Why Endeavor is the Most Important Partner for Learning?
“Learning as an entrepreneur is complex yet hard and you need a very reliable partner for learning. With Endeavor, we had over 50 mentoring and peer-sharing sessions mainly with global mentors and entrepreneurs in 2022 alone – and this has been the top mindblowing value-add because you can not access this value anywhere else.” –Iwan Kurniawan, Co-Founder, COO, and Group CGO of Funding Societies | Modalku Group (FSMK)
The right moment and time
“It has been more than five years since my first contact with Endeavor Indonesia. I strongly remembered the important role of Devina Hartono (Entrepreneur Experience Director of Endeavor Indonesia) on March 2017 when she was extremely excited to share the Endeavor value proposition, network and community with my cofounders and I. After we met several mentors in Indonesia, we got to understand the global network better. Over time, we were glad that Endeavor continued to connect us with the network. We were invited to the year-end gala, network gatherings where we mingled with other entrepreneurs, and from that, I started involving the other cofounders, Kelvin Teo, CPA ☀️ & Kah Meng Wong, CFA.
After a few moments, eventually, what got us excited to engage again was the timing. We were at the right funding stage, the right revenue stage, and we need to tap into the global mentors, network and knowledge. We were also excited to welcome Endeavor Catalyst (the rules-based, co-investment fund of Endeavor) to our cap table. We had several fantastic conversations with the Endeavor management team. It was a combination of a few things: the increased maturity of our company, the capital that Endeavor Catalyst could provide us, and the need for more global knowledge to uplift our business to the next level that made us join Endeavor.
(See the official announcement of Iwan, Kelvin, and Kah Meng when they got selected as EEs at Endeavor 4th Virtual International Selection Panel on June 2020 here)
50+ mentoring sessions in 2022 alone
There were so many things that we benefited from the Endeavor community. Everyone in the team is very supportive, friendly, and really cares about us not only as a business but as a person, as human beings. Secondly, its valuable network of entrepreneurs. We met a lot of like-minded, similar-stage companies and entrepreneurs who also encountered similar challenges. The way they communicate has always been well-intentioned and they helped us reflect a lot about our business.
But the ultimate value-added is the mentorship and peer sharing at a global level. Whenever we had some critical problem that we want to solve and don’t feel we had the expertise or knowledge, one of the first that we look for is the Endeavor team. I think FSMK is among the founders that utilise the global network so much, with around 54 mentorships in 2022 alone and 13 touchpoints for myself only – people from the largest fintech companies from the US, Brazil, and Europe, to other parts of Asia who are experts mainly in fintech and functional areas like marketing, and HR, to the funding and fundraising side. That has been the top mindblowing value-add because you can not access this value anywhere else.
"In short, join Endeavor because Endeavor is likely to be the most important partner for learning. "
The thing about learning is, learning as an entrepreneur is complex and never easy because there are so many topics and many of the answers to these topics are not clear. You can not really go to school and get the answer, and perhaps you need to ask more than one person to solve your problems. Some of the knowledge itself may not lie in Indonesia. To cater for this complex situation, you need a very reliable partner for learning. Not only that, Endeavor has been a big help in other areas. For example, one of the mentors we met was critical to our recent fundraising round. From the initial meeting, after 8-10 mentoring sessions later, the mentorship evolves to become value-adding in many different ways. We also got a lot of support and help from local mentors in Indonesia on our strategy development, talent, and go-to-market. These high-quality people that we met have been the most value-adding part of FSMK’s journey.”
