The Vice Dean for Academic, Research, and Student Affairs FEB UNS, Prof. Dr. Izza Mafruhah S.E., M.Si., states that she strongly supports students’ interest in developing start-ups early. Further, Prof. Izza explained that students do not have to worry about funding because FEB UNS will help them through this process, although the start-ups to gain funding must pass certain selection. “We hope that students at FEB UNS can get involved in productive activities, especially now that there is an abundance of opportunities. Moreover, through the Semesta program, the KWU FEB UNS team will select several groups to get funding from the UNS Student Affairs Office. There will also be other greater opportunities,” explained Prof. Izza.

This webinar presents the Head of the UNS Startup and Incubation Division, Catur Sugiarto, S.E., M.S.M., Ph.D., as the main speaker. This young doctor, who graduated from Aix-Marseille University, France, has been in charge of managing start-up initiatives at UNS for quite some time. For this reason, he is expected to provide additional insights for FEB UNS students regarding start-ups. Dr. Catur reveals that start-ups are one of the tools that students can use to establish their entrepreneurship. According to him, students have great potential to develop start-ups. “The potential that students have today is enormous, and I think start-ups become a relevant term and business model in the current era, in the digital era, in the pandemic era, to be a solution to the problems of various parties,” said Dr. Catur.

Establishing a Start-up in Five Steps

Dr. Catur reveals the steps to set up a start-up in this webinar. He said that start-ups should be started by building a team, which will certainly affect the future development of the start-ups. Clashes among the team member, according to Dr. Catur, is a natural phase experienced by start-ups. After establishing a team, the next step that must be done is to find a solution to the right problem because start-ups are present to bring solutions to an existing novel problem in the community. For this reason, the team needs to explore the problem they wish to solve and find the right solution to implement. “Before we discuss market, sales, or business model issues, we must first map out what solutions we will provide to users,” explained Dr. Catur.

After finding a solution, a start-up needs to validate the product to be released. A number of experiments are required before the product is completely validated. The next step that must be done is to make a product-market fit and business model fit. A start-up business needs hard skills and soft skills to carry out these two aspects. Dr. Catur says that the initial phases of a start-up establishment will be easier to do through a business incubator. For that reason, Dr. Catur suggests that students who are interested in establishing a start-up business can search for information and enter the incubation program at UNS Innovation Hub. Humas UNS

Reporter: Ida Fitriyah
Editor: Dwi Hastuti

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Launched as a startup company, Zyklus Indonesia is a waste management startup, digital technology, and community empowerment. Zyklus App was launched by Ir. Gatot Sutanto as the Head of Environmental Office of Surakarta. Gatot Sutanto stated the message from the Mayor of Surakarta, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, that the Government of Surakarta supports and opens an opportunity to collaborate with Zyklus Indonesia. The remark is also marked as Zyklus Indonesia launching and signing of launching certificate by Gatot Sutanto.

The idea to establish Zyklus Indonesia startup comes from its founder’s concern on the increasing waste production and lack of waste management in Indonesia. Five UNS students created Zyklus Indonesia: Ammar Abdurrohman (CEO), Hendrika Ayuliani Muntiyas (CFO), Muhammad Fadhli Putra Mulyana (CTO), Nurul Faiqoh (COO), and Rendra Tri Kusuma (CMO). This main team is also supported by ten other students who contribute to the finance, operational, marketing, and development departments.

In the launching ceremony, CEO Zyklus Indonesia, Ammar, stated that the Zyklus application could be downloaded in Google Play Store. The app was funded by UNS and therefore has a legal name of PT Zyklus Lestari Indonesia per 17 September 2021.

“To achieve a more sustainable Indonesia, Zyklus believes that synergy among many parties could achieve sustainability and well-being. The company also has several taglines #KolaborasiLestari and #PilahPilihSampah,” Ammar stated.

The launching ceremony was concluded with an explanation of the application by the COO and CTO Zyklus, Faiq and Fadhli. Zyklus App has several accessible and easy-to-use features such as ZiPick, ZiDrop, Zinfo, ZiPay, and ZiPajak. These features are for picking wastes (ZiPick), wastes drop off in Zyklus Agents (ZiDrop), actual environmental information and news (Zinfo), Zyklus digital wallet (Zipay), and digital tax payment (ZiPajak). People were invited to collaborate with Zyklus to achieve the grand vision of creating a more sustainable environment in Indonesia. Humas UNS

Reporter: Rangga Pangestu Adji
Editor: Dwi Hastuti

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In his opening speech, the Head of Diploma in Agribusiness Study Program, Raden Kunto Adi, M.P., explains that the objective of this program is to shape new entrepreneurs in the agribusiness sector. “Hopefully, this program can improve the number of entrepreneurs from the Diploma in Agribusiness Study Program for 30% of the total graduates in line with the Main Performance Indicator 1,” he wishes.

The Dan of UNS Vocational School, Drs. Santoso Tri Hananto, M.Acc., Ak., who was also attending the opening event, hopes that the program can be implemented sustainably. “We hope that the start-up initiatives in the agriculture sector can go sustainably. Of course, this cannot be separated from the participation and collaboration from the industry partners of this study program,” said Santoso Tri Hananto, M.Acc. Ak.

The training invites Untung Wijanarko (owner of Tani Organik Merapi) and Andhika Mahardika (CEO of Agradaya) for the first day meeting. Untung Wijanarko shares his experiences in starting organic agribusiness. Currently, the product of Tani Organik Merapi has been distributed to numerous supermarkets. Meanwhile, Andhika Mahardika, as the CEO of Agradaya, recounts his story in empowering herbal medicine farmers. On the first day of training, participants show high enthusiasm and are not hesitating to interact with the instructors. The training will continue for 5 (five) days, covering various other materials, starting from the introduction to entrepreneurship for the agriculture start-up business, preparation of a business plan, marketing strategy and branding, funding, financial report preparation, and business legality.

The invited instructors are experts and partners of the Diploma in Agribusiness Study Program. Rysca Indreswari, M.Si., who serves as the PIC of the Agrisucha event, states that after the training, each team will establish a business assisted by external experts. “External mentor who will assist the process directly are Aries Adenata, M.Hum. (Founder of Brand Insight), Andhika Mahardika (CEO of Agradaya–Yogyakarta), and Suhariyanto Putra (People Development Manager at TaniHub–Jakarta). As for the internal mentors, there will be business experts from UNS such as Dr. Heru Irianto, Dr. Erlina Wida Riptanti, and Raden Kunto Adi, M.P.,” explains Rysca.

There will be a product exhibition at the end of the program, inviting the partner institutions to evaluate, delivering suggestions, and proposing a collaboration or funding for the developed products. Iqbal, one of the participants in Agrisucha, states that when he first knew about the program, he was highly interested in joining the program. He did not waste much time considering joining after listening to the program explanation. “I am grateful for this opportunity to improve my capacities in entrepreneurship, and we did not only learn about how to produce goods and sell them. After the initial selection, we were divided into several teams to collaborate and proposing a start-up idea under the guidance and assistance from the professional mentors,” Iqbal said.

Based on the tracer study report for the Study Program in 2020, the number of graduates initiating entrepreneur activity remains low at 16.67%. Therefore, a suitable strategy is needed to achieve the Main Performance Indicator 1 (graduates obtain a decent job). Therefore, training and assistance are crucial to cut employment waiting time and improving the number of entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector. The Agrisucha program is expected to empower the future Argo entrepreneur. Humas UNS

Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti

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They are encouraged to create this application after knowing that frequent floods struck Bengawan Solo River. It causes the water turbid. Furthermore the water quality checking is also still done manually. According to Ratih, SIAB is application based on the Internet of Things (IoT) used to examine water quality and water distribution in real time.

Ratih also explained that the tool consists of two features namely SIAB monitoring and SIAB distribution. SIAB Monitoring consists of several waterproof sensors such as pH sensors, temperature sensors, and turbidity sensors. Its function is to observe water quality on line. While SIAB Distribution consists of sensor flow meter to know the discharge and volume of water to detect leakage of pipes and calculate the cost of daily water consumption. The data obtained is sent to the server using WIFI connectivity, thus the user can monitor it through the smart phone application.

Creating SIAB application made them won the first prize in the TOP Generation Challenge event in Jakarta, Thursday (14/12/2017). Ratih, Sifa, and Imam succeeded in setting aside 1300 proposals from all over Indonesia which were then selected into 5 finalists for the startup and pre-startup categories.

Ratih explained that their product will be me developed before being disseminated to the wider community.

“In the future we will develop digital recycling, more compact product packaging, and distribute this tool to areas experiencing clean water crisis, as well as cooperate with industry sector and big data development with NB IoT (Narrow Bands- Internet of Things )”, said Ratih. Humas-red.uns/Sav/Isn

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