Ika Afifah Is Tackling One of Startups’ Hardest Problems: Finding the Right People

A startup can have a promising idea, a capable founder, and a market worth pursuing, yet still struggle because one crucial person is missing. It might be a technical co-founder, a commercial partner, an experienced professional, or the first customer willing to take a chance on an unfamiliar business.

For Ika, an Indonesian entrepreneur and founder of ConnectX, this is a question of access: who gets to meet the people who can help them build, grow, and move forward?

In 2026, Ika was selected as one of 30 women founders for HEX Generation Next, a regional initiative supported by the ASEAN-Australia Centre. The cohort was selected from more than 900 applicants, bringing together women entrepreneurs from across ASEAN and Australia. The recognition adds a regional dimension to her work, but the problem she is trying to solve began with conversations among founders in Indonesia.

From Personal Setback to a Business Idea

Before ConnectX, Ika was involved in technology ventures including WeFund and CodeXchain. In 2024, she divorced her former husband, who had also been her co-founder. After exiting their previous venture, she returned to Indonesia during a period she has described as one of the lowest points of her life.

Rather than immediately starting another company, Ika began rebuilding her professional life through community. She brought together people interested in business, careers, and professional development, creating spaces for founders and professionals to exchange experiences and help one another.

Through these conversations, a recurring problem emerged. Founders struggled to find co-founders. Business owners needed partners and customers. Startups lacked people with the skills to move their products forward. Others wanted investor introductions or opportunities beyond their existing networks.

The underlying challenge was clear: having the ambition to build a business did not automatically provide access to the people needed to make it happen.

Ika began introducing people manually through community activities and meetups. These introductions opened opportunities for collaboration, but they also revealed a limitation. Personal matchmaking could not scale indefinitely as the community grew.

That experience inspired ConnectX: using technology to make professional discovery more intentional and accessible.

What ConnectX Does

Think of ConnectX as a swipe-based discovery app for business and professional connections, borrowing a familiar interaction model from dating apps like Bumble but applying it to a different purpose: helping people find the right people to build with.

ConnectX helps founders, business owners, professionals, and builders discover potential co-founders, team members, collaborators, and business partners based on their professional backgrounds, skills, interests, and goals.

Instead of relying entirely on cold outreach or waiting to meet someone at an event, users can explore profiles and discover people who may be relevant to what they want to achieve. The goal is to make professional discovery more intuitive and help users find connections beyond their existing networks.

A founder looking for a technical co-founder could discover someone with complementary skills. A business owner seeking new customers or strategic partners could connect with people outside their usual circle. A professional could find founders and teams whose projects align with their expertise.

ConnectX combines this digital discovery experience with a wider community and in-person activities, giving members opportunities to develop relationships beyond the initial introduction. It is not a dating app or simply another place to collect contacts. Its focus is helping people discover professional relationships that could lead to collaboration, business opportunities, and growth. The mobile app is available to be download on PlayStore. 

When Connections Become Business Opportunities

The value of a professional network is not simply the number of people in it, but whether members find relationships that help them move forward.

Bezie Galih Manggala, Strategic Advisor at Kata.ai and a business coach, describes the benefits ConnectX has brought through its curated community and activities.

“Founders in Indonesia really need a curated and trusted network of founders, investors, and professionals. Through ConnectX activities, we have met new leads and collaborators, and gained clients and transactions after connecting with high-value contacts. We have also learned a great deal from sharing information with other members.”

For Bezie, the value extends beyond introductions to include business knowledge and insights exchanged with other members.

Cycas Rifky, CEO of Kodegiri and CTSO of STAR Software Indonesia (SSI-G), highlights the value of cross-industry connections.

“I was introduced to ConnectX by Ika and immediately felt its impact on my business. The gatherings and networking events opened opportunities for collaboration with businesses from different fields. The diversity of business owners and community members makes the connections feel real and valuable, especially for companies like ours working in B2B AI integration and education, where networking and partnerships are important.”

Their accounts illustrate the value members say they have received from ConnectX's community and networking activities. A new lead may open a commercial conversation, a potential collaborator may help move a project forward, and an investor introduction may create an opportunity to explore funding.

These testimonials are individual experiences, not proof that every connection produces a business outcome. ConnectX's next challenge is to measure its impact more systematically: how many introductions lead to clients, how often members find team members or partners, and which relationships generate measurable commercial value.

Building Beyond Indonesia

Ika wants ConnectX to help founders discover opportunities across Southeast Asia and Australia, with a longer-term ambition to connect entrepreneurs across markets.

Cross-border growth requires more than finding someone online. Companies entering new markets need local knowledge, an understanding of customer behavior and business practices, and relationships with people who can help them navigate unfamiliar environments.

A local founder, distributor, industry specialist, or strategic partner can help a company assess whether an expansion opportunity is viable. For startups with limited resources, access to relevant relationships can be especially valuable.

Ika's selection for HEX Generation Next 2026 offers an opportunity to learn from women entrepreneurs across ASEAN and Australia, develop regional relationships, and explore potential collaboration beyond Indonesia. The program, supported by the ASEAN-Australia Centre, focuses on women founders and economic growth across the region.

For Ika, the opportunity aligns with ConnectX's purpose: helping people discover relevant connections and explore opportunities beyond their existing networks.

Selection is a milestone, not a business result. The longer-term value will depend on whether new relationships lead to meaningful collaboration, whether regional insights inform product development, and whether ConnectX can demonstrate value in markets beyond Indonesia.

The Work Ahead

Ika's journey from a difficult personal transition to community-building and a technology venture provides a human story. But ConnectX's future will depend on whether it can solve a recurring problem well enough that people choose to use the app, return to it, and recommend it to others.

That means building a product people trust, making professional discovery useful, demonstrating measurable outcomes, and developing a sustainable business model that can adapt to different markets.

For founders and professionals, the potential benefit is straightforward: finding people whose skills, goals, and interests complement their own without relying entirely on the networks they already have.

For the wider startup ecosystem, the larger question is whether more intentional professional discovery can reduce dependence on existing networks and make opportunities more accessible to people who have the ability to build but lack the right introductions.

That impact has yet to be established at scale. It is the challenge ConnectX must now prove it can meet.

Ika began by listening to founders describe problems that were difficult to solve alone. She built a community around those conversations, tested ways to connect people manually, and used the experience to shape a technology platform.

Now, the work is to turn that insight into a repeatable product that makes discovering relevant people easier and helps users turn promising introductions into meaningful professional relationships.

A business may begin with an idea, but it rarely grows on an idea alone. It also needs people who can challenge it, build it, support it, and take it somewhere new.

For Ika, the ambition is to help more founders find those people and prove that the right connection can become more than an introduction.

About Ika Afifah

Ika is an Indonesian entrepreneur and founder of ConnectX, a professional discovery platform and community designed to help founders, business owners, and professionals discover relevant connections and opportunities. Her work spans technology ventures, community-building, and efforts to connect entrepreneurs across markets.