A number of amazing products and innovations were on display this week at INAICTA, the government-held information technology awards for innovative Indonesians. A lot of us in the technology startup scene keep seeing internet-based products and companies but perhaps there’s more to be seen in the robotics or electronics field.
All the big name companies in the tech industry as well as some not so well known were showing off their products at the hall outside the conference room but downstairs where the attendees didn’t really bother to go, were primary school students making and programming robots to do all sorts of things.
These were 9-12 year olds designing solutions for labor efficient tasks. These kids were presented with various problems, and they got to work immediately in teams creating robots to overcome them.
Another one that caught my interest was this university student who came up with a way to lock motorbikes using a USB flash drive. He and two of his friends had devised a way to fully disable a bike with a custom solution that seems to be foolproof. I can’t disclose the device but he was probably the only one among a dozen or so pitches that I saw that actually was prepared to pitch.
Instead of describing, he went straight to a video demo showing how it would work. The contraption was still crude, but it clearly showed enough to be a compelling product. He had no idea what a venture capital was or how company shares and business interest would be in play, but he showed that he really believed in his product, he poured a lot of effort into building it, and all he needed was a commercial backing to put this product in the market.
That’s not to say that the others did not pour similar effort into their products but he was the only one that actually showed the effort and the passion when it was needed. Some of the other ones there had been in their respective businesses for several years, some wanted funding without showing or explaining the breakdown of the purpose, and at least one showed up without even a picture of what he said he was doing.
To me this shows that a lot of entrepreneurs still need to understand what they need. They may possess enough technical knowledge but they often fail to see where they are in terms of their business stages. Some may not actually need venture capital but perhaps a business loan.
From where I was sitting, many of the entrepreneurs did not show the passion. It didn’t look like they believed enough to be confident of their product’s success in the market. It’s disheartening to see that they themselves make it easier for investors to dismiss.
They need to be able to evaluate themselves harshly because nobody else is going to judge a person harder. They can lie to themselves and feel good about it, but it’s not going to get them anywhere. I walked out of that room thinking the startup scene in this country is full of hype, but there’s little meat in it, for the moment.
Maybe it’s better to pay attention to those primary school kids instead.
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