Vinnie Lauria (Golden Gate Ventures) and Stefano Pellegrino (Aquila) celebrate the international launch of Mind the Gap: Scaling Businesses Across Cultures, a new Wiley-published book on navigating business expansion across cultures and markets.
Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, launches his new book in Singapore on 9 June with Tsinghua University Book Club Singapore
SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE, June 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — For startups expanding beyond their home markets, product-market fit is only part of the equation. Founders also need to understand the cultural context that shapes trust, communication, decision-making, partnerships, and execution.
These cultural dynamics sit at the heart of Mind the Gap, a new book by Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, which examines why cultural understanding has become a critical factor in startup expansion.
Lauria marks the Singapore launch of Mind the Gap on 9 June 2026 at Book Bar, in partnership with Tsinghua University Book Club Singapore. The event will bring together founders, investors, operators, and business leaders for a discussion on the role of cultural fluency in startup expansion, particularly at a time when companies are building across borders earlier, faster, and in more complex operating environments.
Drawing on conversations with global founders, executives, and investors, Mind the Gap explores why strategies that succeed in one market can falter in another. The book looks beyond the mechanics of market entry to examine how culture shapes negotiation, hiring, leadership, partnerships, and execution.
“Founders have always understood that culture matters when entering a new market. The problem is that it is often treated as a vague concept rather than a practical part of execution,” said Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner of Golden Gate Ventures and author of Mind the Gap.
“Mind the Gap is about making culture operational: how trust is built, how decisions are made, how teams communicate, how partnerships work, and how customers interpret value. For startups scaling across borders, cultural understanding should not be an afterthought. It needs to be part of the operating system.
More often than not, companies fail because leaders assume that what worked in one market will translate cleanly into another. Culture affects how people build trust, make decisions, negotiate, give feedback, and interpret commitment. In today’s environment, founders need to treat cultural understanding as part of their operating system.”
The Singapore launch will take place at Book Bar on Duxton Road, a setting closely tied to Lauria’s own journey in Singapore. Nearly two decades ago, Duxton was where he first connected with the local startup community. Golden Gate Ventures would later establish its international headquarters in the same neighbourhood.
For Lauria, the choice of venue reflects one of the book’s central arguments: international expansion cannot be understood only from a distance. It requires local context, local relationships, and the discipline to show up in person.
Among the guests attending the launch is Admond Lee, Founder of The Runway Ventures, who was interviewed for the book. The Runway Ventures studies startup failures and turns them into practical lessons for founders.
“Founders often study success stories, but failure is where the sharper lessons sit,” said Admond Lee, Founder of The Runway Ventures.
“What Mind the Gap captures well is that many startup mistakes are not purely about product, funding, or timing. They are about misreading people, markets, and context. For founders building beyond their home market, cultural blind spots can compound quickly. The more international the ambition, the more important it becomes to understand how business is actually done on the ground.”
The launch comes at a time when startups and investors are navigating a more fragmented global business environment. Capital, talent, and customers may move across borders, but operating realities remain deeply local. For founders in Southeast Asia and other high-growth markets, the ability to build across cultures is increasingly central to regional and global scale.
Mind the Gap offers a practical lens for founders deciding when to expand, how to choose markets, how to build cross-border teams, and how to avoid the assumptions that often derail international growth.
The Singapore launch will feature a discussion with Lauria, followed by audience Q&A, a book signing, and networking.
Event Details
* Event: Singapore Launch of Mind the Gap
* Date: Tuesday, 9 June 2026
* Time: 6:00pm–7:30pm
* Venue: Book Bar, 57 Duxton Road, Singapore 089521
About Mind the Gap
Mind the Gap: Scaling Businesses Across Cultures is a business book published by Wiley that examines the cultural dynamics behind international expansion. Based on conversations with global founders, executives, and investors, the book explores how culture shapes trust, communication, leadership, negotiation, hiring, and market entry. It is written for founders, executives, operators, and investors building across borders.
About Vinnie Lauria
Vinnie Lauria is Founding Partner at Golden Gate Ventures. A former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, he has spent more than 15 years working with founders across Southeast Asia, the United States, the Middle East, and other high-growth innovation markets. His work focuses on backing founders early and helping companies build across markets with discipline, local understanding, and global ambition.
About The Runway Ventures
The Runway Ventures is a founder-focused platform by Admond Lee that studies startup failures and translates them into practical lessons for entrepreneurs. Through case studies and analysis, The Runway Ventures helps founders understand the decisions, blind spots, and execution challenges that shape startup outcomes.
Vincent E Lauria
Mind The Gap
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