The Iterative Podcast
By Iterative
Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia. Iterative invests US$150K into startups, twice a year. After investing they work intensely with the founders to help their startups grow before culminating in a Demo Day.
The Iterative PodcastApr 11, 2023
Should You Continue Working On Your Startup? - Episode 01 of The Brian and Hsu Ken Show
"Should I continue working on my startup?" It's a persistent question founders ask themselves - and the most difficult to answer. In the first episode of the Brian and Hsu Ken show, the Managing Partners of Iterative break down how founders can tackle this question.
Chapters 0.00 - Introduction 0.27 - Why Is This A Hard Question? 3:57 - Should More Companies Be Sticking It Out? 6:38 - Design Experiments Around Your Runway 9:15 - It Takes A Longer Time to Figure Out Economics 10:00 - Are You Solving the Most Important Problem? 10:50 - Hsu Ken's Thread 11:12 - Are You Growing? 14:08 - You're Growing Fast When You Think Your Metrics Are Wrong 15:29 - Retention is Important 16:12 - Are You Learning? 16:28 - Founders Need Insights Per Minute 18:15 - Best Startups Tend to Be Built Around Secrets 19:00 - Do You Have Ideas for What to Do Next? 21:28 - Startups Need to Engineer Growth 23:04 - Are You Having Fun? 25:00 - Signs You Should Quit Your Startup 28:29 - Learnings → Bets → Growth 28:57 - Swipe to the table in the LinkedIn post 31:15 - How Much Time Founders Should Spend on Learnings, Bets and Growth 36:00 - Wrapping Up
Rejection Fatigue: Handling Rejections from Investors (With Le Yi Khor from Ottodot and Nirali Zaveri from Friz)
This time around, we’re talking to Le Yi from Ottodot, and Nirali 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. I 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.
Nirali Zaveri
Nirali is the cofounder and CEO of Friz where the team is building tools for freelancers and independents to get hired and paid. Her experiences at Mastercard in Commercial and Small Business Payments helped her realise the struggles freelancers face with their businesses.
Le Yi Khor
Le Yi is the CEO and co-founder of Ottodot, an educational games startup that aims to make learning fun for kids 7-12 years old. Ottodot builds games on Roblox and the games have reached thousands of players in less than 6 months. Her personal mission is empowering youths to realise their fullest potential through good design and technology.
Show Notes
3:25 - How Nirali got into both YC and Iterative's cohort
5:46 - “The most important thing is getting your metrics right” - Why Nirali believes it's important for founders to first be customer obsessed. “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”
9:08 - How Le Yi and her co-founder had to learn how to fundraise as first-time founders. “Fundraising is one of the toughest things to learn because it's a private conversation, and the feedback loop is much harder and makes it difficult to learn”
12:08 - Ottodot's journey in fundraising in a ‘fundraising winter’
15:25 - “Fundraising strategy is something I completely underestimated” - Why fundraising is a skill and how it can be learned by founders
18:10 - Le Yi's experience with an investor that told her “this is not how you fundraise”
19:21 - The most surprising thing about fundraising - it's not the silver bullet that fixes everything
22:24 - The shift from having someone tell you what to do to figuring something out on your own - why fundraising is also highly subjective
25:51 - How to discern the fine line between noise and good feedback. “Ÿou need to first emotionally let go” and focus on what your customers are telling you 28:05 - Nirali shares the multiple ways to test out feedback from investors
33:43 - What rejections mean to both Nirali and Le Yi before, and what it means now
39:24 - Fundraising isn't something you can switch on and off
42:06 - Nirali's takeaway - having clarity is important
43:13 - Le Yi's takeaway - the importance of selling cannot be underestimated
Recording of Livestream Event: "Tell Me Your Startup Idea, I'll Tell You How to Validate It" (With Hsu Ken Ooi)
We hosted a livestream event where founders (and future founders!) told Hsu Ken their startup ideas, and he told them how to validate it.
To everyone that participated, thank you! We'll be running more events (physical or virtual) in the future, follow us at iterative.substack.com to make sure you don't miss out.
#FutureisFemale: Yolanda Lee on Finding Confidence When You're The Only Woman in the Room
“I want every little girl who's told she's bossy to be told instead she has leadership skills.” - Sheryl Sandberg
Confidence is something everyone struggles with, but more so if you're the only woman in the room and everyone doesn't look or think like you. In this episode, we invited Yolanda Lee back to the Iterative Podcast to discuss exactly this: how to find confidence as a female leader. From sharing personal stories on losing (and gaining) confidence, to breaking down the way the workforce was designed specifically for men, it's an episode made for women leaders, by woman leaders.
About Yolanda Lee
Yolanda Lee is the founder and CEO of Uncommon, Asia's first private leadership network for the next generation of female leaders. Prior to this, she led the international consumer partnerships team across Asia Pacific and the Middle East at Deliveroo, building its corporate solutions offering as the Head for Business. She also worked in Africa as the Regional Partnerships Manager for Uber, as well as the Regional Managing Director at HelloFood under Rocket Internet.
About Uncommon
Uncommon is a community learning and development platform for female leaders. Uncommon uses behavioural science, coaching and a supportive community to bridge the gap between knowledge and action and ensure lasting, effective change where it matters most.
For show notes, visit the website here.
Top Fundraising Mistakes Founders Often Make (With Kuo-Yi Lim from Monk's Hill Ventures and Hsu Ken Ooi from Iterative)
In this episode, we've got Hsu Ken back in the roster - and we've also invited Kuo Yi from Monk's Hill Ventures to talk about the top mistakes founders often make when fundraising.
But instead of the usual Q&A format, we're shaking things up a bit. I got both Hsu Ken and Kuo Yi to stack rank the top three mistakes they often see founders make, so you'll get to hear what are the different priorities that are important for an investor. They also talk about how founders can fix those mistakes - and how the current economic downturn will impact fundraising.
For show notes, go here.
Things to Look Out For When Fundraising (With Nikhil Kapur from STRIVE and Brian Ma from Iterative)
What should founders look out for when they're fundraising? If you do a quick google, you can find loads of things investors should think about before investing in a founder… but not so much for the other side of the table. Founders who are new to fundraising don't have a playbook on fundraising - like what term sheet is right for them, how to carry out DD, what good value add looks like - and because they're new to all of this, some of them don't even realise they signed the short end of the stick.
To change this, we invited Nikhil Kapur from STRIVE and Brian Ma from Iterative, investors who were founders prior, to share more about the common things founders need to look out for when fundraising. In this episode, they talk about…
- What founders should be asking investors
- Horror stories on investors from Nikhil and Brian
- When should convertible notes come in?
- How founders can navigate through the current funding cycle
- The green flags from investors - what good investors look like
Nikhil Kapur, Partner at STRIVE
After a decade spent in development and product at Microsoft Office (10M+ SaaS deployments), TommyJams (founder), Pie (SMB SaaS acquired by Google), Nikhil knows how to build scalable SaaS businesses. He's now currently applying these as a VC at STRIVE ($200M+ AUM) as he invests in SaaS and DevInfra being built out of Asia by exceptional founders with a product-led mindset.
Brian Ma, General Partner at Iterative
Brian was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of Divvy Homes (a16z, GIC). In 2014, he and Elpizo Choi started Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. In 2005, he was one of the first PMs at Zillow before they launched.
Show Notes5:47 - How have the conversations between founders and fund managers shifted
10:42 - What are some of the interesting questions investors get (11:21: Founders aren't asking the right questions - what founders should be asking)
15:31 - Brian's personal story on how he was shortchanged by investors
18:04 - Term sheets signed, and not honoured, is extremely common
18:26 - Nikhil's personal horror story with another investor that "caused a ruckus” - how Nikhil had to personally jump on calls to convince investors to go ahead at 20:44
22:33 - At what stage should startups start considering notes being included into the term sheet
22:57 - Nikhil's blog post 'How convertible notes are killing you’ that went viral four years ago
29:02 - How should founders navigate through the current funding cycle
30:45 - Why Nikhil advises founders to take more active investors in the early stages
34:31 - Why Brian suggest for founders to figure out what your investors are really good at
36:07 - Investors' green flags - what good investors look like
37:41 - Brian's personal story of how his investor value-added for his company in the early days
39:51 - A VC's job is to predict problems that will crop up
41:14 - Nikhil's rule: Try to contribute to every one of his portfolio/founders and be there for them in the tough times and have no judgement policy
43:38 - Should founders spray and pray, or pitch only to specific investors?
46:41 - LP fundraising is very different - Brian spoke to 600 people for Iterative's first fund
47:59 - How to tap into an angel investors' or an accelerator's resources
"Survival is a Prerequisite for Success" - How to Fundraise in an Economic Downturn (With Shiyan Koh from The Hustle Fund and Hsu Ken Ooi from Iterative)
This episode is about 'How to Fundraise in an Economic Downturn' - a topic that everybody is talking about. But most of what's happening is heavily centred on the States, and we wanted to provide more nuance for what it means for founders specifically in Southeast Asia. In this podcast, we got Shiyan Koh from the Hustle Fund, and Hsu Ken from Iterative, to shed light on the investors' POV on two things (1) what's happening in the economic landscape (2) how should founders approach fundraising.
3:22 - Shiyan's fundraising experience at Nerdwallet, which was bootstrapped to $50m
8:00- Hsu Ken's fundraising experience for Decide.com - how they didn't need to think about macroeconomics
9:51 - Current perspective on what's happening in the fundraising market - and why it's important to talk about the stages because different stages are impacted differently
10:54 - There's a slow down in the early stages - fewer preemptive deals
12:44 - Why flight to quality matters now
13:57 - Why the Hustle Fund has not changed their approach to investing (despite the current downturn) - and why they're not slowing down at 16:45
16:22 - Why Iterative isn't slowing down either (FOMO in reverse)
17:52 - The name of the game is 'don't die' - if you have to take a flat round, that's better than dying six months from now. Don't tie valuations to your ego
19:08 - Getting first term sheet is significantly harder now - fundraising process will take longer (at least six months)
19:51 - "Survival is the prerequisite to success" - Shiyan Keep things moving, sign a wire, send the docs.
21:20 - The key to being successful in fundraising is to be organised
23:03 - Pitches have to be different now - show clear signs of revenue. Protect your runway because even investors don't know what's going to happen in the future
24:56 - How The Hustle Fund is helping their portfolio companies navigating fundraising
26:03 - There's only two ways to survive longer: get more money or spend less money
27:14 - Why Shiyan believes (philosophically) that companies should be run 10% away from full capacity
28:05 - What founders can learn from Shopify when they made an expensive bet on hiring more to capitalise on growing (Covid-19) demand
29:10 - What can founders do if they, for some reason, just can't fundraise?
29:32 - Why the founder mentality makes or breaks a company
31:15 - How to go cockroach mode to survive long enough
33:07 - Unhelpful conventions that Shiyan thinks Southeast Asian founders should take note of
34:15 - We're seeing more predatory deal terms
35:06 - Why overly structured deals at early stages are a no go for Shiyan
36:52 - Should founders take lower deals?
38:36 - How should founders keep their mentality and health in check?
39:45 - Reality: You're more than your startup
41.20 - “We've been through this before - and we're all still here”
Shiyan Koh, The Hustle Fund
Shiyan Koh is the Managing Partner of The Hustle Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in pre-seed startups in the US, Canada and Southeast Asia. She joined Nerdwallet as employee #10, and ran business operations and corporate development, helping the company grow from US$1M to US$150M in revenue.
Hsu Ken Ooi, Iterative
Hsu Ken is the Managing Partner at Iterative. He was previously the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com, an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013.
Startup 101: Finding the Right Co-Founder
The right co-founder can help your startup thrive, but it can be a complicated process. Hsu Ken Ooi and Brian Ma come together to simplify this process in today's podcast episode 'Startup 101: Finding the Right Co-Founder'. The following topics are discussed:
00:00 Introductions
00:24 Is a co-founder necessary?
07:46 Considerations when choosing a co-founder
16:22 How Brian and Hsu Ken met
19:10 Avenues to find co-founders
29:13 Maintaining co-founder relations
39:00 Dealing with co-founders not "pulling their weight"
44:45 Long-distance relationships
47:44 Concluding thoughts
Let us know what you think! We would really appreciate your feedback. https://airtable.com/shrO0s884vjdI1emD
About Iterative Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Find out more about Iterative: https://iterative.vc
About the Speakers Brian Ma | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/zealoustiger
Brian is a partner at Iterative Capital and three time founder turned investor. Brian was previously founder and CEO of Divvy Homes ($150M+ raised, backed by a16z, GIC, Tiger), Weave (YC S14, acquired), and Decide (Series C company, acquired by Ebay).
Hsu Ken Ooi | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsukenooi
Hsu Ken was previously the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide, an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. Hsu Ken has a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington.
Startup Ideas We Want to Fund
In 'Startup Ideas We Want to Fund', Hsu Ken talks about startup ideas and trends worth exploring in 2021. Hopefully, this will (1) encourage founders working on these ideas to apply to Iterative and (2) help people get started on ideas we think are interesting.
Topics discussed in this episode:
- 00:00 Introductions
- 00:50 Inspiration behind Hsu Ken's "Request for Startups"
- 01:55 Anti-status quo as inspiration
- 02:55 1) Allow Anyone to Sell Anything
- 06:40 a) Easy logistics
- 10:09 b) AirBnB for food
- 15:08 2) The Financial System is Painfully Outdated
- 20:08 a) Crypto finance
- 28:35 3) Digitise Everything
- 30:10 a) Online pharmacies
- 34:24 4) Celebrity culture
- 41:23 Covid-19 as an accelerator
- 42:52 Covid-19 as a decelerator?
- 44:05 Irrelevant food section
Let us know what you think! We would really appreciate your feedback. https://airtable.com/shrO0s884vjdI1emD
About Iterative Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Find out more about Iterative: https://iterative.vc
About the Speaker Hsu Ken Ooi | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsukenooi
Hsu Ken was previously the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide, an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. Hsu Ken has a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington.
Confronting Imposter Syndrome as a Startup Founder
Dear founders, have you ever felt like a fraud? You may be experiencing imposter syndrome. But you're not alone. Research suggests that an astounding 70 percent of people will experience this at some point in their lives.
In this week's Iterative Podcast episode, Charles and Hsu Ken open up about their own experiences with imposter syndrome and offer advice on dealing with it.
Topics discussed in this episode:
00:00 Introductions
00:48 Hsu Ken's experience with imposter syndrome
004:50 Charles' experience with imposter syndrome
08:31 Different types of imposter syndrome
10:35 Cases of disillusionment
13:55 The impact of (not) having a co-founder
15:00 Who doesn't have imposter syndrome? (entering the fictional realm)
19:20 Dealing with imposter syndrome: Goal-setting
20:30 How your objectives affect imposter syndrome
22:35 Dealing with imposter syndrome: acknowledging and identifying the root cause(s)
24:00 Having agency
25:50 Labels
29:40 Dealing with imposter syndrome: collective solidarity and feelings
38:20 Just doing it
39:42 Should anyone feel more imposter syndrome than they do?
40:50 Is imposter syndrome inevitable without experience?
42:40 Reacting to imposter syndrome
45:15 Reframing emotions and feelings
49:18 Dealing with imposter syndrome: gain a broader perspective, get more data points
52:42 Identifying over-confidence and under-selling
56:24 Dealing with imposter syndrome: ground it in reality
57:30 Dealing with imposter syndrome: make a plan
Let us know what you think! We would really appreciate your feedback. https://airtable.com/shrO0s884vjdI1emD
About Iterative Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Find out more about Iterative: https://iterative.vc
About the Speakers
Charles Lee | Co-Founder and CEO at CoderSchool | https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleslee5/
Charles is the co-founder and CEO of CoderSchool. Charles started CoderSchool in 2015 to bring opportunity to everyone, everywhere, by developing the highest quality technical training programs in the world. Prior to Vietnam, Charles had 10+ years of industry experience working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. His experience spanned across various industries, including gaming, e-commerce, and digital health. He was an early engineer at Luvocracy, acquired by Walmart; A Bit Lucky, acquired by Zynga; and GemShare, acquired by NextDoor. Charles holds a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. In his free time, he raises a poodle named Chuon Chuon, trains for Ironman Triathalons, and repairs antique typewriters.
Hsu Ken Ooi | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsukenooi
Hsu Ken was previously the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide, an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. Hsu Ken has a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington.
Startup 101: How to Master Fundraising
In 'Startup 101: How to Master Fundraising', Brian Ma presents us with a Fundraising Bootcamp. As the founder of various successful startups, Brian is no stranger to the process of fundraising. In this session, he will cover the fundamentals of fundraising and common mistakes founders are making.
Topics discussed in this episode:
- 00:35 The importance of funding
- 01:05 Different funding paths
- 02:45 What matters when it comes towards funding: external factors, internal factors, and creating FOMO.
- 09:15 The breakdown of fundraising
- 09:49 Preparation: how much to raise, what investors to target, how to create a compelling pitch deck, and generating leads.
- 14:55 Process: how to manage investor interest, run a good process and get the first term sheet.
- 27:38 Closing: How to leverage the first term sheet to get other term sheets, negotiating and closing your round.
- 31:52 Common mistakes
Let us know what you think! We would really appreciate your feedback. https://airtable.com/shrO0s884vjdI1emD
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About IterativeIterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Find out more about Iterative: Podcast • Newsletter • Blog • Website • Twitter
About the Speaker
Brian Ma | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/zealoustiger/
Brian is a partner at Iterative Capital and three time founder turned investor. Brian was previously founder and CEO of Divvy Homes ($150M+ raised, backed by a16z, GIC, Tiger), Weave (YC S14, acquired), and Decide (Series C company, acquired by Ebay)."
Startup 101: How to Get Into an Accelerator
In 'Startup 101: How to Get Into an Accelerator'', Hsu Ken demystifies accelerators. Tune in to find out make makes accelerators unique, how they can help your startup grow, how to choose the "right" accelerator, what accelerators are looking for, and much more.
Topics discussed in this episode:
0:00 Introductions
0:29 Overview of the startup ecosystem
3:38 What makes accelerators unique
6:46 Impact of Covid-19
9:51 How accelerators approach (a lack of) contextual-specificity
12:50 Finding the "right" accelerator and defining a "good" accelerator
22:05 Application approaches: Intentional vs Spray and Pray
23:13 When to apply
25:33 The application process and what accelerators look for
29:55 How startups can prepare
34:04 What happens in an accelerator and how to maximise the experience in one
40:40 Post-programme
43:20 Gaps in the accelerator ecosystem
46:21 Final thoughts
Let us know what you think! We would really appreciate your feedback. https://airtable.com/shrO0s884vjdI1emD
About Iterative Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Find out more about Iterative: https://iterative.vc
About the Speaker Hsu Ken Ooi | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsukenooi
Hsu Ken was previously the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide, an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. Hsu Ken has a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington.
Sustainable Fashion, By Businesses For Businesses
Sustainable fashion matters. But instead of the everyday consumer, have you considered sustainable fashion for corporate clients?
This episode features Keith, a rising senior at Yale-NUS College and the Chief Sustainability and Design Officer of Man's Best Friend (MBF), a Singapore-based startup producing sustainable and high-tech apparel for corporate clients by blending cutting edge nanotechnology with quality fabrics. We discuss sustainability in fashion, its shortcomings, what gap MBF is trying to fill, and more.
Topics discussed in this episode: 00:00 Introduction
1:25 What is "sustainability" in fashion?
5:35 The Ecosystem of Sustainable/Fast Fashion
9:06 Problems afflicting sustainability in fashion
12:56 Man's Best Friend (MBF) and Sustainable fashion for businesses
13:36 Sustainable fashion for MBF and their three pillars
15:39 (1) Corporate sustainability
17:25 (2) Functional sustainability
21:35 (3) Progressive sustainability
23:04 Engaging with corporations and juggling a start-up with college
27:30 Demystifying the fashion industry's complex supply-chain
31:00 Impact calculations: How good is good enough?
34:30 Way of assessing sustainability: certifications and standards
37:17 Difficulties procuring certifications
39:28 Customisation and sustainability
44:12 Barriers to entry in being sustainable
47:52 MBF's goals
49:50 Future of sustainability in fashion
Let us know what you think! We would really appreciate your feedback. https://airtable.com/shrO0s884vjdI1emD
About the Speaker Keith Wo | Chief Sustainability and Design Officer of Man's Best Friend (MBF) | https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-wo/
Keith is the Chief Sustainability and Design Officer at MBF and is a rising senior at Yale-NUS College. His passion for marrying aesthetics into functional and practical forms has allowed him to open up the conversation on sustainable apparels
About Iterative Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Find out more about Iterative: https://iterative.vc
Startup 101: How to Deal with Burnout
In 'Startup 101: How to Deal with Burnout', Hsu Ken Ooi and Brian Ma discuss an often untold story about running a startup: burnout.
Topics discussed in this episode:
- 0:20 Brian and Hsu Ken introducing themselves
- 1:20 What is burnout? Brian and Hsu Ken share their own experiences with burnout.
- 6:25 How burning out affected Brian and Hsu Ken's wider network, including their startups.
- 9:50 The glamorisation of work and productivity.
- 13:16 Solutions to prevent and tackle burnout (e.g. hiring, creating a feedback loop, check-ins, setting boundaries, etc.).
- 31:20 What Brian and Hsu Ken would have done differently as first-time founders.
- 35:08 Final thoughts.
Let us know what you think! We would really appreciate your feedback. https://airtable.com/shrO0s884vjdI1emD
About Iterative
Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Find out more about Iterative:
https://iterative.vc
About the Speakers
Brian Ma | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/zealoustiger
Brian is a partner at Iterative Capital and three time founder turned investor. Brian was previously founder and ceo of Divvy Homes ($150M+ raised, backed by a16z, GIC, Tiger), Weave (YC S14, acquired), and Decide (Series C company, acquired by Ebay).
Hsu Ken Ooi | Founder and General Partner at Iterative | https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsukenooi
Hsu Ken was previously the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. Hsu Ken has a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington.
Startup 101: How to Build a Recruiting Machine, Part 1
In Part 1 of How to Build a Recruiting Machine, Hsu Ken Ooi is joined by his Iterative Co-Founder, Brian Ma to talk about the following:
- 0:56 Why hiring is important
- 2:00 Why most founders underestimate the importance of hiring
- 5:07 How hiring changes as your startup grows
- 13:54 Accepting that you're going to hire for roles you're not familiar with
- 16:52 The types of qualities you want to look for in early hires
- 24:14 The types of roles you want to hire in early stage startups
- 29:24 Tips for writing effective job descriptions
Let us know what you think! hsuken@iterative.vc
Subscribe to The Iterative Podcast and find out more about Iterative
Speakers
Brian Ma, Founder and General Partner at Iterative
Brian was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of Divvy Homes (a16z, GIC). In 2014, he and Elpizo Choi started Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. In 2005, he was one of the first PMs at Zillow before they launched. Brian has a BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington.
Hsu Ken Ooi, Founder and General Partner at Iterative
Hsu Ken was previously the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. Hsu Ken has a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington.
Founder Stories: Yolanda Lee on Finding Her Own Path and Building a Professional Community for Women
In this episode, we have Yolanda Lee, co-founder of Uncommon. Uncommon is a private leadership network for the next generation of female leaders in Southeast Asia. Uncommon provides a strong and uplifting network, a personalized development roadmap, tailored courses and workshops, and in reaching speaker series, all-in-one membership.
We talk about her early life in Canada (1:23). At 20, Yolanda rented an abandoned industrial warehouse in her home tenants, funk, and major Lazer to play there by messaging them on MySpace (24:15). She went on to intern at the European court for human rights, graduated top of her class at Oxford, and worked for Uber and Rocket Internet in Africa (32:53). We talk about what drove her to these different paths and how those experiences shape her. She opens up about her motivation for starting Uncommon, what her personal experience has been being in male-dominated industries, why Uncommon is so important, and what men can do to help (49:36).
Founder Stories: Tim Grassin, Co-Founder of TendoPay
Tim Grassin is a Co-Founder of TendoPay (Iterative S20), the largest online installment provider in the Philippine. On this episode, I talk to Tim about his earlier influences, switching from finance to entrepreneurship, how he built a multi-million dollar design agency, why he gave that up to start a startup in the Philippines and how they tested their initial idea by building a fake website that sold fake products to see if people would try their fake financing product.
Topics- 1:37 – How our childhood may or may not have shaped our future as entrepreneurs
- 9:37 – Early professional influences and business school
- 14:37 – Getting into startups after the financial crisis
- 22:50 – Quitting his job to start a presentation design company
- 24:57 – Getting the first few customers
- 29:48 – Scaling up customer growth
- 33:37 – The importance of learning how to learn
- 38:16 – Going from a multi-million dollar agency to building a tech product
- 43:55 – Coming to Southeast Asia and starting TendoPay
- 53:26 – TendoPay’s first MVP
- 1:01:18 – We reminiscence about growing up playing video games
Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Connect with Iterative- Sign up for the Iterative NEWSLETTER: https://iterative.substack.com
- Visit the Iterative PODCAST: https://anchor.fm/iterativevc
- Visit the Iterative BLOG: https://iterative.vc/blog
- Visit the Iterative WEBSITE: https://iterative.vc
- Follow Iterative on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/iterativevc
Founder Stories: Vibhas Jain on Growing Up in India, Not Going to Stanford and Starting Outside Voice
Vibhas Jain is the co-founder and CEO of Outside Voice (Iterative S20), a no-code app builder for WhatsApp. On this episode, we talk about Vibhas (Vibes) childhood growing up in India, getting into and moving to Stanford but never actually attending Stanford, how he met his co-founder and came up with the idea of Outside Voice.
Discussion- (1:00) – Vibe's childhood growing up in India
- (6:30) – Vibe's first product idea and trying to convince people to build it
- (12:40) – What the feeling of being in SF was like
- (19:15) – Where did Vibe's entrepreneurship DNA come from?
- (22:00) – Vibe's tries to build the same music app again, years later
- (29:37) – Vibes's music app gets on Techcrunch and they meet Sequoia
- (38:34) – How Vibes met his co-founder and how Outside Voice was started
- (48:35) – When and why should you join an accelerator?
- (51:00) – Vibes favorite place to get Indian food in Singapore
- (54:00) – Vibes talked himself into a DJing gig by telling them he was a big DJ in India
Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.
Connect with Iterative- Sign up for the Iterative NEWSLETTER: https://iterative.substack.com
- Visit the Iterative PODCAST: https://anchor.fm/iterativevc
- Visit the Iterative BLOG: https://iterative.vc/blog
- Visit the Iterative WEBSITE: https://iterative.vc
- Follow Iterative on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/iterativevc
Founder Stories: Jeff Liu and Justin Louie from Jenfi on How They Got Started and Being 2nd Time Founders
Jeff Liu and Justin Louie are the co-founders of Jenfi (YC W20). Jenfi lends to small businesses in Southeast Asia based on revenue. Jenfi has raised US$2.1M in funding.
Before Jenfi, Jeff was the co-founder and CEO of GuavaPass, and Justin was the CTO of Guavapass. GuavaPass raised US$5M before being acquired by ClassPass in 2019.
In this episode, we talk about where they are from, how they got into startups, how they met, where their ideas come from, what it's like to be a 2nd-time founder and advice for 1st-time founders, and much more.
Startup 101: How to Find a Good Problem For Your Startup to Work On
In our first episode, Brian and Hsu Ken answering the following questions.
- Why is it important to focus on problems, not solutions?
- Why it's important to work on a good problem?
- How to tell if a problem is a good problem?
- Do you need to have the problem to solve it?
- How do you look for good problems?
If you're thinking about starting a startup, this is where you should start.
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Brian is a General Partner at Iterative. Prior to Iterative, he was the Co-Founder and CEO of Divvy Homes (a16z, GIC). In 2014, he and Elpizo Choi started Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. In 2005, he was one of the first PMs at Zillow before they launched. Brian has a BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington.
Hsu Ken is a General Partner at Iterative. Prior to Iterative, he was the Chief Product Officer of Workmate, an on-demand blue-collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia. In 2014, he was VP of Product at Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com was an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. Hsu Ken has a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington.
Iterative is a YC style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia by the founders of Divvy (a16z, GIC), Weave (YCS14), Decide (acquired by eBay) who have collectively raised $100M+ in VC. Iterative invests US $150K into early-stage startups twice a year then works with them intensely for 3 months culminating in a Demo Day.