OUR STORY

We started Iterative to support founders like you

And the journey has just begun.

OUR VISION
Increase the GDP of Southeast Asia through entrepreneurship

Although not a perfect measurement, we believe people's lives improve when the GDP of their country or region increases. Academic research has shown the strongest stimulus for increasing GDP is entrepreneurship. We want to help.

OUR MISSION
To build the most vibrant, supportive, and intellectually honest community of founders

The best way to help is leveraging our experience to support founders who in turn use their experience to help other founders. In the end, that looks like a community of founders helping other founders.

Our story

Brian Ma & Hsu Han Ooi at Brian's bachelor party working on the MVP for what would eventually become Weave (YC S14). The premise for the bachelor party was, we rent an Airbnb for the weekend and don't come home until we've launched a new product.
Ian Ma & Hsu Ken Ooi in Hsu Han's basement on the first day of their first startup which would eventually become Decide and be acquired by eBay. They worked in that basement for 2 years. If you notice the jackets and sleeping bag in the lower right, it's because they didn't turn on the heat to save money.

We’ve started from 0, multiple times. We’ve worked out of the proverbial and literal basement. We’ve been told by investors that our idea was too small, too big or just dumb. 
We’ve gone from thinking we would be the next Facebook to wondering what we were doing with our lives. We’ve been you.

Southeast Asia needed a better way to support and develop founders.

$178M+

Capital raised by Iterative companies

100+

Companies invested in by Iterative

200+

Founders in the Iterative community

The iterative program

How it works

We run the program in batches

We believe this works better for everyone. It allows us to run the program more efficiently, and the startups probably learn just as much from each other as they do from us.
However, we invest in companies on a rolling basis so we recommend you apply now.

At the start of the batch

You will be assigned a lead partner responsible for your well being during the batch, based on your needs and their expertise.

The first thing you and your lead partner will do is set goals for the end of the program. Where do you want to be at the end of the program? Typically this involves growing your primary metric 5% to 7% every week for the batch duration.

Participate in events during the batch

Every week, you meet with your lead partner to give an update on your progress, discuss challenges, priorities, and next steps. Founders have told us they benefit from these sessions in 2 ways.

First, they rarely have someone they can talk to openly, who has been where they are, and can empathize and give practical advice.

Second, they come out of these meetings with clarity. When you’re the founder of an early-stage founder, you’re often so busy getting things done, and you rarely take a step back to think about whether you’re working on the right stuff. We find that the ability to prioritize and focus is the biggest difference between first and repeat founders.

Demo day

After 12 weeks, we host a Demo Day where startups can present to a selected audience of investors to help kickstart their fundraising efforts. Demo Day marks the end of the batch.

Stay for the community

Iterative doesn’t really end after 3 months. We continue to give advice and make introductions as long as our startups need—-and so does the informal network of Iterative companies. We think of our batch program as just orientation into the larger community.

Apply now
As founders ourselves, we’re really excited for you to come on this journey with us.

See you in the program.

Hsu Ken

and

Brian Ma
Building something? You should apply.

If you’re unsure whether you’re at the right stage, I recommend you apply. Often we’re betting on the founders more than the idea so we like to hear from people who know them well or have worked with them before.

ApplyOr recommend a founder