Gojek co-founder and CEO Kevin Aluwi was invited as a guest speaker at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business undergraduate commencement ceremony, providing newly graduated students with lessons about and insights into his experience at Gojek.
Held on May 13 at the USC’s Galen Center in Los Angeles, the United States, Kevin was invited as an alumni and guest speaker for his role in co-founding Gojek, Indonesia’s first and thus far, only decacorn, valued at over US$10 billion.
The USC Marshall School of Business, founded in 1920, is one of the world’s leading business universities and part of the USC. Kevin received his bachelor’s degree in 2009, majoring in Business Administration, with a minor in International Relations.
On the occasion, dean Geoffrey Garrett highlighted Kevin's achievement in establishing Gojek, noting that the tech company offers the most complete services with 20 distinct on-demand services, ranging from ride hailing to payment system.
Garrett also noted Gojek's business prospects, which are capable of attracting large investments from US-based companies such as Google, Facebook, Sequoia Capital and KKR, as well as China-based Tencent and Singapore-based Temasek, among others.
"In 2021, Gojek synergized with Tokopedia and formed GoTo Group, holding an IPO with a valuation of $30 billion. Kevin is also included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2016 and Forbes 40 Under 40 Indonesia 2022 lists,” said the dean when introducing Kevin.
Prior to co-founding Gojek, Kevin spent two years at Zalora Indonesia as head of business intelligence from 2012 to 2014. He also worked as a business development manager at investment firm Merah Putih Inc. from 2011 to 2012 and as an investment banking analyst at Salem Partners LLC in 2010.
USC Marshall said in a statement that Kevin sets the direction for all Gojek’s services, product development, financial sustainability and operational improvements.
“Since founding Gojek, Kevin has held significant leadership roles across product and functional teams. He has effectively utilized his background in business intelligence to pioneer the use of data for decision-making across Gojek’s businesses. He has also developed deep technology expertise across Gojek’s data, engineering and product teams, with a focus on enhancing the platform’s overall user experience," the statement said.
During the graduation event, which was streamed online on YouTube, Kevin spoke of his experiences in building Gojek from the ground up with other co-founders in 2010, before finally releasing the Gojek app in 2015.
He shared several of his principles to serve as guidelines for students who not only want to work in finance, but also for those who might wish to build careers that reflect their own passions.
According to Kevin, success is not only seen from the numbers, and the greatest success is when every idea and product can be realized properly and benefit the community.
He also stressed the importance of eradicating fears and doubts in the pursuit of one’s desires.
“When I was a teenager, maybe when I was playing video games, my dad suggested that I get a career in finance as it is a very important sector. The smartest and most successful people are in this sector. My dad wanted me to be able to achieve financial freedom on my own, so I planned to go to a top business school in the US, work at an investment bank, set up a hedge fund and make a profit,” he said.
However, four years after leaving Jakarta to study at USC, Kevin’s plans did not go as expected.
“I did manage to achieve the first part of the plan by going to business school, but the second part of the plan was not successful. I did not become an analyst and haven't gotten any job offers; it was 2009, when the global financial crisis made some companies only accept the most promising candidates.”
At that time, Kevin sent thousands of emails applying for a job, without success.
“I looked for an internal list of alumni working in finance. I spent three weeks running on passion, energy, hopelessness -- and I literally sent 5,000 emails over [the course of] 20 days. It was really crazy. The whole ordeal resulted in several hundred responses, 15 phone calls, two interviews and zero job offers,” he recalled.
Another guiding principle he shared is the ability to learn, move and overcome the next challenge as the business scale starts to grow. According to Kevin, a company's rapid growth is both a challenge and a problem, as it has the potential to overtake many existing companies.
A valuable lesson he learned when setting up Gojek is that there are many businesses whose products are not good enough in the market, highlighting the need for a new company with investor support and services needed by consumers.
“When we launched Gojek in 2015, our orders doubled every month for 12 months. At that time, our system and organization were unable to keep up with the speed of orders because it grew so fast. A crazy amount of growth means more capital, and the potential of running out of money. The only thing that remains constant and has the same gravity is the feeling of dread when you take on a new challenge on a new scale.”
“My hope is that you all will be successful, as you graduate from Marshall, to pursue your dream job with determination. More than anything, I wish you all success. Thank you and congratulations to the batch of 2022," Kevin concluded.
