Joel is the Cofounder and CEO of Protos Labs, Southeast Asia’s cyber-insurance and risk management startup. This is an episode on resilience, innovation, and faith, as he scaled Protos Labs from an idea to a Pre-Series A $3M-funded company in one of the region’s complex industries. In this episode, Joel shares how he:
- Navigated having only $5,000 in the bank while raising $3M to scale
- Quit his job based on faith to start companies when he had the most commitments in his life
- Built a proprietary cybersecurity framework inspired by a dream
- Combined faith and business to make business decisions
- Crafted a thriving company culture and won the NTUC Most Progressive Employer Award
- Positioned Protos Labs as a leader in Asia's growing cyber-insurance market

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Follow Joel on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-l-8b390249/?originalSubdomain=sg
Protos Labs: https://www.protoslabs.sg/
Connect on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erictisme/


Shownotes:

21 Laws of Leadership by John C Maxwell: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815716.The_21_Irrefutable_Laws_of_Leadership

00:00 Introduction and Guest Background
02:10 Joel's Entrepreneurial Journey before startups
03:11 Deep Dive into Cybersecurity
05:35 Protos Labs: Mission and Growth
07:29 Origins of Protos
24:47 Hearing God's Call in Life
25:20 Building a Founding Team for Protos
26:52 Is the hate for strategy consultants warranted?
37:25 Creating a Positive Company Culture
43:50 Scaling Up and Fundraising Insights
48:00 Early Challenges and Government Contracts
49:46 Financial Struggles and Miraculous Funding
58:25 Balancing Faith and Wealth in Business
01:07:35 Christian Entrepreneurship and Success
01:14:26 YC's Request For Startup on Fintechs - Beginners' Mindset vs Experience in Cybersecurity
01:16:14 Innovative Approaches to Scaling and Productizing
01:17:37 Which threat is bigger - global or local competitors?
01:25:02 Balancing Personal and Professional Life
01:36:49 Reflections and Rapid Fire Round
01:42:06 Rapid fire round