‘Never be satisfied’: Bowen Pan on having a relentless drive to win, minus the ego

“Look at the All Blacks. Great people off the field, beasts on it. That’s the mindset."

Credit: Auckland University.

I’m very lucky in this job. I get to speak to people a lot more successful and interesting than me and then translate a little of their wisdom for you guys.

There are few people I’ve spoken to with quite as much insight as Bowen Pan. He is the definition of someone who has gone big and gone home.

After leaving New Zealand for the US in 2012 he pitched and helped build Facebook Marketplace, a product used by a billion people. He went on to help build Facebook gaming, launch Stripe Apps and served as Vice-President of Product at Common Room.

Now back in New Zealand with his young family, he serves on the Board of NZME and board of advisers at Auckland University’s Business School.

“When I left New Zealand, it didn’t really have a proper venture ecosystem. Companies weren’t operating like venture-backed companies. And to be clear, not every company should be venture-backed. In fact, most shouldn’t be. But for those that are, they have a shot at changing the inflection curve of the country.”

Looking at the current ecosystem for high growth startups, Pan says what used to be a dirt track is a paved road. Or to stretch the ecosystem metaphor a little further, the soil quality for startups has improved. You can grow anything now. Founders just need to decide what they’re planting and how hard they’re willing to push it to thrive.

“We have mentors, generations of founders who’ve done it and shown the way, so the next ones don’t have to walk through mud. Funders, advisors, support systems are all here now. But most importantly, there’s a normalisation of bold ambition. People dreaming big and going out to win.”

But of course, dreaming is just the beginning. There is nothing more plentiful than people with unrealised dreams. The harder question is what it takes to make those dreams real.

For Pan, one answer is simply having more reps across the ecosystem. More startups rising and falling and more stories about them told honestly.

“Storytelling matters,” he says. “Narratives of how how companies and how founders go through their journey. Whether it is success and failures. That helps founders understand that not all businesses are built for the same trajectory. Some are meant to chase 10 to 100x returns. Others aren’t. But our ecosystem is still learning to differentiate between those paths.”

In terms of sectors with the most potential, Pan hesitates to make grand predictions. But deep tech interests him, particularly where there are existing clusters of specialised talent in New Zealand.

Still, he warns against mistaking technical novelty for durable value and confusing what sparks a company with what sustains it.

Whether you’re in deep tech or SaaS, he says, at a certain point problems converge and look similar - particularly since your rivals can copy quickly. So success comes down to talent and execution more than category.

If there’s one value Pan wants to normalise in Aotearoa’s startup scene, it’s a raw, relentless desire to win.

“Not that founders don’t want to win but it’s about having an unrelenting, obsessive focus. That nothing else matters until you win. That mindset, which is common in Silicon Valley, is rarer here. And the environment in New Zealand doesn’t always push you that way, so it has to come from within, or from surrounding yourself with like-minded people. That willingness to do whatever it takes, is crucial.”

But how do you make ‘always be winning’ more than a motivational poster? Pan’s answers are both practical and philosophical.

“A founder should never be satisfied,” he says. “I’ve had friends in the Valley who are 99% of the time just raging because it’s obvious what’s not working. They’re constantly pushing, always agitating.”

Readers might be having flashbacks to ‘founder mode’ discourse and debates over where the line between relentless self belief and execution blur into megalomania.

Pan doesn’t confuse a winning mindset with toxicity. There’s a baseline of respect and purpose. He quotes a Stanford professor who said people really only care about three things: feeling respected, doing meaningful work, and knowing they’re on a winning team.

He advises asking blunt questions: Why aren’t we moving faster? Why aren’t we shipping faster? Fundamentally, why aren't we winning?

“If you’re in a startup,” he says, “that’s what you should aspire to. Otherwise, why are you in it?”

He likens it to professional sport. “Look at the All Blacks. Great people off the field, beasts on it. That’s the mindset. Nice humans, but aggressive as hell when it’s time to execute.”

Execution, for Pan, often starts with proximity to users. “Early-stage founders in New Zealand often aren’t close enough to their customers. You can never be close enough with your customers. So many questions can be answered just by spending time with and working with them.”

Pan says people avoid exposing themselves to that feedback because if you never ship, you never fail. But failure, he says, is how you learn. Of course that doesn’t mean you take customer feedback as gospel. You need your own product sense too.

That balance between conviction and humility is tricky. Especially for founders where self-belief is often prized above all. Pan’s own approach to balance is rooted in self-awareness. Before starting at Facebook, he completed an 11-day silent meditation retreat.

“That gave me a sense of clarity. Before Facebook marketplace, no one thought about Facebook as commerce. But it felt like I was just a vessel for something that was inevitable. If it didn't happen there, it would happen through someone else. But I had the chance to make it happen now, so it was my job to translate this thing and manifest it in the world.”

It’s a surprisingly creative answer to the practical problem of building a novel product. But it makes sense that the same lessons from artistic fields translate for those creating something entirely new in business.

Stephen King once described the act of writing a great story is more like uncovering a fossil. It's already there, your job is just to get it out intact. You excavate the idea, not mould it around your personality.

Pan explains that if you remove your ego and think of yourself as a vessel for something that should exist in the world, it becomes less personal. Startups are a way of manifesting change. If it doesn’t come through you, it’ll come through someone else. You’re just stewarding it.

That clarity helps avoid burnout too. For Pan, burnout isn’t about the sheer number of hours you spend grinding at work. It’s about emotional entanglement and wrapping up your entire identity in what you’re building.

“If your mood is fully dictated by the company, you’re too attached. Ironically, that usually results in worse work,” explains Pan.

He also urges founders to be honest with their teams. “If you’re a 60-hour-a-week place, say it. Don’t pretend to be work-life balance friendly and then act differently. It’s better for everyone to be honest.”

Eventually, as all these conversations must, we turned to AI. How should founders be separating true usefulness from the endless froth?

“Ride the hype, don’t build to it,” he says. “You need the hype for funding but what you actually build should focus on value.”

Unlike past waves of tech, AI doesn’t require a new wave of hardware adoption. Everyone already has devices, connections, and problems. That’s why adoption is so fast and why the froth is so pervasive.

“But the fundamentals of building a great business haven’t changed. Talk to customers. Create value. Ship fast. Don’t forget that.”

Right now, point solutions are thriving. But consolidation will come. “Only platforms with real durability survive. If you ride the hype to real ARR, that’s great but after that, it’s just hard work. Same as always.”