So, we’v been participate in 1000SD in each milestone till Hackathon (they called it Hacksprint, modified version of hackathon). After the hacksprint, we are completely fucked up. I repeat. F-u-c-k-e-d. U-p.
As the first batch of 1000SD alumni that (I’m pretty sure) will not passed to the Bootcamp, I want to tell you this. Yes, to you, the young generation that will change Indonesia or even the world and make it a better place. To you, the next 1000SD fighters. I want to tell you why we failed. I want to tell you how we do it in the wrong way since the beginning. I want to tell you to not doing the same mistakes that we did. I want to tell you about what we’v been learned from 1000SD.
The team called Letsgonesia and consist of three person : Lukman, Alvarie and me. We are making something that related to tourism. Something that connecting travellers, ease their trip, build communities, gathering their data to reach ambisious goal : the great digital gate to Indonesia tourism.
Before meet the two other, I’ve been working on my own prototype using Ionic (for fast prototyping, since I was familiar with Angular) and have no idea about what the heck startup is (the real meanings, I mean, even if I work for a startup too, Kodekreatif). I just wrote the prototype for fun.
Lukman get in touch and was glad ( but I don’t) with my capabilities. He introduces Letsgonesia. He told that he was working for two years with Letsgonesia brand, building community and succeeded with his own hashtag MomentIndonesiaku and Letsgonesia in twitter and then instagram but has no apps. I’ve the working prototype with the backend live in the cloud, but have no pretty name. Then he introduces me to Alvarie. Great!
They introduce me to their big idea, the dream and so on. I introduce them to how software development work, agile, milestone, git collaboration, continuous integration and all that needed to make their dream come true.
We have a short debate about whether we should work for mobile app or web app. I didn’t defend myself and let them win the decission. They want a web apps. We start working together since March 2016 but too slowly. Extremely slow.
The early prototype come on April and then come the real struggles. None of us can do graphic design (I do, in past years but it won’t be good thing if I do both programming and designing art)
Then, we joinned the 1000SD and face our mistakes. The list bellow are what we learned so far.
- Told by Okta, create a pain killer, not vitamin. Letsgonesia? That’s just a candy. Aaarrghh!
- Told by Ahmad Haris and also Pak Duki, the startup founder should have dedicated full time for their startup. You have more chance to fail if doing it part time.
- Use agile instead of waterfall. Release the product as soon as possible, even if the prototype isnt pretty enough yet.
- Yansen Kamto said that our (the first Jakarta chapter) idea are not disrupt enough yet.
- They are at least two validation needed, idea validation and prototype validation. Both are IMPORTANT. I repeat, IMPORTANT. Must be done in sequence. Fails? Pivot.
- Do not doing validation with someone you know. It leads to result that has too much biases. Catch some random stranger, ask them.
- Quantitative over qualitative question in survey
- You have push other co-founder for more hard work, and they will push you back.
There are more things but I can’t remember them all.
Will we participate in the next 1000SD events? No. But you will. You must.
Will we do a pivot or just giving up? I’ll tell you on the next blog post.
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