On the first day of Echelon Asia Summit 2019, these startup founders share their insights and experiences

The first day of Echelon Asia Summit 2019 ended on Thursday, May 23, with four stages, hundreds of exhibitors, and thousands of attendants gathering at Singapore Expo to meet and exchange ideas.

On the Founders Stage, e27 noted down five of the most mind-blowing quotes said by startup founders when they talked about building their companies.

Some of them might surprise you.

Lingga Madu, Co-Founder & CEO, Sorabel

“The name Sale Stock worked for a certain time but then you started to face wider market … That’s when it became a problem.” — On the company’s recent rebranding.

“Don’t tell my wife, but I don’t recommend you to work with your spouse. [However,] there is a spectrum of personal relationship that only a spouse can address.” — On founding a company with his wife.

Also Read: 24 game-changers in Echelon Asia Summit 2019’s final batch of exhibitors

Agung Bezharie, Co-Founder, Warung Pintar

“Everybody in the startup community talks about the number of users that they have acquired. They should have talked about how many of these users are actively using the platform.” — On user acquisition

Samantha Soh, Co-Founder and UX Designer, Shopback

“Despite bad experiences [when using our platform in its early days], customers remain persistent in using it. They even used an Excel sheet to compare existing offers.” — On developing Shopback’s UX.

Fajrin Rasyid, President and Co-Founder, Bukalapak

“It was very difficult, to say the least. There was no ecosystem … There was even no ‘startup’ as a terminology. We only raised US$10,000. We even had to do side projects to grow the company.” — On fundraising in 2010.

Also Read: Echelon Asia Summit 2019’s 10th set of exhibitors to showcase 25 trailblazing products

Agung Nugroho, Co-Founder, Kudo

“At an entrepreneurial dinner in the US, we met with Willson Cuaca from East Ventures. We talked until the restaurant was closed, and we sealed the deal right away. It was five days before I was due to return to Indonesia [after studying for an MBA there]. It was injury time.” — On raising the company’s seed funding

“When you are a founder of a company, you need to have a good support system. By the time, my wife was a very good support system. She told me, ‘Agung, the debt [that you acquired from your former employer] is very big. But believe that you worth more than that. You can have bigger impact, beyond this IDR2 billion (US$138,000) loan.’”

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