Entrepreneur & founder

What does an entrepreneur & founder do?

An entrepreneur or founder starts a business and carries it from idea to paying customers.

You choose the problem, test whether people want a solution, build the product or service, and find the money to run it. Early on, you do most jobs yourself.

In Singapore, founders run sole proprietorships, private limited companies and venture-backed start-ups. The role sits at the top of the organisation. Over time it shifts from doing the work to hiring people, setting goals and deciding where cash goes.

You work with co-founders, early staff, customers, suppliers, investors, accountants and company secretaries. You also deal with government agencies for registration, tax and grants. A founder who runs day-to-day operations is closer to a chief operating officer or general manager. That is how the official job classification lists this work.

What the work involves

• Talk to customers to find out what problem they pay to solve and how they solve it today.
• Track cash, sales and costs in a spreadsheet, and update the plan when numbers change.
• Build or direct a first version of the product, often with no-code tools, vibe coding or a small developer team.
• Pitch to investors, partners and key customers, and follow up on their questions.
• Plan how to reach customers: channels, pricing, offers and who to approach first.
• Hire, set priorities for the team and decide what to stop doing.

Pay in Singapore

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Skills an entrepreneur & founder needs

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Entrepreneur & founder job description

We are looking for a founder or co-founder to build a new venture in Singapore from early idea to repeatable sales.

You will test demand with real customers, set pricing, run a lean team and manage cash. You will also raise funds or bootstrap as the plan requires. The role suits someone who is comfortable with uncertainty and can work across product, sales and finance.

Responsibilities

• Define the problem, the target customer and the business model, and write them into a clear business plan.
• Run customer interviews and small experiments to test demand before spending heavily on building.
• Work out unit economics: what it costs to win a customer and what each customer earns you.
• Plan and carry out the go-to-market approach, including pricing, channels and first customer wins.
• Build or oversee a minimum viable product, using developers or AI coding tools and a backend such as Supabase or Firebase.
• Prepare financial models in Excel and keep a rolling cash forecast.
• Raise funds from investors, apply for grants or fund the business from revenue.
• Register and maintain the company, and meet tax, accounting and employment duties in Singapore.
• Hire and manage staff or freelancers, and set clear goals for each.
• Report progress to co-founders, investors and advisers, and adjust the plan when results differ.

Requirements

• No fixed degree is needed. Many founders hold a degree in business, engineering, computing or design, and others learn on the job.
• Typically 2 to 5 years of work experience in sales, product, operations, consulting or a technical field before starting.
• Working skill in Excel for budgets, forecasts and unit economics.
• Ability to explain a business clearly in writing and in a short pitch.
• Familiarity with basic accounting, company registration and tax filing, or access to an accountant who handles them.
• Comfort with building prototypes using no-code tools, vibe coding or AI assistants such as Claude Code is a plus.

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Entrepreneur & founder career path

There is no fixed ladder for founders, so the path below shows common stages in Singapore.

Many people first work in a start-up or an operations role, then start their own business.

1. Start-up generalist or business associate

   Entry

   You work in an early-stage company across sales, operations and customer support, and learn how a small business runs.

2. Early-stage founder or co-founder

   Mid

   You start your own venture, test demand, build a first product and win the first customers, often with little or no staff.

3. Founder and chief executive of a growing company

   Senior

   You lead a team, raise funds or run on revenue, and set strategy, hiring and budgets as sales become repeatable.

4. Serial founder, investor or board director

   Lead

   You start further ventures, back other founders or sit on boards, using what you learned from running a company.

The titles are ones commonly used in Singapore; employers may name the levels differently.

Related jobs and their pay

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Entrepreneur & founder interview questions

We wrote these questions from the skills this job needs. They are not an official question bank.

1. Walk me through the unit economics of a business you have run or could start.

   What a good answer covers

   • Defines revenue per customer, cost of serving them and customer acquisition cost
   • Shows contribution margin and how long it takes to earn back acquisition cost
   • Explains which assumption is weakest and how to test it
   • Uses real or clearly stated numbers rather than vague claims

2. How would you build a 12-month cash forecast in Excel for a new business?

   What a good answer covers

   • Separates fixed and variable costs and lists revenue by month
   • Models cash timing, such as customer payment delays and upfront costs
   • Builds best, expected and worst cases
   • Shows runway as the number of months before cash runs out
   • Keeps inputs on a single sheet so assumptions are easy to change

3. How do you decide which customer segment to serve first?

   What a good answer covers

   • Sizes the market with a simple bottom-up estimate
   • Picks a segment with a clear pain, budget and reachable channel
   • Checks competitors and how customers solve the problem today
   • Explains why a narrow start beats serving everyone

4. Describe how you would structure a seed-stage investor pitch.

   What a good answer covers

   • Opens with the problem and who has it
   • Shows the solution, early traction and the business model
   • States market size, competition and why your team can win
   • Gives a clear ask, with how the funds extend runway and what milestones they reach
   • Prepares for questions on risks and unit economics

5. How do you run customer discovery before you build anything?

   What a good answer covers

   • Interviews real target users and asks about past behaviour rather than opinions
   • Looks for repeated pain points and what people already pay for
   • Avoids leading questions and pitching during interviews
   • Sets a clear signal for what counts as validation, such as a paid pilot or deposit

6. Draft a go-to-market plan for a software tool aimed at Singapore small and medium-sized businesses.

   What a good answer covers

   • Names the first buyer and how to reach them
   • Chooses two or three channels and explains why
   • Sets a price and tests it against value delivered
   • Lists early metrics, such as demos booked and trials converted
   • Plans for partnerships, such as accountants or industry associations

7. You built an MVP using vibe coding. What do you check before real customers use it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Reads and tests the generated code rather than trusting it blindly
   • Checks login, permissions and where personal data is stored
   • Tests the main user flow and error cases
   • Adds basic logging, backups and a way to roll back
   • Knows when to bring in an experienced engineer

8. When would you choose Supabase or Firebase for a first product, and what are the trade-offs?

   What a good answer covers

   • Uses them to launch quickly with managed authentication, database and storage
   • Explains how to set access rules so one user cannot read another user's data
   • Considers lock-in, data location and cost as usage grows
   • Describes a plan to move or rebuild if the product scales

9. How would you use Claude Code while building a prototype, and how do you control the quality of what it produces?

   What a good answer covers

   • Gives clear, small tasks and describes the expected result
   • Reviews each change and runs tests before accepting it
   • Keeps secrets such as API keys out of prompts and code
   • Uses version control so any change can be undone
   • Understands the code well enough to explain it to a co-founder or investor

1. You have five months of cash left and sales growth has stalled. What do you do this week?

   What a good answer covers

   • Updates the cash forecast and finds the real runway
   • Cuts costs that do not affect customers and delays non-urgent hiring
   • Talks to churned and stalled customers to find the cause
   • Sets a short list of actions, such as fundraising, bridge funding or a price change, with dates
   • Tells investors and the team early and plainly

2. Your first big pilot customer asks for a custom feature that would delay your plan by two months. How do you respond?

   What a good answer covers

   • Asks whether other customers want the same thing
   • Weighs the revenue and reference value against the delay
   • Offers options such as a smaller version, a paid add-on or a later release
   • Protects the core product direction

3. An investor offers funding at a high valuation but with strict terms. How do you decide whether to accept?

   What a good answer covers

   • Reads terms beyond the headline price, such as control rights and liquidation preference
   • Models how dilution affects founders and future rounds
   • Checks the investor's track record and fit with the business
   • Gets advice from a lawyer and compares with other offers or bootstrapping

1. Tell me about an idea you tested that did not work. What did you do next?

   What a good answer covers

   • Describes the test and the evidence that it failed
   • Shows how quickly the decision to stop or change was made
   • Names what was learned and how it changed later choices
   • Takes responsibility without blaming the market or others

2. Describe a time you disagreed with a co-founder or key team member. How was it settled?

   What a good answer covers

   • Explains the disagreement with specific facts
   • Shows listening and use of data to decide
   • Describes the outcome and how the working relationship held up
   • Mentions clear roles or decision rules to prevent a repeat

1. Your app collects customers' names, phone numbers and emails. What do you need to do under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)?

   What a good answer covers

   • Tells users what data is collected and why, and gets their consent where required
   • Collects only what the product needs
   • Protects the data with access controls and secure storage
   • Gives users a way to withdraw consent or ask for their data
   • Appoints someone responsible for data protection and has a plan for a data breach

Common questions about an entrepreneur & founder job

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