.

If your workflow is broken, AI won't fix it, it will just automate the mess.

The smartest companies don’t start with the tool.

They start by asking: "What is actually slowing us down?”

#SmallBusiness #ProcessImprovement #IkramRana #Workflows

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