On 4 April, 2018, ANGIN co-hosted a high tea event with UBS Unique. The event was a chance for attendees to gain greater insight into the world of impact investing and gender-lens investment. Tracey Woon of UBS moderated the discussion – two presentations and a fireside chat with James Gifford, CIO & Head of Impact Investing at UBS, and Shinta Kamdani, CEO of Sintesa Group and Founder of ANGIN.
James Gifford spoke of the many ways that the next generation could have an impact on investment activities, as well as how the world is changing to reward sustainable businesses and punish ones that do harm. Meanwhile, Shinta Kamdani gave a presentation on the strides that ANGIN has taken in women’s empowerment: from the Women Fund to empowering women through Women’s Spotlight, ANGIN has shown a track record of dedication to supporting women throughout the Indonesian startup ecosystem.
The high tea was filled with buzz, networking, and conversations on responsible and sustainable investment. We hope that some of the discussions at the event will lead to concrete actions in both the Indonesian and Singaporean investment ecosystems. ANGIN is looking forward to hosting more productive and insightful events with our friends at UBS Unique in the future.
Tag: female
Fany Okthalia of Wonderlabs Academy
Tell me a bit about yourselves.
My name is Okthalia. I’m a business major student. Aside from being a student, I’m also involved with female empowerment. I inspire to be a changemaker, no matter what others say. I’m really concerned about women’s rights and how women are usually misjudged in society. Maybe that’s what inspired me to do something and be the voice for women to be heard.
My name is Isthofany Irfana Azkiya (or Fany for short) and I am a female software engineer. I always wonder why people hold the stereotype that women cannot be skilled in tech? Why they can’t be prominent in the tech industry? Actually, women can make it as programmers. My goal is to change the perception of women in the tech industry, to show that women can be programmers, too.
Can you tell me a little bit more about the inequalities you’ve noticed in the tech industry and society in general? What stories out there have inspire you to do this?
Okthalia: Actually if you ask it like that, I’m afraid it will be out of scope of our concern in Wonderlabs Academy. but I’m just going to say what I feel. In Indonesia, some people – whether we like it or not – some people think women still belong in the kitchen, or are born to be housewives, cooking and taking care of kids. And when a woman has a higher status than a man, nobody wants to approach her because men certainly want to be higher in status than women, right?
There’s something that really bothers me a lot — how religion is mistakenly correlated with culture. For instance – I’m a Muslim, and Islamic tradition does not promote disrespecting women. But somehow in [Indonesia] we still believe that women are not capable of leading. It’s, you know, the belief that women just belong in the kitchen and need to have kids and everything. It is true that women have emotions and might be more empathetic than men, but that doesn’t mean that the degree of a woman is worth less than that of a man.
So in starting Wonderlabs Academy, what challenges have you faced? How do you make yourselves keep going?
Fany: We just started the pilot project, so this is the first batch, the first cohort. The enthusiasm is good. We got 78 applicants, but we could only accept 8 due to limited resources. We luckily have had no hate comments or objections or anything like that.
Okthalia: The challenges we face are actually general challenges. It’s a challenge people face in running a school, such as how to convince the participants that what they’re learning matters, and teaching the participants effectively. Another challenge is in finding resources to teach them.
What’s your vision? Your long-term goal for Wonderlabs Academy?
Fany: I hope there will be more women in technology. Women are good – we are better than men in some ways (laughs). Just kidding. But we have to be confident. We can do it.
Okthalia: Actually, the tech sector is really interesting and it really brings benefits to women. We understand that women want to take care of their children. Actually, you can do that in the tech industry – you can work from home.
What are some tech trends or news that excite you?
Fany: We want to support our government program – 1000 Startup Digital. 1000 Startup Digital is a government program in which the government wants to support and create 1000 startups. It’s something that is new for Indonesia, but startups are rapidly growing here. For example, GO-JEK, Grab, Kitabisa, Bukalapak, Traveloka, etc.
What is one thing you want to tell girls out there who want to be developers but are unsure about themselves?
Fany: We have to be brave and believe that we can do it. If we are really patient and really want to learn, we can be good programmers.
Okthalia: For me, for the developer, it’s that yeah, I think it’s pretty much like Steve Job’s message: If you want to succeed in a goal, you have to be curious and dig deep to find the insights you need to get there.
Crystal Widjaja: GO-JEK SVP Business Intelligence
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Crystal Widjaja and I work at GO-JEK Indonesia. I am purely a data person; what that means is I’m constantly look at trends, metrics, KPIs, and creating new KPIs so that the business can grow and evolve in its strategy and decision-making process.
What inspired you onto this data science path in the first place?
A lot of people would look at my history and say, “Hey that’s not very data science. That’s not very ‘data’ at all.” I actually graduated in political science – in empirical methods – but secretly I’ve always been very data-driven. The reason why I majored in political science was because I wanted to do polling statistics: understanding the correlations between different types of demographics, how they vote, and how, say, a three-party system creates different results from a two party system. These are the kinds of things I was really interested in from the data side.
There’s a lot of manual data collection in political science, and in research in general. Learning how to optimize and create good data structures was just a natural evolution. And from there – given that I’m a lazy person sometimes – I learned how to write code, like Python, and SQL. That just leverages your potential so much more, right? A lot of that has been very useful to push me into data science and business intelligence.
What got you to take the initiative to write code? How do you recommend a beginner start learning?
For me, it was actually working on annoying manual problems that led me to start learning VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) on Microsoft Excel. From there, I figured that if I could tie together Python into VBA, I could be even more productive. A lot of GO-JEK is the same way in that we are very iterative. We’ll ask ourselves, “What’s the easiest thing that’ll 10x us?” and once that 10x is done, we’ll go back and ask “What’s the next thing that’ll 100x us?” So that iterative thought process of, “Okay, how do I do 80% of the work or get 80% of those gains right now?” is in our company culture and fits me very well.
What did you use to learn those programs?
I’m actually very good at Googling – I think that’s an underrated skill. (laughs) But actually there are quite a few resources on W3Schools for SQL, for example. Udemy and Coursera have great R programs. All of these free resources can actually get you about 90% of the way. That other 10% of mastery is really finding a challenging problem that you can work on and practice with.
And what was an early challenge that propelled you forward?
One of the things I was working on at the time was research on different startups. I wanted to see what people were saying about startups. I had a list of startups that I had captured from Crunchbase, and I wanted to generate the most recent news article about each one. So if I were to go into Google and press search, using time as a parameter, how could I automatically get that first result? So I actually did that on Excel VBA with a Python script as well.
Pivoting towards more startup questions, what are some key differences you found between US startups and Indonesian startups?
I think what I have seen is that people here are much more passionate and much more interested to learn. There’s a lot of active learning that happens in Indonesia, especially at GO-JEK. Here, we encourage people to seek out problems and solutions themselves, rather than waiting for someone to teach them and waiting for someone to train them directly. It’s a lot more of, “Hey, there are these problems that no one has ever worked on before. Are you interested in picking these up as challenges that you want to prove yourself with and identify best practices on your own?”
In the US, I’ve found that there’s a lot more passive learning where the best practices are all around you. You raise your hand and there’s a mentor right there next to you. That passive learning, while great (you do learn a lot), doesn’t push you as far. The challenge in Indonesia and the challenge for startups in general is that we have to pave our path by ourselves. It’s very new.
And that’s why this younger generation of students really excite me. I absolutely love having recent grads join us; they are the pioneers that don’t realize how hard it is to do something, so they will work the hardest to accomplish these things.
How do you see Indonesia and its nascent startup scene versus Silicon Valley? What kind of potential do you see? What do you find similar?
That’s a really great question. From what I see in Silicon Valley, a lot of the really meaningful things have already been done. What’s being created there are like assisted living apps for millenials. That’s not really inspiring; it’s not really impactful.
What I see here in Indonesia are people really working to solve hard, fundamental problems that improve the lives of people around them across all levels. There is that expectation that Indonesia will become that next tech hub. I think we have a lot ot live up to, but I do see there are a lot of new organizations, new startups — there’s so many meetup events that are extremely inclusive. The ones I had attended in Silicon Valley were actually less inclusive because they had that senior mentality, whereas here it seems like everyone is so willing to pull each other up that ladder rung. I actually think we will do much better because of that inclusivity and that diversity of people.
What are some obstacles you see?
Traffic, for one – like how do you get all these people to a meetup and start at the right time? That’s actually a literal and logistical fundamental challenge. Even we at GO-JEK face this. For instance, at AI Saturdays we start at either 10:00AM or 10:30AM; it really just depends on whether or not it’s raining. Hopefully as we develop that infrastructure and increase that ability to connect each other, we’ll actually enable other people to meet up more frequently and be more dependable.
A huge obstacle in the tech scene here is that it’s quite difficult to source developers for startups. How do we make Indonesia a more attractive place for quantitative talent in fields such as data science and technology, and how do we attract girls into that field?
I think there are a lot of junior developers, and so the question is: how do we create a mentorship system so that we continuously refine and polish the existing skillsets of the people here? I know there are a lot of beginner meetups and beginner events, but seeing more experts put together a more polished curriculum, that’d be interesting. I know Hacktivate is great and there are a couple of other coding schools that are developing these best practices. I think in time this will happen, it’s just that we started a bit later than Silicon Valley. But we will actually, I think, surpass them.
Yes, there aren’t that many female developers. I think that this partially has to do with the expectations that young women have as they’re growing up. They currently see a lot of male developers. There aren’t a lot of good examples of females in tech for them. I personally would like to spend a bit more time ensuring that female developers are paid attention to, are given that exposure. All female developers have this responsibility to just be present, to just stand out there. And being present inspires that younger generation. Although you may not see that impact for several years, you need to influence that generation to see that this is actually something that they can do.
Have you faced any unique challenges as a female in data science?
I work mostly in business intelligence, but I do sit with the data science teams as well. I’m actually blessed that GO-JEK has such an innovative and inclusive culture. Our company is so diverse that I’ve never felt prejudiced, actually. And that’s what makes GO-JEK great. Our attitude is about inclusivity and solving difficult problems. And that diversity of thought across gender, ethnicities, and backgrounds actually allows us to come up with more innovative solutions than other people normally would. I love the fact that we are a very distributed and culturally dispersed team because I’ve heard interesting insights that I never would have without that diversity.
How would you recommend people deal with those workplace situations if they do face that?
What I can talk about is what has been really successful at GO-JEK. For us we are very open. We have leaders who actually push feedback sessions. They actively tell us, “Hey, make sure you take an hour of your time every week with your team to do brown envelope sessions. Write feedback.” One of our 10 values is actually that criticism is a gift. Being able to give helpful feedback and tell people, “Hey that isn’t something we really value in our culture,” or, “Hey, that tone you took wasn’t really correct” — that kind of openness allows us to communicate very openly and fix any problems we might have. A lot of these situations perhaps could be handled with more transparency or with better policies in place, and I think GO-JEK has a very safe structure. You could tell people things and know they will receive feedback well.
And for those whose companies don’t necessarily share GO-JEK’s culture?
It’s difficult for me to say that there is any universal solution, but I would say that progress has to start with yourself. Be the progress you want to see. If I see injustice, I will actually call it out. That is personally important to me. Ask yourself, “What are your virtues, what are your values,” and act on them on a daily basis. We can’t expect other people to take responsibility for the injustices we see; if you see a problem and you have the power to make a difference, then why not go and make that difference?
And I see around the world, a lot of people are picking up on that sentiment. There’s a lot of women’s marches — in Jakarta, for instance —
Yes! And it all starts from one person, right?
Yes! And so how can we keep the momentum going?
Communities are one of the most important things that I think really sets Indonesia apart from other places. The amount of community here already allows us that freedom. If someone in your community is hurting, your community here is usually small enough and know each other well enough to all stand up and fight for you as well. I would say, build a community, rally together for social causes, and ensure that people communicate well. That is probably the best way.
What do you think is the source of the gaps that exist in terms of resources and support for women entrepreneurs in Indonesia? What can be done to address them?
Interesting. I think a lot of these gaps stem from inherent bias. When people grow up seeing that all of their leaders are male, they internalize this and assume this to be the right approach to take. So they promote more men, they raise more funds for men.
For this, I appreciate that there are actual foundations that recognize the need to reverse that discrimination with women. FemaleDev is a great example of this. But beyond that, what can we do? It’s more about creating better systems for performance evaluations, right? Understanding that what a person does should be reflected in their performance reviews, rather than their gender or appearance. I think even Google does anonymous review cycles as well.
It’s a tough question, and a systematic problem. Purely I think a lot of what we can do is for that younger generation, so that when they grow up they don’t have those inherent biases as well.
What is one message you’d like to give to girls and women who are aspiring to be the next Crystal, the next GO-JEK SVP, or president even?
Aw, I’d be honored. I would tell them that they shouldn’t let anyone tell them they can’t do that, or that it’s not a role for women. Even I heard that as a kid. I had wanted to play the drums once, and some boy told me, “That’s not for girls.” I actually let that stop me. So I would say, don’t let anyone stop you. If you have a belief or a passion for something, the internet is there. You don’t need a teacher in front of you; you can learn almost anything on the internet. If you have a passion, if you have a dream, it’s actually your own discipline and motivation that’s stopping you. So why let that stop you?
If you could create any app that you wanted, what would that be?
To be honest, I would probably make a GO-DONATION service. Matching people who need help with donors. Now that we have GO-PAY, you could just donate directly. You could see – you know, this is the person’s social cause or financial cause that they’re working for. It could even display options like, “This is a place that needs two hours of volunteer services and this is where to sign up.”
Siti Fuadilla Alchumaira: Co-Founder of Empowomen
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Siti Fuadilla Alchumaira. I am the co-founder of a women’s community initiative in Lampung called Empowomen. It is a forum which aims to develop the potential of young women in Lampung and increase women’s leadership and participation in society. We select women to participate in a four-month program involving activities that focus on capacity building, project management and team building, with a final stage of implementing a social project that targets local women as beneficiaries. Our hope is that our female participants can develop these skills to use for their careers and become leaders who can mobilize the community to solve existing social problems within our society.
What inspired you to build this initiative?
First, I’ll give some context about the gender dynamics in Lampung. Currently, there are only 4 women leaders out of 40 community leaders in Lampung, while only 23% of parliament is represented by women. For these reasons, as well as the high rates of violence against women in Lampung, we decided to invest in women. If we can raise the standard of women leaders within the community, then the awareness and sensitivity to solve issues related to women will inevitably increase.
What sorts of issues do women currently face in Lampung?
In Lampung itself, there is still limited support and access to general information about the options that women have. We are not just talking about women’s access to information or developments in Jakarta or Java, as we are still quite far away from that reality. Here, women’s aspirations are still limited to domestic roles which is a mindset we want to change. We strive to raise awareness and lead by example to inspire women to do anything they can with their skills and abilities. We are not limited by our gender and should be able to build a career in whatever field we choose.
What sorts of challenges have you faced so far?
Until now, we still rely on grants and have not been focused on monetising our project as we are currently focused on raising awareness and capacity building. We are still unsure about the kinds of products or services that we can develop to monetize and thus support the sustainability of Empowomen. These are the strategies we need to work on moving forward.
How do you stay motivated despite facing difficulties?
We are grateful that accessibility is increasing and we are becoming more aware about the importance of funding in supporting the sustainability of our project. Perhaps one thing that keeps us going is the fact that we are certain about the ‘why’. Why are we doing this? Because we believe in the benefits of our project, and feel continuously encouraged and humbled by the mentorship we have received thus far, which has allowed us to increase our own capacity. The main thing is to keep learning, keep trying, and if it fails, just try again.
What can we do to help as a society?
Naturally, most of our team is female, but we also recognize the important role of men in achieving our vision. One of our values is inclusiveness, and so both men and women are invited to support our initiative and the societal issues that affect women more generally.
Kartini Igirisa: Founder of UD Kartini Cakalang
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Kartini Igirisa. I am the founder of UD Kartini Cakalang. I started my business in 2008, producing processed fish products such as a variety of sambal (chili sauce).
What was your background previously and how did you come to establishing your own business?
At that time, in 2010, I was going through family problems. I split from my husband and the household, so needed to start earning an income. I have been running my business as a single parent up until now. When I started, we only had one product which was abon cakalang (fish floss). Now there are approximately 7 products, including sambal tuna, sambal teri and various other sambal varieties.
So far, what sorts of challenges do you face in managing your business?
There are competitors who sell their products below the market rate which is worrying for me. We aim to ensure that the quality of our products is not compromised, which means that the price is is raised accordingly. Naturally, when new players enter the market, they automatically look for price competitiveness. All our processing is still done manually.
How do you fundraise?
Until now, I’ve relied on bank loans entirely as the interest rates are very low. However, I only borrow as much as I need.
Can you share any of your experiences as a women entrepreneur?
Firstly, the opportunities are definitely limited living outside of the city. Not having a spouse makes things a bit harder as a single parent, but that’s okay. It does not limit my career. I am still confident, and continue to keep trying because I have to make a living and provide for my children.
I employ 3 women who work on processing, who are all single parents. My vision is to empower women within my community who need an income. Looking for work these day is also difficult, as many employers requires a minimum, level of schooling. So for people who do not have an education, it’s hard to provide daily food for the family. By hiring these people we are helping them achieve financial stability. I am particularly passionate in helping them because I know how hard it is being a single parent.
Why is the issue of women’s empowerment important to you?
I think women should have their own financial freedom, and be able to produce something that can earn themselves an income. I try to promote positive thinking for my female friends who are hoping to open their own business.
In the long term, what do you hope for your business?
I hope that my products can reach the wider domestic Indonesian market, and be in shops all over the archipelago. The goal is to one day have my own factory in Manado.
Lientje H.K. Mamahit: Founder of UD Makaarwen
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am Lientje H.K. Mamahit and I am the owner of Eufraino. We produce a variety of plant products that are processed to be used as traditional medicine for health. I am also coincidentally the Chairwoman of the Association of Traditional Medicine in North Sulawesi. Our products come in the form of instant powdered drinks made from ginger, temu lawak, and turmeric, which are considered natural herbal remedies. We combine these ingredients with fruits and vegetables such as mangosteen, soursop, and carrot, among others to enhance the flavors. My latest product is a 3-in-1 variety consisting of mangosteen combined temu lawak and ginger, which I recommend for people who work a lot, people who tend to eat an oily, fatty diet, and for detoxing in general. The reason why I made these into instant powder was because it turns out that after multiple test trials, that these fruits and vegetables produce higher levels of vitamins when dried and grounded.
What motivated you to start your business?
In the 1990s, I was working as a pastor at a hospital in North Sulawesi when I suddenly became sick. The doctors gave me a drug injection, after which I fainted. It was from there that I realized that my body could not take in chemical drugs, and that’s when I discovered herbal medicine.
Then in 2000, I began to build my own business. I started with only 1 kilogram of ginger, temu lawak and turmeric. For every kilogram, I was able to make 30 sachets of herbal drink. After receiving so much positive feedback and orders from friends and family, I had the confidence to grow the business. Now there are 10 instant drink products under Eufraino which have been distributed to most supermarkets in Manado, as well as stores in Tomohon and Tondano including Transmart Carrefour. My current production per year is 30,000 sachets. At the moment, I am starting to develop green tea, which has become somewhat a global trend. Green tea in powdered form is generally considered higher in antioxidants.
What sorts of challenges have you experienced in developing this business?
This business is not without its challenges. In terms of finding capital, I relied on bank loans. However we have been lucky enough to get support from the Ministry of Agriculture to develop our product. Business growth now has reached 10% every year. The Ministry of Cooperatives has also provided us with mentoring and coaching.
Can you share some of the other initiatives you have been involved in?
In 2011 I was also given a community award by the Ministry of Agriculture called the LM3 (Lembaga Mandiri yang Mengakar di Masyarakat) for outstanding achievement in agribusiness. Those who received the LM3 were directly recruited by the Ministry to work as coaches at the Rural Agricultural Training Center. Because a lot of agricultural output is sold unprocessed, its value is remains low. For example, rice farmers generally directly sell their harvest in its unprocessed form for around Rp.10.000 per kilo of rice. But when the rice is processed into flour, companies like Rose Brand sell bags of 100g for a lot more than the unprocessed rice itself. This is the value added from processing that we aim to promote to agribusinesses.
I have also visited various cities in Indonesia and abroad because of invitations to attend seminars and symposiums on herbal medicine. So my knowledge increases after attending each training session, seminar and symposium.
What do you hope for Eufraino going forward?
Our product is ready for export, especially our 3-in-1 drink consisting of mangosteen, temu lawak and red ginger. With the global health trend at the moment, there is definitely a market for it – particularly with its great health benefits.
Hasria Sarianto: Founder of Poklasar
ANGIN Women’s Spotlight series seeks to showcase a diverse array of inspiring women leaders and their stories and experiences in order to shed light on the unique experiences of women in business. We hope that both men and women can gain from these shared experiences, that these stories can inspire change, and that other young girls are motivated to become leaders as well.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Hasria Sarianto. I run a food processing business called Poklasar, which stands for Kelompok Pengolahan Pemasar. We process fish for consumption and sell to outside the area. I am also a women’s activist; I often look after women who have problems in their families. Through this work, I noticed that many women were treated badly – largely because they are dependent on the husband. Thus, some friends and I initiated Poklasar to empower housewives and give them economic independence. In fact, they are helping their husbands earn extra income. Poklasar not only received an award from the government but is also now a legal chapter recognized by the government.
What are some challenges you have faced in business?
Our business started in 2015, but we have encountered many obstacles including a lack of tools. For example, we don’t have enough equipment available to make our processed fish balls, nuggets, and makasang products. We still chop the fish manually, which limits our production capacity despite the abundance of fish available. Furthermore, people usually use tenggiri fish to make meatballs, but we use another type of fish for economic reasons.
If the first issue is about tools procurement, the second issue is obtaining funding to buy proper machineries needed to develop and grow the business. We crafted proposals to a government agency – DINAS – but they have to serve so many others that they certainly cannot contribute to our business group. As such, our business goes as usual and remains small.
For marketing, we need help: creating better packaging to be more interesting. We also need to understand better about water content so that our products can last longer. We need to hire professionals and need to learn more. Our processes are done the traditional way with very limited tools.
Is your business mostly women?
We only have one group consisting of 10 people who all play their respective roles. There are some housewives who make meatballs. The other group handles marketing. Most are housewives from the village and do not have the skills to work outside home. Hence, they did not have much to do other than maintaining the household and cooking. Now they no longer dependent on their husbands, since they can earn their own living. That’s the main purpose – we cans achieve gender equality through economic independence.
Are there still negative stereotypes about women in Manado?
Yes, particularly in the rural areas and in the coastal areas. The coastal area is about 2 hours away from Manado. Activists should also care about the coastal areas so that women will also be aware of their rights. Sometimes when people are deprived, they act differently. But when they are empowered, they will believe that they can do anything.
Is the awareness of this issue better now?
It has gotten better as the the old cultures that limited women are finally relaxed as well. Women have a lot of potential, but they have never been given the opportunity or enough money.
What was your previous job?
I am a housewife and started as a housewife as well. But I do social work because I actually got involved in many women’s organizations.
Why did you start this business?
I am a female activist. Many women came complaining because their husbands control the money and they felt powerless. Later, many women became victims of domestic violence because they had no bargaining power with the men. Based on this, I believed that these women should be given space and opportunities to be independent and make their own money so that it would not be so easy to be harmed, beaten or cheated. I want all the women I can reach to feel that they are entitled to independence.
What challenges did you experience in obtaining funding?
Once, we requested support from the government because at the time, the government promised that the tools we needed would be prepared. But then the procurement did not match what we asked for and did not meet our needs. The goods ended up being stored and not used.
Are there still many women who do not dare to ask the bank for a loan?
Now it’s easy to get a loan. In our system, when one is married, it is surely the husband applying for a loan. In our country, it should be the head of the family, except if the wife is a single parent.
What are your thoughts about the future of this group?
There is a lot of potential; these women hope to make new development and change for a better future. I think this group will need to grow as well. But it it is constrained due to budget and funding, as it has been self-financed for a long time. Fundraising is still in dire need because my aspirations for the group are to actually have better results both internally and externally from the group.
Ria Pratiwi: WIZEL Project
ANGIN Women’s Spotlight series seeks to showcase a diverse array of inspiring women leaders and their stories and experiences in order to shed light on the unique experiences of women in business. We hope that both men and women can gain from these shared experiences, that these stories can inspire change, and that other young girls are motivated to become leaders as well.
Please explain a little about your efforts.
My name is Ria Pratiwi and I run WIZEL Project. I recycle used jeans and use them as materials to make bags or pencil cases. Suppose I can market these products online and offline; I plan to save 10% of the profits. The funds saved will be used for sewing training for unskilled mothers that only work at home — the housewives. I hope that in the future, through the training, they will be able to earn extra income to support their households and learn new skills. They will not only be able to sew bags, but also clothes. However at present, I have difficulties in marketing the product despite having successfully created a good prototype.
What makes you build this business?
First of all, I could not find good and affordable products made of denim, particularly bags. I like products made of denim; it’s a good, strong and long lasting material. But it was hard to find a denim bag that isn’t too expensive.
Secondly, environmental issues. Nowadays, most people wear jeans and store them away because they do not know where to throw them away. Many choose to cut their jeans or tear them apart. In my opinion, the usage is not optimized and it is probably better if we recycle them, convert them into something useful, and therefore give to people in need. Furthermore, I saw a problem within my own circle: my aunt is a housewife who does not work, but she has the ability to produce if only she was empowered. I wondered, “Why can’t I empower her and possibly other mothers later so they can be productive, gain skills, and earn more?”
What’s your fundraising strategy? How are you running?
At present, I am running on zero external funding. I collect jeans as donations from friends who do not want to wear these jeans any longer. Then, I recycle them into bags. Currently the problem is mostly in financing the cost of the sewing machines. In the future I want to train more mothers and housewives, so we will need more tools that can support this program.
I will continue to look for access to funds because sewing machines are needed. At some point, not all of the materials would be from donations. We may buy denim in rolls so that we can produce bags from both new and recycled materials. I intend for the recycling program to continue to exist.
What are some challenges you encounter in your business?
The challenge is getting these housewives to understand the upside of being a participant in this project. They need to be aware that they could help their families by having additional income. If they can produce the bags well, we can help them market them and sell them.
As a female entrepreneur, do you see any challenges in developing your business?
I am female and many investors are usually men. First of all, I am worried that they will not pay attention to me because I am a female. They probably question my ability since I am female and they might think that women can’t do something like this. I worry about these things when I meet prospective investors.
So this stereotype still exists?
Currently in Lampung communities, this stereotype still exists. In better educated communities, such beliefs have probably waned as they understand that women also have the potential and are capable.
How will WIZEL Project create impact?
First, I want to promote Sustainable Development Goal 12 of sustainable consumption and production by ensuring continuous consumption and production patterns. We as a society consume and buy clothes like jeans, but do not know how to recycle or reproduce.
Secondly, I can also create economic growth for these housewives I work with. 10% of the profit saved from every purchase will fund the continuous training. I also plan to donate some of the bags to street children, orphanages or children who need school bags and pencil boxes for school. Hopefully by providing these basic needs, we can help them stay motivated to study and attend school.
Suriana: Founder of Lyvia
ANGIN Women’s Spotlight series seeks to showcase a diverse array of inspiring women leaders and their stories and experiences in order to shed light on the unique experiences of women in business. We hope that both men and women can gain from these shared experiences, that these stories can inspire change, and that other young girls are motivated to become leaders as well.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m Suriana from Lyvia. We make a variety of fish-based specialty sambal from Manado. Not only do we make sambal, but also abon (fish floss), which we sell in supermarkets such as Carrefour, Indomart, local supermarkets as well as souvenir shops.
What made you start this business?
I used to be a housewife, but saw that in Manado there is a need to create jobs for women. We try to make products in fish processing because there is such an abundance of fish in Manado. Most of our workers are housewives because their husbands’ salary is not enough; they usually help the family business with work. At the moment we have three workers, including myself, making sambal in the house.
What challenges do you see in women’s society in your area?
Most women are left by their husbands, and some have do not have a job. We want to empower them to make money. In most cases the husband’s salary is not enough for their lifestyles, so they work. For my future mission, I want to open a gift shop. We want to empower mothers to be able to produce their own products and sell in the store. That’s my mission ahead.
What are some fundraising obstacles you’ve faced?
Because we spend most of our money on renting the workplace, I have difficulties with financing the main production. Some of my friends also want to help with production, but have limited time so only help with what they can. I hope to increase production, but also need to prioritize fundraising.
Have you been running for a long time?
It’s been four years. We’ve been in operation since 2014, but at that time monthly sales were only at most 20-30 bottles. Now in 2018, we sell 1000 bottles per month. We want to raise our target again and expand our marketing network. The only constraint for us is our size. At the moment, we are still small-scale, although we have worked with the team at Alibaba. One of our obstacles is that we don’t have a BPOM license. Applying to BPOM is very expensive, and you must have a kitchen dedicated solely to production. As a result, the production kitchen and private kitchen needs to be differentiated. So our production is still conducted in my house — a kind of home industry.
What aspects do you feel you need help?
We want coaching for how we can prepare our products to reach the international market. In addition, our packaging is not yet refined to compete with international brands.
As a woman entrepreneur, do you face specific challenges in developing your enterprise?
Yes certainly, because our model is limited and I am solely in charge of managing the business. Besides being helped by one or two people, we have limited time for production. We must seek funding for both the production machinery and for a production factory.
Why is the empowerment of women important to you?
An example are a few of my friends; they are unmotivated and confused about what to do with their time. I started this business to help them become more productive and not feel burdened by their various problems. I want to teach them how we as women and housewives can be productive and engage in wage work while still taking care of the house.
Dwi Siti Sundari: Co-Founder of D’Harvest
ANGIN Women’s Spotlight series seeks to showcase a diverse array of inspiring women leaders and their stories and experiences in order to shed light on the unique experiences of women in business. We hope that both men and women can gain from these shared experiences, that these stories can inspire change, and that other young girls are motivated to become leaders as well.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Dwi Siti Sundari and I am the co-founder of D’Harvest, along with my husband. My business has been engaged in local snacks for about 3 years in the Tomohon area, in North Sulawesi. We utilize local crops such as goroho bananas that is available only in Sulawesi and develop them into banana chips that have a longer shelf life. We also produce snacks made of sweet potatoes, corn and beans for local souvenirs.
Do you have a plantation, too?
I do not, but there are an abundance of bananas in this region, so I had a thought: if we sell bananas as raw materials, it will have a low value and low shelf life, but if it’s a processed bananas, it has up to 6 months of shelf life. We are mostly housewives, so we work as a collective to process these bananas in our respective kitchen, then we will gather together to do the packaging process. We do this in our leisure time, after we are done taking care of our households.
What was your previous work, and what made you want to start this business?
Previously I worked full time at church while looking to hone my skills. I used to just be in the kitchen as a housewife, baking, and so on. We take orders for small events, as well as larger ones for Christmas or other special events. Then I started to sell my products, but with business development services from the government, I ventured to develop the products, apply for P-IRT (food production licensing), so that my products could be marketed to supermarkets and modern markets.
What kind of challenges did you encounter on your entrepreneurial journey?
We have so many requests (for the products). The ability to fulfill the demand is sometimes lacking because we do not have the proper technology and machinery. Up until now, we only used manual equipment. Someone offered us to supply our products in Maluku and Papua regions, but we were not able to take the chance as we lack labour and machinery inputs, even after our neighbors came and helped us.
There is high demand, but many of our orders cannot be fulfilled because our equipment remains manual. So, on average we sell 15 or 20 units. It is not a large sum, because we are limited in terms of production and marketing.
Have you tried to take a loan from the bank?
We’ve never before gotten funds from banks because there are many requirements and constraints, and so we have not thought about getting it from there. I don’t think I can afford to qualify; when there is a guarantee we have the money, but it is difficult to gain the necessary permission that sometimes makes it difficult for us.
Besides fundraising, what other needs does your company face?
More on the business development services, especially in technical skills. We want to grow bigger so that we can employ more people, and thus develop newer and bigger food ideas. However, we need knowledge and training — not just capital.
How is the issue of women’s empowerment important to you?
Currently, I listen to a lot of women, including my own employees. If they do not work and earn money, their household incomes are not enough — their husbands are away, working as drivers or manual laborers. The women have to find additional incomes for their children’s school fees. They cannot even afford their own needs if they do not have jobs. On the other hand, they do not qualify for most jobs like clerk jobs or storekeepers due to age restrictions.
It is because of what I see around me that I want to help. I do so by giving knowledge; in addition to cultivation, we provide craft lessons so that even if a woman is still living at home, she can still receive a little salary and be productive.