KUCHING, April 7: Fourteen local startups are in the running to win a one-year hot desk at the Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Bumiputera Sarawak (TEGAS) Digital Innovation Hub to participate in its Startup Lab.
Earlier today at the Demo Day of the two-week TEGAS Pre-Accelerator Bootcamp, the 14 shortlisted startups — whittled down from 20 — participated in a demonstration where they had to impress judges, potential investors, funding agencies, strategic partners and government leaders with their startup pitch.
TEGAS chairman Datu Len Talif Salleh said the winner of the Demo Day would not only be participating in TEGAS’ Startup Lab, but also be in the running to pitch for the MaGIC’s Global Accelerator Programme in Cyberjaya later.
The Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), like TEGAS Digital Innovation Hub, works at the national level, and offers potential entrepreneurs access to not just local but also regional and global investors and partners to nurture the startup ecosystem.
“This programme is designed to help budding entrepreneurs to start their business from having validated ideas into creating a minimum viable product.
“The programme is facilitated by industry experts where participants learn topics such as customer and product development, building teams, fundraising and pitching.
“By organising this bootcamp, our mission is to provide growth opportunities for early startups and to build a strong startup community across Sarawak, in line with the Chief Minister’s (Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg) agenda to increase the number of successful entrepreneurs and subsequently drive the state’s digital economy,” he said in his opening remarks at the TEGAS Digital Innovation Hub premises here this afternoon.
Len advised participants, regardless of whether they win or not, to be persistent and have grit in achieving their goals, and at the same time to have their own unique individuality.
“To succeed in a world that values sameness, you have to come up with your individuality. There is no average entrepreneur, average student or average student now. Everyone has their own individuality.
“Find it first in yourself and when you have, failure will have a different interpretation to you.
“The day will come, we don’t know when, but when we are persistent to provide support for the growth of startups, we can say that the time will come much sooner,” he said.
Since March, 20 startup groups have participated in TEGAS’ Pre-Accelerator Boot Camp, and 14 made it to the final Demo Day today.
The 14 groups are Trifold Enterprise, Codelab Academy, Thirst Milkshake, Canard Restaurant, Wangi Lai PLT, Traver Technologies, Teech, Menur, Majoh!, Sluvi, Food Hero, TRIBE, Ai-Key and Team Rocket. — DayakDaily
