TIMES JAZIRAH, MALANG – Diploma in Business Administration Vocational student of Brawijaya University, Evi Dwi Lestika Rini, successfully won the Pitching Battle She Connect Champion Malang 2024 competition. This competition aims to support the development of local startups and was held on June 20, 2024 and was attended by various startups in Malang.

Freesh, that's the name of the startup business presented in this competition by Evi Dwil Lestika Rini. Freesh is a business that carries an innovative concept in catfish farming by utilizing Internet of Things (IoT) technology and integrated with mobile applications. 

IoT technology has the primary goal of supporting catfish farmers in developing their business, whether for the development process or management. 

Evi explained that "Freesh" can support catfish farmers to be more efficient and easier such as reducing feed wastage, monitoring water quality, and also monitoring catfish growth. 

"All of these features can be run through the mobile application easily. Because, Freesh provides an information system for catfish farmers, funding, and export features," she said on Friday (12/7/2024). 

Evi shared her experience for the development of this "Freesh" start-up business, she did extensive preparation or research. This included visits to learn directly from catfish farmers, starting from researching the condition of the pond, the water used, seed stocking, feed, harvest time, and post-harvest. 

The research process took quite a long time, about 1-1.5 years at a catfish farmer named "Rantau Lestari".

In the pond, the constraint of catfish farming lies in the turbidity of the water which has a negative impact on the growth and health of the fish. The farmer also has to drain the water manually, making it difficult to see or monitor the catfish pond gradually.

"Due to these reasons, I created Internet of Things (IoT) technology and integrated it through a mobile application. The IoT application has a function to regulate water turbidity and can remotely feed fish to prevent early death. Freesh was formed due to the results of this research," she explained.

Although they had prepared well for the competition, Evi and the team admitted that the biggest challenge they faced was insecurity. "There were so many amazing startups that had good early traction, it made me and my team feel insecure," she said.

Evi and her team had a special strategy to overcome this problem. "The key was to try our best and fight fear. We believed in what we were competing in and kept trying to give our best," added Evi.

Support from their friends, mentors, and team helped them overcome their fears and insecurities, so that they could perform optimally and bring the name of the Vocational Campus of Brawijaya University to the national event. (*)