Founders supporting founders

We invest US $150K to $500K each in a batch of startups, twice a year

We invest the full amount upon admission. We then work with the founders closely on their idea for 3 months during the cohort. After 3 months, they present to a select group of investors with the goal of raising a larger round of investment.

About our program

How we help

INVEST

Invest USD $150K to $500K

This is the least important thing we do. We think of our investment as a show of commitment and to align incentives. There is no program fee. Note: We have made exceptions in the past but they are exceedingly rare.

COLLABORATE

Work with you on your idea

As founders, we’ve started 3 companies (Decide, Weave, Divvy Homes), raised over $100M+ from the best investors (a16z, Index Ventures, etc) in Silicon Valley, sold 2 of them and the third is a unicorn and still going strong.

Before each company, we’ve tried dozens of ideas that didn’t work. As a result, we learned a lot about what ideas are promising, how to validate them, and how to grow them. Typically, we can quickly tell you whether you’re trying to do too little or too much and where you should focus. If not, we can definitely tell you how to go about answering those questions.

CONNECT

Help you with investors

We’ll introduce you to investors in Southeast Asia and Silicon Valley, but we’ll spend much more time on the following:

Fundraising Guidance

Even with a strong pitch, you need to run a good process. We’ll teach you how to target the right investors and approach them in a way to maximize your chances of getting funded.

Understanding & Negotiating Terms

If it’s your first time, understanding and negotiating the terms of an investment can be scary, especially in Southeast Asia, where the terms tend to have much more variability. We’ll help explain terms, call out abnormal ones, and give guidance on what’s typical right now.

Developing Your Pitch

Most startup pitches are too long and emphasize the wrong points. We help you create a pitch that’s concise and highlights the things about your startup that are important to investors. We then help you workshop it by practicing with your batchmates then with investors who are friends of ours before finally pitching at Demo Day.

What are you waiting for?

The 12 weeks we spent at Iterative were the most productive time in the company’s history. Together, with guidance from the partners and support from our batch mates, we raised a $2.5M round one month after finishing the program. We never would’ve gotten to where we are today without Iterative!
Charles Lee
Co-Founder and CEO of Coderschool
We’re really blessed to be part of the Iterative program. In the 12 weeks program, we benefit tremendously from Iterative partner advice, problems deep dive discussion and founders support community. These helped me level up my skills in building a business and we left the program as a fast growing company.
Jaclyn Tan
Co-Founder of String Soul
I have been telling everyone that my mentor has became a unicorn. It’s a massive proud moment for me. I just stumbled upon your video on mastering on fundraising and realized that everything I know about fundraising is from you. When I look back 7 months back where I was and seeing where I am not; it’s a massive difference and all credit goes to you. Thank you for everything and I promise that I will make you proud soon.
Ridwan Hafiz
Co-Founder and CEO of Go Zayaan
The Iterative program helped my business identified the gap of growth and guided me to grow the business faster than ever before. We increased our revenue by 10x during the program, and carried on the learnings to double our Q1 sales in Q2. The support from the two partners were way beyond funding only.
Xi Liu
Founder and CEO of Ferne Health
As a female-led startup based in the Philippines, it was hard to convince people in the VC space to invest in us... But Iterative was different. They did not care about who we were or where we were from. They believed in what we were doing, they knew that there was potential in the market we were serving, and they believed we could grow beyond what we were currently doing. Hsu Ken and Brian have a hands-on, open-door approach. We can ask them about anything, be very honest about our business, and work on solutions to make things better, together. We’ve grown significantly over the program—launched our full service in Indonesia without funding, have sustainable business models in logistics and sales, and grew 3x in a year overall because they supported us and believed in us.
Mel Nava
Co-Founder and CEO of 1Export
Previous
Next

Investors who have invested in Iterative companies

Let's work together

Learn from experienced founders and join the most open, supportive and candid community of founders in Southeast Asia.

Hsu Ken Ooi
Hsu Ken Ooi

Founder, General Partner

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.

Brian Ma
Brian Ma

Founder, General Partner

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 Han Ooi
Hsu Han Ooi

Founder, Partner

Hsu Han was previously the first engineer at Mutiny (YCS18). In 2017, he was a Senior Engineer at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). In 2016, he was a Partner at Madrona Venture Labs. 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 Han has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Washington.

The newsletter that helps you get smarter at being a founder

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Insights on startups, fundraising, growing companies and being a founder. Watch it all on our YouTube channel.