Having a good business model and conducting market validation will save a lot of time from corrections, says Andy Heng of JFDI Discover startup VCIO.
VCIO Startup Founder Andy Heng (right) with JFDI Discover Lean Coach Sharon Sesaldo (left) during a coaching session
1. Tell us about your startup and team – who are you, and what are you aiming to do?
We are Team VCIO, comprising of a one-man ex-Business Development Manager founder in the IT industry wanting to offer IT budgeting and strategic technology advisory services to startups and mid-sized companies.
2. What brought you to JFDI Discover?
Through JFDI Discover, I see the potential to speed up the starting up process and also look forward to the guidance from coaches.
3. Why did you start this business?
Since no one seems to be offering this service to startups and mid-sized companies, I decided to take the opportunity.
4. What were some of the challenges you faced before joining JFDI Discover?
I was not sure whether there’s market demand.
5. How did JFDI Discover help your startup?
JFDI Discover helped me polish the business model and decide on the MVP. Apart from that, priorities were sorted out and validations were given on areas where I was not sure about.
6. What was your favorite and least favorite aspect of JFDI Discover?
My favorite was the structured and process-oriented approach. My least favorites are the too-short time frame and that there was not enough coaching.
7. What is the one lesson you took away from JFDI Discover that you think other founders should know too?
Don’t be too eager to build the product, always conduct market validation. This will save lots of time correcting at a later stage many months down the road.
8. Where is your team planning to go from here?
We aim to continue to conduct problem-solution validation interviews to build an MVP to market.
9. Which resources do you look to for startup related advice? Have you read any books on startups?
So far, we’ve read books on business models.
10. Who would you recommend to Discover?
We would recommend JFDI Discover program to friends who are starting business for the first time.
11. What was the biggest surprise for you coming out of the program?
The biggest surprise for us was that the business model turned out to be the actual product.
13. How has doing a startup impacted your life?
We learned from JFDI Discover to never give up and correct through iterations.
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Steph Jarina is on the editorial team of JFDI.Asia. You can follow her on Twitter at @stephjarina.