Albert Lucius Stories Get Inspiration from Kudo to Build TipTip

The figure of Albert Lucius, previously known as the Co-founder and CEO Kudo, decided to build a new startup that has a difference from before. The focus is to bridge content creators as well as their supporters, so they can share quality content and earn income from the work they produce.

His experience in building and growing a business, from Kudo to eventually developing it Grab and OVO, used as inspiration for Albert when building TipTip.

TipTip itself was officially launched in July 2022. However, TipTIp has never campaigned widely. This is because during the period from July to October, TipTip did a lot of product innovation development and trials with the creator community.

Only at the beginning of last November, November 3 2022 to be precise, TipTip introduced their first campaign "Do it at TipTip" to the wider public. TipTip targets to reach 150,000 users and 15,000 creators, as well as expand coverage to the national level by the second quarter of 2023 and reach 1 million users within the next 2 years.

To DailySocial.id, Albert shared information about the potential of the creative economy in Indonesia today and in the future; and the importance for Indonesia to be able to shift mindset virality content becomes quality content.

Kudo's M&A success and Grab

One of the visions that Albert has long instilled is how technology can help and make things easier for the wider community. Together with Kudo, by prioritizing an agent network, Albert and the team provide options for the wider community to sell online online. This is considered to have proven successful Kudo's acquisition by Grab in 2017.

According to Albert the process mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is said to have run quickly and smoothly, a matter of pride for Albert, who has been building Kudo since 2014 together with co-founder Agung Nugroho. After joining the ecosystem Grab, Albert was then involved to develop platform services super app the. Including developing technology e-money from an affiliated company, namely OVO.

"I serve as Director Grab and also Chief Product Officer of OVO. We want to make products that can be accepted by the Indonesian people. At that time, 2017 and 2018 were still in the era e-money different from now. "Currently QRIS is everywhere, previously there were still a lot of devices and the method was still not accepted."

After developing Grab and OVO, in 2021 Albert then decided to take a break while looking for new inspiration to build a new startup.

Similarities between Kudo and TipTip

After leaving OVO in 2021, Albert found inspiration to work on solutions in the creative economy sector. The idea is to empower content creators who are currently putting forward a lot of thought financial freedom. The size passion from Albert to be able to create technology that is useful for everyone he implemented at TipTip.

"Back when I was building Kudo, I made an application for lower middle class people clueless can get it too income and can trade digitally. Likewise with Grab and OVO, it is very clear how technology can make people's lives easier, especially during the pandemic."

Albert sees that currently most content creators still rely on advertising, clicks, to virality to be able to earn income. Not to mention the demands among them to have a large number of followers or supporters.

In the end, the content is only viral, but not of good quality. Albert noted that currently there are many content creators in various regions who have it skill and unique talents, even though the number of their supporters on social media such as Instagram to Telegram and WhatsApp Group is small in number.

"TipTip offers a platform whose aim is to bridge between content creators and their supporters directly. In this way, content creators can create content, carry out various options and interact with their supporters and their supporters can provide direct appreciation through tipping, donations or through purchasing digital packages from the creator's content."

Even though there are differences, this concept has also been applied in Kudo before. Specifically, through TipTip he wants to empower those who have potential and achievements. By prioritizing quality content, Albert wants to invite more creators to create content that is useful and of course can be monetized.

Until October 2022, TipTip recorded positive growth with revenue volume increasing by 9x and the number of users increasing 4x more than since it was officially launched last July.

This growth is the result of a series of activities hyperlocal TipTip in 8 cities in Indonesia including Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Malang and Bali. TipTip itself targets to reach 150 thousand users and 15 thousand creators, as well as expanding coverage to the national level by Q2 2023.

Company focus in 2023

When asked about what the platform competition map is like for content creators in Southeast Asia at the moment, especially Indonesia, according to Albert, because TipTip's choice is quite unique, there is no platform that offers the services provided by Tiptip.

"We actually utilize the network that the content creator already has on various social media, by sharing the link it will then be directed directly to the TipTip platform where the content is uploaded by the creator on TipTip."

Even though currently there are many startups that are also targeting providing special services for content creators, some of them still offer specific services. For example specifically for live streaming, services for easy financing or payments up to podcast. TipTip does not focus on just one service and claims not to be tied to any one method.

"On average, creators who come to TipTip want to share and create special classes. So in terms of execution, we can also provide ebooks, live streaming, videos and more. Our key is a platform that provides a means for them to interact."

To be able to streamline all these processes which completely rely on the TipTip application and website, the company then recruited a team of quality engineers. TipTip currently has around 120 employees. The company's focus next year is to continue to develop following the current trend of creative economic growth.

In its debut, the company has also bagged early stage funding amounting to $10 million (around 143 billion Rupiah). This figure is claimed to be one of the largest early stage funding ever. The round was led by East Ventures, with participation from Vertex, EMTEK, SMDV, and more family offices leading.

According to Albert, the company will use the fresh funds to accelerate TipTip's growth in reaching and empowering the creator economy in this region. Also, expanding the team and accelerating platform adoption.

"Though funding we are strong but we don't dare to overdo it. We keep doing it hiring employees but in limited numbers, we also maintain value salary. This is done so that it doesn't have to be done layoffs to reduce employee salaries."