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Ryan Gondokusumo: Connecting companies and freelancers ONLINE
JP/Jerry AdigunaRyan Gondokusumo has an entrepreneurial gift for identifying problems and providing solutions
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JP/Jerry Adiguna
Ryan Gondokusumo has an entrepreneurial gift for identifying problems and providing solutions.
In 2011, he launched his first digital startup, Sribu, an online marketplace to connect companies and freelance designers.
'Usually, corporate headhunters rely on word of mouth if they are looking for a freelance designer. The situation is the same for freelance designers who want to look for clients. It takes a lot of time to find a good match between a corporate and a freelance designer using this old method,' Ryan told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.
'I was thinking how about if I made a channel for both companies and freelance designers to meet so that it would be easier for them to connect with one another and thus, Sribu.com was born,' he said.
Despite having a seemingly profitable business idea at that time, Ryan admitted that the first year of Sribu was rocky ' filled with trials, tribulations and errors.
A complete newbie in the digital space, Ryan had no prior experience when it came to online marketing when he quit his job and founded Sribu in late 2011.
Ryan has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University in Indiana, the US. After he graduated, he spent seven years in the information and technology departments at various established companies.
'Most of the companies I worked for were already established. They have been around for between 20 and 30 years. All we had to do was to polish and maintain their businesses. There was an urge within me to start something new from scratch all by myself,' Ryan said.
At the beginning, Ryan made a mistake common to first-time entrepreneurs ' he tried to do everything by himself.
'There was a lot of trial and error. For example, I should have hired a professional web designer to build my site, but for the sake of lowering costs, I decided to do this on my own. Eventually, I ended up redesigning my website over and over again and had no time to expand my business,' he said.
Ryan was quick to realize his mistake and started to promote his businesses through online forums, Google advertising, Facebook promotions and startup fairs.
Sribu started to generate traffic and attracted a large number of users from both corporations and freelance designers. Ryan began to taste the fruits of his labor.
'There are at least 2,000 clients registered in Sribu.com by now,' he said.
With Sribu up and running, Ryan had a solid base for him to launch his next digital company five months ago. It was branded Sribulancer.
While Sribu only connects companies with freelance designers, Sribulancer can be regarded as an extension, as it bridges companies not only with designers, but all kinds of freelancers from different backgrounds and skills.
'Basically, we want to revolutionize how recruitment works,' Ryan said.
Jobs posted on Sribulancer include website development, search engine optimization, transcription, content writing and many others. In five months, Sribulancer has registered more than 10,000 freelancers and 1,000 corporate and individual clients.
'From 1,000 clients, around 500 of them are actively posting jobs for freelancers,' Ruan said.
'One of our biggest clients is a Japanese company named Infoteria,' he added.
One of the main benefits to using Sribulancer is to have security for both companies and freelancers, according to Ryan.
Under the Sribulancer system, freelancers will only receive payment after the job poster is satisfied with their work.
However, freelancers can also still receive payment if the Sribulancer team feels that they have done their job in line with client requests. In short, Sribulancer can act as a mediator during a dispute between companies and freelancers.
On profits, Sribulancer makes money by taking a 10 percent commission for each payment received by registered freelancers from their clients. For example, if a client pays US$100 for a job completed by a freelancer, then Sribulancer will receive $10.
Ryan said that Sribulancer was still in its early stage and there would be more additional features in the future.
'For example, we would like to apply hourly payment or monthly payment features because for now our payment method is project based ['¦.] We will also launch an affiliate marketing program by the end of this year,' he said.
Ryan said he believed his company was moving the right direction and things could only go for the better for Sribu and Sribulancer.
'In recent years, more and more people prefer to work from home and in 2020, it is estimated that one out of three people in the world is a freelancer,' he said. 'We want to ride on that future trend by providing a platform for clients and freelancers to meet and to do business securely,' he added.
Ryan also said that Sribulancer would also be able to utilize the momentum created by the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, which will allow workers from all across Southeast Asia to directly compete for jobs with one another without regard to borders.
'The AEC can be a challenge and an opportunity. We see it as a good opportunity because it will trigger local freelancers to improve their quality. With better quality, more and more clients abroad will look to work with Indonesian freelancers,' he said.
