Ideabox - Geeks on a Bus

Ideabox's “Geeks on a Bus” was an invite-only one-day tour for startups that recently graduated from Ideabox's second incubation batch. Also tagging along were selected entrepreneurs from Founder Institute Jakarta. The entrepreneurs took a bus around Jakarta to visit some of the most established startups in Indonesia: GrabTaxi, Foodpanda, Zalora, Lazada and Kaskus. The aim of the tour was to expose new startups to established players, motivate them through success stories and shared learnings, leverage and build networks, and unite the local startup community.

“We are trying to build a learning culture in the startup ecosystem, and this tour plays an important part in that. This form of experience exchange is very important for new startups. The opportunity to meet with established and successful players enables them to aspire to also be one of the success stories, and, importantly, learn how to get there. Continuous learning, especially from best practice, helps them to avoid pitfalls that they may face in the future,” said Prashant Gokarn, Chief Strategy and Planning Officer, PT. Indosat. “We’re also seeking opportunities for partnership or collaborative join marketing campaigns between our new graduates and the companies they are visiting.”

During the visit both parties had an opportunity to introduce themselves. And, as fellow startups, they shared not only success stories but also discussed failures and what was learned from those experiences. Established startups shared information on how they set up their companies, manage operations and any best practices they gleaned from having entered and succeeded in the Indonesian market at an earlier stage.

“GrabTaxi is honoured to host participants of Geeks on a Bus. It's very encouraging to see young and enthusiastic people be excited, and we're glad to share the GrabTaxi story.The startup scene is very vibrant in Jakarta and supportive too. The sharing session was invaluable and we hope for more similiar activities in the near future”, said Eu Gene Hong, Deputy General Manager of Grabtaxi (www.grabtaxi.com)

"This bus trip will definitely bring the relationship of technology startups in Jakarta to another level, in a fun way. Besides of getting inspired from other established companies, we will also get to learn closely on how their day to day operation looks like. A perfect graduation celebration for IdeaBox Batch 2 Team. Very excited to be part of the first Geeks on a Bus journey in Jakarta!", said Melieyana Tjoei, CEO and Founder of Gogonesia (www.gogonesia.com)

Steven Suliawan, CEO and Co-Founder of Loyalbox (www.theloyalbox.com) also mentioned "This bus tour will definitely be a perfect celebration to end the program! This trip will not only widen the founder's network, but also actually get the feel of how an established startup's culture is like. I feel that we are very lucky to be able to attend Geeks on a Bus tour!".

The day-long bus tour ended with a graduation ceremony attended by Alexander Rusli, CEO at Indosat; Prashant Gokarn, Chief Strategy and Planning Officer at Indosat and Andy Zain, Managing Director of Mountain Kejora.

Find more photos: here

Written by Sylvia Candra (Indosat)

About Ideabox

Ideabox is a tech business incubator powered by Indosat in partnership with Kejora and supported by Ooredoo Group.

We focus our investments on early stage startups related to telecommunication, media and technology sectors.

We run 120 days acceleration program to bring startups from ideas to awesome product.

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