Instagram story viewer> @louise.ivan> Posts

Louise Ivan | Startup Founder

@louise.ivan

8.9K

followers

1666

following

• Cofounder @ryderwallet
• Building a company in public (unfiltered)
• Philippines → $4.8M USD raised
• Follow the journey

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

It took me 9 years to do what I always wanted.

At 18 I didn’t know what a startup was. By 27 I had raised my first million for one.

I grew up in a small town in the Philippines with no network, no ecosystem, and WiFi that cut out every time it rained. I had a PC, a lot of curiosity, and zero idea what I was doing. My first startup failed. So did the ones after that. I moved to Amsterdam at 21 on a full scholarship, knew nobody, and started completely from zero again.

I applied to startups that weren’t hiring. Worked for free. Shipped value and waited for someone to notice. Got a salary eventually and felt nothing, because a paycheck was never the point. By 2018 I was inside a @ycombinator backed company, finally in the rooms I used to watch on YouTube, learning everything I could and working like I had something to prove. I did.

Early 2023 I stopped waiting and built @ryderwallet. Today we’re backed by Tier 1 VCs, raised $4.8M, shipping thousands of units globally and securing millions of assets.

Today, Still early, still building, still obsessed.

If you’re building from nothing, follow along I share the real journey, every wins and loses so you can better navigate yours. Feel free to shoot me any questions as well!

#startup #entrepreneurship #filipino #nomad by @louise.ivan

190

48

4 months ago

I grew up in a small town in the Philippines thinking the kind of life I wanted was just not available to me. Not because I wasn’t smart enough. But because I genuinely did not know it was possible.

Then I decided to start anyway.

I moved abroad alone at 21. Worked for free to get my foot in the door. Got rejected more times than I can count. Built something from nothing with our team, and somehow convinced some of the best minds in the world to bet on us.

Now I run @ryderwallet a venture-backed hardware wallet company. We’ve raised $4.8M, shipped devices to customers worldwide.

I’m not telling you this to flex. I’m telling you this because I was invisible, and I built my way out.

This page is where I show you exactly how. The decisions, the mistakes, the things that worked, and the things that didn’t. No filter.

If you’re building something from scratch with no roadmap, this is for you.

Follow along. 🇵🇭

#startup #entrepreneurship #buildinpublic #filipinofounder taken in Tokyo, Japan by @louise.ivan

192

35

6 months ago

1. I had no salary for 12 mos.
I lived off personal savings to keep the company alive. I don’t regret it, but it didn’t happen to me. It was the end of a long run of decisions that didn’t go the way I planned.

2. We built a list of 25K and wasted almost all of it.
A press push put thousands of people in front of us who had already raised their hand. We had no nurture strategy behind it. Great lesson, tbh.

3. We had $42K USD left in our bank account.
We had 1 month left, we started raising when we already needed the money, which is the worst position you can negotiate from. That was the loneliest stretch I’ve had as a founder.

4. We paid an agency $30K USD to hire someone for a job we didn’t understand.
We needed someone to run a campaign that mattered, so we paid a recruiter to find a head of marketing and handed the whole thing over. When it fell short I had to step in without any of the skills to fix it.

Every founder I know has a version of this list. Most just don’t post it.

If you’re in the middle of yours, you’re not behind.

If you’re looking to build something, follow the journey @louise.ivan . I share everything so you can learn from my mistakes and wins, and hopefully get where you want to be a little faster.

#founderlife #buildinpublic #storytellingcontentchallenge #personalgrowth by @louise.ivan

94

22

2 months ago

You need 3mos advance reservation for this. They drop new schedule on the weekend. It is an hour away from Tokyo.

#tokyo #japan #hiddengems #nomad by @louise.ivan

22k

83

6 months ago

i used to say yes to everything.

every dinner, every event, every opportunity, every person asking for my time.

i was always the one making plans, connecting people, helping, showing up.

and for a long time, i thought that was just who i was.

the reliable one. the social one. the one who could somehow do everything.
build a company. raise money. grow a team. travel.
 show up for friends. show up for family. still answer every message.
but i was exhausted.

and the weird part was, i felt guilty every time i tried to choose myself.

at some point i realized i was building the life i wanted while still letting everyone else have unlimited access to my time.

that doesn’t work.

so i started saying no more.

i stopped forcing plans.
 stopped trying to keep every relationship alive. stopped feeling responsible for making everyone comfortable.

and some people disappeared.

that taught me a lot.

i’m still a people pleaser by nature. i still want to help everyone. i still sometimes say yes when i should say no.

but i’m learning that protecting your energy isn’t selfish.
especially when you’re trying to build something bigger than yourself.

you can’t keep pouring into everyone else while giving yourself whatever is left.

sometimes growth looks like working harder.

sometimes it looks like finally learning who and what deserves your time.

Follow @louise.ivan if you’re obsessed with building something from nothing, growing through the chaos, and constantly becoming better than you were yesterday.

Thank you @b_yanggg @drchristinelai for the inspo taken in Los Angeles, California by @louise.ivan

243

32

2 months ago

The money hit the account and nothing about my life changed, which was the whole point.

No fancy office, because the team is remote and rent is a vanity metric.

No business class for work because a flat bed does not make the product ship faster. Calling my daddy to sponsor me.

No conference booth, because events ROI are dubious.

No hire until it actually hurts, because every role added before the gap is real just buys complexity we have to manage later. Still learning this the hard way.

No meeting that a message could have closed, because when you add up everyone's hourly rate, most of them are the most expensive thing we do all week.

No spend that can't show me the return, because we shipped Ryder One on 35% of its original budget and that discipline is the only reason we are still standing.

I grew up in a small town in the Philippines where waste was not an option, and it turns out that habit compounds better than any perk. Funding is fuel, not a reward.

Which of the six would you break first? Be honest in the comments.

#startup #buildinpublic #entrepreneurship #yc #ai by @louise.ivan

613

35

3 months ago

From the Philippines to the world! 🇵🇭🌎

What’s @louise.ivan story? by @louise.ivan

214

12

3 months ago

Are the shirts worth it? Debatable.

The only shop in Tokyo that sells all kinds of white T-shirts from around the world. Prices range from $60 and up.

Honest review. Love the shirts, but I still prefer my COS rib cage shirts and Uniqlo Airism for the price and fit. Cool experience tho and nice concept.

#tokyo #japan #remoteworklife #nomad by @louise.ivan

3k

27

6 months ago

Most people think they’re using AI because they have ChatGPT open in a tab.

Hate to break it to you love, that’s a chat window.

The builders who are actually pulling ahead have something different. A connected stack where every tool talks to every other tool. Here’s what that actually looks like.

Hermes is the brain of the operation. It’s not just a chatbot it’s an agentic OS. You can build a full Pantheon of AI personas inside it: one for deep research, one for philosophical reasoning, one for execution. Each assigned a different model. Each with a specific role. It knows what the others know.

Claude Code is how you bridge it all. The move that changed everything for me: syncing Hermes with Claude Code to create a unified memory system. Your mobile conversations through Telegram, your desktop dev environment same context, no silos. You describe what you want to build. It builds it. It fixes its own errors. Then it keeps going.

Obsidian is where everything lands. Every insight, every decision, every note pulled into your second brain automatically. Hermes integrates directly with it. The longer you run this system, the smarter it gets. It even runs “dreaming cycles” overnight processing and connecting information while you sleep.

The full stack can also connects to Zapier and Apollo for business automation and lead generation. Schedules managed, emails drafted and leads researched. Autonomously.

This isn’t a productivity hack. It’s an AI employee you build once and compound forever.

Save this. You’ll want to come back to it.

— Follow for more on building in public. Big shoutout to @foggylabs for teaching me all this!

#startup #ai #yc #entrepreneurship #founderlife taken in Jfk Airport New York City by @louise.ivan

2k

129

5 months ago

Your favourite fashion boi is back. Building a company is the job. Dressing well is the hobby and fit checks are still mandatory.

Swipe for fits 🫰 by @louise.ivan

254

45

a year ago

Here’s what I’ll actually change if I run @ryderwallet again from the beginning

1. Build it and they will come is the worst advice anyone gives a founder.
We live in an age where a prompt can build you an entire app in a weekend. The building was never the bottleneck. Distribution always was, and most people figure that out after they’ve already burned six months on the product.

2. Do every job yourself before you hire someone to do it.
Not because you’ll be better at it. Because you can’t benchmark a hire if you’ve never sat in their seat. You won’t know if they’re good or just good at sounding good.

3. Take calculated risks, not blind ones.
Every mistake in a startup has a price tag. Time, runway, trust with your team. Before I make a call now, I ask one question. What does this cost me if it doesn’t work out. If the answer is everything, I find another way in.

4.You’re always fundraising, even when you’re not raising.
The founders who close rounds fast are the ones who built the relationship two years before they needed the check. Waiting until you’re desperate is the most expensive mistake on this list.

And the last one nobody warns you about.

5. Everything is your fault. The delay, the bad hire, the bug that shipped, the missed deadline. You signed off on all of it. That’s not a punishment. That’s the job description.

Five lessons. All of them cost me something to learn. Comment “BUILD” and I’ll send you the framework I use before taking on any risk at Ryder.

#fundraising #startup #yc #ai #vc by @louise.ivan

87

7

4 months ago

If you’re trying to raise your first $500K to $1M, here’s what I’d actually tell you.

1. Decide what game you’re playing.
A cash business and a venture-scale company are different games with different money. If it’s the first, you probably don’t need a VC. Skip this reel.

2. Get your story straight.
Your deck should already answer the question before anyone has to ask it, vision, market, traction, moat, team, tight enough that nobody’s flipping back to find the point.

3. Remove “every” objections before the meeting.
Why now, why this market, why you, why won’t a bigger company crush you. Answer those before they’re asked, not in the room.

4. Build first. Fundraise second.
The best fundraising strategy isn’t fundraising, it’s traction. Get users, get feedback, show people care, that kills more objections than a polished pitch ever will.

5. Revenue is the strongest signal.
Your first $100 means more than your first 10,000 followers. Followers are attention. Revenue is proof.

6. Have a real reason you’re building this.
Startups will humble you in ways you can’t prepare for, and if you’re only in it for the opportunity, you’ll quit the moment it stops looking like one.

7. Grit is the pitch.
Nobody expects perfection, they want to know you’ll still be in the room after everyone else has walked out. At seed, nobody’s betting on your startup. They’re betting on you.

Comment RAISE and I’ll send you my fundraising strategy.

#vc #startup #entrepreneurship #fundraising #buildinpublic by @louise.ivan

58

21

4 months ago