Over the last decade, Southeast Asia has built an increasingly sophisticated infrastructure for startups, and countries such as Singapore and Vietnam are known for their reputation as regional startup hubs. Southeast Asia’s tech startup ecosystem was valued at US$454 billion in the first half of 2024, more than triple its value from five years earlier, and with 55 unicorns produced across the region. We have never had more support available for entrepreneurs. Accelerators, grants, incubators, venture funds and startup programmes exist across the region.
Yet, if you look at all the resources available today, many are designed for entrepreneurs who already have something like a business plan or a team behind them. So if you were to ask someone who is thinking about becoming an entrepreneur where they should begin, the answer is unclear.
Because the fact is, our ecosystems are good at helping startups scale, but much weaker at helping people become founders in the first place.
That’s the “step zero” problem. It’s the stage before a startup really exists, when a person is figuring out what they want to build. They might not have a clear picture of what they want to do, but they do know they want to give it a shot.
The problem is that most startup infrastructure is not designed for this group of people.
And understandably so. Funding and resources are in finite supply, hence only the ideas that show the greatest potential and guarantees a return on investment get the support they need. A founder with a working product, traction, or a team, is easier to support rather than choosing someone that simply claims to have an idea but has no idea how to start.
That results in a gap at the very beginning of the entrepreneurial journey.
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Every year, aspiring founders with fresh ideas walk away from programmes, applications, and competitions without being selected. Others never apply because they assume they assume they are “not ready yet”. And when an idea is rejected, most leave without anyone telling them what went wrong or how they can improve.
That same hesitation can be seen through data too. In 2024, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found that 49% of those who saw good opportunities to start a business said fear of failure would stop them from doing so, up from 44% in 2019.
This is why the “step zero” problem is not a funding problem.
It’s an access problem.
For many entrepreneurs, access to the ecosystem still depends heavily on what and who they already have. A 2024 UNDP Youth Co:Lab study found that 68.8% of surveyed young entrepreneurs relied on self-financing and personal networks to overcome barriers in their entrepreneurial journeys, while only 19.3% used incubators or accelerators.
In short, the world thinks that “step zero” is the least profitable market segment, hence they would rather invest their time and resources into those who have already got something to show. But the people at this stage do not necessarily need an investor. What they need is a way to understand the ecosystem before they step into it.
The hardest part of starting anything is the fact that you often don’t know what you don’t know.
Any aspiring entrepreneur can search up “how to start a business”, but that already assumes they know what to ask. Even if a search may provide them a guide, they may not know the changing landscape of the industry, the problems people face, how other founders discovered their ideas, or who could help them take their next step. And this is where exposure matters.
That’s why more support is needed for the “step zero” segment. It’s about giving this group of people the opportunities to immerse themselves in the ecosystem even before having everything figured out.
Who you know and what you have shouldn’t determine where you can go.
So in short, the solution to the “step zero” problem may not be another accelerator. It may just be creating better and more accessible infrastructure for exploration.
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