Open your startup to honest scrutiny.
Four Malaysian startups pitch every month, then take ten minutes of real challenge from VCs, operators and founders who’ve done it. Not a comedy roast — a reality check with follow-through.
We don’t roast founders to bring them down. We challenge them to move faster.
The signature of Founders Drive isn’t that a startup got roasted. It’s that a founder opened the business to scrutiny, took honest feedback, acted on it, and came back to show what changed.
Roasters move past generic criticism to name why a company is slow, where the approach is weak, and what the founder must change or accelerate.
Fifteen minutes per founder. No slides to hide behind.
Founder pitch
Problem, solution, market, traction, business model, team and the ask.
Reality Check
Rotating panel challenges assumptions, GTM, product, fundraising and execution.
Transition & verdict
Critical findings summarised; immediate priorities named on the spot.
Six angles. Every one uncomfortable.
Business
Is the problem real? Will customers pay? Is pricing viable? Is the model sustainable?
Product
Right problem? Too complex? Are customers actually using it?
Market
Is the target market realistic? Is the ICP too broad? Is the market ready?
Go-to-market
Is acquisition repeatable? Sales cycles too long? Is CAC sustainable? Who's the economic buyer?
Fundraising
Genuinely fundable at this stage? Is the ask supported by traction?
Execution
What's slowing the company down? What to stop, start or accelerate?
Every point resolves to a next step.
No finding leaves the room as an opinion. Each is pushed through the same structure until it names a person and a date.
The roast is day one. The point is day ninety.
You Said / We Did
What the panel challenged. What the founder changed. What happened. Every founder tracks each issue as Implemented, Partially, Testing or Rejected — with evidence.
“Your CAC only works if the 9-month sales cycle comes down.”
Cut the ICP to mid-market fintech, ran a 20-account pilot, closed 6 in 47 days.
IMPLEMENTED sales cycle now 41 days average.
Roast My Startup is the front door. The house keeps going.
Every seat is a scorecard.
While the panel challenges, the room scores each pitch on pitch clarity, investibility and innovation — ordinary listeners, one to ten, live. Founders see the read before they leave.
142 scorecards in
Put your startup in one of them.
Register your profile, apply for the next Roast My Startup, and come ready to open the business to scrutiny.