The spirit of bambu runcing (bamboo spears) in Indonesia is the spirit of the past, but it has become relevant once again at the hands of millennials. The spirit exists in the heart of a man who migrated from a small town in Sumatra to Jakarta on a ship for four days and three nights. The spirit exists in the courage and persistence of a former Internet café attendant in establishing a digital company.
He is the co-founder and CEO of Tokopedia, William Tanuwijaya, 35. Tokopedia is an online marketplace that became the talk of the nation when it was cited as one of three Indonesian unicorn startups. “Unicorn” is a term for startup with a valuation of more than Rp 13.3 trillion (US$1 billion).
Tokopedia’s fame soared after it secured a funding of Rp 14.7 trillion from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in August this year.
“For us, this is only the beginning, even if we’re not that new. Among tech companies, we are actually fairly old. We were established on Aug. 17, 2009. Our mission has never changed from day one, which is to use Tokopedia to drive the economy through digital facilities,” William said recently.
Tokopedia’s emergence was driven by contemporary issues in Indonesia. One of these issues is social gap. Talking about gap, William started to share his story.
William was born and raised in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra. His parents had moved to the town before he was born. William said that he came from a modest family with no history of entrepreneurship. After graduating from high school, he was given the opportunity by his father and uncle to move to Jakarta.
“Once I arrived in Jakarta, I saw so much inequality. It’s a real problem. One example is the presence of books. I love reading books. In Pematang Siantar, there were no large bookstores, only small ones and the books were expensive. In Jakarta, it’s the opposite,” he said.
Internet café attendant
When William arrived in Jakarta in 1999, he enrolled in the Informatics Engineering department at Bina Nusantara University. Two years later, his father got sick and he needed to find a side job. The job turned to be both a burden and a blessing in disguise.
William worked as an internet café attendant near his university every day from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m.
“There, I learned about the internet for free. I graduated in 2003 and never had any dream of becoming a businessman. I worked at several different companies in the next four years. In 2007, I got the opportunity to build Tokopedia after reminiscing about the inequalities I experienced in my hometown. However, at the time, I had no funding,” William said.
Kompas/Raditya Helabumi
William Tanuwijaya
He was inspired by the founders of tech giants Google and Facebook, who obtained funding from venture capitalists. At the time, however, he knew no one. He talked to his boss and explained his idea of creating Tokopedia. His boss, who he saw as a visionary, then introduced him to his moneyed friends.
“We spent two years searching for funding. Back then, we often failed to answer when potential investors told us to name successful people with tech businesses. They were also worried about competition. They’d ask what we would do if global players were to come to Indonesia. How would we fight them?” he said.
He finally came to a turning point when one of his potentials investors told him, “You are still young, William. Do not waste your youth. You dream too high. All your inspirations are from Silicon Valley. They were born special while you were not. Come on, just find something more realistic.”
The spirit of bamboo spears
“I knew he meant well, but still it hurt me. From there, we began fostering our bamboo spear spirit. It means working with sheer courage with no big funding. We believed that our future is in our own hands,” he said.
After facing multiple rejections, William said that he had nothing but persistence. At last, in 2009, his former boss became his first investor. However, he still faced a rough path ahead. He went back to his university to participate in a job fair. He thought that he needed the manpower to create a tech company. That has always been his belief; there is no asset and resource more important than manpower.
“I was at the fair for two days, looking for talent. No one applied. In front of me, there was the stand of a big bank. Thousands of students were queuing there. At my stand, there was only one student who was a member of the fair’s organizing committee. She asked me what kind of company I had,” William said.
Despite being a self-proclaimed introvert, William adopted a new strategy of talking in classes. As time went by, more and more people applied at his company. In its fifth year, the company had 85 employees. The rest is history.
Having spent its first years as a company overlooked by many, Tokopedia now attracts tens of thousands of job applicants. Last year, two Indonesian students from the prestigious Harvard Business School interned at the company. Foreign investors knock on its doors day and night. This is despite William saying that, in its first years, he and his friends were often rejected by investors who said that they were just wasting their energy.
William emphasized that Tokopedia was only in its beginning phase. Seeing the around 2 million small and medium business owners joining Tokopedia, William said that the figure must always increase.
He said again and again that the company’s bamboo spear spirit had always been its best asset. He said that he learned about the spirit from tales of the nation’s war for independence, when local soldiers often used bamboo spears as a last resort against the onslaught of foreign armies with more sophisticated weapons. The soldiers believed that their struggle would not be in vain as they would deliver Indonesia to freedom.
“For me, it is this hope that has always kept the dream and mission of Tokopedia alive. Back in our old office, there was an auditorium we called The Founding Fathers. There was a painting of Soekarno and a famous quote that said, ‘Dream as high as the sky. Even if you fall, you’ll fall among stars.’”
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