The cofounder and COO of Tinkerlust, a growing marketplace for preloved fashion items, Aliya Tjakraamidjaja has sometimes struggled to keep the business afloat since the online platform was set up in mid-2015.

“We keep reminding people that Tinkerlust is not merely a fashion business. We are a tech company,” said Aliya.

Dealing with system crashes, employee turnovers, a limited budget and the need to gain traction while maintaining steady growth were all in a day’s work.

“As a bank employee for 10 years and another year of working as a consultant for foreign tech start-ups wanting to operate in Indonesia, I never thought I’d end up running a start-up myself. It’s a fluctuating business with ups and downs that require us to grow a thick skin,” she said.

Aliya shared her experience at “Female Founders: Behind Their Stories”, a public discussion held on Nov. 12 as a satellite event of Social Media Week 2019 at @america in Pacific Place, Central Jakarta.

The other speaker was Aulia Halimatussadiah, the cofounder and CMO of Storial.co, an internet protocol (IP)-based platform for writers seeking an online medium to publish their work.

Courtesy of girls in tech

An IT graduate with coding skills and a passion for books, Aulia established an online bookstore in 2007 when tech start-ups were not yet prominent in Indonesia and then expanded it in 2010.

“I’m a writer, too, and writing is a solitary business. Through the platform, amateur writers can find validation for their work from their interaction with readers and can monetize the next chapter of their book,” said Aulia, adding that the platform also offered an on-demand printing service.

Aliya started Tinkerlust as a solution for women who wanted to clear some space in their closets, and for others who sought affordable yet good-quality secondhand items but going to a garage sale or a bazaar was not economical or was too tiring for them.

Tinkerlust also supports sustainable fashion.

“All the items are curated, and in collaboration with fashion designers, we also offer upcycled products. We have also launched Tinkerjoy, so customers can rent a fashion item,” she said.

In the discussion, which was moderated by MetroTV anchor Iqbal Himawan, the two women entrepreneurs spoke about how they sometimes allowed their emotions to take the lead at work.

Courtesy of tinkerlust.com

“We’re never out of problems, but one of my biggest worries is whether I can inspire the people working with me. As a leader, I have to always show optimism so I have to be more confident about myself,” said Aliya.

Aulia, who has 13 full-time employees, said that her job also included finding new challenges “to keep them excited”.

“We’re not just heeding the needs of the clients and customers out there, but our team also has to find satisfaction at work,” she said.

This was part of the reason their companies had evolved, such as Tinkerlust’s involvement in the last two editions of the annual Jakarta Fashion Week, and Storial.co’s transformation into an “IP factory” that now runs radio programs, web series and even movies as part of its service.

“Our core business is literature and entertainment, while the technology is just the tool that takes our products out there. I believe that tech start-ups will go a long way, despite the similar risks of the dotcom bubble in the past, when the valuation was jacked up as investors turned a blind eye,” said Aulia.

On that conviction, she initiated Girls in Tech, a nonprofit organization where women could attend monthly workshops on how to develop tech-based solutions to any problems they might have and even participate in a digital arisan (tontine).

Raising the bar: Storial.co founder and CMO Aulia Halimatussadiah (right) and Tinkerlust cofounder and COO Aliya Tjakraamidjaja (second right) pose with MetroTV anchor Iqbal Himawan (second left) and Annisa Kurnia of Social Media Week 2019 at a discussion on Nov. 12 at @america, Pacific Place, Central Jakarta. (JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak)

“The percentage of female [tech] founders in Indonesia is still very low and therefore we should increase women’s participation in the tech industry,” added Aulia.

As a woman in a male-dominated industry, Aulia felt lucky she was an early starter and that she was protected by her male counterparts. However, she acknowledged that she was often left out of the conversation at overseas events as the only woman in the room, or that she felt uneasy whenever investors — who were also mostly men — arranged after-hour meetings.

Aliya, a mother of two, said that being a woman in the tech industry meant double the hardship, as she had to juggle between her family and her business.

“I often ask myself, ‘Is this it?’ or ‘Can I get through this?’ [It’s] Not just me, but other female founders also feel the same way that we question ourselves a lot more than a male founder does.

“I stay in the business not because it’s a fashion company or a tech company, but because this work reveals a lot of myself. I used to think that I was into digital marketing, but then I found that production is what I’m best at. This ‘revelation’ keeps me going,” she said. (ste)