Reflecting on JFDI 2013A

Jun 16, 2013 Comment 0 comments

Ariff Munshi, co-founder, UserScout

JFDI.Asia is definitely one of the top accelerator programs in this region. Never before have I seen so many entrepreneurs, mentors and investors come through one place over such a short period.

image-1Aravind Ravi Sulekha, co-founder, Scrollback

We had a minimum viable product ready. But what we needed the most was mentorship. For the kind of product we were trying to build, it was very difficult to find the right mentors in India. Meng, who is the tech guy at JFDI, was the best person for that. Singapore is a great testing ground. In terms of opportunity, it couldn’t have been better, even if we decide to work from India going forward (for cost reasons), it was worth making this journey. The exposure we got, interacting with the other teams, with people from all over the world, it has really helped us, personally and professionally.

Surendran Krishanthan, co-founder, Klinify

3 reasons to join JFDI
1. Understand the lean methodology. Even if you read books on lean startup, it has hard to find a balance between being lean and being practical. At JFDI, you get to learn from people who have seen lean startups, and done lean startups. Why, JFDI is in itself a lean startup that you can learn from. This means you dramatically shorten the time and effort taken to validate (or invalidate) your startup.
2. Learn from mentors. You can get access to over 50 different mentors from diverse background and learn from their experience and expertise. It is pretty much impossible to get such one to one access in any other environment. It lets you get a somewhat clearer view of the options available, and pick the more promising ones.
3. Journey with the other teams. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey and it is very encouraging to sprint with other great teams who are facing similar challenges and travelling similar paths – learn from them, laugh with them and cry with them. And after demo day, you have a strong network to leverage on and that makes a huge difference.

Lessons learned: Isaac Souweine interviews Hugh Mason, Co-founder and CEO of JFDI.Asia, following its Demo Day 2013A.

Follow-on investors comment on JFDI.Asia’s last demo day here. Pre-register for the next JFDI.Asia accelerator program. Watch the full JFDI.Asia 2013A demo day, sponsored by Global Brain Corporation of Japan.