Government and Private Collaboration Supports the Birth of Quality Startups

Indonesia has become startup hubs largest in Southeast Asia. Not only related to the amount of incoming funding, but also the number of startups that continue to appear every year. Although many of these startups have had success, there are still some that have not had a real impact.

In this #TuesdayStartup session, DailySocial.id discusses the topic of collaboration between regulators and the private sector in realizing a digital economy in Indonesia. Together with Program Director Indonesian Antler Kanta Nandana and Digital Startup Coordinator of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Sonny Sudaryana.

Government and related parties collaboration

One of the successes of startups to accelerate business growth is to establish collaboration between startups, corporations, and the government. This method was also considered the most effective. Not only providing infrastructure that can be utilized by industry players, but also to reach more users in remote areas that have not been touched by technology.

Through the 1000 Startups Movement and Beta Schools which provide basic literacy about startups, it is hoped that it can become a forum that can help startup founders get relevant information, access funding, and network with investors. On the other hand, Kominfo also wants to overcome the problem of inequality in human resources, which is currently still focused on big cities.

"One of the most obvious collaborations right now is CareProtect which can be accessed on various platforms. Not only government-owned applications, but also startups and other technology companies. It is hoped that collaborations like this can be expanded into different forms," ​​said Sonny.

Meanwhile, as a startup acceleration program, Antler Indonesia sees the need for clear support and understanding between conventional players and digital startups that want to disrupt. So there is a beneficial collaboration between them.

Digital transformation

The government through the Ministry of Communication and Information is currently working to make digital transformation a success. In this case, the focus is not only on startups, but also other sectors. The government, business and society must work together to achieve equitable digital transformation.

From the government's perspective, the government must understand what policies will be regulated, what programs it wants to launch and how the government can produce more quality start-ups. For this reason, it is also important for the government to provide digital literacy, so that all parties, both private and SME players, can be part of the digital transformation.

"In this case the government will provide resource relevant and of course needed by startup activists. In addition, we can also bring them together to the right investors and have direct access to the market, especially for areas that are just connected to digital," said Sonny.

Not only funding is needed by startup founders, but also mentorship to consultation with related experts to be able to make a quality startup. In this case, Antler Indonesia, which has begun to focus on startups in the country, seeks to bring together co-founder relevant, in order to create a solid startup team.

Antler Indonesia, which is also present in 17 countries and has a network with 300 companies globally, has the provision of experts who can become mentors and help startup founders to understand more about their business ideas, so that they can provide impact and of course profitable.

"Since the beginning we have tried to teach startup founders what problems they want to solve. Not focusing on products or applications, but how the business idea is validated and can be the best solution for many people," said Kanta.

Even though it's already started a lot of capital coming in from venture capital local to foreign and many startups have been born, but not many founders have good quality. In this case, Sonny emphasized that the government's collaboration with related parties, such as the Antler Indonesia acceleration program, could be the right way to produce quality startup founders.

"The current challenge is how to find material founder suitable and of good quality. With so many programs today I think it can help to find founder The ideal. It becomes important to get access to a mentor to help psychology founder, not just funding," said Sonny.