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Winnie Khoo

Partner at Antler | Global VC backing founders from day zero to greatness | Executive Leader, Growth Hacker & Team Builder

Winnie Khoo is a Partner at Antler, a global early-stage venture capital firm. She has over 25 years of experience in the tech and startup industry across Asia.12 Khoo joined Antler in August 2019 and has been with the company for over 5 years.1

Career Highlights

  • Current Role: Partner at Antler, responsible for the firm's operations in Southeast Asia.23
  • Previous Positions:
    • General Manager at Carousell (Singapore/Malaysia, 2016-2018)
    • Founder of IamThirsty.com.sg (2014-2016)
    • Senior Director at Alibaba.com (2007-2010)
    • Senior Marketing Manager at Global Sources (2003-2007)

Expertise

Khoo is known for her skills in:

  • Strategic planning
  • Business development
  • Team building
  • Sales and marketing
  • Country expansion

She has a proven track record of growing teams and offices from single to double digits and driving revenue growth from zero to millions.1

Role at Antler

At Antler, Khoo is involved in:

  • Investing in early-stage startups (pre-launch, pre-seed, seed)
  • Providing up to $600k in early-stage funding
  • Offering up to $10M for growth-stage funding at Series A and beyond
  • Connecting founders with a global community of builders and investors across 30 cities worldwide1

Winnie Khoo's experience and expertise make her a valuable asset to Antler's mission of backing exceptional founders and building billion-dollar companies.1

Highlights

Aug 27 · linkedin

𝐃𝐨 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐫. We receive pitches from hundreds of founders and teams every week. I personally review every application and spend countless hours speaking with potential founders for our residency. More often than not, it's not a good fit.

By now, you've probably seen many posts from us at Antler about why you should apply and become a founder. Perhaps it's time for me to share why you 𝘚𝘏𝘖𝘜𝘓𝘋𝘕'𝘛 apply:

  1. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐄𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐃𝐀-𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 that's modest by nature but doing well. If you don’t want the pressure to scale rapidly, and you’re content being successful in your niche without expanding beyond your current locations and verticals, stay happy.

  2. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐳𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬, remember these represent only a small fraction of companies. Behind the scenes, away from the glitz, there are 100000000s of repeated rejections and heartbreaks. Even raising substantial capital doesn’t guarantee success—in some cases, it can have the opposite effect.

  3. 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, facing numerous rejections from investors of all types and stages. If you think lowering your funding amount to the pre-seed stage will bring success, think again. I firmly believe that sometimes a founder needs to know when to call it quits. Step away, clear your head, and consider alternatives—or start fresh with all the wisdom gained from past experiences.

  4. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, think twice. Antler is not the place to learn about building a business, raising funds, and developing products. We're not a school or a venture builder. The Antler residency won't transform you into a great founder in just 10 weeks. Instead, consider this: the best learning ground is a real startup. Get a job in a field you're passionate about. Experience firsthand how hard, messy, heartbreaking, and stressful it is to be a founder, from the founders.

  5. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐭 to support you through the journey. Building a startup is challenging enough without having to worry about a million other external factors.


The main assets that VCs have are great founders, while founders have the choice of sourcing capital or achieving success through multiple avenues. Deciding on the best fit from the start is critical.

Disclaimer: This is a heartfelt personal opinion post, not crafted by any GPTs or the marketing team.

Aug 1 · linkedin

Should founders be domain experts of the industries they intend to disrupt? Consider these 3 things:

1️⃣ Experience matters (but…) I personally lean towards individuals with domain expertise. Often, you don’t know what you don’t know, and industry knowledge can be a significant advantage.

For example, an account executive eager to build an "innovative" accounting system might focus on surface-level features like automating invoices or tracking expenses—the pain points they've personally encountered—and stop there.

Contrast that with a founder who has been a CFO/CBO. They'd understand deeper complexities such as regulatory compliance, ERP system integration, and other less obvious nuances.

That said…

2️⃣ Disruption is key Founders building in familiar spaces might improve existing systems rather than develop breakthrough innovations.

Improvement is not innovation.

Sometimes, fresh eyes on an old problem yield better results. Experience can be both an advantage and a hindrance.

3️⃣ Rapid learning and adaptability makes all the difference Regardless of background, the ability to adapt and pivot quickly remains key.

What you don’t know, you can learn. What doesn’t work now, you must change.

Whether tweaking the product, shifting the target audience, or rethinking the entire business model—startups demand high adaptability.

Most, if not all, successful startups have pivoted from their initial idea at some point. They started by leaning into existing knowledge, from which iteration is almost always expected.


In summary, it’d be overly simplistic to claim that every founder needs domain expertise. Sometimes, experiencing a problem directly as a user is also a good way to identify a market gap.

Just remember: the first key step for early-stage founders is to uncover true, non-obvious insights that your idea can be built around ✨


If you're in the early days of building, or even just looking for a co-founder or idea—Antler provides the resources, mentorship, and funding you need to build from the ground up.

Build with us. Reach out at antler.co/singapore

Related Questions

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How does Antler's investment process differ from other VC firms?
What specific strategies does Winnie Khoo use to grow startups?
Can you share more about Winnie Khoo's experience at Carousell and PropertyGuru?
How does Antler support startups beyond the initial funding?
Winnie Khoo
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Location

Singapore