JRSSEM 2022, Vol. 01, No. 6, 690 – 693

E-ISSN: 2807 - 6311, P-ISSN: 2807 - 6494

DOI : 10.36418/jrssem.v1i6.80

CUSTOMER VALIDATION FOR STARTUP

Cheryl Marlitta Stefia*

Duta Wacana Christian University, Indonesia

e-mail: cheryl@staff.ukdw.ac.id

*Correspondence: cheryl@staff.ukdw.ac.id

Submitted: 30 November 2021, Revised: 10 January 2022, Accepted: 15 January 2022

Abstract: Indonesia in 2020 is predicted to experience a demographic bonus. This generation is

predicted to be more active in entrepreneurship because the protective nature of the millennial

generation does not like attachments. Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises

(UKM) Anak Agung Gede Ngurah Puspayoga said the growth of entrepreneurship in Indonesia

is increasing. The purpose of this study is to present Startup XYZ as a solution to these problems.

Startup XYZ is a startup pioneer in Indonesia that offers online stall rental facilities that bring

together stall providers and stall tenants. Present in answering complaints in the community,

making it easier for customers with convenience, practicality, security, comfort for both stall

providers and stall tenants. In addition, when users register as premium customers, users will get

access to complete market analysis along with customer traffic data at each kiosk. This will make it

easier for users to meet their target customers. The point that will be discussed is that every start-

up needs to carry out a Customer Validation process. To analyze and examine the research

methodology the author uses qualitative methods. Primary data was collected from the founders

of Startup XYZ through interviews with 25 respondents. For the analysis technique, descriptive

analysis was carried out. In order to be successful in building a start-up, the Customer Validation

process plays an important role in the success of a startup, of course, with assumptions that match

the assumptions of customer needs.

Keywords: start-up; MSMEs; customer validation; entrepreneur

Cheryl Marlitta Stefia | 690 
 
DOI : 10.36418/jrssem.v1i6.80 
INTRODUCTION 
 
In  the  era  of  President  Joko  Widodo, 
inviting  higher  education  institutions  in 
Indonesia to play a role from an early age 
in  developing  as  well  as  giving  birth  to 
entrepreneurs who are able to create jobs 
(Greenwood,  Hinings,  &  Whetten,  2014), 
lowercase Startup XYZ sees this momentum 
as  a  golden  opportunity  to  contribute  to 
the  achievement  of  the  mission  towards 
gold Indonesia 4.0. In order to grow, novice 
entrepreneurs  and  support  job  creation 
and  poverty  alleviation,  the  Ministry  of 
Cooperatives and SMEs provides assistance 
in the form of grants to 2,500 micro-scale 
startup  entrepreneurs  (WP)  up  to  Rp. 
12,000,000 for each WP (Alexakis, Izzeldin, 
Johnes,  &  Pappas,  2019).  With  data  on 
recipients of assistance, more than 67% are 
engaged  in  the  culinary  field.  And  the 
number of government support programs 
in addition to grant funds (Nylén, Agbola, 
Miles,  &  Mahmood,  2020),  shows  the 
government's  strong  commitment  to 
encouraging  entrepreneurs.  The  basic 
component  of  entrepreneurship  is  none 
other than the place of business. U.S. sees 
the process of leasing a place of business 
as  very  manual  and  complicated  by 
bureaucracy  (Benta,  Wilberg,  Hollauer,  & 
Omer, 2017)v. The current high demand for 
business  place  rentals  has  not  been 
sufficiently  matched  by  the  availability  of 
business premises (Teece, 2010). 
Startup  XYZ  which  has  been  in  the 
property business since (Brocato, Voorhees, 
&  Baker, 2012)  tries  to use its  experience 
and various research results related to the 
opportunities described earlier as business 
justification  to  then  start  developing 
technological  innovations  for  the  stall 
rental  platform  that  is  being  proposed 
(Tidd & Bessant, 2020). The methods that 
will be  used is  to conduct deep  interview 
with  founders  and  interview  with  25 
respondents  who  then  will  be  processed 
through  Content  Analysis  so  that  a  Value 
Proposition  Canvas  can  be  found  and 
determine  Product-Market  Fit  (Dennehy, 
Kasraian, O’Raghallaigh, & Conboy, 2016). 
The  target market  of  Startup XYZ  is  from 
the  Demand  side  (Entrepreneur)  70%  of 
Indonesia's  economic  supporters  come 
from MSMEs, therefore, targeting FnB and 
Fashion  actors  in  Bandung  and  Solo. 
Economic  census  data  from  the  Central 
Statistics Agency (Zheng & Zhao, 2017), the 
number  of  non-agricultural  SMEs  in West 
Java reached 4.6 million. Market potential 
from the demand side comes from outside 
Bandung. And within Bandung itself, 0.17% 
of the population of Bandung as much as 
629,000 are FnB business actors (Rahman & 
Haryati,  2016).  The  potential  for  SMEs  in 
Surakarta is 43,700. And according to  the 
Central  Statistics  Agency  in  2020  it  is 
predicted to grow by 10%. From the Supply 
side (Property Owner) (Euchner & Ganguly, 
2014). The main result of the work is how 
academic tools can provide an overview of 
how  customer  validation  for  Startup  XYZ 
(Nylén & Holmström, 2015). 
 
METHODS 
 
Primary  and  Secondary  Data  –  These 
are two types of data that can be processed 
and  analyzed  to  obtain  high  quality 
research  results.  the  first  researcher, 
secondary  data  is  data  that  has  been 
processed  beforehand  and  only  obtained 

691 | Customer Validation for Startup

from other sources as additional

information that strengthens the research.

Some secondary data sources are books,

journals, publications released by the

government. In this study, the author used

a research design in the form of a case

study, where the implementation of this

research will only be carried out with a

focus on one start-up, namely Startup XYZ.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This proposal will use the Business

Model Canvas to describe from upstream

to downstream the business processes that

have been carried out by Startup XYZ. After

knowing what components are owned by

Startup XYZ, the research will proceed to

Value Proposition Design.

Figure 1 Business Model Canvas

The Value Proposition is an academic

tool to help create profitable value for

customers. The purpose of the Value

Proposition is to help sketch customer

desires in more detail in a simple but

powerful and structured way. By mapping

through the Value Proposition, it will be

easier for founders to listen to

complaints/criticisms from their target

consumers. So that the founders of Startup

XYZ can be concluded as the position of

Startup XYZ in the eyes of its consumers.

Figure 2 Value Proposition for Startup XYZ

CONCLUSIONS

After doing Customer Validation, it can

be said that the business from Startup XYZ

is quite well received by their customers, so

there is no need to pivot because it

represents what their customers/targets

want. As is well known, Customer

Validation is a very important initial stage

to test whether a startup/SME business is

worth continuing or not. The solution

presented by Startup XYZ is included in the

Tier 1 problem of the market in Indonesia.

It was stated that Startup XZY was the first

startup to present solutions in the property

rental world, which still encountered

serious obstacles. Especially the presence

of thugs in control, the non-disclosure of

data and prices, and all the processes so far

are still offline so it is very impractical. With

validation, customers can also anticipate

uncertainty and ignorance through a data-

based approach and continuous learning.

With Customer Validation, it can also help

founders and teams shorten the product

development process by eliminating

feature development that has been

confirmed not to be needed or desired by

the user. Shorter product development

processes also mean budget efficiency.

Founders and teams can also focus more

on things that are really needed by users.

Also, with Startup XYZ making it easier for

Cheryl Marlitta Stefia | 692 
 
 
users  to  search  for  properties,  real  time 
access so as to  ensure data  accuracy and 
also  transparent  prices  without 
intermediaries,  this  is  a  solution  faced  by 
the  market  before.  For  recommendations 
that must be made by Startup XYZ is good 
and accurate marketing because as a new 
player,  awareness  is  needed  so  that  the 
market  can  be  expanded.  It  is  also 
necessary to  develop the scale of  Startup 
XYZ.  It  is  hoped  that  the  existence  of 
Customer Validation can give confidence to 
the founders of Startup XYZ to take further 
development steps. 
 
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© 2022 by the authors. Submitted  
for possible open access publication  
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Commons  Attribution  (CC  BY  SA)  license 
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). 
 