Decode Investor Feedback with Brian Ma
You tell us what feedback investors have given you — and we tell you what they really mean.
Ever walked out of a VC meeting with vague comments like “too early” or “not sure about the market size” — and wondered what they actually meant?
You’re not alone. Investors rarely give detailed feedback. They’re busy, don’t want to risk souring the relationship, or want to see how much investor interest you can drum up first.
This probably leaves you feeling confused, unsure how to improve, or stalled in your fundraising journey.
We want to help. In this event, Brian Ma (Managing Partner at Iterative and founder of 3 companies — including Divvy Homes, which raised $400M from a16z and Tiger Global) will candidly share what VCs really mean in their feedback — and what you can do about it.
How It Works
You can join as a Participant or an Observer.
🎤 Participants – Want to understand the feedback you received? Share it with us and Brian will help to decode the investors’ feedback.
Feedback - Upon sign up, share the verbatim feedback you received from other investors. You do not need to tell us who the feedback is from, and we will remove any identifiers.
Get Selected – If chosen, you'll be informed before the event - you can share your deck too so Brian has more context. Only selected entries will be reviewed live.
Get Feedback – Brian will review the feedback, ask any follow-up questions live, and help you with next steps.
👀 Observers – Prefer to just listen in? You’ll still walk away with practical insights on how to interpret investor language and sharpen your fundraising strategy.
👉 Note: This session is all about helping you, as a founder, get the most out of the feedback you’ve received. We’ll keep the focus there — it’s not the place for pitch deck reviews or discussing other investors, it’s a space for you to reflect, learn, and move forward with clarity.
You'll Learn…
What investors’ comments actually mean
How to respond and adjust based on that feedback
What your next move should be in fundraising
Who Should Join
Founders who are actively fundraising and stuck on broad investor feedback
Founders who want to better understand how VCs think
Agenda
10:00 AM — Join Zoom early
10:05 AM — Introductions
10:10 AM — Live decoding of VC feedback with Brian
10:45 AM — Q&A
11:00 AM — Event ends
About Brian
Brian was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of Divvy Homes (a16z, GIC). In 2014, he and Elpizo Choi started Weave (YCS14). In 2009, he started Decide.com, an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It was acquired by eBay in 2013. In 2005, he was one of the first PMs at Zillow before they launched. Brian has a BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington.
About Iterative
Iterative was founded for founders, by founders. We are an accelerator program focused exclusively on Southeast Asia. No fees, an upfront investment of up to USD $500K and 3 months of targeted growth and fundraising support, which culminates in a Demo Day to a network of 400+ investors. Apply for the program.
Since we’ve been founded in 2020, we’ve invested in 100+ companies and 200+ founders. These companies have gone on to raise $178M and are collectively worth over $1.2B.
Our mission is to increase the GDP of Southeast Asia through entrepreneurship. To do that, we need to (1) make entrepreneurship more accessible to more people and (2) give founders the tools and support to be successful.
About Iterative Startup Academy
This event is brought to you by Startup Academy — as part of our mission, we run events like this to help you on everything you need to know to be a successful founder.
Startup Academy is a free collection of courses, guides and templates on how to build startups in Southeast Asia. Whether you’re exploring an idea or scaling up, we’re here to support your journey.
Sign up for Startup Academy here and learn from those who have done it before and been successful.