When reaching potential customers feels so hard, founders are often tempted into the comfort zone of product development. Vincent Teo, founder of JFDI Discover startup fred, says learning to resist that urge was his big insight, writes Cui-Lyn Huang
1. How did you hear about JFDI Discover?
I heard about JFDI Discover through JFDI’s website. I was looking at the portfolio of JFDI Accelerate alumni when I came across the link to JFDI Discover.
2. Tell us about your startup and team – who are you, and what are you aiming to do?
I’m a solo founder (actively seeking co-founder) of fred – Foreign Exchange with Friends, working with offshore development partners. We are building a mobile marketplace for foreign currency exchange where users can trade currency with each other, minus the fees and hassle of finding, travelling to, and queuing for a money changer.
3. Why did you start this business? How has this impacted your life?
The idea struck me during the recent lack of Malaysian Ringgit stock at the money changers, as many Singaporeans rushed to take advantage of the favourable SGD/MYR exchange rate. That’s when I realised that since there is a large population of Malaysians working in Singapore they should exchange with each other! My mother has been doing so for the past 10 years with her friends working in Singapore every month. The reason was simply information asymmetry as nobody knew each other’s currency needs, and there was no way to gather this information efficiently and easily.
4. What were some of the challenges you faced before joining JFDI Discover?
As the development of Fred’s minimum viable product (MVP) was already underway, the key challenge before joining JFDI Discover was primarily acquisition: how to get the right users to sign up for early access.
5. How did JFDI Discover help your startup?
Being a project manager and business analyst, I have the tendency to jump straight into the product development and design stages. JFDI Discover offers a structured and disciplined approach in evaluating your own idea and business. The program helped me uncover some of the blind spots of Fred that I hadn’t thought of before.
6. What is the one lesson you took away from JFDI Discover that you think other founders should know too?
User first, product later. Validate the idea and test with users early using mockups. Make the appropriate changes and repeat.
7. Where is your team planning to go from here?
fred is on the cusp of its beta release and delivery of the MVP!
8. Which resources do you look to for startup related advice? Have you read any books on startups?
For high-level structure and overview, “How to start a startup” by Sam Altman is great. For specific case studies, I like GrowthHackers. Stackoverflow andQuora are also great forum based resources as you have access to other people’s questions and answers that could apply to your startup.
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Thinking of starting your own business? JFDI Discover will help you find out if you really want to be an entrepreneur. It will reveal if your team is aligned to deliver results. And it will show you how to solve a real problem for customers who are willing to pay thus moving closer to a “problem-solution fit”.
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Cui-Lyn Huang is on the Editorial team for JFDI Asia. Currently pursuing a combined major in Computer Science & Journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, and after growing up on the little red dot. She loves to write, she loves to eat, and loves to write about eating.