In 2020, I quit my job to start klowt.com in the corner of my bedroom in the middle of a global pandemic. 

I had no funding. No business plan. No safety net. 

But I did it because after working in sales and marketing for over 10 years, I'd learned people buy from people. But more importantly, they buy from people they trust. 

And that is what building your personal brand does for your business - it builds trust. It doesn't matter whether it's the founder's face they see, or the head of operations - or even the intern. Customers just want to see real human beings behind faceless brands. 

Since then;

- I've built klowt.com into the UK's leading personal branding agency. 
- Built my own following to over 370,000 followers online. 
- Generated over $4million in business revenue from my linkedin presense alone. 
- Launched a live, weekly show (ameliasordell.com/live) 
- Been named the #1 Top Voice on Personal Branding on LinkedIn. 
- And worked with awesome brands like Three, LinkedIn, BrewDog, Paddy Power and NatWest to turn their people into their most successful, business marketing channel. 

Building my personal brand quite literally changed my life - and my business

Now, I'm focused on showing founders, CEOs - and their teams how to change theirs. 

Ready to get to work? I'd love to hear from you.

Speaking and workshops: jessica@ameliasordell.com 
Media and brand enquiries: amelia@pencetalent

💜

Amelia Sordell 🔥

Please wear ALL your 'good' clothes, nicest perfume, best make up this year.

Wear the fur on the tube. 
The heels to the date. 
The sequins in tomorrow mornings meeting. 

Be BOTHERED.

You don't need an occasion to wear your 'best' stuff. 
You ARE the occasion.

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Just f*cking post it ✨ Made $4million by building my personal brand on LinkedIn. I teach others how I did it at klowt.com

I started building my personal brand on LinkedIn in a corner of my bedroom in 2018. 

Since then I've;
- Quit an underpaying job.
- Built a following of over 300,000 people online. 
- Generated $ 4 mil in inbound revenue from my LinkedIn presence alone. 
- Worked with founders and CEOs from brands like Three, SkyBet, Paddy Power and Markel. 
- Published a best-selling book, The Personal Branding Playbook. 
- Been paid to do a dozen speaking gigs, globally. 
- Partnered with brands like Planable, Tide Bank and LinkedIn. 
- Regularly meet my friends for mid-week lunches. 
- Get to pick my kids up at 3.30pm and take them swimming every Friday. 
- Get paid to do something I LOVE. 

Building my personal brand  quite literally changed my life. 

If I can do it, why not you? So many people hold themselves back from building their personal brand through fear of judgement, or not knowing what to say? 

But what if you lost out on an amazing job because your profile wasn't up to scratch? Or had to spend your entire week chasing cold leads because people didn't see a clear difference between you and a competitor? What if you lost actual opportunities to someone with half your talent, just because they had a more impressive profile online?

Building your personal brand solves all of those problems - and will change your life. Just like it's changed mine. 

So what are you waiting for?

Just f*cking post it... ;) 

Ready to get to work? I'd love to hear form you: info@klowt.com 

💜

Everything you need to to build, grow and monetise your personal brand on LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn Playbook

I built a $4M business off the back of my personal brand. Now, I teach founders and their teams, how to do the same 🕺 Speaker. Consultant. Best-selling Author.

Someone once said to me "i've never met a person who goes to the gym, takes care of themselves... who isn't also wildy successful in their business life"

This triggered me into going to the gym 3-4x a week, religiously since Jan 1st. 

I've:
- Dropped 4kgs
- Feel like a little baddie 
- And have closed 3x new consulting gigs with tremendous f*cking founders, wanting to use their personal brands to grow their businesses. 

If you're feeling sh*t about work...

Go to the gym. 

💜

I don't have an exit.
I didn't get £15 million in funding.
I haven't built a team with a headcount of over 100 people.

I am still a successful entrepreneur.
And so the f*ck are you.

Because if you quit your job.
Started a company.
Employed yourself. 
And are making a living from it - you ARE a successful entrepreneur.

90% of businesses fail in the first two year - including ones that got millions in funding.

So, if you’ve fallen into the trap of comparing yourself to people who’ve raised £20 million and are spending half of that on their social media presence…

STOP.

You are killing it.

If you’re running a profitable business and actually making a living from it, you’re a heck of a lot more successful than most of them.

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia. I built the UK's leading personal branding agency (as a mum of 2!) + now I teach founders and their teams how to build a personal brand that generates leads and sales (not just “engagement”). Most people post for attention. My lot post for income. Follow me for personal branding tips + the reality of what it's like to build in public 🤓

I’ve built a $4million business off the back of my personal brand - and helped clients turn social media into their most profitable channel.

I host a weekly free live show. You’ll walk away with:
💜 the stuff that makes people trust you fast
💜 Marketing trends, new platform features + viral posts
💜 social-first ways of communicating your expertise.

Join us for the next one: https://lnkd.in/gMqpvwpR

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I went back to work just 3 months after having my second baby. 
Truthfully, I wore that quick return like a badge of honour.
I thought it made me look like I had my sh*t together. 

That I was mature.
Smart.
Valuable enough to be able to have a baby, whilst managing a 18 month old and get right back to work. 

And crushed it. 

But actually, I was crumbling. 

I was tired. 
Unsure of myself. 
My confidence was shot and to be honest, like a lot of mothers can relate to... totally lost my identity. 

But I was terrified of being left behind in my career.
So, I went back to work. 

As a result, I completely overwhelmed. 

I missed out on moments at home.
Missed targets I'd set myself at work.
And felt totally depleted.

I had nothing to give anymore.
But most importantly I had nothing to give myself, anymore. 

There is no RIGHT time to go back to work after a major life event, if you can afford to make that decision. 

But there definitely is a wrong time. 
 
Be kind to yourself. 
Listen to your body. 

Outsiders might think you look like Superwoman.
But there aren’t any real life medals for wearing that cape.

Amelia 💜

If we haven't met before, hi - my name's Amelia. I built a $4million revenue business off the back of my personal brand, now I post content about how you can do it, too.

I run a weekly live - The Branded Show - where we go through tools, tactics and strategies small businesses can use to stand out, get more leads and make more money. Save your spot here: ameliasordell.com/live/

My friends used to be embarrassed by the stuff I posted on LinkedIn.
They’d laugh at;

- My opinions.
- My videos.
- My advice in posts they didn’t think I had any business in posting.

It would have been really easy for me to stop building my brand on LinkedIn - heck, I’ve been sent screenshots of conversations in WhatsApp chats where people I thought were my friends are ripping my content - and me to shreds...

But I didn’t.

Because I’m not embarrassed by my content. 
I’m not embarrassed by anything I’ve done. 
And I’m certainly not embarrassed by the;

- The $4 million + in revenue generated.
- The 100s + clients I’ve won.
- The amazing brands I've worked with. 
- The most incredible life and the business I’ve built as a result of, guess what? Posting content OTHER people found embarrassing.

You’ve had someone in your ear telling you what you’re about to do is a bad idea - now or perhaps some time ago. 

And they have a right to give you that opinion - everyone has a right to an opinion of YOU.

But don’t let the opinions of other people activate insecurities you have about yourself, and stop you from reaching your goals.

In fact, LET people be embarrassed of you.

Because usually, when people say “you shouldn't” they normally mean “I couldn't”.

💜

If we haven't met before, hi - my name's Amelia. I built a $4million revenue business off the back of my personal brand, now I post content about how you can do it, too.

I run a weekly show for founders, freelancers + burned out 9-5ers. We talk what is working, what is not - and how to build a founder + company brand that scales. Join us, it's free: ameliasordell.com/live/

Age 17: Fired from my first job.
Age 21: Started my first business. 
Age 22: Scale the business to six figures in revenue. ASOS wants to stock our products. 
Age 23: Business went into liquidation. Lost everything. 
Age 25: Reentered the workforce. Started at zero. 
Age 28: Started making money again. Start posting content online. 
Age 29: Headhunted into a PE firm off the back of posting online. 
Age 30: Quit my job and started Klowt. 
Age 31: Klowt did close to $500,000 in revenue Y1.
Age 32: Klowt did nearly $1M in the following 12 months. 
Age 33: Launch Get Klowt personal branding platform. 731 people subscribe. 
Age 34: Struggle to grow the platform, ultimately close it. 
Age 35: Fall out of love with my business, Klowt - start an entirely new one. 

My am I telling you this?

The most common message I get from people is about fear of of trying. 

- Fear of trying that business idea and it failing. 
- Fear of trying that relationship and being rejected.
- Fear of asking for that thing and being told no. 

Every knock, failure, win, challenge, obstacle - good or bad - is is merely a plot point for your larger LIFE narrative. You are the writer, producer, director and star of your life. 

Stop making decisions based on whether or not you think you’ll win or lose and just make the damn decision. 

If you fail, you’ll get a great story. If you win, you’ll get a great outcome. 

Either way, you win.

💜

If we haven't met before, hi - my name's Amelia. I built a $4million revenue business off the back of my personal brand, now I post content about how you can do it, too.

I run a weekly live - The Branded Show - where we go through tools, tactics and strategies small businesses can use to stand out, get more leads and make more money. Save your spot here: ameliasordell.com/live/

Small announcement: I AM ON THE TELLY TONIGHT 🥹🥂

Extraordinary Life Stories with John Reynolds.

Same girl who used to overthink a single Instagram Story.

Turns out confidence is being really sh*t at something and just… doing it anyway.
(And collecting proof that you’re actually not that bad after all.)

If you need a sign - this is it.

Stop letting the little hater in your head run your life.

Post the thing. 
Start the business. 
Move country. 
Ask them out. 
Quit the job. 

Whatever you want to do, just f*cking do it. 

If you'd told me 7 years ago when I started posting content that I'd be interviewed by one of the UK's most accomplished entrepreneurs on PRIME TIME TV... I'd have laughed at you. 

And now we're here. 

A lot can happy in 7 years, keep chipping! 

Extraordinary Life Stories 6:30pm GMT on Bloomberg TV (sky channel 502) tonight, 19th Feb.

Strangers on the internet will support you and your business more than your best friends ever will. 

If you've just started a business, I know you have best friends in your Instagram stories watching you promoting your business - and do nothing. 

And those same people will happily will like and comment on Kim Kardashians latest selfie. WTF's up with that?!

You’re pouring everything into building your business, your brand, your future - and somehow it’s the strangers on the internet who show up for you the most.

So let’s change that.

I have 250k followers. 
My data tells me 67%+ of them are women. 

Female founders of the internet - let’s actually support each other.
Here’s what to do:

1. Drop a comment below with your name, your story, and what your business does.

2. Don’t post and ghost - scroll the comments, find someone you can help, or someone who can help you, and follow them too.

3. Tag a friend who’s building their business, so they can join us.

Because your friends aren’t your audience - and that’s okay.
They love you, but they’re not the ones buying what you’re selling.

Other women might be.

💜

Hi, I’m Amelia - I built my business while raising two kids, and somehow made it work. I also found my customers, and 3 of my best friends (who are also building businesses!) on social media. If I can so can you x

My first business failed. 
The first of many great, professional f*ck ups. 

It was absolutely devastating. 

I'd tied my identity so closely to being a 20-something Managing Director. 
When I was forced to dissolve it, so did my entire purpose in life. 

I was left to liquidate my stock on platforms like eBay (It was a fashion brand..). Which was more painful than the insolvency. 
Because I'd built up a loyal customer base - selling stuff at a loss was a stab in the heart for me and for them. 

With no income, my dog and I moved back in with my parents with about 26p in my account. 

I remember asking to borrow money to fill up my car with petrol so I could even get back home.

I numbed the pain of my entire identity being ripped away from me with;
alcohol, 
cigarettes and late nights. 

It really felt like a death. And I was grieving. 

My friends did their best to cheer me up.
But was a victim. 
I felt like I’d been really hard done by.

I wallowed in self pity for the next 3 months before I slapped myself around the face and said: ‘You need to go back out and get a job because no one’s going to come and save you.’

I rejoined the workforce in the only career path that didn't judge me for having no experience - recruitment. 

Then spent the next decade trying to rebuild my confidence before launching my agency, Klowt. 

It took me 10 years to grow a pair of balls big enough to go again.
To recover from that wound. 

The failure of that business just killed my confidence… to the point where I was worried about asking for promotions and pay rises, even though I 100% deserved them.

But without that failure, I wouldn't be here.

I wouldn't have;
- Started building my personal brand
- I'd have never founded Klowt 
- I'd not have had the absolutely bloody honour to get to speak to you every day. 

That business failure taught me one of the most valuable lessons I think anyone can learn:

resilience. 

The best lessons that you learn won't be wrapped in victories - they'll be nestled in the losses. 
In the drive it takes to dust yourself off and carry on. 

Success, isn't a constant state of winning. 
It's how you stand back up when life knocks you down, how you choose to move forward when every bone in your body feels like it's set in lead.

So don't do what I did - don't waste 10 years of your life moping around because something didn't work out. 

F*ck ups aren't just part of life.
They're they most valuable part of it. 

So, here's to navigating the f*ck ups. 

Because to be successful you have to make good decisions, but good decision making comes from experience. 
And experience comes from f*cking up. 

💜

I have 250,000 followers on LinkedIn. 
Introduce yourself to them and start building your own network - right NOW 🚀

Here’s how:

1. Drop a comment below with:

Your LinkedIn URL
Your Name
Your Story (200 characters max)

2. Don’t just post and ghost. Scroll the comments, find someone you can help, or someone who can help you, and connect.

3. Repost this post. When you repost this post, people will see your comment. More exposure = more opportunities.

One of the most underrated ways to network on LinkedIn is by commenting on other people's content. When you engage in someone's post, your network sees it. When they respond, their network sees - introducing you to the most amazing opportunity to be seen by exactly who you're trying to attract. 

I’ve:

- Launched a business
- Generated $4M in revenue
- Found two of my best friends in the entire world

… all from intentionally networking on LinkedIn.

So get to work. 

Your next client, investor, mentor... or friend might be in the comments.

👇 Drop your intro below 👇

I started building a personal brand for one reason:
I’m lazy.

When I was a recruiter, I would DM the CEOs of companies I wanted to work with.

I’d send them useful stuff:
- what their competitors were doing
- what was changing in their market
- what they were missing

And pretty quickly they’d reply with:

“Wait… how do you know more about my company than I do?”

(Shoutout Google Alerts.)

That opened doors.
Those doors became opportunities.
Opportunities became leads.
Leads became commission.

… but it was stupidly inefficient.

I was nurturing relationships one-by-one.

So I took the exact same insight I was sending privately…
and started posting it publicly.

I posted content about these companies on LinkedIn. 

My reach exploded.
My connections doubled. 
My commissions 3x.
And I accidentally learned the real point of personal branding:

It’s not “content”.
It’s relationships at scale.

If you can connect with the people who matter to your business and create real value for them 1:1, you can do it 1:many.

Work smarter not harder. 

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia. I built the UK's leading personal branding agency + now I teach founders and their teams how to build a personal brand that generates leads and sales - not just followers. Follow me for personal branding tips + the realities of running a business as a mother of 2 🤓

I’ve built a $4million business off the back of my personal brand - and help my clients turn social media into their most profitable channel. I host a weekly free live show showing you how to do it yourself. Join me for the next one: https://lnkd.in/gMqpvwpR

People are 82% more likely to trust a brand who's founder is active on social media. 

70% of people would rather learn about a business from the founder's personal brand than an ad.

91% of people say they'd rather buy from a founder they follow online. 

If your marketing team asks you to post content online... just f*cking post it. 

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia. I built the UK's leading personal branding agency + now I teach founders and their teams how to build a personal brand that generates leads and sales - not just followers. Follow me for personal branding tips + the realities of running a business as a mother of 2 🤓

I’ve built a $4million business off the back of my personal brand - and help my clients turn social media into their most profitable channel. I host a weekly free live show showing you how to do it yourself. Join me for the next one: https://lnkd.in/gMqpvwpR

When I first started out - I thought to build a successful business, I needed the apps, the team and the shiny new thing.

What you actually need is friends.

Friends who will support you. 
Friends who you can call and rant to. 
Friends who understand what you mean when you say you’ve had “a day”.

And to have friendships you have to prioritise them. 

See your friends for dinner, find the time for a coffee. 
Book it in weeks in advance if you have to, but nurture those relationships. 

Because you are the sum of the 5 closest people to you – and investing in those people will always pay the highest ROI.

In your business AND your life. 

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia. I built the UK's leading personal branding agency (as a mum of 2!) + now I teach founders and their teams how to build a personal brand that generates leads and sales (not just “engagement”). Follow me for personal branding tips + the reality of what it's like to build in public 🤓

I’ve built a $4million business off the back of my personal brand - and helped clients turn social media into their most profitable channel.

I host a weekly free live show. You’ll walk away with:
💜 the stuff that makes people trust you fast
💜 Marketing trends, new platform features + viral posts
💜 social-first ways of communicating your expertise.

Join us for the next one: https://lnkd.in/gMqpvwpR

State your price, then - shut up.

Every business owner or freelancer has been there.

- You’re on a call with a prospect, you nervously state your price.
- You justify why you charge it.
- You ramble about why it’s fair.
- The prospect states their budget (which is predictably below your price). 
- You give a discount because you need new business and this is the only current option you have. 

Stop. Doing. That.

Here's what you do instead: 

State your price, then - shut up. 

Don't justify it or try to fill the silence. State your price and shut up. 

People feel a need to fill empty space, so the awkwardness will fill the room, and your prospect will need to say something like;

“So… what do I get for that?”

... then you state your deliverables, and again, shut up. 

When you state your price and stop talking, two magical things happen:

a) It shows you're confident about your price and delivery. Which makes you more valuable. 

b) It completely changes the power dynamic with your prospect from customer > supplier to customer <> partner. 

And quite frankly, it stops you from reeking of desperation. Desperation = discount. 

I've closed $4 million in business revenue with this tactic. More when you include speaking gigs, workshops and influencer deals I've signed. 

This works because it’s not about convincing. It’s about setting expectations - You’re not someone they can haggle with, you’re someone they trust to deliver results.

So when you're ready to stop undercharging and start getting paid what you’re worth, state your price - then shut up. 

It works a treat. 

💜

If we haven't met - hi my name's Amelia! 6 years ago, I quit my job, started a business, generated $4million in revenue... all off the back of my personal brand on LinkedIn (while juggling 2 kids with no childcare). 

I just launched £79 course teaching you everything I wish I'd known about how to build a profitable personal brand on LinkedIn 6 years ago.  Access it here: https://lnkd.in/eBZR2sQS

Hey! I’m Amelia.

I was born in Australia.
Raised in West London. 

And aged 13 started an eBay business buying and selling designer clothes I'd found in thrift stores. 

I’ve had 6+ businesses. 3 have failed. 

I f*ck up quite a lot and don’t mind looking like an idiot online when I tell you about it 🤪.

I founded a personal branding company, Klowt. We used to have a team of 17 but I scaled too fast, had 0 idea what I was doing and the whole thing almost imploded in my face. 🥹

I’m a mum to 2 beautiful children. 

I met the love of my life almost exactly a year ago after going through a divorce. 10 months after meeting we got engaged. 

Some days, the pressure to look after the business, my family, making time for my friends and myself - somehow manage to stay hydrated is a lot. 

I love life, and I go through it with 0 expectations, which means I am almost always pleasantly surprised. 

I’m a textbook Virgo. 

I have Labrador energy. When I’m not mumming or working, I’m in the gym, walking, Horse Riding - anything that gets me out of the house. 

I've had a lot of therapy. I think it's like a spa day for your brain. 

I love the ocean. My dream is to have a little cottage by the sea one day. 

I collect historical artefacts. For Christmas, my fiance got me tickets to join a Roman Archeological dig - which we actually did last weekend. 

I actually have loads of really cool hold things (including a Megladon tooth fossil), Roman coins - the most recent addition is a framed letter that Reggie Kray wrote to a journalist from prison.

I love food. 
I hate shopping. 
I'm not a natural blonde... 

I like getting things cheaper than they’re advertised, AND if you gave me $59 million, I’d still be doing what I do because I LOVE doing it. 

I would, however, buy;

- A big fat Georgian Farmhouse in the Cotswolds. 
- An G Wag - Because, why not? 
- And stop paying myself out of my business so I could hire more people to help grow it 😂.

All of these things make up who I am as a PERSON - and, therefore, who I am as a professional. 

And that’s what a social media platform like LinkedIn is about - connecting with people.

So now I’ve introduced who I AM, now it’s your turn.

- Introduce yourself. 
- Tell me something that your LinkedIn profile CAN'T.
- Reply to someone else's introduction so we can all grow together. 

💜

Likes don’t pay your invoices. 
Views don’t grow your business. 
And if your posts are “performing” but no one is enquiring - your content isn’t working.

I know you’re busy. 
You’re running a business. 
Maybe raising kids. 
Trying to stay fit. 
Trying to drink water. 
Trying to remember what day it is.

But if your content isn’t converting into customers, what’s the f*cking point of posting it?

97% of social media generates zero ROI. 
Yet we’re all obsessing over followers and engagement like that’s the KPI that matters.

It’s not.

There are two types of people engaging with your content:

1. Your community - they love you, hype you, comment, and share. But truth is, they might never buy.

2. Your buyers - they stalk, lurk, screenshot, watch every story, and never like a single post. Then they show up in your inbox when they're ready to work with you.

The silent buyer is the one that grows your business.

If you want your personal brand to drive revenue, you need to stop posting for vanity metrics and start posting for conversion.

Here's something I want every one of you to try:

At the end of every single post, add a clear line that says:
– who you are
– what you do
– the outcomes you get
– how to take the next step

For example:
Hi, I’m Amelia. I help founders turn their personal brand into their company’s biggest growth channel. One of our clients closed £150k within 30 days of working with us. If that’s the kind of shift you want, DM me.

Your community builds trust.
Your clarity builds sales.

I built a $4M business NOT by going viral - I did it by sharing content that actually converts.

So stop chasing engagement, and start writing for the person who’s watching quietly and ready to buy.

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia. I’ve built a $4million business off the back of my personal brand - and helped clients turn social media into their most profitable channel.

I host a weekly free live show. You’ll walk away with:
💜 the stuff that makes people trust you fast
💜 Marketing trends, new platform features + viral posts
💜 social-first ways of communicating your expertise.

Join us for the next one: https://lnkd.in/gMqpvwpR

One of my team quit.




I suppose that is what happens when you hire smart and ambitious people. 

She’s gone out on her own to start an agency.
And she's already taken on a handful of clients. 

She messaged me last week - “I think I’ve got a client problem.”

She was onboarding all these clients and ended up doing 2x the amount of work she'd contracted to do to service them. 

We had a 30 min session and went through her process, her fee structure and her sales process. 

She didn't have a client problem. 
Her clients loved her. 

She had an expectations problem.

She'd sell a retainer with a clear scope.
Then the client started drip-feeding “tiny” extras.

“Can we add a few more posts?”
“Can you rewrite this one?”
“Can you jump on a quick call?”
“Also… can you do the founder’s page too?”

And she kept saying yes.

Because she’s new. 
And she wants her clients to be happy.
And she’s scared that if she pushes back, they’ll leave.

I know because I was here in 2020 when I set up my own agency. 

But here's the problem with that way of working - you end up doing 2x the work, for the same fee. 
You then resent the client. 
And the client can feel it. 

If you don’t define how you work, the client will define it for you.
And they will always define it in a way that benefits THEM.

So I told her to build what I call the "velvet rope" - the guardrails that protect your margin:
- Scope is a fence. Outside the fence = paid. Every time.
- “Yes, and…” is your best friend: “Yes, we can add that - I’ll send a separate quote.”
- Put comms in one place. If it’s in WhatsApp at 11pm, it doesn’t exist.
- Increase your prices like a grown-up: early notice, clear value, no apology.

Planable and I have been working together for 12 months now and they just published a 30 day onboarding guide breaks it down  the A.C.E method - Align, Connect, Execute - plus red flags, scripts, and systems that stop agency scope creep before it starts.

Get it free here: https://lnkd.in/eXVbhwZc 

Most see client onboarding as admin.

But really it’s the moment you set your rules - or you get bullied into playing by your client’s.

Agree? 

💜

ps - this is an ad. But I’m a paying customer of Planable and have been for 2 years 🥹🤗

Most people don't fail because they lack talent or intelligence. 
They fail because their ego can't handle the optics of trying before they get good. 

Because “trying” looks messy.
Because learning out loud risks embarrassment.
Because posting the first video, making the first sale, shipping the first draft…
means someone might watch you be average.

So you don’t start.

You don't quit the job. 
You don't start the business. 
You don't post the content. 
You don't ask for the raise - or the promotion - or the sh*t that you know you deserve.

Instead;

You rehearse in private.
You “research”.
You wait until you're “ready”.

And then you call it "bad luck" when someone else launches first, or the competition laps you.

The #1 question I get asked in my DM's is "who did you get the confidence to start?".

But confidence isn’t the prerequisite.
It’s the byproduct.

The people you admire didn’t avoid looking stupid.
They just decided looking stupid was the price of entry.

So you can be embarrassed. 
Or you can be successful. 

You can't have both. 

So, pick one.

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia. I built the UK's leading personal branding agency (as a mum of 2!) + now I teach founders and their teams how to build a personal brand that generates leads and sales (not just “engagement”). Most people post for attention. My lot post for income. Follow me for personal branding tips + the reality of what it's like to build in public 🤓

I’ve built a $4million business off the back of my personal brand - and helped clients turn social media into their most profitable channel.

I host a weekly free live show. You’ll walk away with:
💜 the stuff that makes people trust you fast
💜 Marketing trends, new platform features + viral posts
💜 social-first ways of communicating your expertise.

Join us for the next one: https://lnkd.in/gMqpvwpR

There are 3 types of content you should post ↓

*Save this for later*
This works for personal AND company brands. 

1) Attention content
Job: get seen
Best for: views
Feels like: “oh this is GOOD”

This is your:
- founder stories
- lists + systems
- simple, practical education anyone can understand

Attention content is how strangers find you.
But strangers don’t buy. Yet.

2) Affinity content
Job: get remembered
Best for: followers
Feels like: “she gets it”

This is your:
- deeper stories (wins + losses)
- behind-the-scenes  
- super-niche education for your ideal audience/customer 

Affinity content is what turns “random viewer” into “I like her.”
But, that is still not enough to sell.
Because liking you isn’t the same as trusting you.

3) Action content
Job: get paid
Best for: leads
Feels like: “I want that result”

This is your:
- before/afters
- transformations
- case studies
- clear offers

And if you don’t have results to share yet, borrow proof.

Break down known people, celebrities + brands and say:
“Here’s exactly what I’d do and why.”

Because action content is what turns attention = leads.

Most people post Attention.
A few have the courage to post Affinity.
Almost nobody posts Action.

And that’s why most content gets 0% ROI.

If your content doesn’t move people from Attention → Affinity → Action, you might get some likes. 

But you'll never generate leads. 

If you want this turned into a weekly plan you can actually follow, there are 9 videos as part of my 52-video masterclass that teach you;

how to create content people actually like (levers + post types + rotation)
how to turn that content into leads (inbound funnel + follow-up + outreach)

Get access here: https://lnkd.in/eBZR2sQS 

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia Sordell. I built the UK's leading personal branding agency (as a mum of 2!) + now I teach founders and their teams how to build a personal brand that generates leads and sales (not just “engagement”). Follow me for personal branding tips + the reality of what it's like to build in public 🤓

I get paid to speak on stages at least 12 times a year.
If I wanted my first paid speaking gig in 2026, this is exactly what I’d do ↓

1. I’d host my own event.
Before I’m “ready” and before anyone gives me permission, I’d book a local space, grab a couple of cameras, and deliver a keynote. Make NO money. But make proof. Footage, photos, testimonials, and a talk I can reuse everywhere. If you want to be paid to speak, you need to look like a speaker, first.

2. I’d position myself as a speaker everywhere.
I’d put “Speaker” in every bio and build a dead-simple landing page. No fancy design. Just:

- who I am
- 2–3 talk topics
- who it’s for
- how to book me

It’ll feel cringe. Do it anyway. This is how people find speakers now: search, referrals, skim, book.

3. I’d get ruthless about my topics.
I’d pick three things I’ve lived, built, or learned the hard way. Not “my thoughts on leadership.” Real experiences. Real outcomes. Real lessons.
Because experience beats expertise every time. And paid stages want the intersection of story + strategy.

4. I’d go where the money is.
Corporates - big companies with real budgets. I’d outreach and position myself as practical, relevant, and action-led. Not aspirational or vague. Lead with outcomes - because that is where the big $$$ is. 

You do not need a big conference stage to become a speaker.

but if you don’t look bookable, you won’t get booked.
That’s not unfair. That’s business.

If you're getting started with speaking in 2026, give this a go - and let me know how you get on!

💜

If we haven’t met, hi hello - my name’s Amelia. I built the UK's leading personal branding agency (as a mum of 2!) + now I teach founders and their teams how to build a personal brand that generates leads and sales (not just “engagement”). Follow me for personal branding tips + the reality of what it's like to build in public 🤓

I’ve built a $4million business off the back of my personal brand - and helped clients turn social media into their most profitable channel.

I host a weekly free live show. You’ll walk away with:
💜 the stuff that makes people trust you fast
💜 Marketing trends, new platform features + viral posts
💜 social-first ways of communicating your expertise.

Join us for the next one: https://lnkd.in/gMqpvwpR

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.

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.

taplio

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The Battle

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