The Backstage: A Case to Start Business
By Mega Liani Putri
Editor Mega Liani Putri
"We do not only challenge ITB students to develop technology-based business here, but our goal is to emphasize ITB students' capability in solving problems in the community," Isti Raafaldini Mirzanti said, the lecturer of Technology-Based Business class. "The students must be advance so they can develop business not only based on profit," she added.
Like the theme, the event invited the businessmen in start-up who change the market with innovations that make life much easier. At first Marshall thought that the people had limited choices in purchasing furniture. There was only a few of variations, high prices, and the quality of the product was not guaranteed. That made limitation for the people in shopping the furniture. So, Marshall tried to solve the problem by launching Fabello.com which became the first e-commerce website for furniture in Indonesia. The interesting part is that this start-up gives spaces for collaboration between the local designer and furniture artist from Central Java.
"We should've seen problem as opportunity. When we want to start something, we need to look at the problem around us to be solved and take them as an opportunity to start business," Putri concluded Marshall's story.
The Key is to Choose Co-Founder
In this event, Marshall, who is also the alumni of SBM ITB, said that the key to build start-up was to choose the right co-founder. Basically, a business can not be done alone. Therefore, it needs co-founder who are ready to run the business. "The most important thing is vision. So, co-founder that we choose must have the same vision along with everybody in the body. Besides, the co-founder needs to cover up the limitations we have," Marshall explained.