2025 was the year I stopped just "running a business" and started learning how to lead one.

Until this year, FundingBee was a tight-knit tactical unit. We were a team of three: myself, a Director, and a Finance Operations lead. We worked side-by-side, shared a brain, and moved fast.

Then came July. We successfully closed a funding round, a milestone every business owner dreams of. But with that capital came immediate expansion. We scaled from three people to ten, including interns.

I thought the hard part was getting the money. I was wrong. The hard part was what came next: conflict, reflection, and a crash course in leadership.

Here is how 2025 exposed my blind spots, and how I am rebuilding my leadership approach for 2026.

The Trap of Hiring for Skills Instead of Values

We made our first hire in May. By the time the funding hit our account in July, the team had tripled in size.

While trying to execute my own tasks, I was suddenly drowning in onboarding, training, and reviewing work. I thought I was being clear. I thought I was giving deliberate instructions. Yet, the work wasn't landing the way I expected. Questions echoed in my head daily:

• Why isn’t this clicking?
• Why is this taking twice as long as I imagined?

I realized my biggest blind spot was hiring based on what fits on a piece of paper. We hired for skills and experience, the "hard" stuff. But when you are scaling a startup, what matters just as much are the "soft" metrics: values, communication styles, and expectations.

Hiring isn't the finish line; it’s the starting line. In 2026, we are prioritizing culture fit just as highly as technical capability.

Bridging the Gap: Japanese Discipline vs. Malaysian Reality

I grew up in Japan, where professional duty often supersedes personal life. Work comes first. That is the default setting I carried with me.

But building a team in Malaysia taught me that leadership cannot be "one size fits all." Here, family isn't just a priority; it is the reality. Family emergencies aren't treated as rare exceptions, but as part of the fabric of daily life.

At first, I struggled. I had to ask myself: Is this a lack of motivation? Or is this a cultural difference I am failing to see?

Leadership isn't about enforcing your standard; it’s about understanding the context of your team. I learned that empathy drives productivity better than rigid rules. Sometimes, the most high-leverage thing a CEO can do is not checking a KPI, but having a short, human conversation or offering a word of encouragement.

Letting Go: A CEO Cannot See Everything

As the team grew, the cracks in our structure began to show. We needed defined responsibilities, but I was still hovering over details, trying to micromanage outcomes.

Our COO, an experienced leader, pulled me aside more than once with a hard truth:

A CEO cannot see everything.

It was a wake-up call. I understood delegation in theory, but practicing it was terrifying. However, for a company to scale, the CEO must understand where their responsibilities end and where their managers' begin.

The Vision for 2026: Building Structure for Growth

The struggles of 2025 were necessary. They forced me to evolve from a "doer" into a "builder."

To grow FundingBee in 2026, my focus is shifting from daily operations to organizational design. I want to build a company that is both strong and human—where structure enables growth, and leadership is clear yet empathetic.

My advice to other SME owners: If you are considering funding and expansion, know that the money is just the fuel. The engine is your team. You will have blind spots, and you will make mistakes. That is part of the process.

At FundingBee, we understand that growth is rarely a straight line. If you are ready to take that next step, you don’t have to navigate it alone. Let’s learn, grow, and build stronger organizations together.

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