Stories of Indonesian Startups Participating in Y Combinator Acceleration Program

Towards the end of 2017, And Combinator (YC) as a well-known startup acceleration program from Mountain View visited Jakarta to introduce itself. At the event, YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer was present to convey some information, encouraging startups in attendance to register for the program.

Names such as PayFazz, Xendit, Nusantara Technology, Shipper to the latest Eden Farm finally joined YC. We also observe the progress after acceleration. So far, what can be concluded, startups have succeeded in attracting investors (at least) to increase their investment seed round they. So we are interested in exploring, what do startups actually get from education in Silicon Valley?

We first contacted YC to inquire about the basics of their program. Director of Communications Lindsay Amos briefly explained that the program provides support to all. For example through "StartupSchool", para founder taught about how to develop a relevant business in today's digital era. They also directed startups to take advantage of the YC Network channel to find users of their products.

Accelerated registration process

Steven Wongsoredjo is Founder & CEO of Nusantara Technology, through his products SuperApp.id he joined the YC program in the Winter 2018 period. There was also Eden Farm Co-Founder & CEO David Gunawan who participated in the YC Summer 2019 period. They told DailySocial about the technical mechanisms that must be passed to join.

Basically, when a startup is declared to have passed the initial selection – through online form—they will be interviewed online by connection video call. If you pass, a more intensive interview will be held in Silicon Valley – at this stage YC will help with travel accommodation. Interviews are sometimes conducted in parallel by mentors/experts from various fields to ensure a more objective assessment.

After this stage is passed and the startup passes, they will be prepared to continue the acceleration program for 3 months in Silicon Valley. For early-stage startups, they are required to establish a business entity in the United States (US INC) and Indonesia (PT), so they need to find a lawyer or law firm that can help comply with these legal rules.

Great business network

Joined the Co-Founder interview Shipper Budi Handoko who is a member of YC for the Winter 2019 period. Third founder explained that one of the significant things they got from YC was joining a strong and participatory global business network. David said that each alumni was educated to be able to support each other, share with other startups in various matters – including experience in handling business or technical issues.

"The people at YC are all entrepreneur. By joining the program, we are increasingly recognized by partners, investors. This is an opportunity for us to validate our business top entrepreneurs. There we learned how to make business presentations very efficiently and effectively," Budi added.

Regarding the business network, Steven also said, "YC alumni are very helpful. We take care of each other and share resources to grow together. In addition, partners provide great support after we reach business milestones, especially when doing fundraising."

Every startup that has gone through the education stage will make a presentation at the Demo Day event. Interestingly, almost every startup always gets initial funding from there. The stage was indeed focused on connecting participants with potential investors in the YC network. Now they are also holding special "YC Series A", "YC Growth" and "YC Continuity" programs for their graduates, to take their business to the next level.

Intensive product development training

During the three-month acceleration program, many trainings were provided by well-known business mentors. Starting from business materials, leadership, to product development technicalities were delivered.

“YC's slogan from Paul Graham is 'make something people want'. In 3 months of training, they educate us on how to build a very simple version of the product but can quickly get an assessment of market fit,” explained Steven.

Mentors always emphasize that big companies like AirBnB or Drobox also start small. So for the initial phase, there is no need to make the product complicated, because it will make it difficult for users to understand its purpose.

"During the YC agenda, we have 2 office hours with partners assigned to supervise us every week. After that we can also order selected partners to provide feedback. Partners come from top companies, for example there are Gmail Creators and Google AdSense [Paul] Buchheit or ex-CEO of Twitch Michael Seibel," continued Steven.

Mental formation founder It is also something that is truly beneficial, David is no exception. The training in Silicon Valley really makes every participant always product-oriented with data-based measurements.

Recommended, for early stage startups who want to grow big

Shipper is a startup from Singkawang, West Kalimantan, whose involvement in YC has had a very significant impact. According to Budi, after the program he has more references about similar businesses abroad. This is important to use for comparative studies as well as opportunities to expand partnerships. The opportunity to join the acceleration program also makes startups more widely known, not only at the national level but also globally.

Steven also recommends startups – especially in the early stages to join this program. Before joining, he claimed to be an idealistic founder, very perfectionist towards product development. Before launching, he must always make sure everything is running perfectly. However, even though this is not the case, market validation needs to be done as early as possible. YC teaching provides a new perspective that is applied to SuperApp.id.

"YC's experience completely changed my mindset. They taught me to make the simplest version of the product and launch it as quickly as possible. The goal is to test whether our thesis has a good fit in the market. Time is the most valuable commodity, so we have to make sure of that as quickly as possible. , not just assuming," concluded Steven.