First Learnings from a Singapore Founder in Silicon Valley
An Italian living in Singapore goes to California…sounds like the start of a joke, but I promise it’s not!
I have now been in Silicon Valley for a few days to learn about the startup ecosystem and meet potential partners for the Storya project.
Storya has, like many startups fundraising in H2 2022, struggled to find a lead investor for its seed round. As a result, I recently found myself taking a hard look at the receptiveness of investors in Asia toward a creator economy/AI/Diversity project like Storya. I came to the conclusion that sometimes we may need to test our ideas with an entirely different audience to see where the problem really lies.
Now that I am here, the amount of learning already has me in full thinking cap mode for the future of our project, but I thought I’d share some key findings with my fellow founders and startup operators in Asia and beyond:
- AI: I can confirm generative AI is the flavor of the month. That being said, I have also been told things move pretty fast here in terms of trends, so the hype may not last. Probably for the best, as we saw how things turned out with Web3.
- Web3: Talking about Web3, that has been a difficult narrative to weave into my pitches. At Storya, we always took a “web2.5” view of where we were headed strategically, but it looks like in the short term, it is just too complex to ask investors in the US or Asia to connect the dots across seemingly disconnected fields like generative AI, blockchain, and even metaverse. Lesson for founders: we gotta keep it tight and focused. There is always time to pivot, test and expand later on.
- Pitching: US investors are very direct with their feedback and make pitches much more conversational, which is awesome for founders that want to test and iterate. This is something that I feel is missing in my experience pitching to investors across Asia. There seems to be a lot more focus on presenting “formally” through slide decks and keeping a tight lid on any feedback from the listeners.
- Revenue goals: toward the end of last year, facing like many a shutting down of funding, we reduced our round size. Coming here, I now realize that was a mistake: not because bigger is better, but because with smaller tickets come smaller milestones (at least if we want to keep projections somewhat logical!). The investor conversations I have had so far have been clear: raise more but deliver even more, and fast if possible. “Cockroach mode” is a helpful internal strategy to survive, but it should not be a mindset used in fundraising.
- VCs: It is often said that finding the right VC is like getting married. One investor was even more specific, telling me that you need at least three dates before getting married! Translation for founders: it’s never too early to start building that relationship, and it will take time to get to the altar…send that email!
- Ecosystem: I will not open Pandora’s Vase of which ecosystem is better, but there is no denying the massive power of Silicon Valley’s network effects, entrepreneurial culture, and history. Taxi drivers here talk about VCs and startups as they would about the weather elsewhere. ‘Nuff said.
- Fundraising: a very successful founder I met shared that every single round is a hustle game. The ease of raising a first round is not indicative of future success at all, or vice versa. Companies here can raise tens of millions in early rounds and still need to go through hundred-plus investors to find a lead for their next round. It may sound depressing, but it isn’t! It just means founders need to stay in the pocket, focus on the now, and iterate that narrative to find the match that works.
I hope the above is somewhat helpful for my fellow adventurers in this exciting and somewhat scary startup journey. I’ll be back next week with more tales from the Valley!
