Yifan Zhang

•You understand that SEA is not one market. You can name the regulatory, payment, and logistics differences between Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines without being prompted.

•You have a credible answer for how a local win becomes a regional platform. He backs companies that become default infrastructure, not just good apps.

•You talk about distribution and unit economics before you talk about product features. He is operator-minded and wants to know how you acquire users profitably.

•You show you know who the regional champions are and where they are weak. He wants to see you have a real competitive map, not a slide with "no direct competitors."

•**Underestimating operational complexity.** Saying "we just partner with local logistics" signals you have not done the work. Instead: name the specific operational bottleneck in each market and how your playbook solves it.

•**No global expansion path.** "We will stay in one country forever" is a non-starter. Instead: show the regional playbook, even if it is a two-year roadmap. He needs to see the ceiling.

•**Vague answers on competition.** Saying "we have no competitors" reads as ignorance. Instead: name the regional champion, explain their weakness, and show your wedge.

1. How does this scale beyond your home market? 2. Who are the regional champions you would be competing with, and where are they vulnerable? 3. What is the path to becoming default infrastructure, not just a nice-to-have tool? 4. Walk me through your distribution strategy in the first three markets. What breaks first? 5. What is your unit economics at the cohort level, not the blended level? 6. What have you learned about SEA operational complexity that changed your original plan?

Be direct and specific. He has deep operating experience, so hand-waving gets punished. Bring numbers and named competitors. Do not pitch vision without execution detail; he will test your operational depth.

You are at SEED, so lead with early signals.

•Waitlist numbers, pilot commitments, or signed LOIs from real customers. Show demand, not just interest.

•A clear statement of which market you start in and why, plus the first expansion market and the trigger for moving.

•Your distribution playbook: how you acquire the first 1,000 users and what it costs.

A PASS requires a credible path to regional category leadership with a founder who can articulate the operational reality of SEA. He benchmarks against the best operators he has backed, so you need to show you think like one.