Right this moment, William Tanuwijaya is a formidable drive.
As CEO of e-commerce website Tokopedia, the 39-year-old is one-quarter of the management of the newly- merged GoTo Group — Indonesia’s most beneficial expertise firm.
However his enterprise could by no means have come to be if it weren’t for his dedication within the face of critics.
“Tokopedia’s story nearly ended earlier than we even began,” Tanuwijaya informed CNBC Make It.
Impressed by U.S. icons
Tanuwijaya was simply in his early 20s when he set out on a mission to “democratize e-commerce” by creating an internet site for Indonesia’s thousands and thousands of small enterprise homeowners to promote their items on-line.
It was then the mid-2000s and the web was taking off within the nation. However with no established tech business or native function fashions to study from, Tanuwijaya needed to look to the greats.
I don’t come from the Ivy League … I all the time take into account myself a graduate from web cafe.
William Tanuwijaya
co-founder and CEO, Tokopedia
“We do not have successful story like Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs or Jack Ma. There was no such story of entrepreneurs from Indonesia constructing expertise firms throughout that point,” he mentioned.
Impressed by their tales, Tanuwijaya knew he — like them — must elevate non-public funding to get his concept off the bottom. However as a younger Indonesian from a rural background and humble beginnings, he quickly realized he did not match the mildew.
“They’d ask about my private background … which college I studied at,” Tanuwijaya mentioned, recalling his conversations with traders.
“I don’t come from the Ivy League,” mentioned Tanuwijaya, who studied at Binus College in Jakarta whereas working night time shifts in an web cafe to help his household. “I all the time take into account myself a graduate from web cafe.”
Then they’d ask him in regards to the wider market alternative.
“They’d ask me, William, are you able to title one one that has been profitable in Indonesia as a result of they’re constructing a expertise firm or web enterprise?” he mentioned.
‘Your entire function fashions, these Silicon Valley founders, they’re born particular, you aren’t.’
William Tanuwijaya
co-founder and CEO, Tokopedia
Regardless of being residence to the world’s fourth-largest inhabitants and a quickly rising center class, traders have been not sure of Indonesia’s potential or if he was the person to comprehend it.
“Your concept could be very easy,” he recalled them saying. “You wish to construct the Amazon of Indonesia or the Alibaba of Indonesia. What about when all these international giants come to the market? They’ve the expertise, they’ve the capital, they’ve the know-how, they’ve the sources that you just don’t have. How are you going to compete?”
Adopting the American dream
Then got here the day when he met with one non-public investor who modified his life eternally.
“He mentioned: William, your entire function fashions, these Silicon Valley founders, they’re born particular, you aren’t,” Tanuwijaya recalled. “Please cease daydreaming; discover one thing extra lifelike to do.”
For Tanuwijaya, it was the catalyst he wanted.
“That’s the day when I discovered the aim of my life as a result of I spotted the explanation I needed to construct Tokopedia is to construct belief amongst strangers to have the ability to begin enterprise wherever,” he mentioned.
Indonesia really has an Indonesian dream idea … ‘Dream as excessive because the sky. In case you fall, you fall amongst the celebrities.’
William Tanuwijaya
co-founder and CEO, Tokopedia
Like his U.S. idols, whom he mentioned to embody the American dream of self-determination, Tanuwijaya mentioned he found a drive to be undiscouraged and assist different Indonesian enterprise homeowners.
“That day I remembered that Indonesia really has an Indonesian dream idea,” mentioned Tanuwijaya. “Our founding father, the primary president of the nation, as soon as mentioned … ‘Dream as excessive because the sky. In case you fall, you fall amongst the celebrities.'”
“I discover that is lovely and that is the Indonesian dream,” he mentioned. “So I made a decision that it doesn’t matter what occurs, I’ll attempt to construct Tokopedia.”
After launching Tokopedia in 2009, Tanuwijaya and his co-founder Leontinus Alpha Edison quickly secured seed funding from the Indonesian funding agency PT Indonusa Dwitama. It has since acquired buy-in from SoftBank, Sequoia Capital and Alibaba Group.
Greater than a decade on, below the GoTo Group, Tokopedia counts a community of greater than 11 million retailers and 100 million lively customers, who final yr contributed 1% to Indonesia’s $1.1 trillion gross home product.
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