Is This a Business? The Three Questions Every Funder Asks

By Kasper-Tanakrit Sermsuksan · Global Venture I: Playbook · Block G

You are here: G-01 · Block G · Telling Your Story · article 1 of 4 · Form G · Next: G-02 The Pitch

In short: Investors, grant reviewers and judges ask three questions before anything else. Is the market big enough for a business, and who buys first? Can this actually work? And why should anyone believe this team can do it? Answer each with evidence, not adjectives. Count real customers bottom-up. Show progress and the technology working. Show a team that fits the job, with committed advisors in the gaps. Put the answers on one page before you build a single slide.

Try it in 10 minutes: Take a blank page and write the three questions as headings. Under each, write one sentence of answer and one piece of evidence you could show today: a number with a source, a log entry, a photo, a signed letter, a profile. Circle every heading that has no evidence yet. That circle is your plan for the next two weeks.

When a team prepares a TED Fund application, I give them three questions before anything else.

Is this a big enough market for a business? Can it work? Why you?

Talking about all three is easy. Showing one piece of evidence for each is the hard part.

That gap is what this article is about.

What do investors and grant reviewers want to know?

Every funder words it differently. Underneath, I hear the same three questions.

• 1. Is it a big enough market? — What they are really asking: Are there enough customers who will pay, and do you know exactly who buys first? — What answers it: A bottom-up count of customers, by type, and a named niche to start with
• 2. Can it work? — What they are really asking: Is this feasible: the technology, the customers' behavior, the business model? — What answers it: Progress you can show: actions, validation, proof of technology, and examples of it working elsewhere
• 3. Why this team? — What they are really asking: Will these people still be pushing in two years, and can they actually do it? — What answers it: What each member brings, committed advisors for the gaps, and proof for every claim

Sequoia Capital's guide to writing a business plan asks for the same things in its own words. It asks you to "identify your customer and your market," to explain "why now?", and to "tell the story of your founders and key team members"¹.

Notice what is not on the list. Your logo. Your app's color scheme. How passionate you are.

Passion is assumed. Evidence is not.

Question 1: Is the market big enough for a business?

I want two answers here, not one. How big can this get? And where do you start?

Most teams answer only the first. Usually with a number they found in a report. "The elder-care market is worth billions."

That tells me the industry is large. It does not tell me your business is.

Count the customers, by type

Count the people (B2C), companies (B2B) or government agencies (B2G) who have the problem. Then multiply by what each one pays per year. Who you count depends on who pays. Choose Your Beachhead shows how, type by type, and Who Are Your Customers? helps you find the payer.

Every number needs a source. My rule: if you cannot name where a number came from, it is not a number.

Selling to government is a real path, but a slow one. Budgets follow a yearly cycle and purchases follow procurement rules. I explain what that means in Business Models.

Name the niche you start with

The second answer matters more to me than the first.

A big number with no starting point is a wish. A small, named group of customers you can reach next month is a plan.

That first group is your beachhead: end users who would use the same product, buy through the same sales process and talk to each other². "Working daughters in Bangkok whose parent fell in the past year" is a beachhead. "Older people in Asia" is not.

Tips:

• Show both numbers: the beachhead you start with, and the bigger market you can reach after it.
• Show how you reach the first 100 customers. Name the channel.
• Use top-down figures only as a sanity check at the end, never as your answer.

Question 2: Can it work?

This is the feasibility question. Funders cannot see the future, so they look at what you have already done.

I look for four kinds of proof.

Actions: what you have done, not what you plan

Interviews logged. Tests run. Prototypes shown to real people. Every action needs a date and a result. "We will interview customers" is a plan. "We interviewed twelve people in three weeks, and here is what changed" is progress.

The Interview Log is where this proof lives.

Validation: what customers gave up for you

Compliments are not validation. Commitments are. Rob Fitzpatrick, in The Mom Test, calls time, reputation risk and cash "the major currencies"³.

In practice, that means a second meeting, an introduction to a decision-maker, a letter of intent, a pilot agreement, a deposit or a pre-order. One of these is worth more than fifty people saying "great idea."

Proof of technology: show it working

If your idea depends on technology, show the technology. A working prototype, a test result, a demo a reviewer can try. MVP & Prototype explains how to build the smallest version that proves the point.

Then say honestly how far along it is. I use the KTH Innovation Readiness Level™, which scores technology, customer, business model, IP, team and funding on separate scales⁴. A reviewer trusts "technology at level 3, here is the test" far more than "our technology is ready." How we use it: The KTH Innovation Readiness Level.

It works elsewhere: analogs

Your idea may be new to Thailand. It is rarely new to the world.

Look for companies that already made a similar model work: in another country, or in another industry. John Mullins and Randy Komisar call these analogs, "predecessor companies that are worth mimicking in some way." They also suggest antilogs, companies "you explicitly choose to do things differently than"⁵.

An analog answers the question a reviewer is too polite to ask: has anyone ever made money this way? An antilog shows you learned from someone else's failure.

Good places to find them: Industry Trend Analysis, your competitive map, and a conversation with a friend from another field (The Cross-Discipline Friend Interview).

Tips:

• Put dates on everything. Progress is a line over time, not a single point.
• Show what you changed because of evidence. It proves you learn.
• Name one analog and one antilog, and say in one line what you copy and what you avoid.

Question 3: Why should anyone believe this team?

At the earliest stage, the idea will change. The team is what finds the next version.

So the question is not "are you smart?" It is "will this group of people find the right version of this idea, and still be here when it gets hard?"

Show what each member brings

For each person, one line: their role, and why them. Then the proof.

• Background: your major, your degree, the skills it gave you.
• Experience: internships, jobs, projects, competitions. Anything where you did the kind of work this venture needs.
• Personal connection: why this problem matters to you. A founder who lived the problem often sees what outsiders miss.
• Profiles: a LinkedIn profile, a portfolio, a GitHub page. Something a reviewer can check in one minute.

Then show the team as a whole. Which roles are covered, which are missing? The 4H Founder Archetypes and TeamFlow™ help you see it. FISHE Capital™ × CSTO™ (Personal Edition) helps each member see what they bring.

Fill the gaps with committed advisors

No early team has everything. Reviewers know that. What they want to see is that you know your gaps, and that you have filled them with people who will actually help.

A name on a slide is not an advisor. An advisor has agreed to a role, meets you regularly and would take your call. Test the fit before you list anyone. How: The 4H Founder Archetypes.

Prove it

Every claim about your team needs something behind it. A certificate, a link, a reference, a result. "Strong in marketing" means nothing. A link to the page you grew, with the before and after numbers, means something.

Tips:

• Write why each person is on the team, not just their job title.
• Name your biggest gap before a reviewer does, and say how you fill it.
• List advisors only with their permission, and only if they have actually helped.

The proof pack: put your evidence on one page

Before you build a deck or write a memo, I ask teams to fill this page. It becomes the evidence behind every slide.

• Market: how big — What to show: Customers counted by type × price per year, every number sourced — Where you build it: Choose Your Beachhead · Business Models
• Market: who first — What to show: One named beachhead, the end user described, the route to the first 100 — Where you build it: Choose Your Beachhead · First 10 Customers
• Feasibility: actions — What to show: Dated interviews and tests, and what changed — Where you build it: The Interview Log · The Venture Log
• Feasibility: validation — What to show: Commitments: time, introductions, letters of intent, pilots, deposits — Where you build it: The Interview Log
• Feasibility: technology — What to show: Working prototype or test result, and an honest readiness level — Where you build it: MVP & Prototype · KTH IRL
• Feasibility: elsewhere — What to show: One analog and one antilog, abroad or in another industry — Where you build it: Industry Trend Analysis · Competitive map
• Team: who brings what — What to show: One line per member: role, why them, proof — Where you build it: TeamFlow™ · FISHE Personal
• Team: gaps filled — What to show: Named advisors who agreed, what each one covers, how often you meet — Where you build it: The 4H Founder Archetypes

Then carry it straight into your deck (The Pitch) and your memo (The Amazon 6-Page Memo). For where to apply, see Your First Funding.

Checklist: are you ready to apply?

Go through this before any application, competition or investor meeting.

Market

• ☐ We know whether we sell to consumers, businesses, government or through a partner, and who pays.
• ☐ We counted our customers bottom-up, and every number has a source.
• ☐ We named one beachhead and can describe the end user in one sentence.
• ☐ We can say how we reach the first 100 customers.

Feasibility

• ☐ Every action we claim has a date and a result.
• ☐ We have at least one commitment from a customer: time, an introduction or money.
• ☐ We can show the technology working, or we say honestly what is not built yet.
• ☐ We named one analog and one antilog.

Team

• ☐ Each member has one line: role, why them, and proof.
• ☐ We named our biggest gap and how we fill it.
• ☐ Every advisor we list has agreed, and has actually helped.

Overall

• ☐ Each of the three questions has at least one piece of evidence a reviewer could check.
• ☐ We read the funder's own criteria and rules for this round, and answered in their words.

Reality check — the mistakes I see most often

• "We only need 1% of the market." Nobody buys 1% of anything. Count real customers instead.
• "We have no competitors." Then your customers are solving the problem some other way, or not at all. Both are competition.
• A slide of famous advisors. If they have not helped yet, they are decoration. Reviewers can tell.
• Plans written as progress. "We will" is not evidence. "We did, on this date" is.

Frequently asked questions

What do investors look for in an early-stage startup?
Three things: a market big enough to build a business, with a clear first group of customers; evidence that the idea can work; and a team that can make it happen.

How do you show a startup idea is feasible?
Show progress, not plans: dated interviews and tests, commitments from customers, a working prototype or test result, and examples of a similar model working in another country or industry.

How do you calculate market size for B2B, B2C or B2G?
Count the customers who have the problem (people or households for B2C, companies for B2B, agencies or budget holders for B2G), multiply by what each pays per year, and source every number. Start with your beachhead, then show the bigger market.

Should a startup have advisors?
Only committed ones. An advisor who agreed to a role and meets you regularly fills a real gap. A famous name who has never helped adds nothing, and reviewers know it.

✦ A Note for Global Venture I Students · Block G: Telling Your Story · Form G

Fill the proof pack before you build your final deck. It is the evidence behind your pitch deck and your 6-page memo, and it uses work you have already done in earlier blocks: your beachhead and bottom-up TAM (Block C), your business model (Block D), your MVP test (Block E) and your team profile (Block B).

If your team plans to apply for a grant such as TED Fund's, the same page is the starting point for your application. SEA Bridge is a TED Fellow, so teams can apply through us; funding decisions are TED Fund's. Details: Your First Funding.

Bring to class: your proof pack, with every cell either filled with evidence or marked "not yet."

Do this before class:

1. Fill the proof pack table above for your venture.
2. Go through the checklist and mark every unchecked box.
3. In your Venture Log, write the one gap you will close before the final presentation, and how.

Keep reading

• The Pitch — next in Block G: turn your proof pack into a pitch
• Choose Your Beachhead — market size without the fantasy
• The Interview Log & Evidence Rules — what counts as evidence
• Your First Funding — where student founders apply first

All articles in Block G · Telling Your Story

• G-01 Is This a Business? (you are here)
• G-02 The Pitch
• G-03 The Art of Pitching Less
• G-04 The Amazon 6-Page Memo

References

1. Sequoia Capital. (n.d.). Writing a business plan. https://sequoiacap.com/article/writing-a-business-plan — accessed Nov 2026.
2. Disciplined Entrepreneurship. (n.d.). Step 2: Select a beachhead market. https://www.d-eship.com/step2/ — accessed Nov 2026.
3. Fitzpatrick, R. (2013). The Mom Test: How to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. Robfitz Ltd. https://www.momtestbook.com/ (quoted line: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11029920-commitment-can-be-cash-but-doesn-t-have-to-be-think) — accessed Nov 2026.
4. KTH Innovation. (n.d.). Take a tour. https://kthinnovationreadinesslevel.com/take-a-tour/ — accessed Nov 2026.
5. Mullins, J. W., & Komisar, R. (2009, September 9). The importance of discovering your Plan B [ChangeThis manifesto, from Getting to Plan B, Harvard Business Review Press]. https://cdn.porchlightbooks.com/legacyassets/system/manifestos/pdfs/000/000/336/original/62.05.PlanB.pdf — accessed Nov 2026.

Further reading

• Mullins, J., & Komisar, R. (2009). Getting to Plan B: Breaking through to a better business model. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Aulet, B. (2013). Disciplined entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful startup. Wiley.

About the author: Kasper-Tanakrit Sermsuksan is the Founder of SEA Bridge and a Visiting Lecturer in Computer Engineering and Digital Technology at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Engineering. Learn more →