Winter Is (Not) Coming
We're still working through the holiday season, so if you've been thinking to send in your applications, now's the time to do so.
Still Accepting Applications
Deals typically slow down at the end of the year (Christmas, the holidays, etc) but at Iterative, it's business-as-usual. We're still accepting applications - and as you're reading this, we're actively working on getting through them.
If you had wanted to apply but didn't get a chance to before the deadline, please still apply. We'll do our best and try to get to it before the year ends.
Here's to all the founders who are trying to raise money before 2023 arrives!
Also, in case you missed it - we recently announced that we've closed a US $55M Fund II, and we're ready to put that fund to work.
Ideas from Iterative
Matt's Request for Startups
Matt Chng helps Iterative look for companies to invest $500k checks in (in case you missed it, Iterative now invests up to $500k into companies!). Before Iterative, he spent his time in CPG, constantly thinking about how to leverage community as a growth channel.
He recently wrote a Request for Startups - self-rejection is a common trait amongst founders, and we want to nip it in the bud by sharing areas we're excited about.
For Matt, one of it is Web3 Infrastructure & Tooling.
Crypto has gone through somewhat of a winter with total value locked down from $200B to just under $50B - that’s a 75% haircut, and Bitcoin down over 70% from its All-Time Highs.
Despite the tumultuous times in Web3, my personal belief is that this reset was much needed and the market opportunity remains unchanged. Just in the past few months alone, mega-corporations like Starbucks and Reddit have both made plans to utilise Web3 for their ever-growing loyalty bases. I believe this is just the start. This period of time is the best time to keep building tools that will enable the next 1 billion of users onto Web3. There is less froth, less hype chasing, and a bigger focus on building long-term sustainable projects.
Building in Web3 at the moment is fraught with peril. It is costly and time-consuming - not where it needs to be. Developer teams at the moment are forced to work with public blockchains with gas fees that quickly add up over time when building. Large scale hacks of protocols costing the industry hundred of millions of dollars in losses. Worrying about these things, amongst others, directs precious time away from developers building their products.
We are on the lookout for companies that are building tools and/or services that help with developer productivity.
Read the article here.
Handling Rejections from Investors
“Fundraising is just a means to an end, and at the end of the day, you're serving your customers and the people you created the business for.”
We spoke to both Le Yi from Ottodot, and Nirali Zaveri from Friz on rejection fatigue when fundraising.
Ottodot is an educational games startup for children between 7 to 12, and Friz is building tools for freelancers and independents to get hired and paid - both are part of Iterative’s portfolio companies, and of course, part of our community.
We invited them both to talk about the often unspoken emotional journey that comes with fundraising: rejections, and what their fundraising processes were like and how they handled rejections.
Watch or listen to the podcast here.
Spotlight on Founders
Welcome, Team Sellde
Welcome to Iterative, Sellde! Sellde is joining our W23 batch next year, and we're stoked to be working with the co-founders Karan ADHIKARI, Ryan Le and Rajesh Kumar Behura 🎉
Based in Vietnam, Sellde provides supply & online tools for the >350 fragmented Beauty and Health Sellers in Vietnam to help scale their business.
Why Sellde joined us: “To supercharge our learning curve, and help us prioritise the best actions through learnings from Iterative's veteran founders.”
Why we're excited: “Sourcing inventory is one of the most cumbersome tasks as a retailer, which is still mostly done manually. With one of the strongest business and technical founding teams in the market, we're excited to help Sellde transform this legacy process into a digital marketplace.”
Congratulations Team TendoPay on Acquisition
Tonik, the parent company of Tonik Digital Bank, Inc. in the Philippines, has announced its decision to acquire TendoPay.
TendoPay was part of Iterative's S20 batch, and we want to congratulate co-founders Kacper Marcinkowski, Jan Walczak, Kamil Charazka and team TendoPay!
Calling for Founders in KL, Malaysia
Iterative is hosting a hangout for early-stage startup founders in KL!
Hsu Ken will be sharing how early-stage founders can navigate the most common challenges they face. This will be followed by a Q&A where you can ask Hsu Ken about the problems you face in your startup.
If you're in KL on the 13 of December, do drop by - you can sign up here. Feel free to share with your founder friends as well! We'd love to meet each and everyone of you.
If you're not based in KL, let us know in the comments where you're at! Hsu Ken was recently in Bangkok and Jakarta, and we'd love to travel to more countries across SEA to meet more founders.