Ershadul Hoque

Founder & CEO of Riseup Labs (@RiseupLabs)

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

I pay more attention to green flags than red flags.

✅ Learns from failure
✅ Self-aware
✅ Curious
✅ Builds beyond work

Those qualities predict long-term success.

#Hiring #Recruitment #Leadership #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

Copying successful companies rarely works.

Different markets.
Different teams.
Different problems.

Learn principles, not playbooks.

#BusinessStrategy #Leadership #Innovation #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

One of our best ideas came from a new hire.

Innovation doesn't care about job titles.

The best ideas usually come from the people closest to the problem.

#Innovation #Leadership #CompanyCulture #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

During COVID, I almost gave up.

What kept me going wasn't the business.

It was the people who never stopped believing.

Leadership means showing up when uncertainty is highest.

#Leadership #Resilience #FounderLife #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

The best client relationships aren't built on contracts.

They're built on trust.

Great partners share context.
Great teams challenge ideas.
That's how great products get built.

#Partnership #Leadership #Business #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

The best hires aren't always the most experienced.

They're the most self-aware.

Skills can be taught.
Self-awareness determines how fast someone grows.

#Hiring #Leadership #CareerGrowth #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

The strongest teams don't wait for permission.

They fix problems.
They take responsibility.
They act like the business is theirs.

Ownership beats excuses every time.

#Ownership #Leadership #CompanyCulture #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

We need to stop calling them soft skills.

AI can write code. It can't replace judgment, empathy, communication, or leadership.

The future belongs to people who master both.

#Leadership #FutureOfWork #Tech #AI #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

By 2027, the most valuable people in tech may not fit a clean job title.

The winners will be engineers who think like product managers, designers who understand systems, and builders with business judgment.

Go deep in one skill. Then go wide.

What hybrid skill combination will be most valuable in the next few years?

#FutureOfWork #TechCareers #Leadership #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

The interview question that tells me more than a resume:

"Tell me about a time you were wrong - and what you did about it."

Skills can be taught. Accountability is much harder to fake.

The best candidates own mistakes, learn, and adjust.

What's your favorite interview question?

#Hiring #Leadership #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

Chess taught me a powerful business lesson: beginners think in moves, masters think in positions.

The same applies to leadership. Don't just solve today's problem :ask where today's decision puts you 3 moves from now.

What's an unexpected place you've learned a leadership lesson from?

#Leadership #BusinessStrategy #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

The hardest leadership conversation isn't firing someone.

It's telling a good person they're underperforming.

For years, I delayed those conversations because I thought I was being kind.

I wasn't.

People can't improve without clarity. Real respect means telling hard truths with compassion.

What's a difficult conversation you've learned to stop avoiding?

#Leadership #Management #LeadershipLessons #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

I used to think work-life balance meant a perfect 50/50 split.

Now I think it's about seasons.

Some periods demand intense focus. Others create space for family, health, and recovery. The goal isn't perfect balance every day - it's building a life and culture that can sustain both.

Has your definition of work-life balance changed over time?

#Leadership #FounderLife #WorkLifeBalance #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

If I could give my first-year CEO self 5 pieces of advice:

• Ask better questions instead of having all the answers.
• Hire slower. Let go faster.
• Build a support network early.
• Be honest about uncertainty.
• Done beats perfect more often than you think.

What's one leadership lesson you wish you'd learned earlier?

#Leadership #StartupLessons #FounderLife #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

Thrilled to announce that Riseup Labs has officially partnered with NeosCoder as a Strategic Partner.

A shared commitment to innovation, scalable digital solutions, and technology-driven transformation — that's what brings us together.

Together, we'll build more, grow faster, and create greater impact across the tech ecosystem.

#RiseupLabs #NeosCoder #StrategicPartnership #DigitalTransformation

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

Scaling a tech company in Bangladesh isn’t what most people think.

There’s plenty of startup advice out there - but very little reflects what it actually feels like here.

A few truths:

• The credibility gap is real: you have to earn trust others get more easily.
• Talent is strong, but product thinking + ownership is harder to find at scale.
• You’re not just scaling a company, you’re building the culture and playbook as you go.

But there’s another side:

Constraints build something you can’t manufacture: resilience, hunger, and resourcefulness.

At some point, I stopped trying to copy other ecosystems. I started building Riseup Labs in a way that fits our context.

That’s when things started to shift.

#Bangladesh #TechEntrepreneurship #ScalingUp #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

AI won’t replace your dev team. It will expose it.

The real shift isn’t replacement: it’s revelation.

AI amplifies what already exists:
• Strong developers become exceptional
• Weak processes become obvious
• Good teams get faster
• Bad teams get exposed

It removes the “cover” of effort. Long hours no longer hide unclear requirements or technical debt.

And it raises the bar on what matters most: judgment, taste, and product thinking.

But here’s the part leaders often miss:

AI doesn’t just expose developers. It exposes leadership, too.

Weak priorities, poor culture, and unclear direction don’t disappear - they scale faster.

This is a mirror moment. The teams that use it to fix what’s broken will pull ahead quickly.

AI isn’t the threat. Complacency is.

#ArtificialIntelligence #SoftwareDevelopment #TechLeadership #EngineeringCulture #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

Busy ≠ Productive.

Busy teams:
• Sit in more meetings
• Measure activity
• Treat everything as urgent

Productive teams:
• Protect deep work
• Measure outcomes
• Focus on what matters most

I've learned that productivity is often a leadership challenge, not a team challenge.

The real question isn't, "Is my team busy?"

It's, "Is my team working on the right things?"

#Productivity #Leadership #TechLeadership #CompanyCulture #RiseupLabs

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

Good engineers rarely leave because of money.

They leave when:
• Growth stalls
• Their voice isn't heard
• They can't see a future

By the time a resignation letter arrives, they've often been mentally checked out for months.

Retention isn't an HR problem. It's a leadership problem.

Challenge people. Listen to them. Give them a path to grow.

Everything else gets easier after that.

#Leadership #EngineeringLeadership #TechLeadership #CompanyCulture

[Ershadul Hoque @erhoq]

I used to think micromanagement protected quality.

What it actually did was slow decisions, reduce ownership, and limit creativity.

When I started trusting my team, giving real ownership, and stepping out of the way, the work improved.

A lesson I learned the hard way:

Great leadership isn't about control. It's about building people who don't need it.

#Leadership #CompanyCulture #TechLeadership #RiseupLabs