Hanifah A. Nandasari, co-founder of NanoHIVE Composites

Hanifah A. Nandasari is an experienced Legal professional with a demonstrated history of working in the energy industry and a special interest in the green and renewable sectors. She is currently developing an initial stage startup called NanoHIVE Composites, which creates next-gen multifunctional 2D composites in the form of Structural Battery, providing a combination of structural parts and batteries into one component with broad industry applications - racing cars and motorsport, drones, eVTOL, satellite, and aerospace.   What is your background? What made you decide to become an entrepreneur? I have been practising as a corporate lawyer for 7 years specialising in green and renewable energy development, and have recently completed an MBA degree to sharpen my business development and strategy skills. Witnessing Oxford's supportive environment for entrepreneurship and bringing along my interest and mission in accelerating climate tech development, I discovered opportunities to establish my own startup, by collaborating with colleagues working on innovation in energy-related scientific products. This led me to jointly found NanoHIVE Composites, which provides structural battery to tackle problems in EV with wider industry applications.   What is your definition of entrepreneurship? I believe that entrepreneurship is about fostering and scaling innovations, whether at the level of early-stage startup, bigger companies, skills development, institutional relations, or even regulatory approach.   How and when did you know your idea was good enough to develop it? We tested our idea by joining the Business Model competition and found out that people were interested in the idea. We then proceeded to conduct customers' discovery and make wider connections with industry leaders, which resulted in finding out that our product resonated with their needs of innovation and current pain points.   What would you say are the top 3 skills that needed to be a successful entrepreneur? Why? 1. Creative and adaptive: Innovation is about responding to market needs, which tend to keep changing over time. Hence, being able to adapt and adjust to such a quick shift is pivotal.
2. Collaborative: I learned that being an entrepreneur means we need to work together with multiple partners in various sectors to elevate capabilities and leverage opportunities.
3. Persistent: A couple of rounds of refining ideas, enormous criticism, and a continuous learning process along the entrepreneurship journey requires a persistent attitude to keep going before (hopefully) reaching a successful result.   What is your favourite part of being an entrepreneur? The sense of being capable of giving back to societies in various manners - a catalyst in tackling climate, technology development to answer globalization needs, and creation of jobs, along with opportunities to keep learning from industry leaders, collaborators, mentors, and other colleagues.   What individual, company or organization inspires you most? Why? Nadiem Makarim - current Minister of Education, culture, research, and technology of Indonesia, and the youngest minister in history who was a former Gojek founder and CEO, the first decacorn startup in Indonesia valued at over US$10 billion.
He is a successful impact-driven entrepreneur with a vision of contributing to communities and the country where the company he founded - Gojek, helped Indonesian local motorcycle-taxi drivers increase their welfare by providing an online platform, to increase skills, technology utilization, and operational safety. As a result, this led to an enormous customer base and brought Indonesia to soar in the international arena as Gojek reported massive amount of profits and received large investments. I have aspired to be an entrepreneur who could lead my startup to a success level where profits work hand-in-hand with creating impact.   If you had 5 minutes with the above individual/ company/organization, what would you want to ask or discuss? How he managed to stay persistent in creating a large-scale business which at first, was doubted, and eventually brought wider impact to the community.   What has been your most satisfying or successful moment in business? I am still in the initial stage of doing business, hence, I do not have much hands on experience. But one of the satisfying moments was during customer discovery and discussion with industries - we validated that what we're doing resonates with the needs within the industry and it would impact the climate reduction efforts.   How have you funded your ideas? We received a small amount of funds from All-Innovate which we utilized to attend conferences to increase our network and learn from industries. We're also currently discussing research partnership with a university that will fund our R&D phase   What is good about being an entrepreneur in Oxfordshire? There are many programs, accelerators, incubators, and mentors to provide a safe space to develop our business idea and eventually leverage it to the next stages.   If a new entrepreneur or startup came to you looking for entrepreneurship resources, where would you send them? The EnSpire website and their many programs, particularly Oxford Venture Builder in partnership with The Entrepreneurship Centre.   Are there any Business or Entrepreneurship Related Courses that you would recommend? OX1 Incubator
All-Innovate
Oxford Venture Builder   Any last words of advice? Entrepreneurship seems like a long journey, to begin with, but many lessons will be learned by experiencing it.   You can keep up to date with Hanifah by following her on LinkedIn or get in touch by emailing her at hanifah.nandasari.mba23@said.oxford.edu.