Three Keys for Startup to Success Surviving Corona Pandemic

The businesses of startups in the country were affected by the corona pandemic, not even a few of them went bankrupt. There are at least three things that startups must do to survive the pandemic, especially as they begin to enter a new normal era, according to SEA Group President Commissioner, Pandu Sjahrir.

Companies must understand if there are changes that occur in the business sector. Pandu said that to get a view on the impact of a pandemic on business from various sides, startups must discuss with experts, competitors, and stakeholders.

“Whatever your business is, try to see how the change will affect your related business,” Pandu said in a Virtual Series Data Talk titled ‘New Episode Business Startup as a result of Covid-19’ held by Katadata.co.id, Friday (12 / 6).

Ways to Survive in the New Normal Era

Startups must learn to adapt to the company’s organizational structure if there is a side that is affected. For this reason, continued Pandu, companies need to look deeper into the impact of Covid-19 in terms of human resources (HR), capital, company fund allocation, and so on.

“What will it look like (the company’s new adaptation)? Is the company ready (to change)?” said Pandu. He gave an example, a startup would focus its business on certain types of micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

However, according to Pandu, companies need to further review the readiness for these changes starting from HR, technology, or platforms that they will use later.

Furthermore, after the startup knows the direction of the business, they need to find out who the right investors are and how much funding they need to make changes in their business.

“For example, startups need 10 (investors), so I look for everything because not all of them are the right people. So how to choose the right investors is also very important,” said Pandu.

Startup Business Opportunities in the New Normal Era

Investors, including venture capital, are starting to study various startup businesses ahead of the new normal application. There are at least six sectors of startups targeted; health (healthtech), logistics, education (edutech), financial technology (fintech), agriculture (agritech) to new retail.

During the pandemic, startups in the health sector give many contributions. Not only that, education, fintech, and logistics sectors were assessed to have also made a real contribution during the pandemic. Therefore, investors in these four sectors are targeted by investors.

“There are changes in consumers behavior due to pandemic. This makes startups forced to create breakthroughs to respond to social distancing policies,” Jefri said.

Startups that prioritize technology in the pandemic era are considered to be able to meet the needs of people who are forced to do physical distancing protocols. Some sectors that are considered very useful include machine learning, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and security.

He explained that in principle, startups that bring benefits to people will attract investors. Jefri also said that the social distancing phase would demand startups to increasingly innovate. To differentiate the business in order to maintain the continuity of their business.

Startups Must Maintain Their Cash Flow in the New Normal Era

However, Mandiri Capital’s Head of Investment & Synergy Rabbi Amrit assessed that startups must also maintain their cash flow during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Indeed, a startup business is synonymous with ‘burn money’. When the pandemic, to anticipate going forward, they must maintain cash flow (cash flow) to survive,” he said while attending a discussion titled ‘Startup Hacks: Survive in the Middle of the Pandemic’.

Startups that are considered successful in bridging the needs of consumers and businesses during the pandemic will received more attention from the investors. This was also said by Donald Wihardja, the MDI Ventures CEO. He believed that logistic field is still targeted by the investors.