Why "Calm" Can Be A Powerful Growth Strategy - FSO Speaker Series
About
At Figuring Shit Out, we put on events for Founders who don't normally go to events. We didn't believe Singapore needed 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
A calm startup is one where:
decisions don’t feel rushed or reactive
growth creates leverage instead of more chaos
founders can pursue growth without everything becoming urgent
But getting there isn’t easy. Startups are messy by nature. There’s uncertainty, experimentation, and plenty of moments where you’re figuring things out in real time. But if you’re not careful, that chaos can quietly turn into permanent urgency.
When everything feels urgent, founders can end up reacting instead of building. Decisions become rushed, priorities shift constantly, and growth can start to feel like something to manage (or even avoid) rather than pursue.
In this session, systems strategist and HelmCrew founder Niki Torres explores why calm isn’t about slowing down or avoiding work. It’s about designing a business that can grow without running on fumes.
Drawing on nearly two decades of working in marketing and growth roles across early-stage startups, she shares why some businesses seem to live in permanent firefighting mode while others grow steadily without everything feeling urgent all the time.
We’ll explore:
Why many companies end up operating in constant response mode
The difference between the natural mess of building something new and the stress created by unclear decisions or boundaries
A simple way to think about designing a business that can handle growth without everything feeling urgent
Many founders assume that building something meaningful will inevitably mean constant urgency. More work, more pressure, more moving parts.
This session explores the idea that growth can still involve ambition and effort, while feeling steadier and more intentional at the same time.
About the Speaker
Niki Torres is a systems strategist and the founder of HelmCrew, a systems studio that helps founders build businesses that grow without running on constant urgency.
With nearly 20 years of experience in marketing and growth, she has held three Head of Marketing roles in early-stage startups, building teams from scratch, scaling companies, and learning firsthand what it takes to lead when you’re often the team.
Over time, she began noticing a pattern: some companies seem to live in permanent firefighting mode, while others stay surprisingly steady even as they grow.
Through HelmCrew, she now works with founders to put the right decisions, structures, and systems in place so that effort compounds rather than resetting every week.
She is based in Singapore and works with digital founders across Asia and globally.
Event Details:
📅 Date: Wednesday, 25th March
🕒 Time: 6:30 PM - 9 PM
📍 Location: Monk's Brew Club, 57 East Coast Road
⏰ Agenda:
6:30 - 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
Upcoming Speakers
Just Enough DevOps Process - The First Steps Count the Most
— Geoff Halprin, Fractional SRE/DevOps/DevEx
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