FSO Speaker Series: Three Reasons Being Smart Can Hurt You As A Founder

​About

​The "Events for Founders Who Don't Normally Go To Events" phenomenon transforming Singapore's startup culture is excited to launch its first ever international satellite in the Philippines, together with our partners at Engkanto Brewery and Thynk.Asia.

​​​At Figuring Shit Out, we put on events for Founders who don't normally go to events. Startup ecosystems don't need another panel, fireside chat or Q&A so we did the radical step of asking speakers think ahead of time about what they wanted to say. Beyond palatable food & hopefully more than palatable networking, why schlep across town to sit in a cramped room for an hour: Perspective!

​​All our speakers come from fascinating career backgrounds that caused them to look at the world and think about problems in uniquely insightful ways. Each of our talks provides a unique lens on the problems facing startups that Founders can absorb to provide a new toolkit of insights for their own founder journey.

​​​Topic

• ​​​Overthinking Things

• ​​​Perfectionism

• ​​​Overcomplicated Solutions

​​Founder Coach Xianhang Zhang has seen these issues derail startups over and over again. In this talk, Xianhang will go over why these blockers disproportionately affect smart founders, his experiences working with founders to overcome these issues and how you can take the same attitudes to diagnose your own emotional blocks that are stalling out progress.

​​About the Speaker

​​Xianhang Zhang works full time as a Founder Coach and is also the creator of the Figuring Shit Out Speaker Series. Previously, he was a 3x Founder and ex-Head of Growth at the South China Morning Post. He’s held a number of roles across startups in San Francisco, China and Hong Kong and labels himself as someone who’s done so much startup stuff he’s equally bad at everything.

​​​​​Event Details:

• ​​​​​📅 Date: Thursday, 30th April 2026

• ​​​​​🕒 Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

• ​​​​​📍 Location: Polilya | Craft Beer & Cocktails, Makati City

  • ​​​​6:00 - 7pm - Networking

  • ​​​​7 - 7:40pm - Talk

  • ​​​​7:40 - 8:00pm - Q&A

  • ​​​​8:00 - 9:00pm: Networking & Bites

• ​​​​Website: https://speakers.figuringshitout.com/

• ​​​​WhatsApp Group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/EcdZhBqS6tWBTRSuEMChLj

​P.S. This is a free, founder-curated space made possible by our venue partner, and we encourage attendees to be intentional in supporting the venue by ordering food or drinks during the event.