Familiar or intrigued about digital startup and entrepreneurship? On 30 May 2023, Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital let us dive into the world where innovation meets success. Representatives from the government, startup founders, academics, alumni of the Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital, and other players of the industry introduced the totality of digital startup through the roadshow called Inovasi Digital Dalam Membangun DKI Jakarta & Banten.

Indonesia has 202.6 millions users of the Internet as of now, 98.2% of them are users of smartphones. This is why Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital was initiated by President Joko Widodo and the Ministry of Communications and Informatics after declaring the Indonesia Digital Nation 2025 vision. This vision comes with the target of digital transformation creating 5.000 startups. 

There is a hope that Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital could be the future of Indonesia’s digital economy, transforming the nation into a developed country. Since 2016, Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital have encompassed more than 100.000 startup founder candidates and created more than 1.400 startups. The priority of this program is to train all the talents and build a collaborative and inclusive digital startup ecosystem.

Inovasi Digital Dalam Membangun DKI Jakarta & Banten: The Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital Roadshow

The roadshow of Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital Roadshow was held online, attended by a bunch of college students, professionals, and startup enthusiasts. During the two hour event, everyone learnt about what startups are, heard about past experiences on creating digital startups, and grasped the potential of developing startups in many areas.

The roadshow started with acknowledgement from Sonny Hendra Sudaryana, the leader or Ketua Tim Startup Digital of the Ministry of Communications and Informatics. He mentioned that the purpose of utilising Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital is to create more job opportunities, whether it is directly or indirectly. There was also a reminder from him that the Internet always connects Indonesia to the whole world, so that is why we are now “more independent” when it comes to creating things.

Yudhistira Nugraha as the Director of Jakarta Smart City also got to welcome everyone to the roadshow. He noted that the innovation from Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital could be the concrete contribution to Indonesia. "Jakarta as a playground is certainly open to be a place for startups to execute ideas and innovations," he said. He also acknowledged that startups have a "growth mindset", having ideas that continuously evolve. That is this mindset that solves the problems of cities and understands the needs of the people. With the grand opening of Jakarta Future City Hub in July 2023, Jakarta will be ready to be the partner to create the startup ecosystem. In addition, he prompted that Jakarta is set to be the “headquarters” of startups. 

Keynote Session: The Journey to Build a Startup

The roadshow was followed by a keynote session called The Journey to Build a Startup or Perjalanan Membangun Startup. Oki Wibowo as the CEO of IOWorktold everyone the story of ups and downs of running a startup. During the pandemic, there were a lot of people getting fired. This initiated him to start an application to connect job seekers with employers. 

To build a startup, Oki Wibowo noted that it is essential to find a team full of people with different ideas. These ideas are important to find out which ones are actually suitable for the rest of the team. Moreover, he gave a nudge that being a founder is like riding a rollercoaster; it has its ups and downs. We should never give up and always remember that the system is never static. Things will always change overtime.

Upon gaining an insight, there was a question and answer session. A representative of Saqinah.id asked Oki Wibowo to share his lowest experience as the CEO of IOWork. He explained that the transactional process of IOWork decreased at some point, yet the numbers of downloaders increased. This weird phenomenon was also followed by the fact that IOWork was losing employees one by one. To face this, he tried to do a crowdfunding campaign from the people he trusted the most: family or best friends. Now, IOWork is capable of self-funding with their own revenue and always tries to keep growing. He encouraged everyone to always keep going.

How Startups are in Jakarta

The three panellists gave inspiration to everyone to start building startups. Yasmin Hadi as the Manager of Partnership and Digital Ecosystem from Jakarta Smart City reminded everyone that Jakarta is like the home of decacorn (reached a valuation of 10 billion United States dollars) and unicorn (reached a valuation of 1 billion United States dollars) startups This is why Jakarta Smart City is currently trying to start an innovation for the government with Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital.

Raka Ikrar also gave a useful heads up to everyone. The Program and Content Manager of Habibie Innovation Incubation said that it is necessary to find your own network as you cannot build a startup on your own. He also explained that there is a big number of investments in Southeast Asia. Hence, this is the reason why there is an opportunity to grow a startup ecosystem.

Challenges of Creating Digital Startups

Yasmin Hadi expressed it is saddening that many startups were running on their own. This made them collapse as there was no support received from the government.

Raka Ikrar mentioned that the world of digital startups is always in need of good talents. The challenge is to find a way to educate the human capital. This is why he thinks potential founders need to acquire support from incubators and accelerators.

In addition, Arnold Lukito as the CEO of Tabulastated that startup founders need as many networks as they can, not collusion. This is important to open the opportunity to collaborate.

Join Gerakan 1000 Startup Digital!

Aspiring founders and entrepreneurs are always encouraged to foster a thriving startup ecosystem. Hopefully, there will be a brighter future for startups. Dama Aji as a representative of Hub 06 explained that Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital Hub 06 has five programs: Hack4ID, Ignition, Hacksprint, Bootcamp, and Hatch!. All of these programs are free and everyone is able to join the Telegramgroup for further information.

Are you now ready to embark on your startup journey? Take the leap and turn your vision into reality!