28 May 2026etn. Live at Panathenea
Madeline Lawrence & Henri: Aikido Security and Singular
Singular partner Henri outlines the firm's lead-every-round, deliberately tiny-team strategy and recounts leading Aikido Security's Series A when it was 14 people in Ghent, drawn in by unusual inbound SMB demand for security tooling. Aikido co-founder Madeline Lawrence shares growth since her last ETN appearance — 150 to 260 people, a new Chicago HQ, and over $1 million in net new ARR per week — and explains how the no-BS brand emerged naturally from her relationship with co-founder Willem. The segment ends mid-story on the Neo conference stunt that earned ETN's inaugural Startup Stunt of the Month award and the trade-show commitments behind their Series B launch.
Shuo Wang (Deel): Founding Story, 'Shameless' Pivots and Hiring Happy People
Deel co-founder Shuo Wang recounts founding the company in 2019, the COVID remote-work boom that made them 'extremely busy,' and closing banking partners to move money across borders. She explains why founders must be 'completely shameless' early on — be authentic and say what you need — and how Deel, rejected by institutional investors, filled its seed round with operator angels and leaned on every single one of them. She also describes Deel's 'default optimism' culture of hiring happy, resilient people, and jokes that the VCs who passed now email her congratulations.
Deel's 'Ghostbusters' Team, Global Payroll Roadmap and 'Deel AI'
Shuo Wang details Deel's 'Ghostbusters' special-projects team — cross-functional hires reporting only to her, Alex and the CEO, who find and close gaps across the company's now 10 products. She lays out the roadmap from global payroll (160 countries, close to 2 million people paid monthly) into HR, IT and services, plus the new Archive product built on an internal intelligence model. She says growth is even faster now with AI, describing 'Deel AI' as a self-improving, self-correcting thinking machine rather than just a productivity tool, and decodes the Chinese saying behind 'torturing yourself' — become strong as an underdog before taking on great responsibility.