Zakee (left) and Jie Jun (right), co-founders of Playnium.
Wan Jie Jun’s journey in creating joyful core memories for children began with him hosting plays at playgrounds in 2018. As he witnessed the jolly reactions amongst pre-schoolers and their parents, it sparked a fire in him to kickstart Playnium (formerly OzStudios), an on-demand live-streaming platform that offers interactive edutainment content for children aged 3 to 8. Its mission is to give every child a happy childhood through life-changing stories and create the best next-generation edutainment.
As a child, he noticed that characters from TV programmes such as Blue’s Clues and Sesame Street lacked an interactive factor as they mainly asked questions to its viewers and left it at that. His immersive world concept evolved into localising content after going on the overseas Venture Builder Programme.
Embarking on the Venture Builder (Indonesia track) Programme has expanded Jie Jun’s knowledge of the Indonesian market. As with all Venture Builder programmes, students are paired with mentors who will guide them in developing their startup. He delightfully shares, “The mentors provided invaluable advice in many areas – from development, networking and many more. A specific point I would like to mention is that they taught me how to do business in Indonesia.”
Initially, Playnium had little support from parents to provide market validation. This was quickly overcome with financial incentives, one of the many constant reiterations which remain a challenge for his company.
In July 2021, Jie Jun enrolled in the Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme, where he credits Bryan Long, the Entrepreneur-In-Residence, who utilises both a lean methodological approach and searing honesty to keep pushing Jie Jun and his co-founder through all their challenges.
Moving forward, Jie Jun is working on a venture capitalist-ready platform and getting more educators on board. Clear on these goals when he first joined Venture Builder Programme, Jie Jun shared that he cherishes his time learning and working with his new Indonesian friends and it allowed him to delve into emerging ASEAN markets. Jie Jun advised all entrepreneurs: “To always test if your assumptions are right and be resilient as a founder.”
Register for Venture Builder programme here to engage in mentoring and incubation eco-system opportunities and join Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme here if you are ready to take your startup to the next level!