Khailee Ng: Indonesian Startups Should Practice Their Pitches More

Indonesia Digital Byte (IDByte) 2013 has found its 12 startup finalists derived from four Indonesian cities. I caught up with Khailee Ng (pictured right) from social news network Says.com, one of the judges who selected those finalists. All the way from Malaysia, he saw and scored the startups who made their pitches at the Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Jakarta roadshows. I asked him what the startups could specifically improve based on what he saw at the competition. These are his thoughts: (Disclosure: Tech in Asia is a media partner of IDByte 2013)

First, he addresses the fact that there’s a good amount of tech talent in Indonesia, as can be seen by the number of startups who pitched at every city, and that they have the ability to execute their products and services well. “Not many markets have the abundance of tech talent I saw on this roadshow,” says Khailee. He adds, “The founders here are also incredibly passionate about their products. And this passion will help them evolve to realize their potential.”

Second, Khailee saw opportunities for startups to do better pitches next time around. He identified four common pitching mistakes during the roadshow:

1. Not indicating traction at all.
2. Not giving a clear idea of what the product actually is.
3. Not building the case for market potential.
4. Spending way too much time trying to tell the world how the internet is awesome or mobile is huge. With only five minutes allowed for each IDByte pitch, some startups spent 1.5 minutes on this topic where they should really be saying how big their startup can be.

On the bright side, all of the above are an easy fix. The startups can read up more information about good pitches online and get more feedback on their pitches. Khailee noticed that there were a few really good pitches, and he noticed that many came from Founder’s Institute. Of course, the pitching problem and advice above are applicable not only to Indonesian startups but also to startups in general.

(See also: 5 Interesting Startups That Pitched at IDByte Jakarta Roadshow)

Third, he believes that more tech entrepreneurs should seek more connections with people from the other industries, even build startups together with them. These people have a lot of good connections too, and have access to funding. Furthermore, they also want to connect with more tech talent. Khailee quips:

The business crowd complain there’s no tech talent. The tech crowd complain there’s no funding or marketing help. But these two groups co-exist right in front of each other. It’s about time they got out to more events and said hi!

Khailee’s company, Says, recently agreed on a merger deal with Malaysian giant Catcha Media Berhad to develop a digital advertising business together. He founded a company that was acquired by Groupon and now he is an entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Startups as well as being an active angel investor.

The 12 startup finalists will make their pitches in front of venture capitalists including Dave McClure from 500 Startups in June. It will be broadcast on national television.