Co-Founder Kipin Emphasizes the Importance of Achieving Product-Market-Fit Before Chasing Profits

Challenges in the world of education post-pandemic, not everything is the same in each segment, some are battered, some are still thriving. Even though the target users are K-12, Pendidikan.id, startups EdTech developer from Kipin (Kios Pintar), claims to make a profit for the first time in 2023.

In a short interview with DailySocial.id, Co-founder and CEO Kipin Santoso Suratso said that the biggest factors in the company's achievements are the business model and products flagshiphis, Kipin, which is proven to be needed by schools in rural areas where internet access is minimal.

“2023 sales revenue we grow 500% compared to 2022. The best-selling product is Kipin Classroom with profit contribution and revenue up to 90%. "Then, Kipin School 4.0 with a contribution of 3%, and others 7%," he said. Unfortunately, this achievement is not accompanied by other supporting data.

This increase in income is supported by a business strategy that goes to B2B2C. This means that companies don't need to burn a lot of money to promote their products because they sell directly to schools.

Apart from that, Kipin's organizational structure is also quite efficient. All hardware production is 100% in-houseoutsourced-Transfer to a local computer factory to take care of production, shipping and after sales. Temporary, for mobile devices to report the developed by Kipin himself.

“It's easy to do scale up quickly and big because Kipin is a company for mobile devices to report the. We don't need to add a lot of staff because we produce 100% of our hardware needs outsourced [..]. There is no additional work for us.”

He added that the above achievements mean that his party is no longer dependent on external funding.

For the record, Kipin has raised funding several times. There are a number of investors at Pendidikan.id Garden Impact, a financier from Singapore that focuses on investing in commercially sustainable businesses. They entered Pendidikan.id in 2016 for initial investment, then added twice, in 2018 and 2019 to be precise.

The funds obtained are used for research and product development. Another investor is the local property company The Paradise Group (Indonesian Paradise Property). Next, there are early stage VCs Iterative which injects funds starting from $500 thousand per startup for each batch. Kipin is included in the Summer 2022 Batch along with 18 other Asian startups.

So far, Kipin has four products:

1. Kipin Classroom: a learning access point in the form of a system (hardware, software and complete data) to help digitize schools without the need for an internet network, including being able to carry out as many assessments (AKM support/Minimum Competency Assessment), equipped with a collection of thousands of books (published by the Ministry of Education and Culture) , videos, practice questions & literacy comics, and the school's internal digital library (you can upload it yourself).
2. Kipin ATM: a digital smart kiosk shaped like an ATM machine containing thousands of school textbooks, 1500+ educational videos, 50.000+ Tryout questions and 300+ Literacy comics for elementary, middle school, high school & vocational school levels. Students can copy data to device without credit because there is an 'eduSPOT” wifi network in the machine. Every month, the machine will continue to be updated so that students always get the latest learning material.
3. Kipin School: an application created for elementary, middle school, high school and vocational school students, containing a complete learning library & exam system aimed at schools in Indonesia as a means of learning and practicing in one package. There is a "Download & Go" feature which allows data content that has been downloaded to be used without needing an internet network.
4. Kipin PTO (Paperless Test Online): digital assessment system for schools with a stable server, a private school-specific domain and AKM supporting assessment menus.

Along the way, Kipin ATM has evolved into Kipin Classrom which has now entered generation 5.3. Kipin software can run on various types of operations, starting from Android, iOS, Windows 10, and Chrome Book.

Long journey to product-market-fit

Santoso continued, since starting Kipin in 2014 until reaching a commercialized product, it has not taken instant time and there are no shortcuts. This very difficult road must be traversed by all startup founders. For Kipin, it will take at least three to five years before it can finally start commercially.

In 2014, he had an audience with the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, who provided input to improve Kipin, which at that time was still online-based. According to the president, Indonesia is vast, not just Jakarta. So online only reaches a small part of Indonesia.

His team started trying Kipin Mobile in 2015 but failed. The number of downloads is high but the conversion to sales is almost zero. "I remembered Mr. Jokowi's advice and started redesigning it with the technical team to create a hybrid edtech solution. "In 2017 we started introducing the Kipin Gen-1 smart kiosk."

Kipin ATM sales are creeping up. In 2018 it sold 5 units, then in 2019 it sold 40 units. Then when the pandemic hit (2020-2021), sales dropped because the ideal Kipin ATM solution was for schools and teachers, not students.

The situation has started to improve since 2022 because schools are slowly starting to operate as before (face to face). This has an impact on sales of Kipin Classroom reaching up to 200 units. The numbers continued to soar the following year, claiming to have sold more than 1.200 units. "Unlike online edtech which actually dropped when schools reopened, Kipin exploded even though we didn't do any advertising at all (almost zero ads)."

“My message to other founders: Don't just spend time in the meeting room and think about what is good, because what we think is not always right. You must always go to the field and always look at it from the user's perspective concern them, what their desires, their hopes, what their tears are. Then you will design products that are timely and effective.”

He continued, “I know this is not easy because many founders are under pressure from investors to hurry up make money. But successful products are not born from what you want to sell, but from what consumers want to buy. The founder's job is to find, improve, and... repeat again; one day when you find it (product-market-fit) you will know and you will be very satisfied and very successful. "

The positive prospects for the future make him optimistic that Kipin can reach around 5.000-8.000 schools this year. The reason is Kipin's strategy at the grassroots (grassroots) is strong enough that the opportunity to replicate it is wide open.

It is claimed that Kipin Classroom has been used by more than 350 thousand teachers in 2.000 schools. The Kipin application has been downloaded more than 600 thousand times. According to research conducted with the Tanoto Foundation, Kipin can save expenses of up to IDR 1 billion per school and per year.

“The gen-5 version of Kipin Classroom is very superior, perhaps 5 years ahead of other edtech rivals in Indonesia for this sector. "We are starting to integrate AI in future versions," he concluded.