How to Leverage Your Network to Get Your First Customers with Zaky Prabowo

Zaky Prabowo was born in Indonesia. His Father was in the Air Force and his Mother was a housewife who was also an entrepreneur. His Mother managed the business of a dorm of students for their room rental business. Zaky is the youngest child in his family, and he always felt like he had something to prove in order to get their attention. With his Father’s strict discipline of life in the Military, Zaky was always motivated to over-achieve.  Zaky attended school in Indonesia and managed to get a job at McKinsey. He considers himself fortunate that he was able to get on at McKinsey locally. He also worked with the Indonesian government for a time and his job allowed him to see the potential for technology in our lives. He is the Co-Founder and CMO of wetravel.to, which is a website that aids in the coordination of group travel. Zaky is here today to share how he leveraged his network to build his company while he was getting his MBA. Listen to this episode as Zaky shares the following about his journey:

How McKinsey pushed him to be good at everything, but that wasn’t the best for Zaky
How being the 7th Indonesian graduate hired in 10 years at McKinsey was quite an honor
Ways he had to work around government to accomplish his entrepreneurial goals.
How holding funds in trust allowed him to raise money and hire his first employees
How he chose to narrow his target market for the business.
Why he chose to come to Silicon Valley to pursue his advanced degree
Why he felt like an MBA was the best path to move towards a start up
How they navigated  the difficult task of vetting travel hosts overseas
How his business changed from being immigrant-focused, to being tourism focused
How they worked out the logistics of taking payments, holding payments and exchanging currency
How he goes about getting Trip Advisor reviews
The total headcount on the biggest trip yet on WeTravel
Why they plan to keep a portion of their services free to travelers
How he’s monetizing without charging travelers and end users

Zaky’s advice for someone starting a business today:

Try to join as many meet ups and networking groups as possible.
Be able to articulate what you are doing so you can have something to offer when you network.

Connect with Zaky: LinkedIn ◦www.indorelawan.org Website: ◦wetravel.to