The business world seems to never stop growing. Start-ups are constantly being born and developing as if they represent endless brilliant ideas. Building start-ups has become increasingly popular with young people, including students, in order to develop their potential and channel their entrepreneurial spirit.
Moving on from this, FIA UI collaborated with IndoGen Capital in holding a webinar entitled “Powerful Business Pitching” on Thursday (02/07/2020) by presenting Chandra Firmanto as Managing Partner of Indogen Capital as the speaker. This webinar is also a series of activities towards a business pitching competition with the theme “from idea to start-up” which will be held on Thursday (09/07/2020). The competition was attended by FIA UI Business Administration students who were taking the Strategic Entrepreneurship course.
The webinar moderated by Dra. Novita Ikasari, M.Comm, Ph.D consists of two sessions. The first session focuses on the importance of understanding what investors need as a first step to attract investors, then the second session discusses how to build a pitch deck or presentation of the right business plan.
The presentation in the first session opened with Chandra Firmanto’s initial story in the investment world. He said that, “The main key, yes, is knowing what these investors need, how the return they will get. Besides that, building networking is also important. For example, we come to event A, we have lots of acquaintances with people, who we hope we can work with. Then also, if you have acquaintances who are experts in the fields we are interested in, ask their opinions about our ideas too. ”
Clearly, this graduate of the University of Southern California summarizes 4 (four) main points in an effort to understand the needs of investors, namely: first, a start-up must show how their idea can continue to get up to 30% growth, second, the founder of the start-up. -up must be able to show clear objectives or the endgame of the business, third, start-up founders are able to show the value of their business so that they can become targets for future acquisitions, and finally, start-up founders must ensure that they are engaged in a current sector hot or trending so it matches what investors are looking for.
The 5 (five) sectors that are said to be in a hot industry position are artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, fintech, edutech, e-commerce and lifestyle, to logistics.
The first session was closed with a sentence from Chandra Firmanto quoted by the moderator, namely: “We want to shape the founders to reach their maximum potential. If this were competitive sports, we find the athletes, then we shape them into champions ”, which means that every entrepreneur has potential that can be developed so that he becomes a tough ‘winner’ who is able to offer solutions.
After understanding the needs of investors, submitting a business plan or business pitching is also an important point that should not be missed. In the second session, the managing partner of Indogen Capital who is familiarly called Chandra explained 7 (seven) main points that must be on the pitch deck or presentation, namely: Problem, Solution, Team, Market, Competition Landscape, How you make or plan to make money, and Traction / Milestones. He also added that there is no right or wrong pitch deck structure or arrangement, but ideally investors always like a pitch deck that starts with this arrangement.
Chandra provides 7 (seven) tips to minimize the failure of a business pitching. First is to study the investor category and understand which one is suitable and appropriate for the start-up being run, second, understand at which level the start-up position is so that it can match the value submitted to investors, third, understand what elements are important based on the start level -up, fourth, prepare the pitch deck to suit the audience, fifth, do pitch training by preparing several versions of the duration because investors can be met at unexpected times and places, sixth, always ask for feedback and suggestions from others about the pitch that has been prepared , and the last is to find and reach out to investors in various ways such as through introduction by friends, email, LinkedIn and so on.
Chandra also added how important pitching is, so that the pitch deck must be well prepared and supplemented by practicing until it is mature, because there is only one opportunity to present it in front of investors. Dra. Novita as the moderator also emphasized that each individual does not need to be afraid of failure but must take lessons from that failure and continue the spirit towards success.
The webinar “Powerful Business Pitching” was also attended by Prof. Dr. Chandra Wijaya as professor of the FIA UI Governance of Commerce study program and coordinator of the Strategic Entrepreneurship course, Dr. Effy Zalfiana Rusfian, M.Si as Head of the Department of Business Administration, FIA UI, teaching staff, students, and other members of the community.
Contributor: Siti Ghina (Negara 2018)
