On the evening of July 25th, SKALA hosted an event aimed towards entrepreneurs looking to raise pre-seed or seed funding at the Purwadhika BSD Coding School. SKALA is Indonesia’s first metrics-driven and mentorship-focused accelerator created by Strive (formerly GREE Ventures) and Innovation Factory (the innovation arm of the Salim Group), and is currently accepting applications from technology startups for their accelerator’s Batch #2. Applications close August 9th.
During the event, Agustiadi Lee, the program head of SKALA, went into depth on the 10 requirements necessary to include in your company pitch and successfully acquire seed funding. The 10 sections that he included in the presentation are, in order: 1) Elevator Pitch, 2) Identify the Problem, 3) Define your Solution, 4) Show How it Works, 5) Traction, 6) Business Model, 7) Competitors, 8) Market Opportunity, 9) Progress to Date, and 10) Team.
Overall, Mr. Lee emphasized the importance of having a clear solution that can be easily explained to investors, that helps solve a real problem and is different from services offered by competitors. In addition to a viable service or product, Mr. Lee highlighted that it is crucial that the business or startup has a strong team dedicated to the business, has expertise in the subject, and is able to work quickly to take advantage of the market opportunity present.
During the Q&A session, a question regarding the amount of traction necessary to acquire funding was brought up. Mr. Lee answered by stating that startups need to look at things from the perspective of an investor in order to get money. Having traction, being able to explain how the product works, and solving a real issue with an appropriate solution are stepping stones that help to convince an investor to fund the company.
ANGIN was represented at the event by Emily Izmirian, Jacob Wee, Jiaying (Candice) Li, and Valentina Winata. It was an informative evening, and the team enjoyed learning about what the program manager of SKALA looks at when choosing startups for their accelerator. At ANGIN, we value very similar data points as SKALA, some of which are team, traction, market opportunity and having a viable solution to a real problem, when businesses come to us for funding. As ANGIN is also on the investment side, we also enjoyed hearing the questions asked to Mr. Lee to better understand the struggles and thoughts of entrepreneurs in the Indonesian ecosystem.
