Must-Watch Q&A: VC Investor's Tips on Validating Your Startup Idea

Dive into this exclusive session of Validation Office Hours with Hsu Ken Ooi, Managing Partner at Iterative. ????

In this video, Hsu Ken dishes out no-nonsense, practical answers to your burning startup validation questions. Whether you're dreaming of launching your own business or already running one, don't miss these insider secrets to cut through the noise and get straight to what matters.

???? Chapters Covered:

0:00 - Sneak peek
0:12 - Welcome
0:20 - What to do when a VC forces excessive pivoting and leaves no time to get things done?
2:41 - What happens if your validation results is skewed towards 1 city?
4:13 - We don’t have a strong value prop. How can we refine it and communicate better?
6:33 - What are some common startup validation pitfalls in Southeast Asia?
10:07 - Is a founding team's local market knowledge and connections helpful during the validation process?
11:44 - What if clients don’t care about the product, even if we see the benefits?
14:25 - At what point do you decide this is time to build, or this is going nowhere?
18:17 - What made you stop working on Singleshift?
20:37 - In the early stages, wouldn’t validation focus on market entry rather than $100M revenue?
22:46 - I feel like I’m doing too much validation and not writing any code. It’s causing me stress. Any advice?
26:50 - Clients what to try my product before considering purchasing it. They’re a big company with a long sales cycle. What should I do?
28:12 - Users have given us feedback that other competing products are just fine for them to continue using. What should we do?
30:25 - How can I defend the scalability of my product to investors, who doubt despite similarly successful models abroad?
32:37 - I have a pilot with paying customers, but investors want more validation. How can we further validate?
36:51 - What’s a good annual revenue for my industry according to venture capitalists?
40:04 - What if you have 1000+ signups and you have no idea how to build or deliver the product or service?

????️ Have a Question? Drop it in the comments, and it might get answered in our next session!

➡️ About Hsu Ken Ooi
​​Hsu Ken Ooi is a 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.

???? About Iterative
​Iterative was founded in 2020 for founders, by founders. Our mission is to increase the GDP of Southeast Asia through entrepreneurship. To make this happen, we need to (1) make entrepreneurship more accessible to more people and (2) give founders the tools and support to be successful.

​As part of this mission, Iterative Startup Academy hosts free events, programs and courses on everything you need to know to be a successful founder.

​​​​​Twice a year, Iterative invests up to US500K in a batch of startups twice a year. The investment includes 3-months of targeted growth and fundraising support, which culminates in a Demo Day to a network of 400+ investors.

???? Want to learn from experts?
Sign up for Startup Academy: http://academy.iterative.vc

???? Have a startup idea?
Apply for our program: https://iterative.vc/apply