❝Story00:00
Hiring Private Security to Protect Drivers From Taxi Mafias
In Gojek's early days, motorcycle-taxi mafias who controlled areas through violence physically assaulted Gojek drivers who picked up orders in their turf, throwing bricks and brandishing knives and machetes. Rather than treat drivers as third-party contractors left to fend for themselves, Gojek hired private security companies to extract drivers from these situations. They ran on-call patrols in hotspots that could reach a driver within five to ten minutes, and the effort signalled commitment that built lasting loyalty in the driver community.
- Motorcycle-taxi mafias controlled areas through violence and assaulted Gojek drivers
- Attacks ranged from bricks thrown to knives and machetes brandished at drivers
- Gojek hired private security firms rather than leave contractors to sort it out themselves
- On-call patrols in hotspots could reach a driver in five to ten minutes
- The visible commitment to driver safety built Goodwill and loyalty as richer competitors arrived
“the most common form of that resistance in the early days was actually by motorcycle taxi mafias so you would have like these areas that…”
“instead we uh we actually hired private security so we actually work with private security companies to help our drivers in those situations”
#operations#drivers#gojek#safety
❝Story13:00
The Massage Service That Confused Customers
When Gojek launched an on-demand massage service, customers asked whether the driver would come into their house to give the massage. The confusion illustrated Kevin's point about unifying concepts: because customers mentally filed Gojek under 'driver-related services,' a service that didn't fit that frame broke down. It also created design constraints, forcing super apps into giant grids of loosely related services.
- Customers literally asked if the Gojek driver would come inside and give them the massage
- The confusion stemmed from customers framing Gojek entirely as driver-related services
- Services outside a customer's mental frame break down and need re-selling
- Displaying many unrelated services forces super apps into a giant grid, limiting design choices
“a a question that many of our customers asked was that oh is the driver gonna come into my house and give me a massage…”
#product-strategy#super-apps#ux#gojek
❝Story17:30
Competing With a Rival That Had 100x More Capital
Gojek was by far the underfunded player when it launched. In the first six months after launch it had raised about two million dollars while its regional competitor had already raised 250 million, more than a hundred times more capital. Kevin credits the brand it built with drivers, merchants and consumers for helping the company survive and maintain leadership despite the funding gap.
- Six months after launch Gojek had raised about $2 million
- Its regional competitor had already raised $250 million, over 100x more capital
- Competitors could offer more discounts and driver incentives
- A strong brand across drivers, merchants and consumers helped Gojek survive and lead
“for the first six months after launching our app you know we had only raised about two million dollars and our regional competitor had already…”
#fundraising#competition#brand#gojek
❝Story23:30
How Branded Jackets and Helmets Built the Gojek Brand
Putting the Gojek logo on driver jackets and helmets was, in Kevin's telling, one of the most important brand decisions the company made. Beyond simple recall from being all over city streets, the branding worked because people stuck in traffic saw drivers whizzing past carrying passengers, packages and food. That physical reminder connected the logo directly to the service's value proposition, an opportunity Kevin says is rare and often ignored in favour of lazy billboard branding.
- Branded jackets and helmets gave recall by being all over city streets
- More powerfully, people stuck in traffic saw drivers whizzing past with passengers, packages and food
- That connected the logo directly to the service's value proposition, not just visual recall
- These value-reinforcing branding opportunities are rare, which is why lazy billboard branding dominates
- Branding a car ride-hailing service the same way wouldn't work since drivers are hidden inside
“when people would be seeing uh these uh drivers with their jackets and helmets they would be seeing passengers on the back seat as they…”
“the laziest uh uh kind of branding tends to to to be the most popular um you know just put your name and your you…”
#brand#marketing#gojek#drivers
❝Story27:30
Building Cash Vault Booths to Pay Drivers
Before digital payments were common in Indonesia, Gojek had to solve how to pay drivers their earnings. In the early days they built physical cash booths, literally a booth with a vault of cash, where drivers would show their driver ID and balance and collect their money. With tens of thousands of drivers across Indonesia, they effectively built a scrappy mini-ATM network by hand before later integrating with a bank and ATM network.
- Digital payments barely existed in Indonesia when Gojek started
- Gojek needed a way for drivers to withdraw their earnings
- They built physical cash booths with vaults where drivers showed ID and collected cash
- This served tens of thousands of drivers across Indonesia
- They later integrated with a bank and ATM network instead
“in the early days we actually had cash booths uh so we actually had um physical spaces with like a vault and uh a cash…”
“it was it was literally like a boost with a vault with cash in it”
#operations#payments#gojek#scrappiness
❝Story29:00
Beating Fraudulent Driver Apps by Copying Their Features
Third-party fraudulent driver apps were stealing driver details and financial information, but they attracted drivers by offering features Gojek didn't allow, like auto-accepting incoming orders. Lacking the scarce engineering and security talent to lock the apps out, Gojek instead copied the top two or three features into its own app. That significantly reduced usage of the third-party apps, a decision Kevin says was born of necessity rather than principle.
- Fraudulent third-party driver apps stole driver details and financial information
- They attracted drivers with features Gojek banned, like auto-accepting orders
- Engineering and security talent to combat them was extremely scarce in Southeast Asia
- Gojek copied the top two or three features into its own app instead
- This significantly reduced usage of the third-party apps; the decision was made out of necessity
“we just said hey let's take their top two or three features and let's build them into our app and that actually significantly reduced uh…”
#security#product-strategy#gojek#operations
❝Story39:30
Doing Every Job Badly to Learn What Excellence Looks Like
Kevin held many roles at Gojek, from performance marketer writing ad copy to de facto CPO, not just to be scrappy but because experienced talent was scarce in the ecosystem. He argues founders should understand the work well enough to see what excellence looks like; seeing how bad he was at a job helped him understand what good looked like and who to hire to do it orders of magnitude better. The one exception was driving, which he did to build empathy for drivers rather than to judge excellence.
- Kevin held many roles including amateur performance marketer writing and uploading ads
- He did it because experienced talent was scarce, not just to be scrappy
- Seeing how bad he was at a job helped him understand what 'good' looked like
- That understanding helped him hire people who could do the job far better than himself
- Driving was the exception, done to build empathy rather than judge excellence
“seeing how bad I am at it uh allowed me to understand what good looked like”
#leadership#founders#hiring#gojek
❝Story42:00
The Laundry Detour That Led to Driver Waiting Fees
As one of the first drivers on Gojek's car ride-hailing service, Kevin picked up a passenger who came out with a giant bag, then asked to stop and do her laundry on the way to the mall. He lugged the bag around, took the detour, and earned very little for the extra work. That firsthand experience later informed his support for driver-team requests for waiting fees and multiple stops so drivers would be compensated for extra work.
- Kevin was one of the first drivers on Gojek's car ride-hailing service
- A passenger had him detour to do her laundry en route to the mall, with a giant bag
- He got very little money out of the extra effort
- The experience informed his support for waiting fees and multiple-stop features
- The goal was ensuring drivers were compensated for extra work
“in the middle of the the drive she's like hey you know um I need to drop off and do my laundry uh on the…”
#product#drivers#empathy#gojek
❝Story52:30
Growing 100% Month-on-Month for 16 to 18 Months
After launching its app in 2015, Gojek grew more than 100% month on month for the first 16 to 18 months, more than doubling every month for over a year. Sequoia, an investor at the time, told them it was the craziest growth story they had ever heard of in the world. Kevin attributes it less to brilliance than to a region full of obviously broken things ripe for better technology and a young population eager to try new things.
- Gojek grew more than 100% month on month for the first 16 to 18 months after its 2015 launch
- That meant more than doubling every month for over a year
- Investor Sequoia called it the craziest growth story they had ever heard of in the world
- Kevin credits broken systems ripe for better tech plus a young population eager to try new things
- Solutions with great product-market fit see insane adoption curves in developing regions
“in 2015 for example you know when we launch our app you know we grew more than a hundred percent month on month for the…”
“Sequoia is one of our investors at the time told us that this was the craziest the craziest growth story that they've ever heard of…”
#growth#product-market-fit#gojek#indonesia