When Indonesian co-founder Vanessa Geraldine entered the Master of Entrepreneurship program as an Australia Awards scholarship recipient, she not only found a business framework for her software start-up, PRIEDS Technology, she unleashed her own voice. Now she is expanding PRIEDS, mentoring compatriots and contributing to her home country.
When Vanessa Geraldine moved from Jakarta to Melbourne to start the Master of Entrepreneurship program in 2020, she was reluctant to speak up and share her opinions publicly. Culturally, she says, it was not the done thing. In her new course, though, robust class discussions were common.
‘Initially it was a culture shock for me because I’m more of a reserved person – I really need to research in order to justify my own thinking,” says Vanessa. “But there I learned to just voice it – like, who cares? Just do things. It really changed my original thinking.’
The University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship, co-delivered with Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, challenged her thinking in other ways, too. A trained chemical engineer, Vanessa was working as a Business Analytics Manager at tech platform Gojek and had just co-founded PRIEDS Technology, an Indonesian supply-chain management software start-up, when she enrolled. ‘Before the masters program, our idea was very vague and we didn’t have a product-market fit yet,’ says Vanessa, PRIEDS’ Chief Commercial Officer. ‘It’s been a rollercoaster since then, but in a good way.’
Vanessa used to think that business-building was something you could learn on the job, but the program has given her invaluable frameworks, such as the Business Model Canvas, to create and expand the company. When business problems have popped up, the 2020 graduate has had flashbacks to the program’s classes: ‘We learned all about things like market validation and pivoting and, since then, I’ve faced all of those things in real life.’
Perhaps her biggest takeaway from the program has been a problem-solving mindset.
‘Don’t fall in love with the solution or the product itself,’ she says. ‘Fall in love with the customer – with the problem you’re trying to solve. Solving the problem is the focus, and then we build a product around it, rather than vice versa. Having that framework really helps.’
When she secured an Australia Awards Scholarship, Vanessa chose the Master of Entrepreneurship because she wanted to, ‘deep-dive into building a business from the get-go’. Other masters programs had 100 students, whereas this one offered a practical approach and a cohort of about 30. ‘Having everyone in the right mindset is helpful,’ says Vanessa, ‘rather than taking a generic economics or business course where people have different aspirations.’
Many of her classmates, she notes, had come from overseas, and Wade Institute team checked in regularly to make sure they were settling into the program. ‘That’s what makes us feel like we’re being seen,’ she says, ‘When you’re an international student and by yourself, it’s helpful.’
For Vanessa, returning to Indonesia as a graduate to contribute to her home economy was important. ‘There are lots of people who are not working here, so there’s a social element to building a business,’ she says. ‘I can have people working in the company and help them.’
In recent years, PRIEDS has moved into Germany and Taiwan, and there are expansion plans for Malaysia and Singapore, too. Vanessa is also using the tools she gained from the Masters program to mentor other start-up founders in her community. ‘I don’t see many people learning about entrepreneurship in Indonesia,’ she says, ‘So sharing that knowledge has been a privilege.’
The grand plan now is to take PRIEDS public within five years. ‘We’re joining an incubator and we’re also gaining attention from the Indonesian stock exchange,’ she says.
‘They’re wanting us to go there, so that’s a good start. Wish us luck!’
This article first appeared on the University of Melbourne.
