Indonesian startup Titipku is based in Jogjakarta, a city known for being a hotbed of tech talents and a budding startup ecosystem — something that co-founders Ong Tek Tjan and Henri Suhardja do not take for granted.

Suhardja and Ong speak to e27 for an exclusive interview to explain the idea behind Titipku, a location-based marketplace aimed to facilitate MSMEs and sellers in traditional markets to go digital.

From early on, Suhardja immediately pointed out the uniqueness of the dynamic duo. “Our age gap is more than 20 years,” he says, which prompts the question on how they got together in the first place to run the business that was established in 2017.

“I first knew Ong when I came to Jakarta and joined an entrepreneur WhatsApp group. I first approached him for a light discussion. Then he shared his business idea and I was intrigued by the idea of helping traditional sellers go online, so the rest is history,” Suhardja recalls.

Ong had 26 years of banking experience. In October last year, he resigned from his director position at PT Bank Sahabat Sampoerna to go all-in with Titipku with Suhardja, who is also an investor in three F&B MSMEs.

Ong adds that the fact that they both shared an alma mater in Gadjah Mada University make it seem like a match in heaven. They were joined by other four co-founders: CFO Ian Stephens, CTO Fransiscus Pandhu, COO Stephanus Deo, and CMO Faradhita Delicia.

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Why Jogjakarta

Ong and Suhardja agreed to set up Titipku in Jogjakarta because MSMEs and traditional markets have been defining the lifeline of the city for centuries.

“More than other big cities, we see that traditional markets and sellers are the souls of Jogjakarta, and they are precisely why we started Titipku: so they can keep up with the digitisation around them and gain something from it,” Suhardja says.

“Besides, the cost of running a startup business from Yogyakarta is far more affordable than say, Jakarta, where startups are flocking and crowding the scene. Here, it’s much quieter and we can focus on tackling Yogyakarta first,” Ong adds.

Helping MSMEs going digital is not something novel in tech startups, especially in the time of COVID-19, where physical contacts are discouraged. But digitalisation is particularly challenging for older sellers who were previously almost untouched by technology.

With an idea to solve a problem, come the challenges of implementing it on the field: How to convince these traditional sellers to go online.

Enter the Explorer.

Explorer is the name given by Titipku to the younger generation or anyone interested to help and get extra income by onboarding these elderly sellers into the app. Explorers are the ones who visit traditional markets to properly onboard sellers by taking pictures and creating their profiles on Titipku.

“We believe that this is something that would benefit both Explorers and the MSMEs, to connect them in such a way that happens under one ecosystem,” Suhardja explains.

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Besides Explorers, Titipku also has Nitiper and Jatiper, other terms they use in addressing the customers and the couriers, respectively. Together with Explorers, Titipku aims to create an ecosystem that is centred around helping the MSMEs thrive digitally.

“I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse”

Made famous by The Godfather (1972) movie, the quote captures the essence of what Titipku is trying to do.

With gojek and Grab dominating the on-demand services scene, the question remains the same: How can the rest of the newcomer providers compete to get the attention of the market? Might as well pivot or start with something entirely different that has not been taken by the archnemesis.

Titipku confidently comes in with the offer of share vouchers for three parties that are involved in helping MSMEs going into the surface: Explorer, Nitiper, and Jatiper.

“Each of them gets a share voucher that’s worth US$0.017, that is multiplied every time they board new MSMEs into Titipku’s app and a transaction happens,” explains Suhardja.

The decision to let their shares be owned collectively by all of the members of the ecosystem is an approach that not every startup is willing to take.

On this, the co-founders share their takes. “I was intrigued by whether or not being an on-demand courier … is a sustainable profession in the long term. I mean, what do these people gain in the long run if they keep being a courier? There is no guarantee of financial security for these people,” Ong explains.

“The usual rewards such as points can be redeemed anytime, but this won’t sustain them. So we figured, why not our company’s shares?” Suhardja adds.

With this being their main offer, the hope is that members of the ecosystem will be encouraged to onboard more MSMEs and bring them into visibility.

Also Read: BukuKas makes book-keeping easy for Indonesian MSMEs to save money and time

“This also serves as a tool for us to work even harder, so our company can one day go public. Then these people who’ve been with us since the beginning can get the financial security or at least the rewards from all the voucher shares they have worked for,” says Suhardja.

What’s still missing

MSMEs account for 60.34 per cent of Indonesian Gross Domestic Product, which according to data provided by Titipku, is worth US$150 million. It is also the backbone that can help bring people out of poverty and can create 120 million jobs.

Titipku also believes that supporting MSMEs can bring forth economic equality tools for the people, even in the remote area.

However, even with Indonesia being the fifth country with most internet users (143 million users in total), local products produced by the MSMEs only contribute a total of seven per cent of online transactions.

“This is what we wish to change,” Ong says. By empowering MSMEs in going digital, Titipku believes it has solved the MSMEs’ number one problems of access to a loan with its approach.

“Most of these MSMEs are unable to get loans because of its high-interest rates, so we seek to solve this by bringing them online through our Explorers, who act as their salesperson,” explains Suhardja.

With the shares vouchers, on the other hand, the company wishes to change the “quickest way to get money” mindset most startups and people joining on-demand professions are used to.

“We want this to also be a tool to educate people on financial planning, that if we work together towards a common goal, we might be able to succeed together. Nothing in this world is free, and the free offer is not something that will last,” Ong closes.

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Image Credit: Titipku

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