Mustafa Rasheed

Mustafa RasheedJul 1, 2026

A founder’s question became a much longer answer than LinkedIn could comfortably hold. So I gave it a home. Last week, a founder asked me: “Should we enter Singapore first, or go straight into the larger Southeast Asian markets?” The discussion travelled much further than I expected. And it made me realise there are plenty of important Singapore and APAC growth questions that deserve more than a short post. So I’ve started writing The SG/APAC Signal. It is a place for practical field notes on questions like: What should Singapore actually help a company prove? When is market interest becoming real traction? Who needs to believe in the company first? When should a business hire locally? And when should it wait? The first edition is now live. I’ve written it for founders and leadership teams making real decisions about entering Singapore and expanding across the region. This is still very much being built in public. I’d genuinely value feedback on what would make it useful. I’ll share the first edition in the comments. For founders, investors and regional leaders: what Singapore or APAC growth decision would you like me to unpack next?

Mustafa RasheedJul 10, 2026

I’m starting to think the most valuable LinkedIn metric is the one LinkedIn cannot show you. Impressions are useful. Comments are encouraging. Follower growth tells you whether the work is reaching more people. But the platform cannot measure the person who reads quietly for months and then thinks of you when something relevant appears. A founder who asks for help. A company exploring a regional role. An organiser looking for a speaker. A board member who puts your name forward when a seat opens. A brand searching for a credible voice. I had a reminder of that this week. An interesting opportunity arrived through someone who had been aware of my work for some time. It did not come from one big post. It came from familiarity. A pattern of writing about the same problems. Showing how I think. And hopefully becoming easier to remember when the right situation appeared. That was a useful reminder. The public numbers show who engaged. They don’t show who remembered you. The opportunities that arrive later tell you whether the work built trust. Sometimes the post with modest numbers is still doing work you cannot see yet. If you write consistently here, what opportunity came from a post or conversation you nearly underestimated?

Mustafa RasheedJul 1, 2026

The most expensive APAC hire is often the one made to prove commitment. I understand why companies do it. A local country head signals that the company is serious about the region. But that person can quickly inherit an impossible job. Find the market. Build the pipeline. Create partnerships. Explain the region to headquarters. Establish credibility. Fix the positioning. And somehow produce revenue quickly enough to justify the hire. Six months later, leadership starts asking whether the market is ready. Or whether they hired the wrong person. Sometimes the real problem began much earlier. The company hired someone before it had worked out what that person was meant to scale. Before making the first senior regional hire, I think leadership should be able to answer: Which customer are we trying to win? What have we already learned from the market? What needs to be proven in the first 90 days? Which relationships actually matter? What authority will the person have locally? And what evidence would justify further investment? There is a stage between “we are interested in APAC” and “we need a full regional team”. That stage is where the company builds enough local signal to understand the market, sharpen the story and define the role properly. Skip it, and even an excellent hire may struggle. My view: A senior regional leader should inherit a credible market thesis and help improve it. They should not have to invent the entire APAC strategy from zero while carrying a revenue target. For leaders who have built or hired into the region: what should a company prove before making its first senior APAC hire?