E13 | From Zero to One: Olivia O’Sullivan on Killing Ideas Fast and Building What Customers Will Pay For

Olivia O’Sullivan didn’t take the classic VC path. A former marketer and product builder, she zig-zagged from McDonald’s to Dow Jones to venture—carrying a zero-to-one obsession the whole way. Now Partner & COO at Forum Ventures, Olivia helps founders validate fast, sell sooner, and raise smarter—often before there’s even a working prototype.

In this episode, we get into how Forum’s studio, accelerator, and seed fund back B2B founders from day zero—and why brutal idea-killing, customer pull, and willingness to pay are the real green lights.

Here’s what’s covered:

• Forum’s 3-track model: concept-led studio, rolling pre-seed accelerator, and pre-seed/seed fund

• The “kill ideas fast” playbook—finding real problems and real WTP before code

• Why Forum won’t launch a studio company without signed customer contracts

• What platform actually means in VC—and how it drives sourcing, GTM, and fundraising

• Coaching technical founders on sales: discovery calls, enterprise motion, and common pitfalls

• Founder-market fit, execution signals, and how to avoid “false positives” in validation

• A studio case: partnering into IBM and hiring the founding engineer to unlock scale

• The Forum Foundry: a 4-week validation sprint with capital for the winners

Learn more about Forum Ventures and Olivia’s work helping founders go from concept to customers (link here).