Curtin Malaysia’s The Founders Club hosts incubator programme for university students

Miri – 22 November 2019 – Student-led startup The Founders Club of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently organised its inaugural incubator programme for students of the university called the Founders Ideation and Incubation Programme (FIIP) at the SMA-TEGAS Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) here in Miri.

The FIIP was a six-week programme aimed at helping university students kick-start their business ideas and spur the growth of early-stage startups initiated in collaboration with the SMA-TEGAS Digital Innovation Hub. It was open to all students from Curtin Malaysia regardless of their discipline. Eight teams comprised of over 24 aspiring student entrepreneurs participated in the programme.

The participants were guided through the important aspects of entrepreneurship that were divided into six themes. The programme content also covered topics such as starting up, business modelling, going to the market, financial modelling, and pitching.

The Founders Club committee member Cheah Jia Qin said the main goal of the programme was to help students rapidly innovate and validate their business ideas. The winning teams have the opportunity pursue their ideas further with company incorporation support and also three-month access to the co-working space, both of which will be funded by the SMA-TEGAS Digital Innovation Hub. On top of that, The Founders Club will continue to provide relevant post-programme support to the participants.

‘Team Junko’ comprising Alan Chang Chee Ming, Nurul Fatihah Binti Mohd. Fadli and Thien Kian Chung, who proposed an idea for ‘Junko’s’, a trendy pop-up restaurant, emerged the winners of the programme.

Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor of Curtin Malaysia, Professor Beena Giridharan, said Curtin Malaysia was pleased to host the FIIP and thanked The Founders Club for facilitating it.

“It is great to see The Founders Club setting an example for showcasing and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship among our students and the public,” said Professor Giridharan.

She said such incubator programmes could be a great springboard to inspire more students to consider becoming entrepreneurs in the future. She added that they are in line with the Sarawak government’s efforts to increase the number of successful entrepreneurs and subsequently drive the state’s digital economy.

“We hope to hold more programmes to provide more growth opportunities for ideation level and early-stage startups, in line with the Sarawak Digital Economy 2018 – 2022 outline,” said Professor Giridharan.

Meanwhile, president of The Founders Club, Hamzah Hamizan, said the club is very excited to be involved in the FIIP and help students innovate and test their ideas.

“We were excited to see all the ideas the participants came up with and to help them build the startups of their dreams, starting from the initial idea to establishing a full-fledged startup. Our goal is to create more student entrepreneurs with an ambition and passion to make an impact in the world we live in,” said Hamzah.

Hamzah thanked the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) and TEGAS for their strong support of the FIIP and other programmes run by The Founders Club, which are aligned to key programmes in the Sarawak Digital Village Ecosystem.

TEGAS collaborates with SMA in operating the DIHs in Kuching, Miri and Bintulu, which serve as inclusive growth platforms for startups and social enterprises in Sarawak. Funded by SMA and managed by TEGAS, the DIHs offer access to affordable co-working spaces, incubation and acceleration programmes, as well as access to the Sarawak Digital Village Ecosystem network.

More information on The Founders Club can be found on its website (www.founders.my) and its Facebook (FoundersMalaysia).

Team Junko giving their winning pitch.

Team Junko members Alan Chang Chee Ming, Thien Kian Chung and Nurul Fatihah Binti Mohd. Fadli (2nd – 4th left) with judge Khairool Adzelan from SMA.

The judging panel comprising (L-R) Azuar Zainuddin from Satu Creative, Brian Tan from Futurelab and Khairool Adzelan from SMA.

The Founders Club facilitators, participants, judges and Invited guests at SMA-Tegas Digital Innovation Hub.