How Faith Driven Singapore began: one invitation, one yes

The meeting that started it

Henry Kaestner is used to starting things. He co-founded Bandwidth, co-founded the venture firm Sovereign's Capital, and co-founded Faith Driven Entrepreneur and Faith Driven Investor. When he met Aleks Farseev at the FDE global conference, he didn't just offer encouragement. He challenged Aleks to plant a chapter in Singapore.

Aleks recounts the moment on his personal site, farseev.com: "At the Faith Driven Entrepreneur global conference, Aleks met co-founder Henry Kaestner — who challenged him to plant a chapter in Singapore. That single invitation became Faith Driven Singapore."

Why Aleks was ready to say yes

The invitation landed on prepared ground. Aleks grew up in the Russian Orthodox tradition. As a boy he saw a prayer for a duck answered within 30 seconds, and he still calls it the memory he returns to "every time I have doubts about God" (the full story). He came to Singapore in 2013 for a PhD at NUS, founded SOMIN, and "met God again" worshipping at City Harvest Church.

Then came the hardest stretch of his working life. When war broke out, much of SOMIN's team and business were in Russia. Salt&Light reported that the company was losing more than $150,000 a month to keep supporting staff while they found new jobs. Aleks refused to abandon them. He even flew back into conscription risk to secure a research grant that paid SOMIN's people. The company restarted in Southeast Asia and joined DMV Redemptive Labs, the accelerator of Digital Mission Ventures. There, "business as mission" stopped being a phrase and became a practice. Aleks was a founder in the cohort first, and later a mentor.

The long search for co-founders

An invitation is not a community. Aleks looked hard for a co-founder. According to farseev.com, "plenty of experienced, willing people stepped forward — yet none was the right fit, and he refused to settle."

The bar was specific. He wanted "a genuine community of Christ-following founders, not a business fellowship where everyone quietly sells to everyone else." Many business fellowships drift into lead generation. Faith Driven Singapore would be free, with no cost and no catch, and centred on the FDE Foundation Course rather than on networking.

Session 1 at BLOCK71

So he started anyway. On Wednesday 14 August 2024, the first Foundation Study met at BLOCK71 Singapore, the startup hub at 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent. It was billed as "a group in Singapore meeting monthly at Block71", and SOMIN was listed as the organiser. The recording of that first night shows a room of 19 voices: a startup mentor of 17 years, a tax professional turned XR founder, a pastor's kid running a digital studio, an e-commerce seller and a self-described free-thinker, all answering the same question: tell us your life path and your path to God.

Aleks told the room he was leading worship for the first time in his life. His Orthodox tradition doesn't have congregational singing, so this was new to him.

The people who said yes

The co-founders came from inside the sessions. Aidan Chan, a former startup founder and venture investor, kept coming back across all three cohorts and eventually led sessions himself. Yuh Tyng Hsiao, born in Taiwan and raised in Singapore, is a marketer turned AI-and-automation entrepreneur from City Harvest Church who joined in 2025. With both of them alongside, the chapter "truly launched".

A community on the move

Over two years the group met in seven venues: BLOCK71, Suntec, Browzwear's office, a condominium dining room at Marina One, Kampung Siglap, Father's House and the YMCA. "We keep changing venues — not because we want to, but because God does," Aleks says. Across cohorts, 47 people came back more than once, 24 followed the group to more than one venue, and 16 crossed from one cohort to the next.

From Singapore to Taipei, London and Kenya

Founders and investors from Taiwan have visited Singapore sessions, and the chapter's first overseas group has since started in Taipei. "FDE has been going great in TW btw! Thank you for introducing :)", Angie from Taipei wrote back. New groups are now forming at Meta's London office and in Kenya. Aleks serves as an APAC / Southeast Asia Ambassador for Faith Driven Entrepreneur.

What the founding story teaches

• Movements start with a specific ask. Henry didn't say "get involved". He said "plant a chapter".
• Protect the culture before you scale. Refusing the wrong co-founder cost time and kept the community honest.
• Start before it's perfect. The right co-builders turned up in the room once the room existed.
• Every chapter begins with one person saying yes.

Sources

1. farseev.com — Faith: the journey
2. Salt&Light, 20 Feb 2024
3. Eventbrite — Foundation Study, 14 Aug 2024
4. Henry Kaestner — Faith Driven Investor
5. Recording — Cohort 1, Session 1