Table of Contents
In the early days of Gojek, the streets of Jakarta were a battlefield. Before becoming Southeast Asia’s most dominant super app, the company faced physical resistance from local "taxi mafias" who controlled specific territories through intimidation. When Gojek drivers attempted to pick up passengers, they were met with bricks, knives, and machetes.
Most tech founders solve problems with code; Kevin Aluwi and his co-founders had to solve them with private security details and physical cash vaults. Gojek’s journey from a scrappy call center to a publicly traded giant—completing 3 billion orders annually—is not a typical Silicon Valley success story. It is a masterclass in operational grit, cultural branding, and the realities of building infrastructure where none exists.
Kevin Aluwi joined Lenny Rachitsky to deconstruct the chaotic, hyper-growth journey of Gojek. From achieving 100% month-over-month growth to debunking the myths of the "super app" strategy, Aluwi offers a candid look at what it takes to win a market that spans 2.7 million drivers and hundreds of millions of consumers.
Key Takeaways
- Brand can beat capital: Despite having significantly less funding than regional competitors early on, Gojek won market share by building a brand that leaned into local culture, humor, and high-visibility physical assets like green driver jackets.
- The "Super App" myth: Simply bundling services decreases conversion unless there is a "unifying concept." For Gojek, the driver was the link; services that didn't fit the driver persona (like on-demand massage) struggled with user trust.
- Operations as a moat: In emerging markets, you cannot rely on existing infrastructure. Gojek had to build its own cash distribution centers and security operations, creating barriers to entry that pure-play software companies couldn't cross.
- Remote work is a necessity, not a luxury: To compete with global giants while based in Jakarta, Gojek had to normalize remote engineering hubs (like in Bangalore) years before the post-COVID norm.
The "Super App" Fallacy: Why Aggregation Isn't Enough
In recent years, the "super app" has become a coveted status for tech companies globally, from Uber to X (formerly Twitter). The theoretical appeal is obvious: lower customer acquisition costs (CAC), higher retention, and cross-selling opportunities. However, Aluwi argues that the reality often falls short of the strategy deck.
According to Aluwi, a super app only works if the consumer understands the unifying concept that ties the services together. For Gojek, that concept was the driver. Moving from ride-hailing to package delivery to food delivery was seamless because the user visualized the same driver performing these tasks.
"The insight that we got here was that there kind of needs to be a unifying concept across all of your services within the app for your users to be able to think about your product in a sensible way... for us, the way that our customers thought about us was that they thought about the driver."
When the Mental Model Breaks
The limitations of the super app model became clear when Gojek launched "Go-Massage," an on-demand massage service. Despite having a massive user base, the service faced a unique hurdle: users were confused by the unifying concept. Customers feared that the motorcycle driver—who had just delivered their lunch—would be the one performing the massage.
Without a clear narrative thread connecting the services, the touted benefits of the super app—low CAC and high cross-sell rates—evaporate. You end up having to re-educate the customer for every new vertical, effectively rebuilding the business from scratch each time.
Brand Strategy as a Survival Mechanism
When Gojek launched its app, it was severely underfunded compared to its regional competitors. Aluwi recalls that within six months of launching, their main competitor had raised $250 million compared to Gojek’s $2 million. They could not win a price war. Instead, they invested in brand identity to create an emotional connection that transcended transactional utility.
The "Green Ocean" Effect
One of Gojek’s most pivotal decisions was requiring drivers to wear branded green jackets and helmets. This was not merely for brand recall; it was a psychological play. Jakarta is notorious for gridlock traffic. By flooding the streets with green jackets, Gojek created a visual demonstration of their value proposition.
Commuters stuck in stagnant cars would look out the window and see a "green ocean" of Gojek drivers weaving through traffic. It created a sense of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and reinforced the brand promise: We move faster than you.
Cultural Resonance Over Corporate Polish
While competitors used polished, corporate advertising, Gojek leaned into "bad grammar," slang, and hyper-local humor. They turned cultural observations into product features. For instance, noticing that young Indonesians often sent food as a romantic gesture, Gojek optimized their food delivery interface to allow users to send orders to locations far from their own—a feature competitors blocked due to fraud concerns.
"We leaned into it... and then we kind of just had fun with this whole idea of 'Go-Food dating.'... Thinking about branding beyond just marketing communication, but actually being relatable and being part of the culture... allowed us to continue maintaining leadership in spite of the fact that our competitors had more money."
Extreme Scrappiness: Building Infrastructure from Scratch
Building a tech startup in the US usually involves plugging into existing APIs for payments, logistics, and security. In Indonesia during the early 2010s, Gojek had to build the infrastructure itself. This operational heaviness became a defining characteristic of the company.
The Cash Vault Network
Before digital payments were ubiquitous in Southeast Asia, Gojek faced a massive logistical hurdle: paying their drivers. Drivers accumulated earnings in the app but needed physical cash to buy fuel and food. The banking system wasn't fast or accessible enough.
Gojek’s solution was to build a physical network of cash booths. They rented spaces, installed vaults, and staffed them with employees who would manually dispense cash to drivers who showed up with their app balance. They effectively built a manual ATM network to keep the marketplace liquid.
Combating Fraud by "Copying" It
As the platform grew, so did the sophistication of fraudulent "jailbroken" apps. Third-party developers created unauthorized versions of the Gojek driver app that included features like "auto-accept," allowing dishonest drivers to snag orders without looking at their phones. These apps threatened the platform's integrity.
Lacking the engineering bandwidth to build complex security encryption immediately, Gojek took a pragmatic approach: they copied the features. They realized the fraudulent apps were solving a user need (convenience), so they built auto-accept and other popular "illegal" features directly into the official app. Usage of the black-market apps plummeted.
Ops as a Defense Against Violence
The transition from informal motorcycle taxis to a digital platform disrupted established power structures. In many neighborhoods, local "mafias" controlled taxi stands and demanded cuts of drivers' earnings. Gojek drivers were viewed as an existential threat.
The violence was severe. Drivers faced brick-throwing mobs and armed intimidation. Gojek realized they couldn't just be a software layer; they had to ensure physical safety. The company hired private security firms to run patrols and extract drivers from dangerous situations. They set up hotlines and rapid-response teams, turning physical security into a core operational competency.
"We actually hired private security... to help our drivers in those situations, you know, to help kind of extract them out of these sticky situations. And so we actually ran a fairly big private security operation for a fairly long time."
Conclusion: The Value of "Hard Things"
Kevin Aluwi’s tenure at Gojek serves as a reminder that in many markets, the "moat" is not the code—it is the willingness to do the unscalable, difficult work that competitors avoid. Whether it was processing cash manually, navigating regulatory grey zones, or physically protecting contractors, Gojek succeeded because it operated as a full-stack solution to societal problems.
For founders building outside of mature tech hubs, the Gojek story validates a different playbook: one where operations lead, remote talent is essential, and the brand is built on deep cultural empathy rather than just ad spend. By embracing the chaos of the local market rather than trying to impose a sterile Silicon Valley model, Gojek didn't just survive; it defined the digital economy of Southeast Asia.
){kind=link}