Indonesian Startups Ready To Launch
During Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s visit to Google’s headquarters in California last month, we announced a plan to help train 100,000 Indonesia mobile developers by 2020. As part of these efforts, we’ve just kicked off applications for round two of the Google Launchpad Accelerator Program.
This program is geared towards later stage startups and includes $50,000 in equity-free funding, a two-week all-expenses paid bootcamp at Google headquarters and six months of ongoing mentorship and access to Google tools and resources. Spots are open and we’re accepting sign- ups now.Nayoko’s story
In case you’re on the fence about applying, here’s a story from one Jakarta-based entrepreneur, Nayoko Wicaksono, who participated in round one of this program and has just returned from California.
Nayoko, who heads up popular Indonesian services listing app, Seekmi.com, learned many things during his two weeks in California. Perhaps the simplest was that the mantra of the digital age is actually true: focus on the user and all else will follow. Especially when it comes to designing a clean and simple user experience:
“Thanks to the Accelerator program, we were able to improve our UX tremendously. In December our bounce rate was at 70% which is terrible. Now in February, our bounce rate has declined to 10% and we see a lot more conversions through our site. My hope is for the Indonesian community to be able to improve their products and engineering skills through this program and improve the industry as a whole. This is key to developing an ecosystem where startups can rise up to international standards."Seekmi.com was developed to match people looking for all kinds of services with individual professionals who can provide them, like photographers, yoga teachers, piano instructors and more. So, it makes sense, that when Seekmi.com, which aspires to make a tricky process a whole lot easier, applied its new UX knowledge, it had a big impact.
Much more to come
Over the next four years, Indonesian developers will have access to multiple resources to kickstart their Android skills. We’ve got lots of cool programmes to help train developers. This year, we’ve added the Indonesia Android Kejar, short for “Kelompok Belajar,” which means “study groups” in English. These are more intensive, facilitator-led study groups that will be held across five cities—in Bandung, Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta—to reach as many people as we can. Sign-ups for facilitators and participants are open now.
If you are inspired by Seekmi.com’s success, don’t sit around any longer, get your application in for the second round of the Launchpad Accelerator Program now. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2016.
