Kominfo Launches “Startup Studio”, Early Stage Startup Business Acceleration Support

The Ministry of Communications and Informatics continues to complete variants of the digital startup empowerment program in Indonesia. After previously there was the "National 1000 Startup Digital Movement" for founder in stage ideation and "NextIndonesian Unicorns" for startup later stage, now Kominfo presents the "Startup Studio" program for startups that are in the middle of the two stages. Namely, early-stage startups that are starting to accelerate their business scale.

Startup Studio Indonesia wants to facilitate business development needs through various supports. The focus is on five things, namely product and team acceleration, strategy validation fundraising, strategy validation growth marketing, technology development support, and sharpen business capabilities.

To DailySocialSemuel Abrijani Pangerapan, Director General of Informatics Applications at Kominfo, said that in the first stage of the Startup Studio, his party will select 20 startups. However, overall, the target number of startups that this program wants to include by 2024 is 300 startups.

In the election, Kominfo involved many parties. "Startup Studio Indonesia has formed a board of professional curators consisting of various stakeholders in the ecosystem tech startups. Of course, the decision of the curator board is absolute, without any intervention from anywhere."

“More brainstorming, less classes”

Asked about what unique value it is trying to offer, Semuel said "More brainstorming, less classes. Seeing the many sources of information about startups on the internet, we reduce the portion for class formats and prioritize brainstorming two-way with para coach. "

Every founder Selected startups will be met with mentors who match pain points they face in developing their business. “We are sure founders more need to conduct two-way discussions with experts in various fields, such as products, fundraising, growth hacking, people and culture, and others," added Semuel.

In implementation, session picthing to investors will be held periodically for 4 weeks and periodically one on one. Every week, startups will pitching with at least 2 investors. It is expected to strengthen the network between startups and potential investors.

Mechanisms and criteria

The Startup Studio Indonesia program runs intensively for 3 months. Consists of three main genres, namely Founder's Camp, Mentoring 1-on-1, and Networking. The first event, Founder's Camp is a series of mentoring or brainstorming with industry players, discussing the practical knowledge that founders must master to develop their business scale.

Then 1-on-1 Mentoring is a private session per startup to get consultation and execution supervision with experts. Lastly, Networking, an effort to expand the network to dozens of people venture capital and leaders in related industries.

The agenda has been scheduled as follows:

In general, the targeted startup criteria are those who have achieved product-market fit, proved by traction. Including already getting funding angel, pre seed, seed, or max pre-series A. Although open to all landscapes, Kominfo prioritizes startups in the fields of education, health, maritime, agriculture, tourism, and logistics

Kominfo also emphasized that this program is open to anyone, not only alumni of the 1000 Startup program that has been implemented previously.

"We open opportunities for all startups early stage which is in line with the stated criteria of the participants. If the registrant's startup is a graduate of 1000 Startups, of course it will be a plus point for us. However, this does not guarantee that registrant startups have a special portion," said Semuel.

For more information and registration, visit: https://startupstudio.id/.