[Panel] The Path From Weekend Project to Venture-Backed Startup

​For builders, founders, and early-stage hackers who want to turn serious ideas into real opportunities.

​Across SEA, some of the best ideas aren’t born inside companies — they start as hackathon projects, weekend experiments, or late-night prototypes.
But here’s the truth most people ignore:

​Most builders never realize how close they are to something fundable.
Not because the idea is bad — but because they don’t know what actually turns a project into a company investors will back.

​This panel is designed to change that.

​We’re bringing together investors and community leads who work with builders at the earliest stages to unpack the real path from:
Hackathon → Prototype → Traction → Seed Round

​What you’ll learn:

• ​What VCs actually look for when evaluating early technical projects

• ​The tipping point where a side project becomes a real company

• ​How builder communities help ideas mature faster than traditional pipelines

• ​Stories from SEA projects that went from “just an idea” → funded startups

• ​What kills promising projects early — and how to avoid it

​
Why this matters for builders:

​If you take your projects seriously, there is a path — and it’s closer than you think.
If you don’t, someone else will build the thing you abandoned.

​Speakers:

• ​Audra Pakalnyte - Partner, First Move

• ​Ashvin Praveen - Co-founder, Cleve

• ​Najla Zamri - Director, Antler

​Goal:

​To bridge the gap between creativity and capital — so builders leave knowing exactly what it takes to turn raw ideas into investable companies, without losing the experimental spirit that makes SEA’s builder movement powerful.

​Location: LV-G, Demo Lab 2, Asia School of Business