The startup scene in Indonesia has undergone tremendous growth in recent years, making headlines across the globe. With a combined startup valuation of USD 34 billion, its capital city, Jakarta, is ranked third on Startup Genome’s 2021 “Emerging Ecosystems” list in 2021, and ranked 12th in 2022. The nation’s prowess in breeding domestic unicorns—13 as of 2022—has received a lot of attention.
While these facts prove the scope and opportunities in the country, they also indicate the kind of fierce competition brewing within the market. Today, capital alone is not enough for a new business to make its mark. A wide range of support from various partners and collaborators has become a must. As such, strategic alliances are the only way to gain access to the range of support needed to have a competitive advantage.
Furthermore, factors like political unrest worldwide, wars, trade stand-offs, and a softening market are making it even more pertinent to function in collaborative ecosystems where businesses step out of silos and help each other grow while meeting changing consumer demands.
Key elements needed to gain competitive advantage in today’s climate
Guidance, consultancy, and mentorship – Entrepreneurship is an arduous journey — at least only one-third of startups reportedly successfully returned their investors with a profit. According to research by a professor at Harvard Business School, one of the main reasons behind the failure of startups is the lack of proper guidance, consultancy, and mentorship.
In the absence of an expert who can nudge the business in the right direction, when a startup starts to fail, existing investors shy away from providing follow-on finance, and potential new investors may be deterred. It becomes harder to pivot when it costs a lot of money and takes weeks or months to determine whether new strategies are effective.
Entrepreneurs in that scenario are unable to afford costly mistakes, but mistakes are all the more likely due to a lack of prior experience. This becomes a vicious cycle eventually leading to the demise of the business.
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Subject matter expertise – The issue of a small or nonexistent market for the product a company has developed is another reason behind business failure, and this stems from the lack of subject matter expertise. Such scenarios remind us of the adage “Little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. Almost 10% of startup post-mortem founders discovered that, regardless of how strong a concept is, a lack of love for a domain and a lack of expertise were major reasons for failure.
Access to tools that will streamline and bolster your operations – In today’s digital-first world, access to the right tools is no longer a mere choice. It has grown to become a necessity. Technology has disrupted life as we know it and any business that doesn’t leverage the latest tech solutions and tools to tap into consumer engagement, lead generation, sales, product development, biz dev, and basically, any aspect of business — is losing out and will eventually fail.
Alpha-X Initiative: Creating a collaborative and resourceful ecosystem where startups can thrive
Given the highly competitive landscape and the need for the right mentorship as well as access to the right tools, Alpha JWC, a Southeast Asian early-to-growth stage venture capital firm that made its debut in Indonesia in 2015 is stepping up and going beyond the traditional roles of a VC firm.
Alpha JWC has launched the Alpha-X Initiative, seeking to increase the chances of success of the founders of their portfolio companies. Through upskilling, enablement and support, the regional partnerships will also give startups access to competitive service rates through Alpha JWC.
In addition to the platform and technology-related training and workshops, another area of focus is assisting the entrepreneurs in the Alpha JWC portfolio in creating their brand narratives and expanding their reach. This is crucial for early-stage founders who still need to craft their brand strategies on a limited budget and with limited resources.
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In the pursuit of enabling and empowering startups to achieve success in today’s climate, Alpha JWC recently announced strategic partnerships with Google APAC, The Hoffman Agency, and leading regional content house, Hepmil Creators Network, as knowledge partners. The partnerships aim to extend and expand Alpha JWC’s network support to its portfolio founders across Southeast Asia to receive the best training, seminars, and consultation from subject matter experts in marketing, branding, technology, digital, and content creation.
“Alpha-X is built upon our experience and expertise. That is what’s unique about us: we’ve been there since 2015, 2016; we see the development and dynamic of the startups both from our portfolio companies and non-portfolio companies. So we are accumulating this network, knowledge, and expertise not only in the form of a talent pool but also an ecosystem network pool,” Erika Go, Alpha-X Partner of Alpha JWC Ventures, explained.
Through Alpha-X, Alpha JWC creates value for its portfolio companies
“Founders face immense challenges running their start-ups, and funding itself is not enough to help them succeed or navigate the ups and downs in their journeys. We strongly believe that we need to do more than capital injection,” remarked Erika Go.
With the Alpha-X Initiative, Alpha JWC Ventures acknowledges and welcomes the active role it must play in assisting and supporting the founders in its portfolio as it continues to invest in outstanding entrepreneurs.
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“Alpha-X is part of our mission to create value for our portfolio companies and increase their chance of success. Alpha-X is built upon our unique experience and expertise in talent network and ecosystem, recruitment and retention, compensation and benefit strategies, and organisational capability development that we have accumulated over the years. These intangible assets can be leveraged to assist startups in every season of their startup journey,” added Erika Go.
If you are curious to launch your business and give it a headstart from the get-go, be a part of the Alpha JWC ecosystem. Log on to https://www.alphajwc.com/en/ to learn more.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Alpha JWC
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