Bit Santos listens to Joan Yao of Kickstart Ventures, as she shares her 12-year experience navigating the highs and lows of the startup ecosystem. Learn how founders can foster success through founder selection, strategic patience and the art of adapting to financial winters and tough economic climates.

The startup journey is an exhilarating ride of ups and downs especially in the bustling Philippine ecosystem. In the latest episode of Conversations Over Coffee, Bit is joined by Joan Yao, VP of Investments at Kickstart Ventures and who has been a cornerstone of the ecosystem for over a decade, to dive deep into what it takes to build a thriving business amidst the unique challenges faced by startup founders.

As Kickstart Ventures celebrates its 12th anniversary, the podcast episode kicks off with a reflective look at the elements that contribute to startup success. Bit and Joan’s discussion highlights the pivotal role of founder selection, the critical “four Ts” of Timing, Technology, Team and Total Addressable Market (TAM), and the remarkable resilience demonstrated by companies like Wattpad and ZAP.

Episode Highlights:

• The resilience and adaptability required for startups to succeed.
• The importance of selecting the right founders as it is both crucial and challenging, emphasizing on learning from each interaction with founders and the necessity of investing in the right team.
• The evolution of founders and their ventures and the need for self awareness and courage to bring in external expertise for business growth.
• Insights into the adaptability required of founders to shift between wartime and peacetime leadership are revealed, underlining the art of nurturing not just a product but an entire organizational culture.
• Strategies for startups to become “default alive” through pragmatic decision making in tough economic climates are tackled focusing on cash flow management and the difference between revenue and actual cash.

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Bit Santos engages in conversation with Pia Bernal from Kickstart Ventures, delving into the dynamic landscape of Philippine startups, the process of nurturing development via community involvement and the influential part that investors assume that extends past monetary support.

Immerse yourself in the intricacies of startup community development and investor relations with guest Pia Bernal, who leads Community and Ecosystem Initiatives at Kickstart Ventures, on this episode of Conversations Over Coffee. Bit discusses with Pia the critical contributions of community builders in the realm of startups and businesses. Drawing from her extensive experience in both the nonprofit and corporate worlds, Pia shares her insights on cultivating startup communities and their significance in the dynamic entrepreneurial landscape of the Philippines.

Progressing from a foundational role assisting founders to orchestrating community initiatives, Pia uncovers the critical role that communities play in enhancing a firm’s expansion, market entry and prominence. They tackle the startup ecosystem’s fluid progression and the progressively calculated participation of investors. They examine the shifting requirements of startups as they progress from their nascent stages to Series A and B financing, influencing the manner in which investors and community figureheads join forces to foster value creation.

Episode Highlights:

• The journey of Pia Bernal from advocacy to leading community and ecosystem initiatives.
• The transformative role of community spaces in a startup’s market presence.
• How investor engagement evolves as startups scale.
• The Philippine market’s appeal to venture capitalists and international fun

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Bit Santos, Bettina Capistrano and Kendrick Ong take you through the dynamics of early stage funding and investment in this vibrant region. Get an insider’s view on the technical due diligence process, the importance of product market fit and the weight of a team’s promise delivery in investment decisions.

Shownotes

Prepare to be immersed in the bustling world of Southeast Asia’s startup scene in this episode of Conversations Over Coffee. Bit Santos, together with Bettina Capistrano and Kendrick Ong, both Senior Investment Analysts at Kickstart Ventures, Inc, unlock the secrets of pre-seed and seed investments. Kickstart Ventures is a subsidiary of Globe Telecom, a telecommunications company, and it plays a crucial role in nurturing and supporting a dynamic community of technopreneurs in the Philippines.

They discuss the complexities of evaluating the total addressable market for these startups, considering the market’s structure and the presence of dominant players. Bettina shares the process of investment based on her personal encounter with a startup pitch. They also delve into the necessity for substantial infrastructure and robust security measures, ensuring our innovations are both powerful and protected.

Episode Highlights:

• How pre-seed and seed investments in Southeast Asia's startup landscape showcase distinctive dynamics
• The significance of early-stage investments in Southeast Asia, considering the region’s relatively young startup ecosystem.
• The technical due diligence process for early-stage startups, including assessing the product-market fit and the team’s ability to deliver.
• Evaluating the total addressable market for startups and considering the market’s structure and presence of dominant players.
• The power of human connections in the pitching process and its influence on investment decisions.
• Emerging concepts and innovations in the Southeast Asian startup scene, with a focus on the Internet of Things.
• The necessity for substantial infrastructure and robust security measures in advancing technological innovations.

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