Participants of the Digi Incub8 ideation workshop with Digi's Chief Digital
Officer, Praveen Rajan (4th from left)
Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) has finally kick-started its first Digi Incub8 ideation workshop in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah last weekend. Incub8 was first introduced by Digi during the end of May, the programme is designed to reinforce, develop and support Malaysia's startup system, and focuses on nurturing ideas and young startup businesses in the East Malaysia region, providing an accessible platform for entrepreneurs.
Digi Incub8 participants presenting their ideas during the ideation workshop
Digi’s Chief Digital Officer, Praveen Rajan said, “Embarking on an entrepreneurial pursuit begins with having an idea, and Malaysia is not short of talented and creative individuals with great ideas, but all too often, the challenge is taking these ideas further and turning them into possible viable businesses. This weekend’s workshop was tailored to help fellow Malaysians kick-start their entrepreneurial journey by addressing the challenges of building a business from an idea upfront; from creating an idea that meets a need, identifying opportunities in the market, and then building a suitable business model around it. We aim to help them take steps forward to start up, and fuel further involvement in our local startup community with this effort.”
About 40 entrepreneurs between the ages of 17 and 62 years-old participated the three-day ideation workshop, all of them move through five different sessions over the weekend, where they learned the meaning of becoming an entrepreneur, cultivating the mindset of learning to fail and try again, building solid ideas, and identifying business opportunities and generating a business model suited to the idea. They also had the opportunity to learn and get inspired from real-life startup experiences shared by local entrepreneurs.
Digi Incub8 participant, Geraldine Wong (2nd from right)
Geraldine Yong, 24, a recent graduate shared, “The workshop mentors have helped me identify the viability and sustainability of my ideas for a business. They were very candid and honest in challenging my thoughts, providing constructive feedback on building the potential of my ideas and those which they feel I should not built on. Through this process, I have managed to ideate new opportunities for business that I will continue to work on by applying the knowledge I have gained over the weekend.”
Digi Incub8 participant, Yeng Kian Han (right)
“My mind has always been churning out ideas that I imagined to be perfect solutions to everyday problems that people face, but I was never able to get them off the ground due to various factors. Through this workshop, I learned the differences between an idea and an opportunity, and how to turn the former into the latter. More importantly, I now understand that success and failure actually depends on an entrepreneur’s mindset,” said Yeng Kian Han, age 33, who is a caricature artist.
Exercise to build the entrepreneurial mindset and designing services for
customers
Digi's programme, Incub8 is currently in a partnership with 1337 Ventures and its Alpha Startups programme. Digi Incub8, Digi Accelerate and Digi Challenge for Change are Digi’s startup engagement initiatives designed to complement and support the development of Malaysia’s robust startup ecosystem, and enable more Malaysians to shape the next digital innovations for the country. For more on Digi Incub8, pop by www.digi.com.my/incub8.
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