30 young people selected for Tegas youth founder mentoring

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KUCHING: Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Sarawak’s (Tegas) Digital Innovation Hub has launched its inaugural Youth Founder Mentoring Programme (YFMP) which is organised in line with the Sarawak government’s mission to promote digital innovation and entrepreneurship.

A press statement from Tegas yesterday said, 30 participants from all over Sarawak had been selected for this virtual programme, which would run from March to August 2021 via FutureLab – an online mentoring platform.

Datu Len Talif

The majority of participants are current students and alumni of Swinburne University Sarawak, Curtin University Malaysia, Centre of Technical Excellence (Centexs), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), University Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), International Institute of Fashion Design (Indonesia) and Campbell University (USA).

The event organised by Tegas Digital Innovation Hub, in partnership with FutureLab, is a six-month online mentoring programme tailored for high-potential young Sarawakian startup founders, students studying at institutes of higher learning and fresh graduates.

Selected participants will pick up technical skills and soft skills, by experiencing what it means to be a co-founder.

Participants are expected to demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset over the course of the programme, as well as pick up startup best practices such as user-centric design, lean methodology, validation and value creation.

The mentoring programme aims to connect young startup founders with experienced entrepreneur mentors from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, equip young startup founders with valuable knowledge and insights on entrepreneurship as well as provide real-time feedback on their business ideas and plans to build resilient entrepreneurs.

YFMP will match the young startup founders (mentees) with established startup founders, industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs. The programme prepares participants for the Virtual Demo Day for a chance to pitch to potential investors, funding agencies and ecosystem partners as well as a green lane to participate in Tegas Startup Lab (Accelerator), Social Impact Accelerator and Sarawak Shell Livewire.

“I would like to thank all institutes of higher learning for promoting this first of its kind online mentoring programme in Sarawak in their respective institutions, and encouraging their students and alumni to participate in it,” said Tegas chairman Datu Len Talif Salleh, who is also Assistant Minister of Urban Development and Resources.

“We believe in investing and building our Sarawakian talents to drive growth for our state. Tegas will continue to support and empower local startups to scale globally, through the soon-to-be completed Tegas Digital Village, which is expected to be launched by the chief minister, middle of this year,” added Len Talif.