Alex Rusli's Gait in Ecosystems: Startup Founder and "Angel Investor"

The figure of Alex Rusli is very familiar in the ecosystem. One of the peaks of his career was when he served as CEO of Indosat Ooredoo (Indosat), one of the largest telecommunications services in Indonesia.

Now Alex Rusli is busy with his business and investments. DailySocial trying to find out what he is currently busy with as an entrepreneur, a commissioner in three companies, and a angel investors.

Enthusiastic about innovation

Alex first joined Indosat in January 2010 as an Independent Commissioner. Then he was appointed to be President Director and CEO two years later. Several digital products launched by Indosat under his leadership are Cipika, Cipika Play, Cipika Books, and Dompetku.

"Before serving as CEO at Indosat Ooredoo, I had a long career at Indosat. Previously I also had experience working in government and other companies," said Alex.

Post leave Indosat In 2017, Alex was involved in various positions that claimed to spend more time working than when he was at Indosat.

"For me, activities as a entrepreneur, and especially starting a startup, provides its own adrenaline that is very interesting to follow. The disorganized startup structure makes this process challenging but loaded with disruption, said Alex.

Together with his co-worker at Indosat, Prashant Gokarn (former Chief Digital & Service Officer), Alex founded Bios Digiasia (Digiasia). Companies targeting these fintech services are becoming holding company KasPro e-wallet service, KreditPro P2P lending platform, and remittance service with digital channels and RemitPro offline network.

"Currently Digisiaa is the biggest investment I've ever made. Together with Prashant, we started to acquire several companies and their licenses and then we refreshed them into a new story," said Alex.

Alex uses all of his professional experience to further understand fintech services, including regulatory compliance issues, in Indonesia.

Sadness to be angel investors

Currently Alex has invested in about 11 companies. He does not hesitate to help develop the company's business, provide consultation, and help them find the right solution for the benefit of the company.

This new busyness is claimed to be enjoyed by Alex. Of the several investments given, only one according to Alex should close. The reason is because of the stubborn attitude and position of the startup founder.

"I've experienced several situations where startup founders were stubborn and reluctant to accept input or... feedback from investors. As angel investors, this is quite crucial and certainly interferes with the creation of a good relationship with the startup founder. In my opinion, this is what makes a person sad angel investors, said Alex.

Going forward, Alex looks at the dynamics and the ecosystem angel investors will increase in number. According to him, there are many angel investors that exist in Indonesia, although the movement is not very visible. The concept of long-term investment is one of the attractions for plunging into angel investors.

"I like things that are not standard and full of challenges, this is the ideal [condition] to enter the startup world and" entrepreneur. But for those who like everything organized and structured, it's better to avoid going into the startup world," said Alex.

Operator business dynamics

Alex himself said that he did not close the opportunity to invest in the telecommunications sector which he had mastered for the last 7 years. But now, he wants to try to get out and jump into new sectors and different innovations.

About the challenges faced by telecommunications operator companies during the pandemic, even though they are harvesting traffic, Alex said, "I see this condition as quite difficult, because during the pandemic the telecommunications operator companies cannot increase prices. So even though traffic has increased but not accompanied by an increase in prices to customers," said Alex.

In fact, the telecommunications industry had experienced an increase in revenue in the February-March period. However, revenue growth since March has continued to decline during the pandemic. Needs bandwidth the bigger internet makes their expectations also become quite high.

"I see though the service fixed broadband experienced an increase in the number of new subscribers, but in terms of connections, there are still many who say that the telecommunication operator connection is sometimes better than the connection fixed broadband. This means that in terms of service, it is still good for telecommunication operators," said Alex.