Selamat Siang!

Hello folks!  I’ve been in Jakarta for just over two weeks now, and have been having a great experience so far.  When I decided to spend my summer with the Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI), I never would have guessed how much exposure I would gain so quickly.

I’ve already had the opportunity to attend INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Conference here in Jakarta where I met entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs from Indonesia and beyond, sat in on a meeting with GEPI’s executive board consisting of prominent Indonesian business people, and met with the leadership of The Founder Institute Jakarta.  GEPI is definitely on the forefront of both the entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship scenes here.  Its mandate is to promote entrepreneurship in Indonesia, and I’m excited to be able to contribute to that even for just a short while. 

GEPI’s three big initiatives are starting up an angel investor network, launching Indonesia’s first business incubator/co-working space focused on the creative sector, and supporting innovative social enterprises.  While I’ll be contributing to all of these, I’ll be spending the bulk of my time on this last piece.

I had the opportunity to meet with a member of the management team of one of the startups I’ll be working with, and am incredibly excited to be able to help them out.  The for-profit social enterprise is helping farmers transition to organic farming practices, allowing them to sell their rice at a premium while also benefitting the environment and consumers.  The team is a group of young, talented, and humble entrepreneurs who just need some help thinking about how to scale their business.  I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to use what I’ve learned at Ross so far to help them accomplish this goal.

Outside of work I’ve been spending my time getting acclimated to Jakarta.  I’ve learned enough Bahasa Indonesia to confidently tell a taxi driver where I want to go (until he responds or asks a question that is…).  There’s tons of great food here, and since all of it is Halal, I’ve been able to try out all sorts of food I can’t eat at home.  I’m planning on venturing out to other parts of Indonesia over the weekends, and will post some more pictures soon.