​Startup Fxckups is a panel where founders share the mistakes that almost broke their companies — the bad decisions, painful pivots, and hard lessons they learned the expensive way.

Because the truth is: building a startup is messy.

This time, we’re bringing 3 founders behind some of Southeast Asia’s biggest startups:

• ​Kelvin Teo — Co-Founder & Group CEO of Funding Societies, which has disbursed S$6.6B+ in SME financing across the region.

• ​Ishan Agrawal — Head of Engineering at Airwallex (leading AI, Data & Growth), previously Group CTO at Funding Societies, and founder of Branch AI (YC-backed), where he built an e-commerce AI startup from scratch.

• ​Joel Leong — Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer of ShopBack, which has paid out over US$1B in cashback and drives billions of dollars in annual sales across Asia-Pacific.

​They’ve seen the highs.

​But more importantly, they’ve survived the lows.

​Moderated by Admond from The Runway Ventures in partnership with Airwallex for Startups and Endeavor, this is a rare chance to hear the journey and mistakes founders usually don’t talk about publicly.

​No polished success stories.
Just real founder stories.

Expect a lively, chilled atmosphere filled with laughter, learning, and maybe a few “WTF” moments.

​🍱 Dinner and drinks are provided — so come hungry for both food and wisdom.

​🚀 If you’re building a high-growth company, you’ll feel right at home.

​Let’s turn those fxckups into better decisions.

​Agenda

• ​6:30 PM: Registration + Dinner

• ​7 PM: Intro + Panel Sharing 🧠

• ​8 PM: Q&A

• ​8:15 PM: Open mic (share your biggest fxckups + learnings) 😎

• ​8:30 PM: Networking + Chill

• ​9 PM: Go home

​🔥 Meet Our Speaker

​Kelvin Teo (Co-Founder & Group CEO @ Funding Societies)

​Kelvin co-founded Funding Societies in 2015 while studying at Harvard Business School to solve a massive problem in Southeast Asia: SMEs struggling to access financing.

​Today, Funding Societies has grown into Southeast Asia’s largest SME digital financing platform, operating across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

​So far, the platform has disbursed over S$6.6B in business financing across more than 5 million transactions, helping over 100,000 SMEs access funding to grow.

​Before starting Funding Societies, Kelvin worked at McKinsey, KKR and Accenture.

​Ishan Agrawal (Head of Engineering @ Airwallex, ex-Group CTO @ Funding Societies, ex-founder @ Branch AI)

​Ishan leads Engineering for AI, Data and Growth at Airwallex, one of the world’s fastest-growing fintech companies powering global payments and financial services.

​He previously served as Group CTO at Funding Societies, where he helped scale the technology behind a platform that has disbursed over S$6.6B in SME financing across Southeast Asia.

​After that, he went on to build Branch AI, a YC-backed e-commerce AI startup.

​He brings a rare mix of operator, builder, and founder perspective — from scaling fintech infrastructure to building startups from zero.

​Joel Leong (Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer @ ShopBack)

​Joel co-founded ShopBack in 2014 to make online shopping more rewarding through cashback and deals.

​Today, ShopBack has grown into one of Asia-Pacific’s leading shopping rewards platforms, serving 55M+ shoppers across 13 markets.

​To date, ShopBack has paid out over US$1B in cashback to users and drives billions of dollars in annual sales to thousands of merchant partners across the region.

​As Chief Business Officer, Joel leads partnerships and growth — working with major brands and merchants to scale ShopBack across Asia.

​🧡 About Airwallex for Startups

​​Combining Airwallex's cross-border financial infrastructure with perks, networks and expertise to transform your startup finances into a strategic lever for growth!

​​Open an Airwallex account today to enjoy cashback, free FX, waived fees and more on your first S$110,000 plus :

• ​Exclusive offers from ecosystem partners such as OpenAI, Manus, Nebius, deel, Notion, Google Cloud, HubSpot & more

• ​​Access to CFO Mentors to sharpen your runway planning, fundraising readiness and cross-border finance strategy

• ​​AI Sandbox track to co-build and test your ideas directly with Airwallex teams

​🔥 About Endeavor

​Endeavor is the global network of trust of, by, and for high growth entrepreneurs that exists to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in “elsewhere” markets by selecting, mentoring, and investing in the most promising founders worldwide and ultimately inspiring them to become Multipliers™️ reinvesting their success in the next generation.

​🚀 About The Runway Ventures

​The Runway Ventures is helping founders become better and smarter operators by learning from startup failures through its weekly newsletter. Every Sunday, you'll get 1 failed startup story, 2 mistakes, and 3 lessons learned with actionable tips to build and grow your business — all for free.

​Some of the most popular and exclusive failed startup stories we've covered include Style Theory, Privé Group, eFishery, TaniHub, Kaodim, Fusionex, and Oriente.

​Since then, we've built a community of 80,000+ founders, VCs, and operators across Southeast Asia. That's why we're organising this meetup for you to learn directly from founders — be it their unfiltered startup journey, mistakes made, or lessons learned.

​90% of startups failed because founders made mistakes. Don't be one of them. Join us, and we'll see you there!