S

ome people daydream about romance, holidays or food, but 20-something Nadiem Makarim’s version of daydreams are start-up scenarios.

“I start and end businesses in my head all the time. It’s a reflex for mine. I’m always thinking of new ideas,” he said, grinning.

One of his brainchilds is GO-JEK, a company that took the ubiquitous individual businesses of ojek (motorcycle taxis) in Jakarta and polished it up by providing additional perks such as pickup services, uniforms for the drivers and the ability to order by phone.

GO-JEK gives existing ojek drivers training and facilities in the hopes of offering more orders than those usually obtained when staying in one spot, as well as giving increased customer service to users.

GO-JEK users can call the company’s hotline and order an ojek to come to their door or wherever they may be. The company also provides courier services.

It has been over a year since GO-JEK was launched, and Nadiem said he still foresees major success for the business, at least as long as Jakarta’s traffic remains unfriendly to residents.

“I think GO-JEK has potential. It will grow organically, maybe not at the speed I expected it but it is something that will forever be needed and even more so as traffic gets worse,” he said.

Currently, GO-JEK has 320 drivers located in over 100 areas of Jakarta. Nadiem said the business boasts over 4,000 unique customers and has 3,500 followers on Twitter.

He added that the service is looking into more expansion, and that female ojek drivers are “in the works”.

However, Nadiem has more on his plate than that one particular business. He is also working in e-commerce. GO-JEK, meanwhile, is now capable of running more or less autonomously.

“I am very interested in online space. I think there is a potential there. That’s really my passion. I am very fascinated to see the growth of SMEs [small and medium enterprises] in Indonesia and how that would link to technology, to markets,” he said.

Nadiem said he sees the technology sector and Internet in Indonesia as having the potential to be two of the “biggest hopes for Indonesia to achieve the kind of exponential economic growth that it needs.”

Having only settled in Indonesia for six months since his latest overseas study, he is currently looking at the country and the business potential within it with wide-eyed
excitement.

“The opportunity in Indonesia is huge. Indonesia is on its way to becoming an economic superpower,” Nadiem said.

According to Nadiem, his fascination with his home country has always stayed with him, despite growing up and studying in different countries.

After finishing elementary school in Indonesia, Nadiem went to a junior high school in New York. He finished his high school education at an international school in Singapore before going to Brown University, again in the United States, where he studied international relations.

He stayed in Indonesia for three years afterward, working for consulting firm McKinsey & Company. During his time there, he helped set up an organization called Young Leaders for Indonesia, which teaches select students from various parts of the country skills such as problem solving and management.

His years spent outside Indonesia taught him a number of things, including tolerance, Nadiem said.

“I have no issues with ethnicity. I am used to dealing with people from all kinds of countries. I have always grown up in places where I am not of the dominant ethnicity. I am of Arabic descent so I am not like an Indonesian physically. I didn’t look like a Singaporean in Singapore and in America, I am not white. So I am used to adapting to all kinds of cultures,” he said.

Growing up overseas apparently also showed him the potential of his home country. “I interacted with people with very high education levels, and it’s inspiring because [it showed me that] Indonesians are just as smart and can actually achieve even more providing a role model and good leadership to guide them. And [growing up abroad] also made me miss home,” Nadiem said, smiling.

It is perhaps easy to feel like a stranger, even when one is already back in a place one calls home.

“When people hear me speak English, they assume I am not Indonesian. When I walk around in Jakarta people call me ‘Mister’. It really annoys me but I guess I have a lot of western values in me, western behaviors perhaps, but through and through I am Indonesian, my parents are Indonesian. I feel at home here. I love Jakarta. Even if I can’t stand the traffic,” Nadiem said.

His time overseas made him miss a few defining moments in Indonesian history, yet he kept a keen eye on the developments in his home country.

“I was in New York when the 1997 crisis happened so I missed that part but I always kept in touch through the Internet, etc. It’s very interesting to see Indonesia from the outside in ... It gives you perspective,” Nadiem said.

And now he sees promising development in the country, despite his skepticism of the politics.

“I would say I think Indonesia has grown despite the government not because of the government. We’ve had a lot of different leaders but it’s just the strength of the Indonesian economy that has pushed Indonesia forward … I think now entrepreneurship is going to be the biggest hope for Indonesia moving forward,” Nadiem said.

True to this word, he keeps himself busy with entrepreneurial activities from morning til late at night, be they his own or others, by giving advice related to business models and the like to his acquaintances.

Nadiem’s enthusiasm for business might have been unlikely considering his family’s background; however, he said he has always been “a cross between stubborn and independent-minded”.

“My father is a lawyer and he can actually be called an entrepreneur because he has his own law firm … but he’s not a conventional entrepreneur. But for me [business] is the most interesting thing. I like starting a business from zero the most,” he said.

Thus, after his three previous years in Jakarta, he decided to go to Harvard Business School in the US for a master’s degree in business administration. It was also in his MBA study days that he began experimenting with his own start-ups as well as looking into possible business opportunities in Indonesia.

“When I was in school, I tried to launch four different businesses and all of them at some point before we were going to actually start them ... [we thought] ‘it’s not a good business,”’ Nadiem recalled.

Failure or no failure, his days are filled with meetings, discussions and more daydreaming of business, leaving little room for relaxing with his family or his girlfriend.

“When I have time for a hobby, I will take one up,” Nadiem said.