Words by Scherzo Wahid Naiborhu

On Saturday, February 13^th 2016, three XL Future Leaders students Batch 3 from Jakarta region, Scherzo Wahid Naiborhu, David Yitzack Pattiruhu, and Deka Komanda Yogyantara participated in a national case competition named Kairos Sharing Table. It is an initiative led by Kairos ASEAN Indonesia chapter as the recruiting event platform for promising start-ups to find the best talents, the easier way. The goal of this competition was to be the bridge between students who were interested in working at start-ups and start-ups which were keen on hiring promising talents. The start-ups partners that acted as the judges were Xendit, a fin-tech company that allows people to send money to friends or an entity/institution through a mobile number or bank account with no fees across different banks; Kitabisa.com, a crowd-funding company that allows people to donate and raise funds through online for every needs; and Taralite, a company that provides financial solutions for people’s need with low interest rate.

The event had several stages: resume screening, written application, and short phone interview. After Scherzo passed all three phases of the first stages, he was selected to proceed to the final round – the case competition. Scherzo then allowed inviting two of his friends to join him as a team for the final round. Scherzo invited Deka and David, his classmates in XLFL, to team up. There were 24 selected participants to join the final round that formed into 8 teams. The participants came from various universities and cities in Indonesia.

The case given was how an imaginary start-up named MoneyK to enter Indonesian market. Scherzo, Deka, and David as a team need to create the strategy for MoneyK to increase brand awareness in students and young professionals in Indonesia which include the strategy/design, ways to communicate the strategy, and ways to measure the impact. The time given to solve the case was only 5 hours and each team should present their strategy to the CEO and founders of Xendit (Moses Lo and Casey Lord), Kitabisa.com (Alfatih Timur and Vikra Ijas), and Taralite (Abraham Viktor)  along with the questions & answers session. XL Future Leaders team created strategy that includes the restructuring of MoneyK current application, building the credibility, and partnership with universities, high schools, and cafes in Indonesia.

During the case solving, Scherzo, Deka, and David did a lot of brainstorming and met many argumentations about how MoneyK should operate in Indonesia, what are the urgencies of this service, and how Indonesian culture could accept this new concept of financial services. At this moment, thinking tools that they got from XLFL really helped them to create and customize the effective measurable strategy as the case required.  After 5 hours, they presented confidently and attractively as the real hired consultant in front of the CEOs and founders. And then, the moment of truth came eventually. From the total 8 teams and 24 participants, there were only 6 participants individually that selected as the best participants and won the competition. Scherzo and Deka awarded as the best participants and the winners.

After the ceremony, Scherzo and Deka along with other 4 other winning participants had a privilege to join the VIP dinner with CEOs and founders of Xendit, Kitabisa.com, and Taralite to  know each other’s personality, learn deeply about how the companies work, what are their challenges, how they handle the problems, and any other interesting facts about working in start-ups. Winners of Kairos Sharing Table were given a golden opportunity to intern in those startups.

“It was one of my challenging competition that I ever joined. Solving the case of a start-up was never meant to be easy, especially when the case was a current problem that a real start-up facing. I really learned a lot about almost every aspects of start-up’s business operation” said Scherzo. While David mentioned, “This competition lad me to something new about the start-up business nowadays, how they operated, how they stood still, and many other relevant aspects”.

Other XLFL students, Deka said that “Today I learned a lot, as a team, it is not the end result that defines who we are, but the process. We thought at a point where no matter what the results will be, we have done our best, and then it is time to pray the rest, Kairos Sharing Table gave me the chance to meet great people, and also apply thinking tools that I learn from XLFL”.

Congratulations Scherzo, Deka, and David on completing the challenge strongly!