Tag: recap

[RECAP] GIST x ANGIN Angel Investor Training

Posted on | by angin

ANGIN is proud to have partnered with the US State Department, GIST, and VentureWell in creating the first GIST Investors training to angel investors in Indonesia.
The full day training was packed with many topics covering areas of Investment Process Deep Dive, Valuations, Terms, & Negotiations and Gender Lens Investment with speakers: Claire Ruffing from U.S. Department of State, Eli Velasquez from VentureWell,  Gwen Edwards from Angel Resource Institute (ARI), Ramphis Castro from ScienceVest and Melissa Bradley from Project 500.
Some key takeaways from the training:

  • Indonesia has plenty of opportunities – young demographic with no shortage of capital.  The challenge is to educate investors about the opportunities abound in startups. Gwen said that it is about finding the next “unicorn” and lots of “gazelles.”
  • It is important to diversify your portfolio. As Gwen Edwards put it, having 20 investments in your portfolio is about the right number. One cannot complain about the pitfalls of angel investment if one only invests in one startup. After all, angel investment is comparable to investing in the stock market. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
  • It can take up to 10 years for an angel investor to see significant return from their portfolio. Angel investment is not a quick process; you must nurture and grow the companies you are investing in; some may fail, some may exit, but the process will be different every time and hopefully very rewarding.
  • As an investor, one should carefully craft their investment thesis. This is represented by a few criteria that will define the parameters of your investment. Having an investment thesis is also a marketing tool for yourself, as other angel investors or networks will begin to direct deals that match with your thesis to you once you are known for your thesis.
  • From Virginia Tan: gender-lens investing isn’t necessarily just “social” — it’s also extremely profitable. From her experience, women-led startups have not only been profitable but have also been more consistent with projections. Male entrepreneurs tend to pitch very well but the numbers show a bigger gap in performance versus projection.

The GIST Investor training on 5 April 2018 is the first and just the beginning of many more training and other programs. We look forward to a continued collaboration with GIST in bringing quality events to Indonesia and in providing resources to our angel network and beyond.

[RECAP] Revolutionizing the Indonesian Economy Through a Data-Driven Workforce: Algoritma Academy Launch & Fireside Chat

Posted on | by angin

Indonesia is one of the hottest places for tech startups in Southeast Asia. With a new venture popping up everyday, the demand for data scientists and programmers is increasing. Algoritma Academy, a new start-up dedicated to creating a more data-driven, data-literate society, is attempting to fill that demand. Offering courses in data visualization and machine learning, the startup promises a mix of classroom technique and real-world application.
On launch day, Algoritma Academy brought in several startup founders and hosted a fireside chat. The chat was centered on data use cases and the importance of big data within business contexts.
Here are some key highlights from the talk:

  1. Data has a wide range of use cases. Galvin Mame of iflix noted that some of the best business decisions of his company were drawn from data insights. For instance, using data on television show preferences, they found out that Mr. Robot was one of the most pirated TV shows of the year. They subsequently bought the show, which became a runaway hit and one of the biggest shows on their platform. Irzan of Kata.ai noted that data is the “fuel to our engine,” and uses data to understand how people text and what slang is trending. “In English, there’s only one way to say ‘I,’ but in Indonesian there are probably 70. Saya, aku, gue, gua, you name it.” Building a chatbot is challenging in itself, and a Bahasa chatbot even more so. Knowing that good data is what makes good AI, Irzan cut no corners and made sure to collect as much data in as many use cases as possible.
  2. Tiket.com’s data success story: Natali Ardianto of booking website Tiket.com noted that data analysis has helped unlock huge sales. For instance, from looking at the data his team realized that one of the hottest problems at the time lay in filling out your name when booking tickets. Because many Indonesians have one-word names, many people could not fill out their names properly on the website and were therefore abandoning their attempts at buying tickets. By changing this form from “First Name, Last Name” to “Full name” and then doing manual work on the backend to submit names to airlines, revenue increased by IDR 10 billion. While manual work increased (Tiket.com customer support increased from 19 employees to 70), the move was worth it.
  3. Telecommunications companies are data powerhouses. Hiring a data guy? Consider someone with experience in Telcom. These companies have a crazy amount of data on their customers, from what apps they like to use, where they like to use them, and when. Whether or not you think someone is watching, chances are your Telcom company is. As a startup, you can model your data collection use cases on how Telcom companies use your data. For instance, tracking customers’ locations to predict where they will travel and then sending strategic push notifications to remind them to book a rental car can increase sales.
  4. Data science is teamwork. A single person can’t do it alone. Why? You need domain experts to contextualize data. You need data engineers to build your product. Most of the time, people can’t do both. Without a domain expert, you won’t be able to build something specific and accurate to account for exceptions and special cases. Without an engineer, you won’t be able to build your vision. Successful data science is all about collaboration and building off knowledge.