CEO OF DOCUMENTA: HUSTLING, ADAPTING AND SELF-MOTIVATING

CEO OF DOCUMENTA

On this episode of the Founder’s Interview series, we will be featuring the CEO of Documenta, Muhammad Philosophi. For the past 2 days, Philosophi was our resident speaker for 2 events, where he spoke within the realms of his expertise and conducted business law workshops involving the food and digital industry.

First Impressions

We gathered the impression after attending the workshops, that he was an individual that was strongly motivated and charismatic. As we interviewed him, he proved our assumptions right as he stood out as somebody with a very strong vision, courage and dedication for both himself as well as for Documenta. Both his personal and business objectives resonated well with aspiring entrepreneur like myself, and therefore I felt that the contents of this interview might be worth a read.

Meet Philosophi

Philosophi was once a corporate lawyer who worked in property patenting and had the experience working in boutique law firms. During his time as a corporate lawyer, he realized he might have a greater calling after noticing how starting a business in Indonesia and getting a license was both slow and expensive. To breach this gap, he decided to leave his successful career behind and venture into his new business, in hope of solving these long and expensive bureaucratic processes in Indonesia.

His day to day role is more education centric where he hopes to educate businesses in business law, which fits in well in a developing country like Indonesia, where it is mostly saturated with Small and Medium Enterprises that are the main driving forces of economic growth in Indonesia. He is currently focusing on developing his platform’s offering to reduce the time taken for entrepreneurs to register their business(es) and hopes to expand his circle of network with the government, community leaders and incubator representatives.

Hustle & Adapt

Philosophi admits that as a startup, being willing to hustle, to adapt as well as to learn is an important trait any entrepreneur would require to sustain themselves in their pursuit of success. As a law professional, he may not be an expert in technology. However, he started learning the technology aspects first before he began to focus on building his startup. He did so to be on a strong competitive advantage with his close competitors in the industry. He admits that law can be quite hard to grasp by newbies that are trying to learn it, and there were also times when customers reject his legal certification even though the consultation was for free. However, if an entrepreneur has the persistence as well as the ability to adapt and accommodate to the needs of the market, there will always be a way to capture anybody’s attention and communicate your intention.

Drive & overcoming rejection

Being an entrepreneur is not easy, and as cliché as it sounds, Philosophi admitted that it requires real blood, sweat and tears. What drives him forward everyday is his vision for the company, the courage to provide for his family as well as his own determination to be successful. He would often face unwanted comments on how he decided to leave his secure job and start his own business. Philosophi takes this in a positive stride and says that entrepreneurship is all about persistence, endurance and vision. An entrepreneur has to believe in his own purpose, endure and persist through all the negativity and be forward looking.

Fun facts

This enlightening conversation with Phiolosophi, may have just proved that having all these qualities of persistence and endurance is not just a hearsay, but a must have for an entrepreneur. Having the mindset to be able to be flexible in one’s learning experience is also as important.

Here are

Some fun facts:

1. His current Chief Financial Officer and Founder was once his rival in a basketball league. It was through this sport where they found a common vision and executed it to start Documenta.

Philosophi’s impression during the events in Yogyakarta:

1. Yogyakarta is a very productive city that produces a lot of entrepreneurs who are humble but lack the ambition to grow big. However, he states that this is inconclusive especially because of his short stay in Yogyakarta.
2. He is appreciative of BLOCK71’s efforts in creating a collaborative effort between the startup ecosystem here in Yogyakarta.