Hey there,
October was an eventful month for us at Iterative. We hosted several in-person events, launched Investor Directory - which got 500+ sign ups within a week (!) - and got Hsu Ken and Brian to react to startup movie scenes. If you've missed any of these, don't worry. We've featured them all in today's roundup.
Of course, we've made sure to include new content in our monthly newsletter. In 10 minutes or less, learn more about…
How to assess co-founders
What's the most common reason startups die
The two new companies joining our next batch
What's more exciting: November is Women Founders Month for Iterative! We've got a string of exciting events and initiatives lined up for women founders in Southeast Asia. Find more details below - and why we've decided to launch this now 👀
How to Assess Co-Founders
By Hsu Ken Ooi. This is extracted from a recent in-person event we held in Jakarta, where a founder asked Hsu Ken how to assess co-founders.
I'm searching for a potential co-founder. During interviews, they'll say anything to get the job. How do we assess co-founders?
Answer: It's hard and it's not obvious. If you're struggling with this, it's because it's hard. I don't have children yet but if they asked me who they should date or marry, my answer is: “Don't pay attention to what they say, pay attention to what they do.” It's easy to say you'll do this or you'll work hard, but do they do those things?
Before I met Brian I was looking for co-founders too. I'd have my friends come over and I pitch them my idea, and EVERYBODY says they're in and they want to do this. So I say, great! This Sunday, meet me at this coffee shop at 2pm and we'll start working on it. It's Sunday. I went to the coffee shop and waited.
Nobody showed up.
This didn't just happen once, it happened several times. And it was frustrating, because 2pm on Sunday was the highlight of my week. I was looking forward to it the entire week, and nobody showed up.
That's a good illustration of people saying something and not doing it. People say they want to do something, because they think starting startups is fun and sexy, but the reality is the opposite. It's not fun and it's not sexy.
If I was interviewing co-founders, I'd do the same thing. I'd tell them, let's work together on a Sunday and see if they show up. You want to find co-founders that match your commitment level. Every batch at Iterative, there are co-founders who break up and we help mediate. More often than not, it's because one founder is taking it more seriously than the other.
That's how Brian and I became co-founders for 18 years. Brian pitched this idea to my brother and I, and I give him the same test. Literally, my test was: will he show up? I say, this Sunday, meet me at 2pm at my brother's house.
Sunday comes, and I showed up to my brother's house at 2pm. Brian's already there, working.
I asked my brother: “Am I late?”
My brother said no. “They're just early.”
So I asked him: “What time did they come?”
He said: “They came at 10:30 am.”
I asked why.
“They said they were excited.”
3 companies and 18 years later, here we are.
I don't know if this is a good test, but that's been my journey.
I start companies with people who show up, and not just talk about it.
Introducing Investor Directory
We've made our list of 1,270 investors and 551 funds available to all founders - think of it like a directory of investors for Southeast Asia.
How it works is simple. All you need to do is sign up and fill in a basic form, and you'll get access to the list.
The list is also enriched with information like...
👥 People and Funds – There are 2 lists, individual people and the funds they work for. We find that it's often easier to target a specific person than a fund. Angel investors show up as people but are not attached to a fund.
🌐 LinkedIn and Websites – For each person, we list their LinkedIn profile and for each fund, we list their website. That way it's easier to learn more about both.
📍 Location – Knowing where a fund or person is based will tell you a lot about what they may or may not like to invest in.
Sign up here.
Ideas from Iterative
Unicorn Founder Answers Top Startup Questions From Quora
Why do so many startups fail? How do I find investors for my startup? Why do I always feel like I'm too late for all of the startup trends?
These are the most upvoted questions on Quora, and we got Brian to answer them. He shares more on…
Why most startups die - There are 1,001 ways your startup can die, and picking out the thing that's going to kill you first is equally as hard. But there's often one commonality amongst failed startups (hint: it's not your competitors).
Leave Google? - Brian chimes in on whether someone should leave their high-paying job in Google for a startup.
Biggest startup mistake he's made - If Brian could do his startup(s) all over again, he'd fix this mistake that caused chaos in his team.
Watch here.
Startup Founders React to Startup Movie & TV Scenes
You've heard the saying: art imitates life. But does (startup) art imitate (startup) life?
We got Hsu Ken and Brian to react to startup movie & TV scenes. (In case it's not clear, our favourite genre of videos is putting the Managing Partners on camera and getting them to react to things).
A few scenes they watched:
🍺 The coders coding and drinking in The Social Network
🎃 Meeting eccentric investors in Silicon Valley (the TV show)
📊 Splitting equity in K-drama Start-Up
Watch here.
Spotlight on Founders
Introducing the W24 Batch
The W24 batch starts February next year, but we invest on a rolling basis and we've already sent out two acceptances. Please welcome…
Arshipelago (Indonesia) - Ocean Shipping Platform to digitally enable Indonesia's Domestic Freight Forwarders. Founded by Sherwin Setiobudi and Achmad Feisal Anshari.
Arogga (Bangladesh) - Bangladesh’s no. 1 online pharmacy and healthcare platform. Founded by Rosina Mazumder, Fahad Hossain, Shamim Hasan and Yawar Mehboob. Arogga also recently raised $5.5m in seed round 🎊
We’re on a mission to review as many applications as we can before the end of 2023, so more announcements to come! Now is a great time to get your application in if you haven’t yet.
Why Did You Start a Startup
We love origin stories, so we've asked some of our founders why they started a startup. We hope this will inspire more people to start startups - and that you don't need to have a 'perfect' reason to start something.
Watch here.
Wake Up, It's Women’s Founder Month
We're dedicating the month of November to women founders and women-led startups! If you're a woman founder or entrepreneurial leader, join us in our lineup of exciting events and initiatives exclusively for you.
Why are we doing this?
The journey of a founder is uniquely challenging, and it's even more so for women founders who are historically and severely underfunded.
We're here to create supportive spaces for women founders and investors to speak candidly about their experiences, learn from one another, and build meaningful connections.
Why this month?
The better question is: why not this month?
We don't want to wait until International Women's Day, nor do we want this to be a one-off initiative.
Our commitment to supporting women founders in Southeast Asia is strong and ongoing. This is just the beginning, with more Women Founders-focused initiatives to come from Iterative.
So what's happening?
We have a lineup of in-person events and virtual initiatives. For some of the events, we're thrilled to have teamed up with Uncommon, a community learning and development platform for female leaders.
Sign up for any (or all!) that you're interested in, including:
💪 SEA Checks: Women Founders Edition - A common application for startups to submit a deck to a group of active investors. During November, we'll prioritise applications from women founders.
🔥 Fireside Discussion on Navigating Startup Risks - Discover the art of calculated risks and learn invaluable strategies to de-risk the process of launching your startup.
💻 20-Minute Virtual Office Hours For Women Founders - Sign up for 1:1 support from Iterative. It doesn't matter what stage, whether we or anyone else has invested, or what the problem is, we want to help.
📈 The Highs & Lows of Being a Woman Founder in Southeast Asia - Join us for candid conversations, practical advice and honest sharing on what it means to be a woman leader in Southeast Asia.
For more details on each initiative, go here.
ICYMI
For folks who aren't familiar with internet language, that's In Case You Missed It! While our program is hosted (mostly) virtually, we do organise in-person events across Southeast Asia to get to know more founders. Over the past month or so, we've held a few in-person events in Singapore and Indonesia.
Iterative Founders Hike in Singapore
We hosted Iterative Founders Hike at Rifle Range Park, Singapore! It was special to see founders from various Iterative batches come together and make new connections. Plus, we were lucky the rain held off until mere minutes after we completed our hike! To the founders, thank you for making time.
Founders Meetup in Jakarta
We held a meetup in Jakarta and this was one of our best events thus far. The energy was high and we especially loved all of the questions we received. Most stayed on after the event until the venue rep had to shoo us off 😂🥲
That's all for this month, folks! As always, reach out if you have feedback, questions or if you just feel like saying hi.
One of the links in the newsletter was wrongly linked (Brian's Quora video). It's been amended now - thanks Kai Yuan Neo for pointing out!