Hello everyone, my name is Nicholas and I’m Breadboard’s representative for the sharing of my journey in this Initiative called Breadboard. I noticed that there are quite the number of Indonesians in this intake, just wanna say hi to my fellow peeps. So of course, now I’m going to share my Journey so far in this Initiative called Breadboard.

So at the time, I was just like you guys, wondering which initiative that I will soon join. At the time it was around September 2019, still pre-Covid-19 and all physical. SEP set up booths for each initiative for them to showcase to us who they are. So I looked around and see all the initiatives and take a mental note of them all. When the time finally comes for me to decide which Initiative I should choose, I was actually quite at a loss. When scholars are told to pick Initiatives, we are told to pick the top 3 Initiatives that are most interesting for us to join. So essentially we have to think of 3 that suits us. After undergoing some self reflection, I realized that I actually lacked ambition. I had no big preference over any of the teams. Then I remembered the tip that my father told me, that I should also focus on improving my soft skills. So I brainstormed and analysed the different Initiatives that may help me to achieve it.

Then I thought of one of the initiatives called Breadboard. Breadboard represent themselves to be an entrepreneurially driven team, with a description of ‘student-led business incubator’. I believe that being exposed to entrepreneurial environment will help me develop my soft skills, so i also included BB into my picks, my first pick to be exact. Then, several days had passed…  

And I had interview with BB’s leader. I explained to him about my main motivation of developing soft skills and how I see entrepreneurship can help me achieve it. After more QnA’s, the interview is done and I go back to my usual classes.

Days passed after the interview, and I received an email of approval to BB and I was informed of the general meeting that newcomers should attend. So….

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I attended this meeting and get to face the entire BB team. The main objective of the meeting is for new bloods and the seniors get to know one another. We are briefed again what BB is actually about, the organizational structure and also the future expectations for it. During my interview, I mentioned I am interested in program team as it sounded interesting, so therefore I’m informed that I was placed in the Program team. 

So, another time skip here, and I have a meeting just among the Program team. And during the discussion…

I was already lost. There are so many enterprise-based technicality that I am so unfamiliar with. Furthermore, I am also the shy type. Being unknowledgeable and shy really doesn’t help me in contributing to the depth of the discussion. Fortunately for me, my seniors in the team are patient and kind as they lead me through what the program team has done and what exactly are the contents.

So most of the duration of the meeting for me is trying to cope and understand entrepreneurship content. And I can actually openly say that not only during the meeting, but also on most of the activities in the program team that I am carried by them. I do contribute to the team but I still mostly needed their help.

My time in program team is actually not long, as in January 2020, BB held an annual meeting that discussed many different topics. One of them are related to the relocation of members to different teams; with the purpose of us able to learn different skillsets. Its like switching departments in your workplace. By looking at the positions available…

I volunteered myself to be the Secretary of BB. I volunteered  not because of experience; in fact I had no prior knowledge or experience. I do so just because I’m curious what being a secretary is like. But then my leader felt that I can do more than just being the secretary, so in the end I am also part of the liaison team of BB. Therefore, after the meeting, I learned what a secretary in BB mainly does. So one have to keep a detailed record of all meetings done and also to keep track of the general progress in BB, so that we can remind certain parties to not miss the deadline for several stuffs. Being a secretary is also closely related to being an admin here as I have to manage and organize all the documents and most of the emails of the initiative. I personally am grateful for this position as I get to be aware of what all the teams are doing and are able to see a working community.

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Well, so far I’ve only shared about what I do, now I’m going to share what BB does and our hope for the future. In hindsight, 

Breadboard organizes entrepreneurial events. Our events are segregated into 3 different levels of engagement. First is events for general public, second is smaller, more entreprise focused and 3rd is even more focused again. Now I’m about to share to you guys the 2 biggest events BB has ever organized ever. Later in the same month, BB organized an event called Startup Weekend. SW is a 54-hour event/or 3 days event, where different types of people with different professions gather to share ideas, form teams, and launch startups. This event is open not only for students, but also working adults. We held the event on UCSI North Wing and the event is done in collaboration with an organization called Techstars. I can’t specify all the details here but basically, in 54 hours participants gets to experience the highs, lows, fun and pressure that make up life as a startup business. 

For those that are not familiar with startups, it is basically the early stages of a business and it often starts off with high funding, invested by willing investors. With that said, we invited mentors, investors, cofounders, and sponsors who are ready to help them get started. Breadboard served to be the bridge that allows our participants to directly meet with them and learn from all their knowledge and wisdom. 

Participants are grouped into different teams with different mentors coaching them at different times, with each team get to showcase what they have produced at event’s end. 

This is the first event first really opened my mind to the entrepreneurship field. I am amazed by all the problems and solutions and models that the teams are able to identify, and I learned a lot. This certain moment in my life pushed me to be more engaging with others and to hear their ideas out.

And this is me over here.

BBIP, it stands for Breadboard Incubation Programme. (No need to scan the barcode over there). This is Breadboard’s main dish, our crème de la crème. Without this program, our existence is a lie. After all, our description is a ‘student-led business incubator’, so we need an incubation program. It sounded fancy, but BBIP is basically a program that aims to develop one’s existing business idea that can solve current issues with entrepreneurship. 

It can be said to be the continuation of Startup Weekend. Breadboard provides all the resources needed for the journey, ranging from mentoring sessions to co-working space. We have our own office located at UCSI block G level 11 gifted to us by UCSI’s founder. There are many more details that I missed but it will be too much to be mentioned. 

My personal part here as the liaison team is to successfully liaise, or connect with suitable mentors for this program. At this part of my journey, I felt different emotions swirling in me. Because in this situation I felt excited and worried, as i essentially have an excuse to chat with different CEOs and Founders, while also needing confirmation from them whether they’ll be our mentors or not.

In the end we have 11 mentors to agree to coach in this event, even some from overseas. When the team and the mentors met irl, we get to know one another and share many different things and I also learned a lot from that. Both SW are conducted annually so all of you can see it in action again

For this event, the whole team worked really hard for this, as we postponed this event for almost a year. We felt so many heldbacks and hopelessness as we still also have to focus on our academics. However, everything succeeded in the end and we felt immense satisfaction from the result. These activities allowed me to be a better version of myself and I’m grateful for it.

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Overall, I learned a lot of things from BB. I now realized that while entrepreneurship is close to business, it really doesn’t have to be. In these days, I learned that have entrepreneurial mindset is important while not necessarily be a true entrepreneur. I personally believe that entrepreneursip is about changing. With that mindset, you can be an engaging and innovative member in you workplace, no matter your profession. After we graduate from UCSI, most of us might only listen to what our bosses told us to do and it would be a boring life. If we can actively think of good changes that we can implement, life would be more fun.

I also learned the true value of networking here. I consider myself to be the introverted and shy type and I previously took the concept of networking for granted. But now looking at it, I realized that networking will get you far in life. By having relationships with people close to you as well as acquaintances, we can achieve many opportunities with it. I am still the shy type but now I am better in approaching people better than previously. And all I can say is that being in this initiative is overall fun.

Thank you for listening! I hope that all of you knows what our initiative is like, despite it might sound too much. If any of you are actually interested in what I’m saying, please do remember us! Thank you.