Innovation X Ecosystems @Topian, the NEOM Food Company

TL;DR
I turn bold ideas into sustainable reality. I fuse technology, sustainability, and food systems to shape a resilient, future-ready world. With a PhD in Applied Mathematics and a track record spanning research, entrepreneurship, and global partnerships, I’m passionate about driving transformative projects that advance Vision 2030.

Speaker bio:
Dr. Andrew Yip is dedicated to curating sustainable innovations and strategic partnerships that will help the food sector reach its full potential. With his extensive experience in technology, innovation, and data governance, Dr. Yip is committed to driving positive change and creating innovative solutions for the industry, supporting Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which aims to promote economic diversification, job creation, and social and cultural development.

Dr. Yip holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and has been a NEOM pioneer since 2019. When he's not working, he enjoys tabletop gaming with friends and strangers alike.

Andrew Yip, PhD

Just finished a 2 am feed and wanted to mark the moment by sharing something I’ve quietly been building: my own baby activity tracker (Just do it).

Over the past weeks I’ve tried a bit of everything — apps, notes on my phone, even scribbles on the wall — but nothing really matched how my days with my son actually feel. So I started designing a simple tracker just for us, and it’s slowly becoming part of our nightly rhythm. The screenshots here are from this week, where I’ve been logging feeds and diapers and getting little reflections back on how the week went.

One funny (and honest) observation: I almost never manage to log sleep time. Somehow, by the time he finally dozes off, the last thing I want to do is tap another button. That gap made me notice how much I crave calm more than perfect data. Using this tool has helped me be more mindful of our routines without obsessing, and seeing the week summarized gives me a small sense of order in the blur of new parenthood.

I’m deeply grateful that my baby Justin  is the inspiration / pair-programming buddy / tester for this little project. The idea is that the tool will grow with him, and I’ll grow with it: what we track, how we reflect, and how we build tiny moments of awareness into everyday care. If it can help other new parents feel a bit more grounded and gentle with themselves, then it’s already a success.

Give it a try, or share it with a new parent friend. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Link in first comment.

Saudi Premium Resident | Turning bold ideas into sustainable reality | Tech × Sustainability × Future Food Systems

After feeding baby Justin tonight, I suddenly got hit by a very specific craving: that steamy, savory bowl of halal Lanzhou noodles in China – the kind where the broth warms your soul and the hand-pulled noodles disappear way too fast.

So, while the little one was settling back to sleep, I opened up HalalYalla and did the next best thing to actually flying to China: I added a few halal Lanzhou noodle spots in Shenzhen to the app.

If you’re heading to Shenzhen (or already there!), you’ll soon see new listings for:
- Lanzhou / Chinese Muslim noodle places in key districts
- Clear halal tagging and addresses you can navigate to directly

This is just the start. I’ll keep expanding the China halal noodle map city by city – if you know any must‑visit spots, reply or DM so we can add them to HalalYalla and help more Muslims find that perfect bowl.

Link in first comment.

Celebrating the arrival of Eid in the spirit of service, I had the privilege of moderating discussions among agrifood tech innovators and ecosystem enablers from around the world at the preparatory meeting for the Global Agrifood Innovation Alliance (GAIA), a "child" of World AgriFood Innovation (WAFI) Conference, as Prof. Wenge Fu the Founder of WAFI has so affectionately put it.

I was especially honored to introduce our Middle East speaker representative, Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Harbi, PhD, Chief Scientific Advisor of the Saudi AgriFood Tech Alliance (SAFTA) التحالف السعودي لتقنيات الزراعة والغذاء —a true pioneer in the field with over 40 years of contributions shaping agrifood innovation in the region.

What stood out most was the genuine energy for collaboration across regions—from colleagues in Spain exploring deeper engagement with the Middle East, to the inspiring momentum across Africa in advancing both technology and human capacity to support smallholder farmers at scale.

I’m deeply grateful to all participants for their openness, shared purpose, and commitment to building bridges across ecosystems. 

This is just the beginning. 

We warmly welcome continued dialogue and invite partners from across sectors and geographies to join us in shaping this collective effort.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue these conversations during our upcoming innovation roadshow in mid-April—more details to follow soon.

In these complex times, I also extend sincere wishes for peace, stability, and shared prosperity across our region and beyond. We look forward to welcoming delegations and visitors to the Middle East in the months to come, to deepen collaboration on the ground and translate dialogue into action.

Eid Mubarak 🌙

Nations endure not just on vision or resources, but on trust: the quiet promises that bind us all.

Saudi Founding Day celebrates exactly that: leaders and people whose word built a lasting foundation, from Diriyah in 1727 to today. That's why I write about trust and foundation today.

Confucius says, "lacking trustworthiness, it's hard to know what can be made of them". In homes as in nations, kids learn trust not from words alone, but from whether "I'll be there" holds true.

In celebration of Foundation Day today, pick one recent promise to your child. Keep it by day's end, or sit down, explain honestly why not, and rebuild together. 

Small acts build strong foundations.

Happy Foundation Day!

自謂西川業漸成，
荊郊野夢尚纏情。
六年閒坐雲山外，
一劍未嘗試世塵。
水繞孤城春自碧，
心隨駿馬意難停。
他年若問興衰事，
但指江流笑未名。

新野覺前歌

Pi Day 2026: The Pie Chart Exception I Teach (And Built)

Data science teacher confession: I always warn against pie charts—bars are better for comparisons. 

Exception? Pi Day, when "parts of a whole" demands intuitive slices.

Enter Slice Truth on π Day – 20 interactive pies in one view.

Some of those pies:
AI's venture capital grip
Shifting global defense budgets
Timeless truths:
10,000 hour myth debunked
Where your focus really goes
How long habits take to form
How identical are we as humans genetically

Pick your provocation—what slice surprises you?
Enjoy the πs. 

Link on first comment.

Six weeks in, my wife and I have been so focused on baby Justin that we sometimes forget… us.  

I originally built a tiny baby activity tracker just to keep up with his feeds, naps, and milestones. But over the past few weeks, I realized the app was quietly reinforcing a mindset: everything for the baby, and whatever energy is left for the parents.

So I added a new screen: a gentle “Just Do It” checklist for us.  

Simple things like “Go outside”, “Drink water”, “Move your body”, “Eat a real meal”, “Take a shower”, “Read to baby” – tiny prompts that nudge us to care for him and ourselves in the same frame.

It’s not fancy product-wise, but it’s been surprisingly grounding to tick off “I ate a real meal” with the same satisfaction as “I read to Justin today”.  

If you’re in the newborn tunnel too, how are you reminding yourself that the parents are part of the care plan?

👋 Hello, my name is Meenank & I can say, I'm living my dream ✨

🎓 An Engineering dropout, but I hold a Bachelor's degree in Computer Applications (Apr. 2020)

🌇 I'm a native from Bengaluru, India (Currently in Spain 🇪🇸) with a passion for creating content and developing implementable organic marketing strategies that will grow your SaaS business.

📚 My experience involves working with influencers & creators all my life.

✏️  Started content writing out of passion in 2016 and wrote 100s of articles for FREE for an year, to only discover we can get paid for it. 
✏️ Took on my first biggest client, Milaap and ranked my article/pillar post for the keyword "Crowdfunding India" 
✏️ Worked as a Head of Operations at India's first offline club for Digital Marketers (DM Club) alongside Deepak Kanakaraju (aka Digital Deepak)
✏️ Helped take PitchGround from $1M to $20M bootstrapped, as a head of marketing and handled a teams across diff. timezones where it involved collaborating cross-departmentally and leading through teaching and mentorship. 
✏️ Learnt the ins & outs of content creation, shooting videos from Ukranian filmmaker Valeriy & Digital Pratik from India.

❤️ PitchGround also taught me how to move from Ideation to Execution and thus resulted in millions of dollars in revenue! (Thx Udit Goenka)

💻 I have a blog where I crunch about SaaS Marketing ⚡ (Check it out: SaaSMarketer.xyz) coming soon

So in essence, I am living my dream, working with a laptop from the shores of Spain  🏖

✅ I’m well-versed in writing, planning and crafting quality content, public speaking, event planning and organizing, SaaS marketing, and making videos.

📸 In my free time, I love taking film photos, take up courses and attend events to meet new people! 

☕️ If you’re interested in grabbing coffee and talking shop (or to hear how I made my journey till here), please send an email/DM my way.

Meenank Minnu

My inbox used to be a warzone.

Every day: "Can I pick your brain for 15 mins?"

Translation: Can I get free consulting while you get nothing?

I used to say yes to everyone.
Felt guilty saying no.
Thought I was "helping the community."

But here's what was actually happening:
→ 3-4 hours a week gone
→ Zero respect for my time
→ Same questions asked over and over
→ Energy drained before actual client work


One day I just... stopped.

Started replying: "Happy to help. I charge $100/hour for consulting calls."

90% disappeared. Poof. Gone.

The 10% who paid? 
They came prepared. 
They valued the advice.
They actually implemented what I told them.

Some of them converted into $3.5K retainers. 

My inbox now? Clean. Peaceful. Quiet.

I also realised:

The people who got mad at the $100?
They were never going to respect your advice anyway.

Your time has value. 
Your expertise has value.
Stop giving it away to people who won't even buy you a coffee.

Charge for your brain. 
Watch who sticks around. 💙

Ps - I wish I did it sooner

I make B2B founders famous to the right 500+ people

Can I pick your brain? Meenank shows a screenshot from his DMs

Why does Google Calendar warn me 30 minutes before a meeting… and then go completely silent when it actually starts?

Because in those 30 minutes, I’ve already forgotten the meeting exists. 🙈

2016 Meenank: Nah, no way I'm spending 1000s of dollars on a public speaking course

2026 Meenank: Hired a top public speaking coach to become confident and articulate 


The 2016 me would cheap out on growth. ❌
The 2026 one understands that storytelling shapes narratives and attracts clients. ✅


It took me a decade to learn not to cheap out.
But you? You can choose not to cheap out today. 

In fact, your mind exactly knows what you're cheaping out on at this moment. 

It could be a course, therapy, a coaching program, etc. 

So, are you strong enough to make the choice to spend on yourself today? 


ps - photo taken on a ranch in Texas

Your 20s are not for playing it safe.

I spent mine like a bull charging at everything.

Not strategically. Not carefully. Just full-on attack mode.

While everyone around me was:
→ Playing defense with their careers
→ Waiting for the "right time"
→ Saving for a rainy day

I was swinging at every opportunity like my life depended on it.

Did I fail? A LOT.
Did I look stupid? Multiple times.
Did I burn bridges? ask my previous founders (They'll block you for uttering my name)

But here's what attack mode gave me:

✅ Skills I'd never learn playing safe
✅ Connections from putting myself out there
✅ Stories that actually mean something
✅ Most of what I wanted by 30

Defense mode feels smart. It feels responsible.
But it's just fear wearing a suit.

Your 20s are the one decade where:
- You can recover from almost any failure
- You have energy to outwork your mistakes
- The cost of swinging and missing is LOW

The cost of NOT swinging? You wake up at 35 wondering "what if."

So if you're in your 20s reading this:

Stop protecting what you don't even have yet.
Go attack something.

Go, be the bull. 🐂

Photo of meenank posting at wall street bull

This is Preeti Malik, and I'm watching her video on my laptop. 
Any guesses what I did with the video?

I put my headphones on,
Add mushrooms to my coffee,
cut 45 mins of video into 1min 20 secs using Capcut. 

⚡️ Preeti posted it, and her reach increased by +100% on that post. 

I go home happy as a content strategist, as I live to fight another day against AI.
 
What's the takeaway, you ask?
→ effin REPURPOSE the sh**t of existing content. 
→ Video reach is high (so post a video)

Could AI do this? maybe. 

OR

Was it my "tasteful" editing or just sheer luck that outperformed the mighty Claude AI?

Maybe you can be the judge and tell me? 👇🏻

I approached a stranger at a coffee shop today.

Just walked up to her, introduced myself, and asked what she does for work.

(Yes, I'm that awkward guy who talks to strangers in cafés now)

She looked up from her laptop, smiled and said:

"I know who you are. I've been following your journey."

I froze. 

My brain short-circuited for a second.

Here I was, gathering courage to talk to a random person...
And she already knew me.

It hit me hard.

When you post on LinkedIn, you see numbers.
Impressions. Reactions. Comments.

But you don't see the girl quietly reading your stuff at a coffee shop in some random part of the city.

You don't see the people who never comment but screenshot your posts.

You don't see who's watching.

I walked back to my seat thinking...

Your content travels further than you think.
Your words land in places you'll never know about.
Your impact is bigger than your analytics tell you.

So if you're posting and wondering "is anyone even reading this?"

Yes. Someone is.
They just haven't told you yet.

Keep showing up. 💙

Meenank using his laptop sitting at a coffee shop

What an abomination. Look at that headline. Yuck.

Ex.YC - So pretentious
leading B2B startups - like who?
6+ yrs in SaaS - You started in SaaS before Sam Altman?
$1M revenue - Yet still no one knows what you do
Scaling b2b saas brands via linkedin - how?

I'm going to give you a once in a lifetime chance. 
Suggest a non-pretentious, cool headline (based on what you know about me)

and I'll etch it on my profile.

Go ↓

🛑 STOP posting AI slop on LinkedIn 
Do this instead:

→ Post your perspective
Hate someone, but love someone else? POST IT. 
eg: You hate Hubspot, so you shifted to Attio 

→ Post your POV
You disliked digging into CRMs and spent hours and here's what you learnt from it. 

→ Post value that you'd steal yourself
Notion docs, Google Sheet planners, AI prompts, agents, resources, and info-effin-graphics. (learn from the god of infographics, Vincent Pierri for this one)

→ Stand the f**k up for something
Hate an evil practice that you think is screwing your industry? 

👏👏 TALK ABOUT IT 👏👏

Stop sharing generic info. 
It doesn't work anymore.

Don't post AI on LinkedIn, instead post this

Cluely's CEO is a liar.
Here's exactly how he manipulated all of us, including VCs: 
 
First,
He lied about $7M ARR to raise $15M from a16z.

Next,
Spent all the money on memes, influencer marketing to create hype. 

And now, a year later, 
He posted about this on "X" that he had lied but unintentionally. 

This only tells me a few things:

→ VCs also fall for content hype and good vibes
→ LinkedIn bros will hype up any news that comes forward
→ Using paid ads for hype creation and memes > paid ads for revenue 

If you can create controversy + hype on social media, 
You can grow, even if you got less revenue. 

Cluely is just 1 such example. Imagine how many such startup founders are boasting their FAKE numbers on LinkedIn. 

Insane times, we're living in.

Ps - Don't sleep on LinkedIn. You can do this kind of hype for your own business (ethically ofc)

This Peter Thiel startup just went kaput. 
This is the fall of icon → AI startup that made ads 

Experts will tell you it's the $12M domain name (icon .com) or mismanagement of funds, but that's not the real reason. 

The real reason SaaS companies fail is by "failing to deliver on promises"

Their pitch was "produce 100 ads in 90 minutes. " 
LinkedIn AI bois called it the end of "design agencies" 

But guess what happened,
It never really delivered 100 ads in 90 minutes. 

It threw in errors, 
produced repeated ads, 
software was slow and clunky to use. 

Customers became frustrated because the unsubscribe button was hidden.

Their CEO then said, they're becoming a design agency and employees need to work all 7-days a week. 

What a sham. 

AI bois will say, AI is still catching up
Anti AI bois will say, AI won't replace humans 

and all I see is a product that didn't work, overpromised, heavily under-delivered along with a toxic CEO. 

Had to end.

Are you a LinkedIn ghostwriter or social media manager? 
I've got news for you. Both good and bad.

Let's rip the bandaid off first,

Bad news:
🛑 AI can do your writing job. 
It matches tone. 
It writes like a human. 
Feed it, and watch it follow the brand voice. 

You're not writing anymore. You're just instructing. 
You've gone from author to editor. From creator to prompt engineer.

If you got into this career for the love of writing,  
the craft, the flow, the blank page 

THIS WILL STING. 

I get it cos I got into this for the love of the craft ✨
I'm now facing a bit of an identity crisis 😢

Now, the good news (and this is where it gets interesting):
✅ The role hasn't died. It's leveled up.

Founders don't just want words on a screen anymore. 
They want a content partner,
someone who thinks about the full picture:

→ The LinkedIn post that stops the scroll
→ The lead magnet that converts readers into leads
→ The infographic that makes people save and share
→ The newsletter that's been repurposed from the LI post 

followed by the strategy that ties it all together🤌🏻

I've realised this is no longer a writing job.

This means:
❌ Writers who stay in their lane (words only) get replaced
Because founders feel they can write using Claude. 

But the ones who evolve? Who build the full-service offer?

They land retainers that actually reflect their value.
They become irreplaceable. 
They raise prices. 

The choice is simple:
Stay a writer → get commoditized.
Become a content partner → stay indispensable.

P.S. - "How tf do I do LinkedIn design now?…"

I built a system for it. More on that below. 👇

In my next post, I'm breaking down the Assembly Line Method: the exact content production system I'm using.

Experts are using this to gain 1,000–2,000 followers/month without burning out or sacrificing quality.

lmk if you're interested for this and if you've read it till here ❤️

I'm usually the first guy to get fired from a company. 
And Jack just fired 4000 humans like me. Here's how I look at this:

First, this news hits really hard for me. 
Imagine replacing 4000 of your workforce with AI? 

We can't hide behind anymore - AI is replacing jobs. :-(

I have 5 things I want you to do: 

1) You need to become indispensable.
You're a social media strategist, but aren't designing or writing posts? 
LEARN TO DO IT. 

You're an SEO guy who hates to do backlinking/Reddit?
LEARN TO DO IT.

You're a social media manager, shy about coming on camera?
LEARN NOT TO BE SHY.

You call yourself a growth marketer?
LEARN FUNNELS, LEADGEN, LANDING PAGES, DATA CRUNCHING, etc. 

2) Stop productizing services (Go full-service) 
Anything that is productized is something AI can do. However, AI can't do the full service offering you'd offer. 

eg: We offer 15 DFY LI posts a month ❌
As many LI posts + outreach as it takes to get you leads. ✅

3) Learn AI tools 
We're at a point where AI expertise is no longer "good to have". It's mandatory now. It raises your value in the market. 

I just bought Adam Andrewjeski's OpenClaw course. 

4) Become a generalist
Generalists are going to thrive here as they're agile. They're jack of all trades, which makes them seamlessly flow like water into adjacent skills. 

5) Save money 
Jack is offering generous 5-month pay for people who got laid off. 
Your company won't. 

NO bad EMIs.
NO taking up home loans. 
 
Capitalism has come to a point where it's brutal. Jack's company's stock rose by 25% when he announced this.

The market is celebrating replacing humans. 

Disrupt yourself 
or get disrupted. 

You got a decision to make.

CEOs have gone mad. 

Some of them are asking for 10x from marketers...

"10x marketing output" bcs AI now exists. 

Let's realistically look at how a marketer can achieve that:
→ Make more AI slop posts
→ Publish more AI slop lead magnets
→ Generate more AI slop led landing pages 
→ Write boring whitepapers that no one would really consume 

Is this what 10x marketing output looks like with AI?

Ps - I know CEOs will actively avoid this post.

Is there any real use case of AI apart from generating AI slop? 


you can't depend on it for therapy 
you can't make it do complex stuff

it just says yes to everything you say...

and lastly tries too hard to replace you. 

Billionaires running AI are winning
Common people are losing jobs

The people in between try to make money with AI wrappers, convincing you slop is good. 

This whole thing feels like one giant mess 

where almost, nobody 
is able to keep up with AI updates anymore.

anyone with me?

Ex-YC Personal Brand Consultant To Leading B2B Startup Founders & Execs | 6+ Yrs SaaS | $1M in revenue via LinkedIn All bound <​ 1.5 yrs | Scaling B2B & SaaS brands via LinkedIn | Content Strategy @ Digital Creativs

The same Claude we use has been used to take over Iran, Venezuela and bomb people. 

Isn't it wild?

It sucks how you so well optimized your life to finish work soon, and the world sees you as jobless. 

If you're working 8 hours or more a day as an employee, I frankly feel that it's a skill issue truly. 

Output > timing

taplio

The Battle

Andrew Yip, PhD

Meenank Minnu

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taplio

The Battle

Andrew Yip, PhD

Meenank Minnu

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Andrew Yip, PhD's LinkedIn Performance

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