Allen Lau is co-founder and Operating Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures and co-founder and former CEO of Wattpad. His experience building a global storytelling platform and investing in technology companies informs these lessons. — Two Small Fish — Allen Lau.

Infographic for "Lessons from Allen Lau".

On Entrepreneurship and Vision

  1. On the genesis of an idea: A promising idea is unlikely to be unique; Lau warns that founders elsewhere may already be building something similar. — StartUp HERE Interview.
  2. The value of execution over ideas: Execution, iteration, and market testing matter more than claiming ownership of an idea. — StartUp HERE Interview.
  3. The power of a North Star: A global ambition can become a company-wide North Star, though Lau says the timing and path will differ by startup. — Founders Network Interview.
  4. On contrarian thinking: Lau describes contrarian hiring in Toronto and Halifax as context-specific advantages; being contrarian without a sound reason is not itself a strategy. — Allen’s Thoughts.
  5. The importance of purpose: Lau connects a company’s purpose to a clear vision of what it is trying to build. — Tim Jackson Interview.
  6. The role of purpose in perseverance: Purpose helped Lau and Wattpad persist through difficult stretches of company building. — MaRS Wattpad Talk.
  7. Entrepreneurship as a learning journey: The CEO role changes as the company grows; work that served a small team may not serve a larger one. — Tim Jackson Interview.
  8. The best product to build is yourself: Lau argues that managers must keep developing themselves so they can help their teams improve. — Allen Lau in Inc..
  9. Overcoming hesitation: Lau identifies hesitation as a barrier for people considering starting a company. — BetaKit Interview.
  10. The reality of startup failure: He treats failures as opportunities to learn and adjust, not proof that every risk is worthwhile. — BetaKit Interview.
  11. On Capturing Value: Lau argues that creating innovation is different from retaining ownership of the value it creates. — A Recovering CEO’s Thoughts.

On Building and Scaling a Company

  1. The '3 and 10' Rule of Scaling: Lau uses the “3 and 10” headcount heuristic he learned from another CEO to explain why scaling repeatedly breaks old management practices. — Tim Jackson Interview.
  2. The evolution of leadership style: As a team expands, a founder has to shift from giving direct instructions toward enabling other people to lead and decide. — Tim Jackson Interview.
  3. From telling to empowering: A manager’s job is to help the team focus and make good decisions, not personally outproduce every contributor. — Allen Lau in Inc..
  4. The founder's influence on culture: Lau says founders shape inclusion through their own behavior, listening, and the way they recruit. — 30% Club Interview.
  5. Hiring for a global mindset: Wattpad sought a team whose varied backgrounds reflected the global community it served. — Founders Network Interview.
  6. The importance of a diverse team: Founders building for unfamiliar markets need perspectives beyond their own cultural experience. — Founders Network Interview.
  7. A top-down global mindset: A global strategy has to be communicated and reinforced from the top of the company. — Founders Network Interview.
  8. Resourcefulness as a core value: When Wattpad had few resources for user acquisition, Lau reached out to bloggers and smaller communities to get early readers and writers. — PMF Show Interview.
  9. The CEO's fundamental responsibilities: Lau describes three recurring CEO responsibilities: communicate the vision and strategy, recruit the right people, and keep the company funded. — Keith Yap Interview.

On Community and Storytelling

  1. The mission of Wattpad: Wattpad’s mission aimed to connect people around the world through reading and writing stories. — Keith Yap Interview.
  2. Democratizing storytelling: Wattpad lowered the barrier for writers to publish and find readers outside traditional gatekeepers. — Tim Jackson Interview.
  3. The power of free: Free access can remove a price barrier and help a community form, but Lau cautions that it is not the right model for every business. — Allen Lau in Entrepreneur.
  4. Eliminating friction for user adoption: Making a product free removes the immediate “should I pay?” decision for a new user, reducing one source of adoption friction. — Allen Lau in Entrepreneur.
  5. Connecting with a global community: Lau deliberately placed “world” in Wattpad’s vision because he intended to build for a global community. — Founders Network Interview.
  6. The vision for storytelling: Lau ties storytelling to enduring needs for entertainment, expression, and connection. — Keith Yap Interview.
  7. The future of entertainment: Wattpad used technology to surface stories and explore adaptations, linking its creator community to other entertainment formats. — Keith Yap Interview.
  8. Building a community, not just a product: As Wattpad grew into a global community, Lau wanted the people it hired to reflect that community. — Founders Network Interview.
  9. The importance of diverse stories: Lau argues that a broader range of storytellers gives audiences access to perspectives traditional filters can miss. — Glory Media Interview.

On Learning and Personal Growth

  1. The value of continuous learning: Lau described reading articles regularly to prepare for challenges he had not yet encountered as CEO. — Tim Jackson Interview.
  2. Learning from others' experiences: When facing a new challenge, Lau looks for people who have met a comparable problem and adapts their experience to his context. — Tim Jackson Interview.
  3. The role of mentorship: Lau values mentors who share experience so founders can exercise their own judgment, rather than prescribe a single answer. — Founders Network Interview.
  4. The advantage of experience: Lau says founders must acquire new skills as their companies grow; prior experience can help with that transition. — University of Toronto Interview.
  5. The importance of curiosity: Reflecting on Wattpad’s low-traction early days, Lau emphasizes curiosity and attention to users over premature certainty. — Allen Lau’s LinkedIn Post.
  6. Leveraging your network: A warm introduction from a mutual connection can make an outreach email more credible and improve the odds of a response. — Allen Lau in Inc..
  7. The power of optionality: Lau values preserving optionality so early choices do not unnecessarily close off future paths for a company. — Keith Yap Interview.
  8. The journey is the reward: Lau encourages founders to learn from and enjoy the building journey, rather than treating only the eventual outcome as valuable. — BetaKit Interview.

On Investment and the Future

  1. On seeking venture capital: For Wattpad’s long, capital-intensive path to scale before strong monetization, Lau regarded venture capital as a fitting source of funding. — BrainStation Wattpad Talk.
  2. What he looks for in a startup: As an investor, Lau looks for startups that could win a category—or create a new one. — University of Toronto Interview.
  3. The right early-stage KPI: Lau stresses close attention to whether users love a product, especially when early revenue and traction are poor signals. — Allen Lau’s LinkedIn Post.
  4. On the evolution of the Canadian tech ecosystem: In a 2023 interview, Lau said he was seeing more discussion of Canadian companies acquiring Canadian startups, compared with an earlier focus on foreign buyers. — BetaKit Interview.
  5. Investing in deep tech: At Two Small Fish, Lau has focused on frontier computing and deep-technology investment themes. — Two Small Fish Essay.
  6. The future of AI: Lau frames the falling cost of AI intelligence as an investment thesis: cheaper capability may enable more uses and demand. — Keith Yap Interview.
  7. Recycling knowledge and capital: Allen and Eva Lau built Two Small Fish to recycle operator experience and capital into Canada’s startup ecosystem; Eva led its Fund II raise. — Allen’s Thoughts.
  8. The potential of AI-driven content creation: Lau has discussed using AI to improve the discovery of stories and potential adaptations at Wattpad. — Keith Yap Interview.
  9. On Software Multiplying: Lau predicts AI will make software far more abundant; his “10× to 1,000×” range is a forecast, not a measured outcome. — Two Small Fish Essay.
  10. On Investors as Sounding Boards: Lau says investors should act as sounding boards when founders face consequential decisions, rather than run their companies day to day. — Two Small Fish Essay.
  11. On the AI-Native Edge: Lau argues that founders with specialized knowledge who build for an AI-native world may gain an edge if their judgment is right. — Two Small Fish Essay.
  12. On Chemistry Over Deal Volume: For Lau, a strong investor–founder relationship depends more on chemistry and trust than on maximizing deal count. — Two Small Fish Essay.
  13. On Deep-Tech Moats: Lau argues that defensibility may lie in distinctive technology, data, and connected systems rather than code alone. — Two Small Fish Essay.
  14. On Ownership as the Final Score: Lau proposes ownership—not only capital, talent, or research output—as a measure of whether Canada captures the value of AI innovation. — A Recovering CEO’s Thoughts.
  15. On Canadian Ownership: Lau argues that Canadian investors have an opportunity to own part of the companies built from the country’s technology and talent. — A Recovering CEO’s Thoughts.

Learn more:

  1. How Wattpad CEO Allen Lau Turned His Idea into a Global Phenomenon — StartUp HERE Toronto
  2. Wattpad’s Allen Lau on Founding a Company with Global Ambitions — Founders Network
  3. How to Launch a Marketplace: Allen Lau, Founder of Wattpad — PMF Show
  4. Interview with Allen Lau of Wattpad: Leadership Style Needs to Change as the Business Grows — The Leadership Pad
  5. Build with Purpose: A Snippet of the Wattpad Story — MaRS
  6. 3 Ways Offering Something for Free Can Actually Make You Lots of Money — Entrepreneur
  7. Wattpad’s Allen Lau on the Importance of Perseverance — Startup Canada Podcast via BetaKit
  8. 4 Common Mistakes New Managers Can Avoid — Inc.
  9. Inside Wattpad’s Unlikely Story of Success — BrainStation
  10. Allen Lau — Two Small Fish Ventures
  11. Allen Lau on Wattpad, Storytelling, and Investing — Keith Yap Interview
  12. Software Is Dead, Long Live Software — Two Small Fish Ventures
  13. What Allen Lau Learned from Wattpad’s Acquisition — BetaKit
  14. 3 Simple Steps to Writing Emails Even CEOs Will Open — Inc.
  15. 2025 Year-End Review on New Investments — Two Small Fish Ventures