Helping women navigate the tech landscape

"DOKU is the third company I’ve started. We’re in the right place at the right time, it’s now all about payments and the sky’s the limit.

I’m a go-getter: if I set a goal and challenge myself, nothing is impossible.

But founding a company carries a huge responsibility. It has to be done right because you’re accountable to so many people who believe in you.

Aspiring entrepreneurs need to remember this and stay focused. Older generations can support them by creating work groups, coaching new leaders and providing platforms where they can learn from their own mistakes, and the mistakes of others.

Paving a path to leadership is something we’re trying to do for women at DOKU.

Recruiting women in the tech industry is difficult because it’s a male-dominated workforce, and not many Indonesian women have been trained beyond a certain level when it comes to engineering, for example.

We’re nurturing a few female employees in our company to step up, but we’re also working with schools and universities to help them better emphasise the importance of technology in their curriculum.

The tech industry needs to play a part in education and showcase these opportunities for women.

Indonesia is very much a patriarchal society. I need to be mindful of how I address business matters culturally and always position myself as having enough knowledge to show I can to speak to anyone I meet on an equal footing.

Women operate in a different manner and have a different way of enriching our workforce; we’re as good as our male counterparts but often don’t get the same recognition."