Soung Rong Au is the co-founder and CEO of Mole, an all-in-one networking platform that empowers professionals to discover, connect, and develop meaningful relationships in person.

In August last year, Mole raised $110K in pre-seed funding from Antler.

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I help professionals meet other professionals, by providing them with the context and tools to develop meaningful relationships in person.

Facilitating in-person networking with context (meetups of people with shared interests) and tools (conversation openers or structured networking) is nothing new. 

However, no company, service, method, or app has scaled (with technology) and survived long enough to become ubiquitous in this industry.

We're going to change that.

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I graduated with a degree in marketing, but I'm a self-taught software engineer! 

I built our SaaS platform with (a lot of) design help from my co-founder Melly.

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Having our flagship networking event called "I Hate Networking" in Malaysia for the first time last January!

We only have three of us (myself included) who are working full-time on Mole, but we managed to pull off a 400-attendee event on a shoestring budget. 

I'm really proud of our immediate team and deeply grateful for all our newfound friends, partners, and vendors who came together to support us.

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

No surprise here, but we're bullish on events and communities! 

We're all still suffering from a little PTSD in one way or another from COVID-19, and it's made us realize just how important physical interactions are to us as social beings.

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💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

Don't fix it, if it works.

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

How to live better—whether it involves caring for yourself or helping others.

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

The only movie I've ever watched more than 20 times in my life is The Matrix—back when we still used VHS. 

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

I'm lactose intolerant but more often than not I'll risk it for good ol' soft-serve vanilla.

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FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.