How to conquer and win the Asian market with Hande Cilingir

On this week’s episode, we host with Hande Cilingir, Co-founder and CEO of Insider, a Growth Management category creator, hailing all the way from Singapore.

Originally Turkish, Hande divides her time between Turkey, Singapore and 17 other Insider offices, in order to manage what has become a 400-people company. Started by Hande and five co-founders six years ago, it has been global since day 1. While the US would have been a tempting location to expand to, Insider is only now beginning to consider it. At the beginning it was all about Europe and APAC, regions typically seen as more difficult, not as primed for adoption of SaaS. Yet, the lack of competition made them far more exciting regions, especially Asia. Tapping into it, Insider has become a trailblazer in the region, seeing 3x growth since last year alone.

What has made Insider successful in markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and beyond has been laser focused local approach to each of them. If you are in any way thinking of expanding into Asia, this episode is filled with nuggets such as:

• How Insider views venturing into different Asian markets
• What the expansion plan was
• What has been the secret sauce in making this expansion successful

Hande will be joining us at SaaStock Asia in Hong Kong, May 14 and 15th to talk more about how Insider won Asia and became a category creator. There she will be joined by a stellar line up of speakers, including Vinod Chandramouli, Global Head, Pre Sales, Freshworks, Anna Gong, CEO & Founder, Perx Technologies, Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner, Golden Gate Ventures and over 20 other speakers. Grab a ticket for SaaStock Asia while you still can.

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

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