The Success Catalyst of Journalism Businesses

Mark Briggs of Poynter Institute claims his course would tell you – aspiring entrepreneurial journalists – what to do before plunging to the business world. After the huge success of BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post, every journalist seems enchanted to give this a try. Who knows it’ll be a fruitful business undertaking that’ll lead you to a life full of fortune?

But if you’re like me, you know it takes more than writing and reporting skills to do great in journalism industry. There’re so many factors we need to take into account to be successful. And yet, the meaning of success itself is blurred. What I mean by success may be entirely different from what you mean, and what any other journalists mean.

Briggs couldn’t be as popular and wealthy as Kara Swisher, Sarah Lacy, Jakoeb Oetama or Jonah Peretti but he is for sure quite experienced in his own way. He stated his course “aims to give participants the knowledge and tools needed to launch content-driven news/information websites. We’ll take you from idea to implementation and, when necessary, help you retool or replace ideas with better versions.” In complete, he writes:

If you’re considering starting a news or information-oriented website, this course will help you decide whether an entrepreneurial path is the right one for you. And if you’re looking for a crash course on starting a business, it will show you the ropes, point you to the right resources and help you formulate the questions you most need answers to.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

After completing this course, you’ll have newfound knowledge about creating a business and bringing your specific idea to fruition.

You’ll be able to:

• Explain the difference between an idea and a product.
• List the basic elements of a business plan.
• Define basic business and marketing terms, including ROI and CPC.
• List and summarize the legal structures available when establishing a business, and identify their strengths and weaknesses.
• List popular technological platforms and cite strengths and weaknesses of each.
• List available analytics tools and identify what to track and how to analyze the numbers.
• Summarize the primary options when forming a business as a legal entity, getting legal and accounting help and finding software to help run the business.
• List and describe major ad networks (e.g., BlogHer, Federated Media)

For your specific business, you’ll be able to:

• Define your market, approximate its size and identify your audience
• Write an executive summary.
• Define the current work that needs to be done and identify the people who can do it.
• Determine whether funding is needed and, if so, how much.
• Decide whether the business can be bootstrapped and, if not, identify options for securing funding.
• Estimate how many users/customers/viewers/readers will be “enough” to make the business work.
• Identify qualities that distinguish your business from your competitors.
• Perform a basic assessment of potential adjacent markets.
• List questions that need to be answered about your product, market and/or business.

WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE:

• Journalists working at legacy operations interested in founding a start-up venture
• Recent journalism graduates interested in working in journalism, but not for a “traditional” journalistic business
• Anyone passionate about a community, topic or cause who has a desire to start a publication-based business with journalistic values

For a moment, I let the words seep into my mind. Is it going to work? Can all these topics cover what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in journalism industry?

It doesn’t seem that easy. Mastering all these things might be leading us closer to the goal but definitely not instantly.

We need a CATALYST.

What could that be? The mysterious catalyst that we’re searching for…

I remember several juniors asking me if they could just stay in the comfort of their hometowns while doing their journalism gigs. I told them, if they can be in Jakarta, it’d be much better.

The reason is because they need NETWORKS, people. They must see and talk to people, not only sitting and typing at home. Journalism businesses do NOT work that way. You have to go out, see more and more people, talk to them, dig tons of information from these folks you may not find at the smaller social circle in hometown.

Bagaimana Memperkenalkan Startup Anda pada Jurnalis, Tanpa Spamming

Bukan rahasia lagi bahwa startup-startup ‘haus publikasi’. Mereka ingin media meliput bisnis mereka. Mereka ingin semua orang
membicarakan produk dan layanan yang mereka luncurkan. Mereka mau brand mereka menempel di otak orang sebagaimana “Aqua” untuk air minum dalam kemasan, atau “Sanyo” untuk pompa air. Mereka mau kampanye marketing digitalnya viral hingga tingkat global di jejaring sosial. Entrepreneur pendiri startup juga tidak kalah ingin dikenal oleh publik dan dianggap sosok sukses dan bisa menjadi panutan.

Sayangnya, tidak banyak entrepreneur sekaligus pendiri startup yang mau bersusah payah untuk memilah-milah jurnalis yang ingin mereka tuju. Mereka biasanya membombardir jurnalis yang mereka telah dapatkan alamat surelnya dengan berbagai pernyataan pers atau semacamnya dengan satu keyakinan:”Siapa tahu mereka mau memuatnya?”

Padahal dalam sudut pandang jurnalis, menerima surel yang tidak dikehendaki secara terus menerus bisa cukup mengganggu produktivitas. Kita bisa bayangkan betapa repotnya memilih puluhan surel yang harus dibuka, dibaca, disortir dan dibalas serta kemudian diolah menjadi berita di kotak masuk (inbox) dalam sehari.

Kesalahan umum yang biasa terjadi ialah entrepreneur dan startup mengirimkan surel pada jurnalis yang memiliki minat dan bidang liputan yang tidak atau kurang sesuai. Misalnya, seorang jurnalis yang bertugas meliput sektor bisnis properti akan merasa terganggu jika dibanjiri dengan surel berisi press release dari perusahaan ritel.

Persoalan akan lebih mudah bagi entrepreneur dan startupnya jika diketahui bahwa si jurnalis memiliki tugas peliputan yang mencakup bidang yang relatif luas. Contohnya, jika seorang jurnalis ditugasi meliput dunia bisnis dan ekonomi secara umum. Tentu pengiriman surel pernyataan pers yang isinya peluncuran produk baru atau pendirian startup baru akan lebih dapat diterima. Namun, sekali lagi tidak semuanya demikian.

Mengapa mengirimkan surel secara membabi buta ke semua jurnalis tidak sepatutnya dilakukan? Karena selain bisa dianggap spamming dan merepotkan jurnalis itu sendiri, entrepreneur juga akan menghabiskan waktu dan tenaganya secara tidak efektif dan efisien. Ibarat berperang dengan peluru terbatas, Anda sudah menghamburkan peluru yang berharga itu dalam waktu beberapa detik. Hematlah peluru-peluru itu dengan membidik lalu menembak musuh dengan cermat dan tepat. Apa artinya 1000 tembakan meleset dibandingkan 1 peluru yang bisa menembus jantung pimpinan musuh?

Lalu apa yang bisa dilakukan agar entrepreneur tidak terjebak dalam permainan spamming ini? Yang pertama dan utama menurut entrepreneur media Jason Calacanis ialah membaca artikel dan konten yang dihasilkan oleh seorang jurnalis. Kemudian setelah itu, ikutilah ide-idenya di blog, jejaring sosial setidaknya selama sebulan. Jadilah pengikut akunnya di Twitter, baca tweet-tweetnya. Bertemanlah dengannya di jejaring sosial Facebook jika memungkinkan. Semua ini perlu sekali dilakukan sebelum Anda memutuskan menghubungi si jurnalis. Mengapa ini penting? Agar Anda bisa paham bagaimana mereka berpikir melalui apa yang mereka katakan dan tuliskan. Seperti yang dikatakan Calacanis, menghubungi jurnalis via surel tanpa mengenal mereka dan apa yang mereka lakukan dalam pekerjaan sungguh “sebuah kegilaan”. Ditegaskan juga oleh Greg Galant (salah satu pendiri Mucrack), bahwa 90% dari jurnalis yang ia survei mengatakan lebih menyukai orang yang menghubungi mereka sudah mengikuti tulisan-tulisan mereka sebelumnya karena dengan begitu mereka tidak cuma sekadar mengirimkan surel tanpa dikehendaki. Ada hubungan yang terjalin dan jurnalis akan lebih yakin bahwa Anda menyisihkan waktu untuk meneliti siapa mereka dan apa yang mereka kerjakan.

“Hatching Twitter”: Dinamika Startup dalam Balutan Sastrawi

Jurnalis dan kolumnis New York Times Nick Bilton bisa dikatakan berhasil menciptakan sebuah biografi yang menarik. Hanya saja, karyanya yang satu ini bukan biografi yang membahas mengenai kehidupan satu individu. Bilton menuliskan Hatching Twitter, sebuah rentetan sejarah startup legendaris yang kerap disebut bersamaan dengan Facebook sebagai dua penguasa besar dunia jejaring sosial di dekade kedua abad ke-21. Ia menuliskan secara runut dinamika Twitter yang sebagaimana startup lainnya juga mengalami banyak momen-momen dramatis. Riwayat Facebook telah diprofilkan dalam film “The Social Network”. Sayangnya, Twitter belum. Namun, siapa tahu ada rumah produksi yang tertarik mengadaptasi karya Nick Bilton ini menjadi sebuah karya sinematografi yang elok dan sedap dihayati?

Entah disengaja atau tidak, Nick Bilton menurut pandangan saya sudah menggunakan metode penulisan yang berhasil membuat naskahnya menjadi lebih filmis, alias layak dijadikan sebagai film. ‎Di sini, ia mengabaikan aspek-aspek kaku yang biasa dijumpai dalam dunia entrepreneurship dan bisnis. Anda sama sekali tidak akan menemukan kosakata khas keuangan seperti IPO, saham, atau sebagainya. Dengan begitu, tidak berlebihan kalau saya katakan buku ini bisa dikonsumsi siapa saja, tanpa membuat dahi berkerut, tanpa harus mencari kata yang asing di Google, tanpa harus merujuk glosarium. Singkat kata, Bilton meramu perjalanan Twitter hingga menjadi seperti sekarang agar mudah dicerna masyarakat awam, anak-anak sekolah dasar yang sudah bisa membaca sekalipun.

Pertama kali membaca, saya sudah bersiap untuk berpikir memahami kalimat-kalimatnya yang teknis dan pelik. Setelah banyak membaca artikel-artikel panjang di blog-blog teknologi dan startup seperti TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Pando, dan Recode‎ yang kadang tidak jelas konteksnya, saya merasa lebih nyaman membaca penuturan Bilton yang sangat sastrawi.

Jelas Bilton menanggalkan gaya bertutur seorang kolumnis dan jurnalis, serta mengadopsi gaya storytelling yang membuat alur dalam buku ini terkesan mengalir seperti aliran air. Karena menulis tentang Twitter, Bilton juga menggunakan jargon khas jejaring sosial itu. Dalam judul dan sub-judulnya, Bilton menuliskan tagar (hashtag) seperti #START untuk menandai bab pengantar yang berisi penjelasan kondisi Twitter tanggal 4 Oktober 2010 pukul 10.43 pagi. Terdepaknya CEO Evan Williams diceritakan di sini. Detil-detil remeh yang sebelumnya hanya diketahui pihak internal Twitter‎ kini terkuak dan justru menjadi kekuatan dari kisah itu karena Anda para pembaca bisa merasakan gejolak emosi para pelaku dalam kisah nyata itu. Misalnya, Anda bisa menemukan detil menarik di bab #START, saat Evan Williams merasa mual dan ingin muntah setelah “ditendang” dari kursi CEO dalam sebuah kudeta di ruang rapat direksi Twitter yang “berdarah”. Istrinya Sara yang juga bekerja di sana menghampiri Evan yang memiliki akun @ev dan bertanya,”Bagaimana perasaanmu?” Evan menjawab,”Sial (Fuck).” Ia harus mengumumkan pengunduran dirinya itu sembari memperkenalkan seorang suksesor, Dick Costolo.

Saya suka dengan gaya penulisan seperti ini. Sangat GQ. Maksud saya, mirip dengan gaya menulis para jurnalis Majalah GQ. Tulisan mereka berdasarkan fakta, bernilai jurnalistik, tetapi memiliki nilai sastrawi yang tinggi. Penuturannya lewat perspektif orang pertama. Di buku ini, sudut pandang orang ketiga tunggal dipakai agar penulis lebih bebas merangkai potongan-potongan kisah yang ia dapatkan dari “beberapa ratus jam wawancara dengan para pegawai dan eksekutif Twitter dan Odeo dan teman eksekutif, pejabat pemerintah, diskusi dengan hampir semua orang yang namanya disebut di dalam buku serta para pesaing mereka‎.” Jadi bisa dibayangkan betapa keras kerja Bilton mengumpulkan fakta dan informasi yang terekam dalam berbagai email internal, rekaman wawancara dan tentu saja data di jejaring sosial Twitter. Ia mengklaim telah memastikan kebenaran tempat, waktu terjadinya kejadian dengan melacaknya di Twitter.

Hatching Twitter cocok untuk Anda yang ingin membaca sesuatu yang bermakna tanpa harus banyak berpikir keras mengenai bisnis dan entrepreneurship. Anda akan dimanjakan dengan penuturan sisi-sisi humanis para entrepreneur ini, yang tentunya jarang dibeberkan di tulisan para jurnalis teknologi yang biasa menyorot angka dan data, untung dan rugi, tren dan pelemahan, dan hal-hal lain yang sangat jurnalistik.

Membaca buku ini membuat saya juga ingin bertanya,”Siapa yang perjalanan startupnya mau saya tulis jadi buku ya?” Seandainya ada yang bersedia.

Steven Kim on Qraved and His Craving for Entrepreneurial Challenges

Korean Wave is now in the culinary industry as well. Steven Kim is the CEO and co-founder at Qraved, Managing Partner at Imaginato who happened to be on stage at Global Entrepreneurship Week Summit Indonesia yesterday (21/11). Here’s the excerpt of our conversation for you. It’s the uncut version of our brief interview after his performance on Talkathon at the end of the event. I’m AP (Akhlis Purnomo) and Steven Kim is SK.

AP: So what startup are you running now?

SK: Currently running Qraved.com,  it’s a restaurant discovery reservation platform. Both are mobile apps on Android and iOS and web as well. We just launched our new iOS app so we’re quite excited about the different design and different features we have now.

AP:How does it work?

SK: So recently why we use our Qraved is one, I wanna know where to go to eat..to have dinner.. various different occasions, right? So either you discover, you find it by occasions, or you find about different types of restaurants. So ramen restaurants, barbeque places, Chinese flavor, or let’s say, I just wanna get an offer. That scenario you can actually just find restaurants that have offers. The offers are just very similar to Agoda offers, so depending on the day or time, the offer inventory changes. It’s only limited number of people that can get discounts so …and you have to book. That’s why if you plan to  …more and more Indonesians now are using our platform..yes everyboody used to be last minute. Everybody like “Oh Friday dinner, where should we go?” and book it right away like 2 hours in advance. Because of more and more discounts coming in, people actually book a bit earlier to secure that discount.

AP: So it’s like Groupon but in culinary industry or…?

SK: It’s different to Groupon in a few different ways. So …One, to the restaurants, our merchants..Hmm we’re actually just filling the empty tables they have anyway so similiar to hotel industry, right? So hmm, Friday Saturday dinners, this is easy but Sunday to Thursday dinners, like you have 10 to 15 empty tables. So it’s gonna be empty unless there’s something to assist it. So actually we’re helping restaurants to make more money. Whereas Groupon is just a marketing platform. So the discount itself is almost like a marketing expense, our situation is actually more yield management where restaurants actually make more money.

AP: How did you get the idea?

SK: Well, uhmm, one of the things ..when I came to Indonesia about 3 years ago, I was looking for restaurants because I’m a foodie and searched for different things. Back then the only two platforms existed was Sendok Garpu and …. (I can’t hear it perfectly -AP). I searched for Italian, I got Pizza Hut. And I’d say for burger and I got Burger King. So basically I wasn’t able to find this kind of unique..like specialty restaurants or a certain topic. And the biggest reason is because of the incentive of people to write reviews. It’s the mess of 18..19 writing reviews because they’ll get something free. That’s why ..I meant fastfood becomes the most popular thing. But actually I mean ..if you’re a culinary person, which I think a lot of Indonesian are now especially more on Instagram and Path. Now food and dining out is almost like ..it’s a lifestyle, it’s not only about dining. You take a picture, you are dressed up and post it up and that kind of stuff. So that good platform didn’t exist and that’s why …OK, how we make something that for people to look for something specific depending on the situation, depending on the dish, depending on the cuisine, they wanna try something new, or hmm.. yeah they just wanna find different places. What we’re trying to do is provide different experience, just better. Really making it easy to find different things and that’s why our value proposition is different things, so discovery of different types of offer, set menu and so on, super easy resevations, so like if you’re going out in big groups or you’re going out on a date, you want that window seat, because there’s only one or two window seat but you want your date to be at that good spot, you need to make resevations, but beforehand you have to make a phone call, so yeah OK we’ll see if we can get that window seat when we get there but now you don’t have to do that. Now you can just easily put it “window seat” in the reservation and it’s done. More and more people are using it. Specifically like this (Steven showed me his app on the phone) and you see the more you book and dine, you also get reward points, whch can be redeemed later on to get discounts as well. Ten times of you book and dine, it goes up to 1000 points which means 100K. If you get 2000 which uses 20 times, it becomes 500K. 30 times you’ll get 400K Rupiahs deduction. So let’s say nobody has to reserve, true, fine…if you just use it to track your dining behavior then you’re getting just more and more possible to get discounts in the future.

AP: Does the service also work in other cities aside from Jakarta?
SK: Right now we’re in Jakarta. We’re launching in Bali. next month. We plan to launch in Bandung, Surabaya and afterwards Yogyakarta, Medan, all in the next few months.

AP: You’re travelling around Indonesia?
SK: I am going quite a bit, my team is also …We currently have 30 people in Jakarta. Our office is in City Loft since November 2013. Before that we were in Menteng.

AP: How old is the startup (Qraved) now?
SK: One year now.

AP: Who’s the investor?
SK: We have 500 Startups, SIlicon Valley investor, Skype cofounder, a Japanese investor. We’re already in A Round.

AP: Any plan to expand to other countries?
SK: Sure, the reason why we choose Indonesia, apart from the market opportunity and everything else, is when I started Zalora in Singapore and then I went to Thailand to help build the business there, the operations there, there’re so many different problems. So what we can think is OK.. To develop in a location, you can’t expand easily. It’s very difficult, you have to change so many things. We have to start in Indonesia and go to Singapore even Bangkok and others, we’ve gone through a lot of different challenges that we’ve overcome, whether it be products or processes or whatever ..yeah I think it’s a good launchpad.

AP: That means Indonesia is a key market to your startup?
SK: I think it’s a great foundation because it’s challenging. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of challenges but that means there’s a lot of opportunity. I think when it comes to foreigners, like..this is my business, there’re more businesses coming into Indonesia. We started in here but some are concerned to start in amarket very early but for me, me being Korean and experiencing how Korea developed or seeing how Japan and China  developed, I think we’re in Indonesia right now because all the communication is now super super high. Social media penetration, Path, Instagram, going nuts, mobile…Internet penetration going crazy…Xiaomi coming in. The communication is being fixed. So now companies need to figure out what services we could put on that. And what we’re doing is putting F and B as a service on top of this communication platform that exists already.

AP: Is it difficult to set up a business in Indonesia?
SK: I think it is very difficult. Honestly…In every market it’s important to have a good local team and local partners and Indonesia makes that as well. It’s very important that you have local insights. I wouldn’t say it’s the hardest because I think Indonesians are amazing in the sense of English level, their acceptance of global services, curiosity on something new. These elements are already here. The biggest challenge of Indonesia in the way…and this is why this kind of event (GEW) is important…the younger people are not really leaping to embrace this opportunity. I think there’re lots people who go to corporate world. And I think that’s a bad decision because really when you’re younger, that’s when you can actually do a startup and experience it hardcore and try to build your individual division, or department or team and be like to grow it and work hard to make that happen. Let’s say you do it for a year and “OK, this is not for me”, still you can go back to corporate jobs. So I think young people in Indonesia have to really much more jump into entrepreneurship. They don’t necessarily start themselves, being a contributor to big visions of startup like Qraved.
I’m always looking for talents, looking for anybody who really is alligned with this type of vision, that Indonesia is a cool market and we’re building like one of the biggest in Indonesia. I’m always interested in people who share same visions.

AP: Is it that hard to recruit talents in Indonesia?
SK: IT think it’s more challenging than other locations, not because… there’s good talent but the supply and demand right now, there’s definitely more demand of talent than actually the supply. Also secondly, a lot of smart people currently in corporate jobs. They’re very good but they’re not looking for jobs so they’re comfortable. They’re not looking for more yet. When it comes to hiring, it’s easier in the market where people are genuinely thinking:”How do I improve my life?” But there’s still like..”Oh, I’m comfortable. I just wanna be here.” Kind of a bad attitude as well.

AP: Is it your first startup?
SK: It’s my fourth. I was with Rocket Internet before this, so I started a travel accomodation site like AirBnB,  Windu (2011), So I built up Asia Pacific and then I started Zalora Singapore. Up to 50 employees in six months and …then I came over to start in Indonesia at a B2B office supplies company and then I left about a year and a half year ago to start Qraved.

AP: Indonesia has recently a new government. Is there any expectation as a businessman or entrepreneur?
SK: Yeah, there’re some policies being announced that show positive trends in the business persepective. Obviously, the execution itself would be very important. Some are positive like the government’s plan to invest billions of dollars. The subsidy situation and it’s interesting that some don’t go nuts about this. There’re a lot of positive indicators. The momentum is what we believe in. And hopefully their execution of this policy is going to the right direction.

AP: Can Indonesia build a better entrepreneurship ecosystem just like Korea?

SK: To a certain extent, yes. It’s really depending on how you define an ecosystem like how you define entrepreneurship. Just because you’re trying to enhance entrepreneurship, it doesn’t mean “Oh, everybody! Start your own business!”. You can be entrepreneurial with an organization, being a part of companies especially if you’re early on in your career, it makes a lot of sense to do that so that you get the experience first and then when you’re actually ready, you can do it yourself. You have a lot of knowledge, network of people, have different pieces together. When it comes to ecosystem, Indonesia…hmm it’s getting there. This kind of platform and companies… A lot of bigger companies should be more supportive. We wanna hire more people as well. It’s always great to have people to build up that kind of profile.

Despite Huge Market Potentials, AirBnB Lets Indonesia Users Base Grow Organically

‎Being a reporter means you’ve got the privilege to ask whatever questions you have in your mind. So while everyone else spoke up about how cool AirBnB service has become so far and how lucrative the business opportunities for being a host may seem, I hurled a rather outlandish question about co-founder Brian Chesky at Leander Yohanes, a rep from the startup presenting mostly about the experience of being a host and guest via the service. “[We] always think the company first before making any decisions.

Answering in full English, Leander ‎recalled the ‘intimidating’ looks of the co-founder who used to be a bodybuilder at the first encounter in 2013 when he applied a job at AirBnB. “You know him..,”Leander paused and shrugged his shoulders. Chesky must be significantly bigger than Leander and the authority Chesky has in hand makes him look even more authoritative and domineering. Leander said Chesky asked him a series of randomly-picked interview questions. “So he’d know how fast one can think and solve problems as we know startups are so dynamic and full of unexpected things,”Leander explained further.

Though AirBnB has so many rivals, they’re confident to compete in the niche. As Leander ‎put it, when compared to platforms like CouchSurfing, AirBnB has its own stregths. One thing CouchSurfing doesn’t have is the guarantee of accomodation type. Because you pay for it, you can demand or expect a certain kind of service you deserve. While ChouchSurfing is free but makes one more prone to fraud or any crimes or sheer disappointment because it’s overrated.

While CouchSurfing ‎is inclined to be a pure backpackers community, in my opinion AirBnB also has to compete with budget hotels such as Amaris. Leander begged to differ,”I don’t think we’re competing with them because we provide different experiences.” One of the avid users of the service coming that night, Vivek, prefers AirBnB to “connect with the local beats”. Leander argued budget hotels can’t provide it.

From the perspective of a non-user (I’m an AirBnB service virgin myself), I was curious if I could choose a guest based on my preference, such as avoiding guests who don’t snore or smoke or so on. He claims we can. How? “By reading reviews,”he said. To some extent, we can avoid annoying guests but rarely can we find reviews about someone’s snoring. The different thing applies to filthy guests. These filthy people can be easier to detect from reviews.

I read on Quora that AirBnB ‎has quite a few negative reviews, which made me wonder whether they have a strict moderation system. When I asked if it was right, Leander told us that there’s no such a thing in the company he works for. “We have no moderation system for reviews,”he confirmed. But he missed mentioning about the non-anonimity for reviewers, which according to someone on Quora doesn’t allow them to leave reviews without names. So there’s a high chance if your previous host can find and read it and gets raged if s/he find bad reviews about him/ her written by you. Retaliation or vengeance could happen. And that’s no good.

‎As I asked Leander how it feels to work at a hyped and fast-growing startup like AirBnB, he said it feels like being thrown to a world where he has to figure out everything himself. That explains why AirBnB is so rigorous when it comes to hiring people. “They want people they hire understand the goal,”said he. The level of trust and autonomy as an employee is also higher. The employees of AirBnB are also expected to be thinking and solving problems like their founders do.

That said, I challenged the proposition of hiring likeminded people asking if it’s really what the company does all the time. “Yes and no. Because if you hire someone likeminded to you, you would find creative solutions, right?” Leander thought it’d be better to hire someone who understands the goal like you do (the founders) but brings also something different to the table. Different strengths, different ways of thinking.

To get the insider’s view of why AirBnB succeeds, I asked Leander. And he just giggled, seconds later saying,”You shouldn’t ask me this actually. You should ask the communities. Because essentially we’re just a platform. The success is very much dependent on our users.”

‎Knowing the huge contribution of communities to the success, AirBnB must have some strategies to maintain or nurture their communities. According to Leandern, some of the strategies are the group channel introduced lately which is designed to provide space for communities to share tips, stories, help each other. They can also organize meetups, thus strengthening the relationship amongst members of AirBnbB communities. The communities, Leander stated, dictate the experience of AirBnB service. He stressed on the aspect of authenticity and being real as they can stay with local people living in a city.

Speaking of the 1 million dollars host guarantee given by AirBnB, I was wondering if there was any case of it occuring in the past. “Not the full amount of course.. haha,”he told me. When a claim is filed, the AirBnB would make sure the claim is genuine and complies with the conditions.

AirBnB reportedl‎y has no plans to file an IPO this year, and Leander said he knows nothing about when the company is set to do so.

In Indonesia, as Leander put it, ‎the company has no specific plans like opening a branch office like what Twitter does. “A lot of our growth has been organic initially. And now that we have our staff presence here to accelerate the growth so there’s no plan to open our local office just yet.”

Startup

“Indonesian startup world s*cks,”celetuk teman saya petang kemarin. Saya tidak kaget. Ia seorang ‘salary man’, tipikal ‘corporate guy’ yang kurang tahu menahu dengan perkembangan startup di Indonesia. Namun demikian, ia memiliki sejumlah pemikiran yang menurut saya cukup menarik karena dan saya sepakat dengannya dalam sejumlah poin.

Pertama, ia berkata bahwa startup Indonesia masih belum menjanjikan. “Siapa yang mau beli?” Saya mencoba menyangkalnya. Tentu saja ada. Sejumlah investor asing tidak segan mencari dan menjadi penanam modal bagi para entrepreneur dan startup yang kehausan modal. Saya sepakat dengannya. Kecuali beberapa kisah ‘sukses’ seperti Koprol (yang pada akhirnya juga layu karena dijual lalu dilepaskan Yahoo!) atau Kaskus yang akhirnya diakuisisi Djarum, rasanya sukar menemukan sukses serupa. Akan tambah sakit hati kalau kita membandingkan dengan kondisi startup di negeri lain. Memang benar, startup Indonesia masih banyak yang ‘copycat’, meniru dari Barat lalu menerapkannya di sini, entah itu disesuaikan atau tidak dengan budaya dan pemikiran lokal tidak terlalu menjadi prioritas. Asal membuahkan laba!

Kedua, masih banyak kisah ‘sukses’ ini yang membual, kurang transparan dan kurang lengkap memberikan perjuangan mereka pada pers. Setahu saya, memang masih sukar menemukan iklim keterbukaan di startup lokal. Nilai akuisisi Koprol oleh Yahoo!, misalnya, sepengetahuan saya belum pernah dipublikasikan. Ini sangat mengecewakan. Padahal jika dipublikasikan pada khalayak, bisa jadi akan menjadi pendorong pertumbuhan ekosistem entrepreneurship di negeri ini. Kita jadi tahu seberapa besar potensi itu jika divaluasi oleh investor atau pelaku bisnis dari luar. Tetapi karena selama ini ditutupi, kita tidak bisa memastikannya dan terus meraba-raba sembari mengkhayal menjadi sebesar eBay, PayPal, dan sebagainya. Dan karena mereka tidak banyak mengungkap kisah gagal mereka, rasanya juga startup mereka kurang realistis. Hal itu juga karena pers Indonesia tidak terlalu tertarik menulis kisah gagal dan seluk beluk startup. Buat apa menulis kegagalan? Publik lebih suka dimanjakan dengan prospek cerah bisnis X, atau potensi laba bisnis Y. Mereka kurang suka menghadapi kenyataan pahit bahwa startup bisa membuat entrepreneur bangkrut, menderita lahir batin, atau stres berat layaknya calon legislatif yang harus menanggung kekalahan di pemilu lalu padahal modal sudah habis-habisan, kampanye tidak kenal lelah di mana-mana.

Semua itu memang kenyataannya begitu, setidaknya dalam persektif kami. Ditambah lagi dengan kurang mendukungnya ekosistem usaha, tampaknya makin bertambah saja tantangan yang harus dihadapi entrepreneur Indonesia. Entrepreneur kita merasa kurang didukung oleh pemerintah, yang aturan mainnya dirasa memberatkan startup untuk muncul dan berkembang. Padahal katanya menteri kita sudah pernah berkunjung ke Silicon Valley. Lalu apa yang sebenarnya mereka pelajari dari sana? Tidak ada!

Semoga di pemerintahan baru nanti Menteri Koperasi dan UKM baru yang dipimpin Anak Agung Gede Ngurah Puspayoga bisa melakukan gebrakan positif yang akan mendorong pertumbuhan startup Indonesia dan ekosistem usaha pada umumnya.

Karena kita sudah muak dengan janji-janji dan retorika serta program-program yang tidak tentu arahnya…

(Image credit: http://www.rmol.co/read/2014/10/29/177712/Sertijab-Menkop-UKM-)

Kisah Mahasiswa Indonesia Ikut dalam TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon London

Inilah mengapa jurnalis perlu lebih banyak menggunakan jejaring sosial dalam bekerja. Saat mengumpulkan sumber berita menjadi makin mudah berkat teknologi, jurnalis perlu membuka diri pada berbagai materi yang berpotensi menjadi sumber dan bahan berita yang berkualitas di dunia social media.

Seperti yang tak sengaja saya lakukan sore itu (21/10), saat saya iseng menelusuri linimasa Twitter saya dan menemukan akun Robin Malau, seorang pemerhati dan praktisi entrepreneurship dan teknologi, yang menyebutkan (mention) akun seseorang yang kata Robin adalah satu-satunya orang Indonesia yang ikut serta dalam ajang TechCrunch Disrupt London.

Saya tak menunda lagi untuk menghubungi orang yang ada di balik akun @adhiwie itu. Betul, ia orang Indonesia. Tepatnya mahasiswa Indonesia. Kami bertukar alamat surel dan dari sana, sebuah wawancara jarak jauh saya lakukan.

Nama lengkapnya Adhi Wicaksono, seorang mahasiswa Master di University of Birmingham, Inggris. Pada saya ia mengatakan menuntut ilmu di bidang Human-Computer Interaction (interaksi komputer-manusia) yang saya sendiri tak memiliki bayangan sedikitpun mengenai mata kuliahnya. Adhi mengaku ia satu-satunya orang Indonesia yang ikut dalam TechCrunch Disrupt 2014 di London. Dan jika saya boleh katakan – mohon koreksi jika saya salah – sepengetahuan saya Adhi-lah WNI pertama yang ada di ajang TechCrunch Disrupt sebagai peserta. Adhie sendiri mengaku tidak menjumpai peserta lain yang berasal dari Indonesia.

Bagi Anda yang masih asing dengan nama “TechCrunch Disrupt”, dapat saya jelaskan bahwa acara tersebut mirip dengan sebuah ajang tahunan yang bergengsi di dunia startup. Di acara konferensi tahunan yang diselenggarakan oleh blog teknologi dan startup asal San Fransisco “TechCrunch” tersebut yang berlangsung di sejumlah kota besar di dunia ini, para entrepreneur, programmer, peretas (hackers) mendapatkan kesempatan yang sama untuk meluncurkan produk dan layanan mereka. Nantinya akan dipilih para pemenang dari semua startup yang hadir dan ikut serta yang akan dipertemukan dengan sejumlah investor potensial, pers, dan pihak-pihak lain yang memiliki minat dan kepentingan. Ajang seperti ini sungguh dinantikan oleh entrepreneur dan startup yang masih ‘hijau’ demi melambungkan nama startup dan produk mereka ke kancah dunia. Jika menang, blog techCrunch akan memuat mereka dan itu sudah lebih dari cukup untuk membuat mereka tersohor di mana-mana mengingat pengaruh media TechCrunch yang begitu luas dan masif. Tempat pelaksanaan mereka sebelumnya ada di San Fransisco, New York City , dan Beijing (yang digagas oleh Sarah Lacy pendiri Pando.com) dan kini juga merambah Eropa.

Keikutsertaannya dalam hackathon ini berawal saat Adhi ingin tahu bagaimana rasanya ikut ajang serupa di tanah asing. “Saya ikut hackathon karena penasaran,”terangnya via surel. Apalagi penyelenggaranya media sebesar TechCrunch. Namun, ini bukan pengalaman pertamanya ikut hackathon. Sebelumnya, Adhi sudah beberapa kali ikut ajang yang bertema hackathon di Indonesia.

Adhi tidak berjuang sendirian di sana. Ia bergabung dalam tim Seeusoon, sebuah aplikasi yang bermisi memudahkan pasangan/ kekasih untuk bertemu jika berada di kota yang sama. Aplikasi ini juga memudahkan orang membeli tiket secara langsung. “Di hackathon, saya bergabung dengan tim Seeusoon yang berumlah 5 orang (termasuk saya) dan mereka semua berasal dari Spanyol.” Dalam tim, Adhi berperan penting sebagai desainer pengalaman pengguna (user experience designer) dan antarmuka pengguna (user interface).

Para pemenang dihasilkan dari penilaian dari dewan juri yang kredibel di bidangnya, yaitu Camille Baldock (software engineer), Eric Brotto (Partner dan Spesialis Program untuk Startupbootcamp, Global Facilitator untuk Startup Weekend), Claudia De Antoni (investor Virgin Management), Tak Lo (Direktur TechStars, mentor startup), dan Melinda Seckington (pengembang platform Future Learn).

Istilah hackathon merupakan kata portmanteau dari “hack” (retas) dan “marathon” (lari marathon). Kata “hack” di sini bukan berarti meretas dalam arti negatif tetapi menciptakan suatu solusi teknologi bagi masalah yang ada dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, sebuah definisi tentang “hack” yang menurut Steve Wozniak bernuansa positif di awal ia bekerja bersama mendiang Steve Jobs membuat produk Apple. Para peserta akan diberikan waktu yang terbatas (biasanya semalam suntuk) untuk menghasilkan solusi tadi dari nol. Karena itulah peserta harus bekerja keras dan cepat agar solusi itu bisa dihasilkan dalam wujud yang nyata dalam bentuk purwarupa (prototype) yang bisa dipakai di presentasi yang akan dilakukan di akhir acara. Sesuai dengan kata “marathon”, hackathon akan dilakukan tanpa jeda.

Berlatar belakang sebagai pekerja lepas di sektor industri kreatif, Adhi piawai dalam bidang desain web dan pengembangannya, antarmuka pengguna dan desain pengalaman pengguna serta sejumlah proyek sampingan lainnya.

Saya tanya apa keuntungannya mengikuti ajang semacam ini, Adhi menjawab,”Pengalaman yang saya dapatkan luar biasa karena saya bisa melakukan networking (berjejaring, membangun koneksi bisnis -pen) dengan orang-orang dari bermacam-macam negara dan merasakan atmosfer yang luar biasa karena ini ajang kaliber dunia.”

Menurut Adhi, ekosistem teknologi di luar negeri sudah sangat maju sehingga banyak produk yang tidak hanya mandek sebagai barang pameran tetapi juga bisa digunakan dalam aktivitas manusia sehari-hari. “Saya harap ekosistem teknologi Indonesia juga bisa lebih maju dan saya sangat senang dengan perkembangan saat ini,”tukasnya.

Setelah ikut serta dalam berbagai hackathon, rasanya tidak berlebihan jika Adhi dimintai resep sukses menjadi pemenang hackathon. Ia berpendapat ide-ide simpel tetapi berguna, tampilan yang mudah dipahami, dan bisa dipakai semua orang dengan mudah akan lebih berpeluang untuk terpilih. Resepnya terbukti jitu karena Seeusoon berhasil memenangkan posisi juara ketiga (second runner-up) dalam hackathon ini.

Sebagai pertanyaan pamungkas, saya ingin tahu apakah Adhi memiliki saran bagi pemerintahan baru agar dunia kreatif, startup dan entrepreneurship digital tanah air makin berkembang. Ia menerangkan panjang lebar dengan antusias, bahwa pemerintahan baru harus ikut berperan aktif dalam pengembangan ekosistem tersebut. “Terlebih Indonesia saat ini telah mempunyai open data di http://data.id sehingga semua orang bisa ikut berperan,”ia menuturkan. Dari open data itu, akan bisa dihasilkan berbagai aplikasi digital yang berguna untuk memecahkan masalah-masalah sehari-hari seperti pengurusan izin usaha, pemantauan anggaran pemerintahan, dan sebagainya. Ini semua, menurut Adhi, akan memuluskan gerakan open government dan e-government di negeri kita tercinta.

“It’s My Startup”: Ramuan Kiat dan Motivasi Bisnis untuk Entrepreneur Indonesia

Membaca buku kadang tidak cukup. Apalagi kalau Anda seorang entrepreneur. Saya teringat dengan penuturan Megain Widjaja, seorang entrepreneur muda, yang mengatakan, kurang lebih seingat saya, bukan membaca isi buku yang paling penting bagi pembaca tetapi apakah pembaca itu mau bergerak melakukan sesuatu yang nyata setelah buku itu habis dilahap. Bentuknya bisa bermacam-macam. Entah itu mendiskusikan isinya dengan orang lain sebagai sesi curah gagasan atau brainstorming untuk menampung dan menguji ide-ide kreatif yang muncul setelah membaca atau melakukan aksi lain yang konkret agar pengetahuan dan pengalaman yang sudah terakumulasi lewat buku bisa dimanfaatkan dalam mewujudkan sebuah proyek atau cita-cita besar. Intinya, setelah membaca, terus apa? Membaca buku-buku dari orang besar tak akan serta merta membuat Anda besar, kecuali Anda membaca kemudian melakukan sesuatu yang menuju ke arah itu.

Mungkin itulah yang saya sarankan pada Anda dan diri saya sendiri juga saat membaca buku-buku motivasi. Pasar buku sudah begitu banyak dibanjiri buku semacam ini.

Dalam pekerjaan, saya juga kerap – malah bisa dikatakan hampir tiap hari – menulis‎ tips dan motivasi bisnis. Begitu seringnya, sampai saya kadang skeptis dan pesimis dengan kiat-kiat itu. Apakah itu realita atau retorika belaka? Apalagi sejauh ini saya belum mencoba membuktikannya.

‎Tetapi meski saya dan orang lain bisa menulis tips dan motivasi bisnis, saya rasa tidak ada yang lebih baik dari seorang penulis yang menerjuni sendiri hal yang ia tulis. Dengan begitu, penjiwaannya mungkin akan lebih baik dalam menyampaikan ide-ide penting.

Itulah yang membedakan saya dengan Lahandi Baskoro. Saya belum pernah ‎mencicipi rasanya mendirikan startup, Lahandi lain. Tiga tahun lalu ia merintis pendirian komunitas pegiat teknologi digital skala lokal yang bernama “Depok Digital”. Ia juga menjajaki wirausaha dengan membidani Qanvash.com, sebuah situs online yang memuat konten inspiratif bertema relijius.

Tidak heran jika Lahandi (@lahandi) yang pernah menjabat sebagai senior content strategist Kaskus.co.id ini lebih menjiwai dalam menulis “It’s My Startup: 50 Tips Memasuki, Memulai, dan Mengembangkan Bisnis Startup”. Buku setebal 172 halaman itu ia serahkan pada saya awal tahun ini. Dan ‎saat saya bertanya padanya apakah saya harus mengulas buku ini, ia menjawab tidak harus. Akan tetapi, mengingat buku ini ia berikan secara cuma-cuma pada saya dan saya tidak bisa memberikan imbalan apapun, saya pikir sebuah ulasan yang jujur dan membangun akan bermanfaat baginya, jika ia kelak ingin menyempurnakan buku ini, dan bagi Anda yang ingin membangun usaha sendiri tetapi masih meraba-raba medan pertarungan yang Anda akan terjuni.

Di dalam bukunya, Lahandi seolah memeras semua nasihat wirausaha yang ia pernah terima‎ menjadi tips singkat yang dibagi-bagi menjadi uraian singkat. Fontnya besar, cukup mudah dibaca dan berwarna-warni meski tidak terlalu mencolok agar menekan biaya produksi.

Buku “It’s My Startup” ini kebanyakan memuat nasihat dari entrepreneur-entrepreneur asing (terutama Silicon Valley) yang tentunya disarikan dari media-media Amerika. Namun demikian, di antara itu semua Anda masih bisa menemukan sejumlah entrepreneur Indonesia yang turut dikutip saran-sarannya di sini, di antaranya adalah Natali Ardianto yang dikenal luas sebagai salah satu inisiator/ penggagas komunitas #StartupLokal yang baru-baru ini berkunjung ke Makassar untuk menemui sejumlah entrepreneur pendiri startup di sana.

Menurut hemat saya, buku ini lebih tepat dibaca untuk mereka yang menginginkan motivasi dan inspirasi awal dalam merintis bisnis. Bisa jadi mereka adalah calon entrepreneur yang masih buta sama sekali dengan dunia startup teknologi. Buku ini menyuguhkan nasihat dan saran penting itu menjadi satu sehingga lebih mudah dan praktis disimak.

Akan tetapi, jika Anda menghendaki sebuah buku yang lebih ‘berisi’‎ dan kaya dengan deskripsi, narasi dan data, “It’s My Startup” saya pikir kurang mampu memuaskan Anda. Anda akan menginginkan lebih banyak dari sekadar tips, apalagi jika Anda sudah benar-benar menjalankan startup.

Why Entrepreneurs Are Like Poker Players

Jason Calacanis likes poker. Playing poker makes your heart race, as you must make the best decision with so limited information. The same challenge you’ll also find in entrepreneurship.

Indonesian entrepreneurs in some way are like this. They’re clueless on what to do in this emerging market, where things are so
underdeveloped, young and immature.

Entrepreneur Andy Zainexplained two years ago a lot of local companies in Indonesia are started by bootstrapping because there’re very few venture capitalists. Here people often have their side jobs. Indonesian entrepreneurs also have side projects aside from their own startups. So it’s very challenging for them to start up but every chance is still open.

But the downside is Indonesian entrepreneurs lack information, just like poker players. Thus, when it comes to scouring information, they go to international sites and blogs. They still rely much on foreign media such as TechCrunch.com, Pando.com, TheNextWeb.com, etc. They can find the hottest projects in the US or any other parts of the globe.

This lack of information only lets them to copy what is successful in other markets. For instance, when Groupon became hyped, Indonesian entrepreneurs were inclined to copy this success and apply that to the domestic market. The results are various level of success.

{image credit: Commons.Wikimedia.org}

When Teaching Entrepreneurship is Not Enough

In 2012, after educating lecturers and trainers of trainers for 5 years, Indonesian entrepreneur Ir. Ciputra planned to set up a business incubator. He likened this business incubator to a maternity ward, where mothers can give labor to babies. These babies though are startups. He wanted this incubator set up in every part of Indonesia so as to boost the growth of entrepreneurship. Because teaching is not enough, he reasoned. Training these younger generation in business incubator centers would be more concrete and efficient, to him.

He stated this 2 years ago in the middle of the room in Ciputra Marketing Gallery, where Ciputra World 2 Jakarta is now being built. And now his plan comes true. He’s got CGI, Ciputra-GEPI Incubator. This is why I – one of Ciputra’s reporters – saw him and Mark Wang who was then the Director of Global Entrepreneurship Program for Indonesia (GEPI) – often having a warm discussion on how to realize this grand plan. Wang is now moving somewhere, and as a successor we once had Fung Fuk Lestario and now they have another latest leader I haven’t been introduced to.

CGI, which is located in DBS Tower, Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio Kav 3-5 South Jakarta, is always teemed with young entrepreneurs. They rent the space to work here. With eyes glued to their screens’ laptops, they are seriously working on something. Something that later on will prove that they’re something. There’s so much passion here in the room. Some workshops are also overflowing with participants. I’ve seen it directly how this space can get too small when 50-60 people gathering with I-want-to-learn-something spirit.

Ciputra GEPI Incubator is trategically located in the heart of business district in the capital which means it’ll be much easier for these entrepreneurs to reach but on the other hand, they also have to be ready for the traffic congestion once in while. It’s Jakarta after all. The city where even the paid high way is often clogged, to be perfectly honest.

Ironically, no matter how great Jakartan entrepreneurs can become, none of them is up to now able to conquer this traffic congestion problem. And Gojek (go-jek.com), a unique startup I once heard, now seems to vanish. Either they don’t pay too much attention to their PR campaign or they’re pivoting or even worse falling down.

I’m glad Indonesia now has been advancing a lot in terms of
entrepreneurship. More and more youngsters are very interested in setting up their own business right after graduation, so I heard from a public speaker.

Whether it’s true or just a false claim of his, I know Indonesia is aiming to the right direction. In the meantime, we expect more business or startup incubators like CGI in more cities and towns throughout the country. But for now, this is a great first move.

On Being More Entrepreneurial without Becoming an Entrepreneur

Writing for an entrepreneurship website for the last 4 years made me in some way think about how overly hyped entrepreneurship has become these days. So overly hyped it resembles a new faith in the modern world, with Silicon Valley hugely successful entrepreneurs and CEOs as its gods and goddesses, seasoned entrepreneurs as priests, saints and prophets, and then new fledgling ones scattered all over the world as followers. And as historians, journalists are standing, observing, criticizing and praising over the time while taking notes on who should be the winners and losers along with the recounts of dynamics.

Awesome. Simply awesome.

Yet, I can’t tell I want to be an entrepreneur after listening and witnessing how they can transform into a profitable business entity in several years.

As Sarah Lacy of Pando.com put it, NOT everyone should be an entrepreneur (my editor deemed the line to be too risky as a title, and chopped it out). Not everyone should be a professional singer, or writer or basket player eventually but definitely anyone can sing or write or play basketball as they desire. I cannot agree more on that. She has a clear point on why transforming everyone into an entrepreneur is ridiculously impossible. And to me it could be a tragic attempt at making a nation more prosperous and developed. Even if you have pots of money saved in a limitless bank account to fund the entrepreneurship programs in a random, sporadic, moody, unplanned kind of fashion, you’ll only tire yourselves because there’ll be hardly tangible, satisfactory results. Ever. But kudos to those who initiated anything like this. I by no means look down on them and their hard work but I advise they go find better strategies.

But of course, apart from that controversy, anyone can still be more entrepreneurial without having to be an entrepreneur him/herself. In fact, s/he can just learn to improve life quality by using some simple but efficacious ‘innovations’ (you don’t know how terribly I’m cringing every time I – with zillions of people out there – abuse this magic word INNOVATION. For God’s sake!)

Someone invented the word “intrapreneur” to refer to employees with a streak of entrepreneurial spirit in them. They’re not the bosses but they think, speak and work like their employers. Under a controlled situation, they can be a huge asset to companies or startups they work for. But once they’re fed up and too brutal for employers to handle, they may launch a startup after leaving the company. Intrapreneurs are like entrepreneurs but in a milder version. Pseudo entrepreneurs, if I might say. They might be the phase an entrepreneur has to go through before hatching as a real one.

There’re other cases where you can see the recurring pattern as follows:
[Insert a word you like] + PRENEUR

Hence, we can discover a plethora of portmanteau words like mompreneurs (mommies + entrepreneurs), writerpreneurs (writers + entrepreneurs), and the list goes on.

How on earth can this be happening? Do they only want to show you how ‘tamed’ and lovely entrepreneurship is so it can be every word’s tandem? My hunch is they just won’t do it (making up these new words) to kill time. These people do want to be entrepreneurs but something holds them back to plunge in as a typical tech entrepreneur you easily find on mainstream media and blogs because it’s too far away and thus scary and intimidating. It’s their dedication, love or adoration of certain disciplines or walks of life that encourage them to be more wealthy or self sufficient or to be able to change the world in THEIR own manners, way different from the typical entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg. Their definition of entrepreneurship is different from the Silicon Valley’s. Like me. I don’t want to be like Zuckerberg, as I know well I’m not playing to my strength by aiming high in tech realm. I naturally won’t do it. Rather, being a writerpreneur seems more reasonable and more friendly a way to approach entrepreneurship because writing is my biggest passion of all. It’s ok if I don’t make as much money as Ms. Rowling or Meyer or Steele, because I only need to earn a living for myself and my future family. If it works, good for me, I can develop. If it fails, no hurt feelings. Start again by consistently perfecting the writing skills and selling the hard-earned skills I’ve built up for years. So, to writerpreneurs their writing passion is the priority. Likewise, mompreneurs would be unwilling to relinquish their motherhood only for a handsome sum of money. It’s their being moms which matters most in their life. Business comes second.

What I’m trying to say is just be what you really are and approach entrepreneurship however you like and find most convenient. It’s ok to be pseudo-entrepreneurs like intrapreneurs or mompreneurs if it really fits your situation. Not an excuse, but a situation.

In the Era of Self-Appointed CEOs

Being a CEO or leader has never been this easy like now. You can easily claim you’re a successful person as you wish, merely because you claim yourself to be so on the social media, whether it be your LinkedIn profile, your Instagram or Twitter bio, even on your About.me page.

SILLY!

I’ve seen lots of people like this. They’re great except that they overestimate themselves. I tell you I’m not that good at tolerating this self-bragging attitude and behaviors. Hence, I’m venting here, on my own blog, which is legal but still I need to watch my words so as not to overly offend those who feel they’re part of the group. Here’s my disclaimer: only A LIMITED NUMBER of startup CEOs, NOT ALL OF THEM.

My story went like this. I met with a guy, a future entrepreneur, who claimed to be a CEO of an online business -which is nothing than a parked domain to me- but still works as an employee of an established corporation. And he claimed he is truly experienced in this field, in that sector, in this area, in that niche. Possibly he’s right in some statements, the rest of them? There’s a huge question mark hanging there. He has done A, been in B, as he claimed on the bio page. Also, he poured it all on his LinkedIn profile, crediting also some hard works of his colleagues. It’s so sickening that you feel this person must learn a lesson:appreaciating someone else’s hard work as well.

So much, I don’t want to be such a person. Awful and obnoxious on so many levels. Desperately seeking for attention of head hunters or potential investors or … ? Maybe that’s the way he is.

Too long a preamble, I suppose.

What I’m trying to say is this:Self-deprecating attitude and behaviors are very much welcome, more than the self-bragging ones. No matter how shiny the facade of a building may get, it won’t impress people much when they get into the building only to find crappy interior design and unclassy taste or savage dwellers inside.

Never brag too much. It won’t work anyway.