Innovative Academy, a startup incubator under the Directorate of Business Development at Gadjah Mada University, once again held its 12th batch of incubation program in an effort to promote innovation among young entrepreneurs. This program is designed to provide comprehensive support to startups by granting access to resources, mentorship, and networks necessary for success.
The first mentoring session of this incubation was held on March 17-18 at the Faculty of Economics and Business building at UGM and was attended by 50 participants. The topic of this mentoring session was Design Thinking and User Research, facilitated by 10 experienced mentors in their respective fields. These mentors included M.Rizky Pratama, CEO & Co-Founder of Aifarm; Yodan Pranata, CEO of Troya Digital Mesail; Hestyariani Anisa, COO of Edspert.id; Febri Hari Natoro, Head of Stechoq Academy; Ray Rezky Ananda, Founder & CEO of Bantuternak; Lutfi Zuchri, Python Community Head; Ade Armyatna, Frontend Developer at LinkAja; Aisyah Nur, VP of Business Support at Widya Robotics; Aditya Cahyo, Mobile Developer at Hokai Esports; Dara Mawar Jelita, Programme Manager at Block71 Yogyakarta; and Irvindio Patrianusa, CEO and Founder of Kalikesia.
“Incubation is not just about providing workspace or funding; we believe that the real key to success lies in building a supportive community, where startup founders can learn and grow together. Through this program, we hope to help turn innovative ideas into sustainable businesses,” said Denny Wijayanto, Head of Program at Innovative Academy, in his remarks.
After attending the workshop ‘Why we Make a Startup?’, participants were guided in crafting their business plans and validating their business ideas through several sessions conducted over two days. On the first day, participants were guided to brainstorm and define user journeys to identify clear stakeholders and users, create ‘how might we’ statements, and set sprint goals to specify the problems they want to solve. This activity was interactive, with feedback from mentors provided during mentoring sessions.
On the second day, participants were asked to follow up on the ideas designed the day before by creating a feedback museum where participants in each group provided suggestions and input, followed by ideation and crazy eight activities to follow up on the ideas designed, and then continued with mentoring sessions by mentors.
“With the support of experienced partners and mentors, it is hoped that this incubation program will be a significant milestone for many talented startups. We invite enthusiastic and talented young entrepreneurs to join us on the journey to success,” said Denny as the sprint master at the end of the event.