Treat your team as a family, adapt, and be patient! 

These are the three main pieces of advice that Andrew Setiawan, CEO and co-founder of Karta gave the 10 YCSE Academy 2.0 teams during the second virtual mentorship they attended yesterday. 

Karta is an advertising company that was initially founded to help online drivers who experience declining income by giving them additional income through advertisements on their vehicle. During this mentorship session, Andrew Setiawan shared his journey, the ups and the downs, with building Karta as a social enterprise. Wanna know more? Read some of the highlights below and get inspired! 

Adapting during the COVID 19 pandemic

The COVID 19 pandemic has forced many companies to adapt into crisis, not excluding Karta as a startup company. Karta undertook a realistic decision to carry out a pivot business. The tech team was directed to help out other companies and the government in their projects. Other teams also even worked to make fences for hotels, which was actually not a part of the business services that Karta offered. Any risky investment for the near future is also terminated. The team has made everything as efficient as possible and saving the budget to get a fresh start in 2021.

Three co-founders working together and resolving conflicts

The three co-founders commit to the initial vision that was made from the very beginning, so even though many conflicts come up in the process of decision-making, each of them as founders always look far to the vision and give constructive reasoning. Not all founders are the same, even the three of the co-founders are different in some ways. One may have a data-oriented way of thinking and the other one may be more driven by the entrepreneurship intuition. Therefore, it is imperative to understand each other's perspectives and personalities when it comes to decision making.

What is Karta’s journey like as a social enterprise?

As a social enterprise company, Karta was built from scratch. Andrew still remembered how he started the company from a mall food court and rented a very small space in his friend’s shop house. 

Andrew, who spent most of his life studying abroad, had to build his network from zero in Indonesia. At one point, eventually he and the other two co-founders finally decided to make a partnership with an agency, which was a turning point for his company. However, as the company grew bigger, he realized that treating the employees as family also contributes to Karta’s success today. As a family, the employees are always there through all ups and downs.

So even though building an established social enterprise takes a lot of time and effort, from Andrew’s  point of view, it’s always heart-warming to run it. Not only does he care about the business of it all, he’s also very involved with the social part of the company, which he described as the main fuel of Karta from the beginning to now. 

Do you agree with Andrew’s points? Let us know in the comments!