Sharing Interesting Lessons and Experiences from the DSLaunchpad Startup Incubator Program

There are always interesting experiences gained by startup incubation program participants. Not only valuable lessons for business development, startup players are also met with various great people in their fields. One of them is through DSLaunchpad, an incubator program organized by DailySocial.id.

In this #TuesdayStartup session, we talked with GoPlay's Head of Marketing Rizki Suluh Adi and Sertiva Saga Co-founder Iqranegara who have participated as mentors and participants in DSLaunchpad 1.0, respectively. Read more, some of the interesting experiences shared by the two below.

Taking the first step

In general, Rizki assessed that one of the main challenges faced by startups is how to take the first step to validate ideas. The term is sanitation check. According to him, sanitation check This is done to ensure that the ideas taken can be useful or not, can be developed or not, or whether or not someone else has used them.

Sanity check becomes a crucial aspect considering that the participants of this incubation program come with their own ideals. They are not even followed by startup actors who already have a company, but there are also those who come with only mature ideas, but still want to do it brainstorming.

Sharing his experience last year, said Rizki, the mentors added one aspect sanitation check again, namely developing business ideas taking into account the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Why sanitation check need? Many startups come with dreams the romance of startups. For example, want to be a startup unicorn, or startups that have growth, and can burning money. However, the world is starting to change, there are new problems and people are becoming selective,” said Rizki.

By adding a new aspect, startups are no longer only focused on growing, but how to focus on achieving that line. The Covid-19 pandemic has also accelerated needs that were previously considered undeveloped. "One of the advantages of startups over others is that they speed. Co-founders can make decisions quickly to accelerate needs," he added.

Meet with new connections

Rizki continued, the incubator program helped bring together startup players with a network of potential investors and clients. From previous experience on batch first, he introduced the participant group he mentored with B2B investors and clients. With a note, the participants who met with this investor were those who already had a validated idea.

"We can't build everything ourselves. So it's important to have a validated idea, sharpen the problem, and see if people are willing to pay for the product we make. In addition, it is also important to be able to execute ideas. People can have many ideas, but the one who can execute them is the one who can survive, "He explained.

Developing startups from outside Jakarta

According to DailySocial.id internal data, 73% of DSLaunchpad participants came from outside Jakarta. In relation to the startup industry, there is often an assumption that it is difficult to build a startup from outside Jakarta due to limited access to develop its business. For example, market access and capital. Therefore, the incubator program is considered to be one of the important mediums to gain such access.

Saga admits that there is a point where startups inevitably have to go to Jakarta to find strategic partners and develop markets with certain strategies. However, he thinks this is not always a determining factor for success. Just so you know, Sertiva comes from Yogyakarta who joined the first batch of DSLaunchpad participants.

“Establishing a startup can be from anywhere. After all, startups unicorn it's just in the end to build a team outside Jakarta, "he said.

Realize needs faster

There were other interesting experiences that Saga had when he was a participant. From the end of 2019 until the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Saga and his team had time to do pivot digital certificate service. Call it from product A to B.

When he joined as a DSLlaunchpad participant, he admitted that he met an acquaintance who happened to be a mentor in the program. What's even more interesting is that this mentor was actually interested in using Sertiva's initial product before it was launched.pivot.

"Our mentor almost bought a service similar to Sertiva from abroad which was expensive. After talking about their needs, we finally decided to go back to the original product. In essence, this pandemic is like a time machine, where something will happen in 2-3 years in the future, it will be realized more quickly. On the other hand, we also get not only mentors, but also customers in this program, "he said.

Virtual mentoring remains effective

Apart from the virtual activities, Rizki said that there were many new opportunities and lessons learned in the DSLlaunchpad incubator program. Mentors are also given the freedom to mix activities mentoring according to their individual preferences.

This is also shared by Saga who became the first batch of alumni. According to his experience, the mentors provided are not only equipped with theory, but also experience in developing a startup business.

“There is indeed a slight difference in participating in offline and online incubator programs. However, we see that everything is running smoothly and remains effective. In fact, our request to exchange mentors that have beenassign It is also allowed because we previously thought it didn't fit the product we made,” said Saga.