Update April 14: All good now with William Henley! Thanks all.
Update April 9: The following post was a mistake on my part. I should have been more thoughtful, but I’ll leave it online (unedited) as a matter of record. I’ve posted an apology here.
Indonesia has gotten a lot of attention. And it’s natural that we’re seeing more startups and investors stepping into Indonesia. The community at large welcomes any new member (so to speak). We’re all here to connect, learn, and help each other scale. But not everything shared within the community is helpful. For example: the recent Founders Drinks by e27 on how a startup or investor can “navigate Indonesia.” The speaker was William Henley, who currently runs an investment firm and two startups. Henley likes to promote himself as Dr. Doom, a moniker that aptly explains his skepticism about the Indonesian market.
I hadn’t heard much about Henley before but e27 has been somewhat actively promoting him as a guru of sorts. That got me curious, along with some very negative feedback I heard from people who attended the aforementioned talk, led me to look into his background. Now note that I don’t have a problem with Henley sharing his opinions publicly. Anyone can voice his/her opinion and I have no issues with that.
That said, it becomes a problem if people start buying into what he says without thinking twice about who he is or what his background is. It’s the media magic at work; we trust e27 to do the screening for us. But what if that screening is lacking? From the audience’s point of view, we want to hear from people who have already been there and done that.
So I looked into Henley’s background. I didn’t just go through LinkedIn or Google, I directly sent emails to Henley to ask about his startup credentials and I’m glad – and it’s to his credit – that he was open and answered my questions.
There is no doubt that Henley is a good corporate man. He was even mentioned in Fortune Magazine Indonesia as one of the top 40 executives under 40. But that doesn’t necessarily make him a good entrepreneur or investor. Being an entrepreneur and being a corporate man are two different things. So what’s his background? Here’s what I found out:
(1) What has his company, IndoSterling Sarana Investa, invested in? Answer: No answer from him on this.
(2) How are his startups doing? Answer: Founded in 2009, Otopedia.com, as revealed by Henley, is getting about 2,500 daily visits and he declined to disclose information on Tapestix. There’s no way to know how Tapestix is doing, but 2,500 visits per day seems low for a major site in a nation with more than 30 million internet users.
(3) So how would he describe his experience as an entrepreneur? Here is his word-for-word reply:
I left my last corporate post in December 2010. It hasn’t been that long since I call myself an entrepreneur. Maybe you can cut me some slack and give me more time to prove my entrepreneurial capabilities.
If you know his background, it might make you think twice about the things he said. So for the sake of the community, please double-check speakers’ backgrounds before accepting them. Individuals, be careful not to overstep your expertise and be sure you’ve really got something good to offer the community. You can listen to Henley, by all means. But I will be taking his opinions with a grain of salt from now on since he isn’t really an experienced entrepreneur. Perhaps he should just focus on building a good product, rather than wasting his time speaking and “educating” all of us.
[Image credit: Marvel]
Right on! This helps the community. Sharing experience among entrepreneurs and entrepreneur wannabees are helpful.
http://www.techinasia.com/no-bullshit-advisors/
But with no experience and claimed to be the expert, hmmm….
I met quite a few investors-wannabe with money but no experience in tech startup. Overall they think they know everything about building business, it’s the same feeling I had from my ex-manager when I worked in a corporate world. Building a startup is damn hard! You need to have an advisor with a “young/new mindset” ! All the “old mindset” investors which sometimes relevant to their age, never really get what social media means. It reminds me to 1 of my favorite articles
oh e27, you can do better than this. You have good connections. We trust you. Don’t get any speaker for the sake of filling an empty slot.
Willis I love that you actually exposed a name on this article. The truth is there are PLENTY of such people like Henley around right here in Singapore. Go and research those names that are ALWAYS at startup events, or ALWAYS judging some competition. Those familiar faces. You’ll find they have very questionable credentials. And don’t even get me started on the number of TRASHY investors here that the government (NRF TIS) has partnered with.
Willis,
I would like to point out that my presentation for e27′s Founders Drinks was titled “Navigating The Maze in Indonesia” for the purpose of tabulating the technology investment landscape in Indonesia. It was by no way meant to discourage entrepreneurial spirit within and into Indonesia.
I regret that you seem to have such disparaging opinions about my track record as an entrepreneur. But there is nothing I can do about that. On that particular note, I did not make any claims about my success or failures as an entrepreneur.
An array of my investment portfolio are listed in my LinkedIn profile here ->
http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/WilliamHenley
Should you or any of your readers see the need to have a discussion about above mentioned topic, I can be easily reached on my personal email : william [dot] henley [at] yahoo [dot] com
Cheers,
William
Well to be perfectly honest, when it comes to Indonesia’s tech scene I believe William Henley better than I trust you Willis
Kudos for pointing this fact out.
hi rama. for sure and i don’t think i ever claim that in this article. you don’t see me going around giving talks about indonesia. i don’t overstep my knowledge. in fact, im learning and will always do.
And what are your credentials Will, that gives you the experience to evaluating or judge another opinion maker? Do you have a PhD in Indonesian affairs? or maybe a PhD in psychology that lets your read into people’s mind and decided how genuine they are? Maybe you have the gift, but I have not seen it in your public credentials….
Just to make a point not to judge you in person.
yeah, bashing people is a good way to learn Willis
sarcasm detected. i didn’t state that too.
Thanks for posting this Willis. Interesting post indeed
I’ve known William for a while now, and I know many people in Jakarta regard him with respect. You can’t fault a speaker for displaying the facts of the system, and William was there to point it out. You also can’t fault a speaker simply because he doesn’t agree with you on Twitter.
I find it interesting how you determine the credibility of a speaker simply by an email and LinkedIn/Google. I hope your Startup Asia speakers weren’t picked that way. That would be sad. Spend some time with William and understand his facts and his background. There is more than meets the eye here
I hope you have at least had a chat with him before advising people to “think twice about what he has to say”.
You were at the event. I am assuming you did introduce yourself to him. Did you speak with him to clarify his background, understand his comments and engage in a proper discussion? I hope you did. Did you?
And there are many ways to build a community. I’ve clearly done it for awhile now
You chose to publicly bash a speaker online and even the organizer of the event without taking the time to get to know the speaker first.
Do yourself and the community a favor please. I hope this isn’t an outcome of something personal you have against William, or maybe even the organizer. The community deserves better, and it can start with you
Cheers!
We appreciate your trust and thank you for supporting us
That includes trusting that we don’t get any speaker for the sake of filling an empty slot.
asd
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Hello Mohan. I’m okay with him voicing opinion and i believe you’re assuming things here. all the difference in opinion is cool. in fact good. and i’m fine with him as a person. but not quite as a qualified speaker on entrepreneurship. what’s qualified or not is subjective. but im taking his opinion with a grain of salt. if you think he is qualified, sure, by all means. happy to hear that screening is done. i’m pointing out to people that this is his background and whether people buy that is up to them. some do, some do not. it’s fine, really. And thanks for asking, we do know our key folks at Startup Asia on a personal level. I have to because they will be interviewed on stage. The community deserves better, yes. but clearly we have different take on this. im pointing out a fact about his background for the crowd to decide. I personally believe he has overstepped his expertise. if you want to navigate any country, it takes someone who has been there and done that to comment on things. I’m also hearing mixed reviews about him in Jakarta. Clearly it’s a difference in opinion. and again, that’s my personal opinion. agree, disagree, or angry — it’s a matter of perspective. Always good to hear from you, Mohan!
hi sev, im stating facts about his background. so based on that, im not too convinced on his opinion. that’s about it. my humble journey here: http://www.techinasia.com/journey-as-an-entrepreneur/
Oh wow. I was speechless for a while reading this post, as it comes from a friend to my other friend whom both I know quite well. Since the post is an open critic, I trust that you are aware of how critic works, right? That it always comes back to you, like a boomerang. I have no personal issue to both of Willis and Henley, you both are my good friends. But after reading this post, I gotta write this down, coz it makes me think this way:
1. I try to be on Henley’s shoes. I was asked by a community-based media to speak on their event, sharing something that I am familiar with. Then another community-based media is questioning my reputation & credibility openly in public like a bash. This is so sad. I imagine this could happen to me too, since you are asking one of us as the initiators of #Startuplokal community to speak on Startup Asia event, and if other media checked my profile background only via email and linkedin, maybe they don’t see enough credentials of me, unless they know me personally who connect many people in digital industry and several collaborations happen afterwards (of course you cant find this kind of fact on linked in or even online). My goodwill to share and appreciate friend’s request to speak was somehow diminished.
2. I try to be on your shoes. I came to an event organized by your competitor and somehow disagree with what the speaker said. Then I start to question his reputation & credibility by checking his linkedin and asking several friends via email (I read the email btw, mentioning “something fishy”, maybe you simply mistyped the recipient’s address), instead of trying to know the speakers’ opinion further by chatting after the event. Then I decided to write the post above, not to point out of what he said at the event in details, but merely to question his reputation & credibility as a speaker, only based on what’s written online via linked in, friends’ opinion, and “interview” via email.
3. Now my own shoes. By far I see Penn Olson or now named as Tech in Asia as one of reputable online media about tech/startups. But to this point, I mean this post, honestly has degrading my point of view. I believe a good media should be less-personal & emotional opinionated, and this post has failed to bring it. Not that I hate critics, it’s okay as long as it keeps being objective. If you ever read Remco’s critic on his blog SangatPedas upon what Rama wrote on DailySocial, that’s what I called objective. It goes straight to what Rama’s wrote, not to who Rama is. We might disagree to what someone said but we shall not critic someone’s background merely because of it. And most importantly, bashing someone via online by any reason is just rude.
Cheers,
@Nuniek
Hmm, even being a speaker is hard nowadays…
what are u trying to say devless ? is it encrypted words ?
“e27′s March Founders Drinks explores the Indonesian maze in doing business through insider William Henley.” (From e27 website)
I had to question about the “insider” criteria
hei I support William Henley, he is good motivator, at least for me. Very very good speaker in the term of make audience understand about what he thinks, his opinion and his perspectives. No further comments, I just like him being a speaker. BTW, once I join his class at IDS. Great lecture William.
It’s good that we agree/disagree and yes, everything is subjective
We’ve had speakers in past echelon events that were highly rated and poorly rated at the same time. Can’t please everyone 
For the record, he was never brought in to speak on entrepreneurship. He was brought in to give an understanding to attendees on how to navigate Indonesia. No mention of entrepreneurship on our post as well: http://e27.sg/2012/03/15/march-founders-drinks-navigates-the-indonesian-maze-with-insider-william-henley/
In all due fairness to him, saying that he’s “not quite as a qualified speaker on entrepreneurship” seems irrelevant to the event since his talk had nothing to do with entrepreneurship in the first place.
I’ll leave to community to judge him on his expertise, but from what I’ve heard, he’s a well respected figure in the ecosystem.
Guys, it’s all a matter of perspective… My presentation was about factual ecosystem & landscape in Indonesia, viewed from a passionate entrepreneur’s point of view may be seen as mood dampening or even dream crushing…
Presenting business cases, arguments and opinions are what we bankers do, and I have been doing that for almost 20 years (damn, I am THAT OLD!!!.. hehehe). Sometimes we get the accolades, often we get bashed.
Credits goes to Willis for being passionate about the topic of entrepreneurial spirits. (If corporate track-records are not sufficient, I wonder what Willis considers appropriate/sufficient as a prerequisites to talk about this topic)..
In the end, with age comes wisdom… And I salute all the young entrepreneurs, the not-so-young, as well as the perpetually young-at-hearts entrepreneurs out there…
Should you think I could be of assistance, you know where to reach me…
Cheers,
William
Before posting this comment, I followed the links in this post and read some of Willie’s and William’s articles. Style of writing: I find William’s articles insightful and entertaining and Willie’s articles shallow and self-centred. It’s Willie’s humble beginnings as a grasshopper trader against William’s brave new career move. It’s Willie’s opinions about the whole of Asia vs William’s take on his home town Indonesia. I don’t see how a successful tutor-match-maker is more credible in saying “Asia is the next big thing”, nor is it less credible for a successful corporate man to think that “Indonesia is a lucrative market”.
Let me leave you a quote from my favourite author, Og Mandino:
“Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesmen. And how will this be accomplished?
For I have neither the knowledge nor the experience to achieve greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity. The answer is simple. I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated, usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.”
From The Scroll Marked I – Today I begin a new life
Please allow me to sum things up. I’m glad and humbled to have the feedback here. I believe it’s good and I hope to see more of such passionate discussions. It keeps everyone thinking, including me. That said, I humbly accept all the feedback given. Most importantly, if I have caused any upset, it is only appropriate that I apologize to team e27 and William. (Mohan, William, coffee on me as apology
)
Also, with the discussion going, the purpose of the article might have been lost. As a budding entrepreneur, I faced countless BS advisors ever since I was 19. It’s a pain and some folks have voiced the same issue below. More of my personal encounter can be found here: http://www.techinasia.com/no-bullshit-advisors/ and some people have also feedback the same http://www.techinasia.com/scumbag-startup-mentors/
So it is of my interest, if any, to point one out. But the community ultimately decides!
I can totally empathize with Willie on BS advisers leeching and eventually killing potential start-ups. He was looking to make an example of others, and his eyes saw what it want to see. It was unfortunate for William to be passing by on the wrong side of war, and ending up becoming a collateral damage. In fairness to Willie, he is just a passionate young entrepreneur who only has kind intentions in warning gullible new entrepreneurs on the wolves out there. If William is looking for a reason for existence in this world, he probably want to think this is it: a sacrificial lamb in the cause of keeping others safe.
Controversial indeed. As an entrepreneur I’m glad Willis voiced out what he thinks not right. He may not be right. From other comments, William seems legit.
Willis is not only scrutinize the start-ups and founders; but also investors and speakers. It’s fair to the ecosystem. We need to let the ecosystem knows there are people watching you, even if you are an investors or experts.This is not a corporate world, where you have to give respect because the person is senior or have a lot of money. You respect those who have contributed to the ecosystem. That’s why TechCrunch is a success.If every writer being nice (suck up) to every investor / expert, the ecosystem will never grow. As an entrepreneur, I feel someone on my side. Keep it up bro.
William, from sangatpedas blog, it seems you like to bash start-ups. So I guess it’s fair for you to be in start-up shoes now. Not saying you can’t bash them, but at least you can see from both sides of the coins now. It will teach you how to be objective. Especially when you don’t have many entrepreneurship credits under your belt. Don’t bash too much, it makes you a deuchebag.
Hi Mohan. As requested:
1. I tried looking for william. but didn’t manage to catch him. we were supposed to meet so i wanted pop in and say hi. the post above wasn’t even intended from the beginning. I went there to network as I just returned to singapore. you might remember that I even thank your team for holding the founders drinks that very night. I can honestly tell you that I have no ill intentions. it would be such a dick to thank you personally with a handshake and with all this planned in my mind. this post took some feedback, emails from people who attended before I got inspired. which then I took time to do the profile check. i didn’t speak to william verbally but I can tell you that a significant number of our research on articles are done via email. most bloggers do that. i believe yours too. the team is too small to run around always. 2. I did reach out. But to thank your team. That was a sincere thanks with a pat on the back, literally.
3. As I said, it’s less about e27. (and believe it or not, I do promote echelon to overseas guests who come for startup asia jakarta since the dates are conveniently close) It’s more about William. He didn’t speak much about entrepreneurship but he blogged much though. Some were bashing and there were obviously mixed reviews about him from the community. I wasn’t too impressed and I will stick to my above stand on that. but i agree that i shouldn’t be bashing. that’s not good. I apologize for that, learned, and move on. For this article, I do have an intention in mind though. it’s not pure rant (see my previous comment: http://www.techinasia.com/dr-doom-william-henley/#comment-485053832). Also note that I’m happy to hear different opinions, as mentioned in my article. nothing wrong with that. i did debate with him on twitter. but that was all good and healthy.
Thanks for clarifying. I have gotten the clarifications I need
Now I have questions… I’d appreciate it if Willis could clarify..
I do write / blog in BizLosophy.com (Http://www.BizLosophy.com) in Bahasa Indonesia.. There were posts on entrepreneurship but for the last year, it’s mostly about tech-startups’ landscape & ecosystem di Indonesia.
You wrote “Some were bashing” … Could you please elaborate which posts / writings of mine you consider bashing? Do you read / understand Bahasa Indonesia? Do you regard my writings in e27.sg as bashing?
Please elaborate..
Looking forward to hearing your side of this.
Thanks William. I’m learning Indonesian from books and audios. But not great yet, honestly and unfortunately. Most are pointed and translated to me by friends. I read quite a bit of your post via translate too of course. For this, bashing might not be the right word to use now. given that the one above is of bashing standards… Rather, some which i thought is kinda creepy negative are…
http://www.bizlosophy.com/2011/12/start-up-mimpi-better-wake-up-soon/ and
http://www.bizlosophy.com/2011/09/salah-kaprah-technology-startups-di-indonesia/
My $0.02: I feel it is also about the overall branding and persona you’re communicating. Quoting Remco: ” if you like to be high profile, don’t be surprised or upset if someone will sucker punch you”
And this too, kinda bashing: “Ada blogger ingusan dr negri tetangga yg sok pinter mau ngajarin kita..
”
What you tweeted isn’t true. I’m rooting for Indonesian startups. I want to contribute in the growing Indonesian ecosystem which is why we took the risk to have startup asia here. Psyching nationalism to get back at me is unjust. People who met me in person know I’m loving it here. and I’m investing resources in indonesia in hoping to set up a great conference
And again, being negative is okay. It’s your opinion and i respect them. But as a fellow entrepreneur, I would prefer to see a William who has build a successful product, exited, and pass his skills on to other startups. Fair enough, there are problems, say ecommerce in indonesia, but folks who are in it can’t be “suckers.” (note that this is my opinion) Because it’s difficult, that is why there are opportunities. if things are easy, it would be a low barrier entry game.. everyone will do it. And lastly good thing about being a blogger is that my “product” is writing and generating pageviews. I believe in leading by example and I try my best to follow it. I can’t claim to be successful, but I can say that my team is building and trying. now, back to my work…
great, Mohan
Willis,
It’s totally pathetic how you are swaying back and forth when I spotted inconsistencies behind the reasons of your post…
It’s better that you get your facts straight before you write your piece in the first place. What I wrote, regardless of how negative or how skeptical they sounded, are based on my understanding of the start-up landscape, as well as my experience-backed professional opinion of the limitation of the local start-up financial ecosystem.
I don’t sugarcoat it. You don’t change facts by sugarcoating the way they are presented.
I sure hope entrepreneurs & startup founders can handle unsugarcoated opinion & analysis. If not, they might as well go back to their parents and stay in the comfort of their parents’ home like most cry-babies do. The same goes for blogger who cannot get their facts straight within the right context.
All my writings, both in English and in Bahasa are accompanied by transparent analysis based on my understanding of the topic written. Those who are keen on my observations & analysis know how to reach me so that I can explain in detail the reasoning behind my analysis.
I was actually pretty happy to let this rest until I saw your response to Mohan.
At this point, I am beginning to see that your claims about wanting to contribute to Indonesian start-ups are total shams…
To be frank, it baffles me how you could have decided to come up with this bash-post directed towards me, and towards e27… I really can’t see how this will bode well for you, for TechInAsia, and for your partners and sponsors in Indonesia….
What can I say…. What is done is done…
“ I really can’t see how this will bode well for you, for TechInAsia, and for your partners and sponsors in Indonesia”
“Ada blogger ingusan dr negri tetangga yg sok pinter mau ngajarin kita..
”
Hi William, I’m a fellow Indonesian too, but can you please stop making this issue bigger than it actually is?.
this is NOT Willis vs Indonesia, but Willis vs You.
Dear Willis,
I do appreciate ur goodwill in clearing things up (incl. by emailing me directly). Unfortunately, u seem to forget one important basic rule here: “Never ruin an apology with reasoning & excuses.” If u sincerely sorry, then plainly say “Sorry”. Fullstop. Unless u’re not.
Dear William,
I do respect when u stayed cool n even tried to calm everyone down. Unfortunately, u seem to get outraged by what Willis stated in reply to Mohan. U showed ur emotional counter attack and I regret that. I think u could be wiser by not letting anyone drag u down this far.
Now why the hell do I care of all this? Because it affects my goal to build a positive & supportive ecosystem in
digital community. I would feel sorry for myself if I just keep quiet eating my popcorn watching u guys punching each other, while I know I can do something for this. I wish Willis posted this on 1st April and can surprisingly say, “APRIL FOOL, EVERYONE!!!”
So please, For the Sake of the Community, you two, shake hand, say peace !! We should just focus on building a supportive ecosystem, rather than wasting time bashing each other.
Cheers,
@Nuniek
Are you qualified to say get a qualified speaker Willis?
I was at the same talk that you were at Willis.
I found William to be very straightforward in his opinions. OPINIONS, mind you. He never said it was fact.
Having been involved in the startup scene in Thailand I do know that sometimes the truth about the startup scene is a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s better for entrepreneurs to go in with a balanced perspective rather than a sugar-coated, everything-is-rosy-and-unicorns-fart-rainbows outlook.
What I find most amusing though is that you slam William for his admission that he is an entrepreneur “and still learning.” Funny because you describe yourself in almost the exact same terms in your blog..
“I don’t claim to be a successful entrepreneur
because I’m still very much in the middle of this learning journey,
slowly crawling toward success, inch by inch. Nonetheless, I’m glad to
share my experience thus far.” (http://www.techinasia.com/journey-as-an-entrepreneur/)
Perhaps you should have taken the high road and rebutted William’s points with facts–instead of resorting to character assassination. Frankly, you look more the fool when you do this.
kowe ki ngomong opo mbak??
yeah im sort of agree with you annonCommenter..fellow indonesian here too.. this is all about willis vs william ..dont bring those “negeri tetangga” remarks..
William is just a corporate guy who is wearing suit ,an idea guy who doesnt know how to code and likes to bashing on indonesian startup ‘cos its easy!