From economics to ecommerce: how Bukalapak’s president joined the startup world

When Teddy Oetomo joined Indonesian ecommerce unicorn Bukalapak as its chief strategy officer in 2018, he was caught off guard by the startup’s fluid corporate structure.

“When I first started out, we were looking at corporate actions, so I asked, ‘Alright, where’s the corporate finance team?’” he recounts. “Everyone just looked around before looking back at me, and I realized, oh, I guess I’m the corporate finance team.”

Teddy Oetomo, president of Bukalapak / Photo credit: Bukalapak

Since then, Oetomo has rolled with the punches, now looking after several departments in Bukalapak in his current role as the company’s president. He’s become a core part of the firm’s leadership team, helping the company to list on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in August this year. The listing made Bukalapak the first unicorn to go public on the archipelago’s home board and was the largest recorded for the bourse.

Oetomo’s journey to this point, which involved moving from a traditional finance background to the startup sphere, has been one of learning and unlearning.

From economics to ecommerce

Oetomo started his career as a research analyst in Australia. At the same time, he was pursuing his doctorate degree in economics and teaching at the University of Sydney.

“I always knew I wanted to be an equity analyst and felt that the work involved with writing a thesis would help a lot with the foundations for that,” he says.

After graduating, Oetomo landed a job at global financial services firm Credit Suisse. He was based in the Indonesia office and worked at the firm for eight years, climbing up the ranks to become the director of equity research. In 2014, he took a year off from his finance career, opting to help out with his family’s business, before joining asset management company Schroders as its head of intermediary business in 2015.

Having achieved his initial dream of being an analyst, Oetomo was open to a change in pace. That was when Bukalapak came knocking on his door.

“One of the Bukalapak shareholders is someone who I’ve known for over 15 years, and he approached me with this opportunity,” shares Oetomo. “Since I’d spent my whole life in the capital markets and asset management space, it enticed me to try my hand at something a little different.”

What was also interesting was Bukalapak’s mission of empowering micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia and its drive to create significant social impact while fueling its own growth as a company.

“Bukalapak is an example of doing good by doing well,” says the executive. “It’s not often that you get to do both at the same time.”

A different culture

When Oetomo joined Bukalapak, the scope of his work was not too different to what he was doing before, but he was not prepared for the culture shock of going from a multinational corporation (MNC) to a fast-moving tech startup.

The Indonesian offices of such MNCs typically had 50 people, and all of them came from similar backgrounds, says Oetomo. “When I joined Bukalapak, there were thousands of employees across so many different fields – sales, marketing, programming – it was a very large spread,” he adds.

Photo credit: Bukalapak

Additionally, the “move fast” approach that Bukalapak adopted with its working processes took him by surprise. In an MNC, there were “rules around everything, including buying a client a cup of coffee,” Oetomo says. At Bukalapak, decisions were often made over calls and chat apps, instead of structured meetings.

Joining the startup also challenged a lot of his preconceived notions about what could be done in a company, forcing him to reevaluate a lot of his thought processes and perspectives.

“You have to discipline yourself to be open-minded but logical,” he says. “Where I came from, we lived with a predetermined set of rules and have a predetermined perspective of what is doable. When someone comes up with an out-of-the-box idea, we often shut it down without really thinking about it.”

Joining Bukalapak forced him to think logically about new ideas and opportunities in order to understand if something really was impossible or if he just wasn’t thinking about it in the right way. This applies to every aspect of the business, whether it’s developing new products or hiring to fill particular roles in the company.

“When you’re in a tech startup, you’re going where no one has gone before,” shares Oetomo. “You need people to ask ‘why not?’ And that gets innovation going.”

Milestones on the journey

In the three years he’s spent at Bukalapak, Oetomo has been part of many milestones on the company’s journey, most notably the firm’s listing on the IDX.

As an analyst, he spent plenty of time on the other side of the table, reviewing the IPO prospectuses of firms and analyzing them to determine valuations. However, being on the management team of a company looking to go public was a different game.

Oetomo and the Bukalapak leadership team at the firm’s virtual Public Expose event in July 2021, where Bukalapak’s IPO plans were announced / Photo credit: Bukalapak

“I never appreciated the amount of extra work and pressure you experience being on the management side,” explains Oetomo. “It’s like a house of cards, where you need to make sure everything is in the right place.”

This was where his previous work experience came in handy. As Bukalapak geared up for its listing, Oetomo’s knowledge in forming narratives and running road shows made a difference. He helped Bukalapak connect to prospective investors and “sell” its story by bridging the gap between the banking and the management sides of the equation.

Taking a company public is a once-in-a-lifetime feat, says Oetomo, adding that “it was a really interesting and rich experience.”

Besides the tangible achievements, he is most proud of how the employees under his care – coupled with the opportunities provided by Bukalapak – have grown since joining the company.

“When you see how far they’ve come from where they started, how much learning they’ve done, and how they’re now taking on new roles and challenges – that’s quite an achievement.”

Making the switch

While Oetomo’s switch from the corporate world into the startup realm has been a successful one, he’s quick to note that it’s certainly not something for the fainthearted.

“It’s rewarding, but there’s a lot of late nights, high intensity, sudden moments where your heart rate starts spiking – it’s hard work, and there’s no free lunch,” he notes.

His advice for anyone looking to make the leap is to be aware of what you’re getting yourself into and to be willing to keep an open mind in all situations.

“You need to question everything that comes your way because by doing so, we innovate and we do better,” Oetomo shares. The executive believes that this mindset will help when navigating uncharted territory.

Indeed, Bukalapak is adopting this approach as it enters its next phase of life as a listed company. In Oetomo’s view, the only way the firm can grow even further is to continue coming up with new solutions beyond what it currently offers.

“We need to dare to disrupt ourselves because only by doing so can you go to the next level and really provide the next-level solutions,” Oetomo believes. “As the market evolves, we’ll need to evolve along with it to continue addressing the needs of our customers.”

Bukalapak is a leading tech company in Indonesia that serves both online and offline markets, driven by their mission to empower SMEs through innovation and technology to create a fair economy for all.

Learn more about Bukalapak on its website.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.