So what is a decacorn? A decacorn is the term for a start-up valued at $10 billion dollars before it is publicly listed, and we interviewed Rohan Monga, former CEO of Gojek, in Indonesia to learn more about his time growing Gojek into what became one of Indonesia’s first decacorns. Here are some of the lessons he learned on his amazing journey and his advice on leading a successful company. In late 2014, Rohan received a call from a friend he studied with at university, Nadiem Makarim. She had started a company called Gojek. She wanted his help managing the growing company. “You never know where things will serendipitously lead with your friends. In this case, I moved to Indonesia and helped scale the platform in three and a half years. It’s kind of crazy to think about where we started and where it is today.” At the time, Gojek was growing from a call center for courier services and a technology company with a mobile app. Competitors such as Grab and Uber were successfully entering the market in Indonesia. To compete effectively, Nadine and Rohan quickly pivoted to courier deliveries, shopping, food deliveries, and other services. However, they differentiated themselves through payments and building a financial wallet. This gave people in Indonesia without bank accounts the ability to put money in a wallet and send it to their families and others. According to Rohan, product market fit is what every start-up is trying to achieve. It means you have a differentiated product in a big market that fits with what the customers really love. “These small and big pivots were happening quickly when the competition was building and helped build our customer base.” Would you like to own a decacorn? If you know what it is, you will definitely say yes. A driver in Gojek uniform
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