What Failure Teaches You That Success Never Will

Admond Lee, founder of The Runway Ventures, joins The Generalists to talk about startup failure, legal threats, founder-market fit, and why Southeast Asia needs more honest conversations about what actually goes wrong when companies collapse. 🤝 Sponsored by ⁠https://TAP4SRV.com⁠ - Quickly find local Service Providers on WhatsApp! 🤝 In this episode, Admond Lee shares the story behind The Runway Ventures, a media and founder community built around one uncomfortable idea: founders learn more from failure than from polished success stories. After his own startup failed, Admond realized that most founders in Southeast Asia only hear the fundraising stories, the unicorn stories, and the wins. What they rarely hear are the mistakes, the wrong assumptions, the poor market timing, the missed founder-market fit, and the hard lessons that could help them avoid repeating the same failures. Admond also opens up about the risks of writing publicly about startup failures. He talks about receiving legal threats, cease and desist letters, pressure from founders and investors, and the challenge of balancing truth, accountability, and empathy when covering sensitive stories. The conversation also explores why failure is still so stigmatized in Southeast Asia, how this differs from places like Silicon Valley and Israel, and why ecosystem maturity requires more founders to talk honestly about what went wrong. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Welcome to Episode 80 with Admond Lee 00:34 Five legal threats, two cease and desist letters 02:20 Bloomberg, sourcing, and “for your own safety” 04:38 Taking down a viral startup failure story 06:10 The second story, whistleblowers, and legal pressure 08:44 Why Admond started The Runway Ventures 10:20 Recovering from startup failure 11:30 “Find a bigger shit” and learning from other founders 12:15 Founder-market fit and why Stack failed 13:30 Why self-awareness matters for founders 15:00 The network problem in B2B startups 16:00 Copying a UK model into Southeast Asia 17:05 Why conviction comes from tractio