Achmad Zaky

Achmad Zaky (Born in Sragen, Central Java, August 24, 1986^[1]) is an Indonesian entrepreneur who works in the field of internet technology. He is the founder and CEO of Bukalapak, the largest C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer) online marketplace in Indonesia, which focuses on empowering Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Education

Zaky has begun to know the world of technology ever since in primary school. In 1997, started from a computer which was given by his uncle and a bunch of programming books, he grew up loving and learning computer and programming sciences.^[2]

While attending high school at Public High School 1 Solo, he got an opportunity to represent his school in the National Science Olympic event, for the field of computer science, and managed to become the champion at national level.

In 2004, Zaky continued his study in Information Technology at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). In academic, Zaky achieved a 4.00 GPA during his first semester.^[3]

Aside from academic activities, Zaky had also founded some student organizations in ITB. He was one of the founders of SHARE Global Student Think-Tank in ITB. He also founded the Entrepreneur Club ITB, which is now known as Technoentrepreneur Club (TEC ITB). He was also active in the Amateur Radio Club (ARC) ITB.

Throughout his study in ITB, Zaky had won several national competitions, one of them was being in the 2nd place at Indosat Wireless Innovation Contest in 2007. He created a software called MobiSurveyor. This software was used to do a quick count in a survey. Zaky also won Merit Award at the INAICTA competition (Indonesia ICT Awards) in 2008.

Zaky also received a scholarship from the Oregon State University for two months in 2008. He also represented ITB at the Harvard National Model United Nations event in 2009.

Early career

Zaky began his career and activity in technology and entrepreneurship worlds when he was studying at ITB. He was offered a project to make a quickcount software for the national election, with a value of 1.5 million Rupiah, for one of the national television stations.^[3] After graduating from ITB, he founded a technology consulting firm named Suitmedia.^[2][4]

Zaky had also tried making a culinary business in making noodles, during his undergraduate study, which in the end led to bankruptcy. Zaky spent all of his money from winning various competitions.^[5]

At that time, we all infected by the entrepreneurship virus. While hanging out with friends, all of a sudden, I had an idea to make a noodle stall. The money that I earned from competitions, all of it were spent towards that business, but then in the end it led to bankruptcy. I feel traumatized and scared due to the failure, but then I thought that this is like school, the cost is expensive, I believe there is a valuable lesson here^[3]

With experience making an IT system for many big companies, Zaky thought of making something more useful for a lot of people. From here, Bukalapak.com started in 2010.^[6] He had a dream to change the life of many people by empowering small to mid-size local businesses through internet. The base code for Bukalapak was completed in 2 months. In the beginning, Zaky asked sellers at a shopping mall to join bukalapak. However, the responds given from the public was not big. His first client was actually coming from small sellers. When being asked why they want to join, their reason was that their products was not selling well. They asked Zaky's help to sell them through Bukalapak. Since then, he focused on his efforts getting small to mid-size sellers to join. In 2011, there has been around 10,000 sellers joined Bukalapak.

Bukalapak's vast growth has gained investors' interest to invest in Bukalapak. Among them are 500 Startups, Batavia Incubator, IMJ Investment, and Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk (EMTEK Group).^[1][2]

Personal life

Sunday, October 17, 2010, Zaky started a new life with his wife, Diajeng Lestari. He infected his vision to her on how to utilize the internet in doing business. His wife, whom already bored being an employee, and also feeling the difficulties in finding hijab for her everyday use, founded an idea to make a commercial site, that focuses on selling Moslem fashion. Zaky encouraged the idea and helped his wife in founding hijup.com in 2011.^[7] To this day, they have been blessed with a daughter named Laiqa Anzani. Laiqa's name was then also used as a name for a famous lifestyle magazine among hijabers.

Endeavor Entrepreneur

Achmad Zaky (CEO of Bukalapak), and Fajrin Rasyid (CFO of Bukalapak), were selected as International Selection Panel (ISP) on the 63rd Endeavor, in Dubai and recognized as successful Indonesian entrepreneurs. Being Endeavor's ISPs, they officially became Endeavor Entrepreneur. Candidates have to go through a tight selection process in the local level, before finally getting into the last stage and becoming ISP. The interview process in Indonesia took 6–12 months period. After passing the initial interview process, the next selection process was a 3 days interview with global business leaders from Endeavor's network. Endeavor Entrepreneur is an entrepreneurship movement, with a focus on the development of high impact entrepreneurship.

Bukalapak was founded by Achmad Zaky (Chief Executive Officer and Founder), Nugroho Herucahyono (Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer), and Fajrin Rasyid (Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer) in 2010. Nowadays, Bukalapak has grown fast, and recognized as a successful high impact enterprise in Indonesia through its online marketplace business. Bukalapak aims to push small to mid-size local businesses on utilizing technology, which is the internet, as a tool to expand their market size. Those businesses can professionally sell their products by utilizing Bukalapak's platform, with a secure and trusted system, both for the sellers as well as the buyers.

Harbolnas

Bukalapak received high attention as well as participation from the public during the celebration of Hari Belanja Nasional (Harbolnas National Shopping day) in 2015. The program gave double discount to Bukalapak's users on the 10th, 11th and 12 December 2015. The discount came from the sellers (Pelapak), as well as voucher from Bukalapak, for users whose email addresses have been verified. Bukalapak received award for best YouTube ad in 2015, during the celebration of Hari Belanja Nasional 2015 (Harbolnas). Bukalapak was able to prove that a non- big-budget ad combined with a creative concept would win the public's attention. Harbolnas is an annual event that is held by various e-commerce in Indonesia, with support from various partners, such as telecommunication industry, businesses, banking, logistics, and media.

Bukalapak Programming Contest

Due to the vast development of the technology industry in Indonesia, as well as their love for the field of IT, Achmad Zaky, Nugroho Herucahyono, and Fajrin Rasyid, along with Bukalapak, hold the Bukalapak Programming Contest. Bukalapak wants to push the development of technology in Indonesia. One of the ways is by developing the potential of young programmers. It is hoped that trough this activity, programmers can compete and encourage to continue learning and evolve.

The competition started on Februari 2016, as a tool to identify talents and the potential for work in the field of IT. The competition includes a series of algorithmic-puzzle problem that needs to be solved within the given time frame.

References