Starting a Start Up

Starting a small business is a challenge in any context, but what about if you're a foreigner looking to establish a restaurant in Indonesia? What's it like to move to Indonesia, knowing little to nothing about the country, and then go on to start a successful online food business? What is it about the business context in Indonesia that facilitates or blocks small businesses, especially those wishing to leverage Jakartans' large-scale online connectivity?

In this podcast, Elisabeth Kramer talks to entrepreneur Sujeet Ramgir, who came to Indonesia from India and went on to start a highly successful Indian food 'cloud kitchen' catering to the Jakarta market. At the end of 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic entered the chat, Sujeet launched his co-owned business, Accha. Little did he know how the pandemic and the mushrooming of online food apps would shape the trajectory of the business.

In this podcast, Sujeet shares his motivations for starting the business, his experiences, and his reflections on what it's like to do business in Indonesia through his role as co-founder of a food and beverage business. We also talk about how online apps have taken off in Indonesia and what this might mean for business owners, sharing the positives and the challenges of starting a start up.