With a new CEO, Bukalapak is opening a new chapter – and breaking new ground

When Achmad Zaky announced his intention to step down as CEO of Bukalapak, the move was largely met with surprise, considering he’s been helming the Jakarta-based ecommerce firm for just about a decade.

Outgoing CEO Achmad Zaky (left) with his successor Rachmat Kaimuddin / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Alibaba’s Jack Ma announced his plans to step down only in 2018, after 19 years in the chief executive’s chair. In the US, founders like Apple’s Steve Jobs and Uber’s Travis Kalanick were pushed out (though Jobs eventually returned). Among Bukalapak’s fellow Indonesian unicorns, only Gojek founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim volunteered to leave the company after joining President Joko Widodo’s cabinet as education and culture minister.

Zaky, however, shares that he’s thought of this moment all along.

“Since day one, I’ve believed that I’m a person who wants to create impact, and not just in one thing,” he tells Tech in Asia. “With the management change, this company can last a long time. It’s like an organism – it can be independent and grow with a change in environment and leadership.”

Great humility

In tech circles, founder-CEOs are often metonyms for their companies, and in some cases, a cult of personality grows around them. It’s rare to see a founding CEO willingly relinquish the post in favor of a “professional” replacement. Rachmat Kaimuddin, Bukalapak’s new chief, finds Zaky’s decision to be a sign of “great humility.”

“The world will always know that Zaky, Fajrin [Rasjid], and Nugroho [Herucahyono] built this company, but it’s not about individuals anymore,” he says, referring to the company’s founding trio. “Bukalapak was created as something greater than any of us.”

Indonesia’s tech scene is still several years behind Silicon Valley and China in terms of maturity, so instances of founder-CEO departures in the archipelago are even fewer. Generally, such executives stay in place while snapping up experienced professionals for the C-suite or the broader management team.

Photo credit: Bukalapak

For example, Gojek hired president – now co-CEO – Andre Soelistyo from one of its investors, Northstar Group. Tokopedia president Patrick Cao was an investment banker at UBS before becoming a growth-stage investor.

Traveloka added two executives from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to its team: Henry Hendrawan was appointed as company president while Christian Suwarna, who also worked at Apple, now heads its Xperience business. Ovo is an exception. Unlike typical startups founded by up-and-coming entrepreneurs, it was incubated by Lippo Group, one of Indonesia’s biggest conglomerates. Ovo CEO Jason Thompson was from Grab’s financial services business.

In recent years, Bukalapak has also been hiring key C-suite executives. Among them are chief operating officer Willix Halim, who was previously at Freelancer.com, and chief strategy officer Teddy Oetomo, a career banker.

Like Harvard

Bukalapak is now upping its ante, and the team has been preparing for this transition for more than a year. The analogy here, according to Zaky, is to run the company like a university.

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