Willson Cuaca

•You know the ground truth of your market. Not from reports, from being there. You can describe how your customer actually behaves, what they say, what they pay, and why.

•You have operational experience in Southeast Asia, not just a slide deck. You have shipped something, sold something, or failed at something in the region.

•Your product is built for Jakarta, not Singapore. You understand infrastructure gaps, payment behavior, logistics realities, and trust dynamics.

•You have a clear answer for why a larger player hasn't done this. It's specific and structural, not "they're too busy."

•Top-down market sizing with no customer contact. Say instead: "I spent six weeks talking to 40 warung owners. Here is what they told me."

•Explaining Indonesian consumer behavior with generic frameworks. Say instead: "In Jakarta, people pay COD because of X. In Surabaya, it's different because of Y."

•A product that works in Singapore but has no answer for Jakarta's constraints. Say instead: "Here is how we handle low digital trust, patchy logistics, and price sensitivity."

•No operational experience in the region. Say instead: "I've run a team in Bandung for two years. Here is what I learned."

1. What have you seen on the ground that contradicts the macro narrative? 2. How does this actually work in Jakarta, not just Singapore? 3. What do your first ten customers do that your hundredth customer will also do? 4. Why hasn't a larger player already done this? 5. What is the one thing that would kill this business in six months? 6. Walk me through your unit economics in one Indonesian city. What breaks at scale?

Be direct, humble, and specific. He is warm but pragmatic. Do not pitch deck polish him. Tell him what you have seen, what you have tried, and what you have learned. He will test your operational depth with follow-up questions.

At pre-seed or seed, traction is not expected. Lead with:

•A specific insight from the ground that contradicts a common assumption.

•Your operational experience in the region and why it makes you the right founder.

•A clear, honest view of the market's friction points and how your product removes them.

A pass requires you to demonstrate that you understand the operational reality of your market better than anyone else in the room. He benchmarks against founders who have lived the problem, not those who have studied it.