S1E7 | Truths About Helping Influencers Make A Living In The $68B SE Asian Creator Economy | Paulina Purnomowati, CMO TipTip

Indonesians are voracious consumers of social media, and the creator economy is set to grow massively in the coming years. As the industry grows, unmet needs in engaging and monetizing their content arise. How does TipTip as a platform better serve their needs? And what are some of the tips and best practices for creators to make money on the platform?

Discussion Topics: Truths About Helping Influencers Make a Living in the $68B SE Asian Creator Economy

• First Impressions
• About TipTip and their journey so far
• Vertex’s Investment thesis for TipTip
• How Paulina was convinced to join TipTip
• Hard Truths about being a startup CMO
• Vertex is indexing more towards unit economics
• Advice for female leaders
• Learnings from being on The Apprentice
• Memorable customer stories
• Finding Product-Market Fit
• Tips for succeeding as an influencer
• How TipTip works and what’s coming next

Transcript: Truths About Helping Influencers Make a Living in the $68B SE Asian Creator Economy

Welcome to Hard Truths by Vertex, a female leader series. This March in honour of International Women’s Day, we have invited a few of our accomplished female leaders and their Investment Managers to share inspirational stories of starting up, following their passion, and overcoming the odds. Tune in to gain valuable Industry Insights, Practical Wisdoms, and Hard Truths.

Elise Tan: Hi, I’m Elise Tan, and I’m your host for this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex Podcast. Today, I’m really happy to have Khush and Paulina Purnomowati on the show today. Hi, Khush. Hi, Paulina. 

Khush: Hi, Elise.

Paulina Purnomowati: Hello. Hi Elise.

Elise Tan: In the spirit of International Women’s Day, we’re going to have a special three-way conversation to discuss content creation, influencer marketing, and life. So let me first introduce Paulina, who is our guest on the show. Paulina is an early employee and a CMO at TipTip. Prior to this, she was the VP of Corporate Development and Strategy at Evolve MMA. One interesting note, she’s the sole Indonesian representative, and top five finalists in The Apprentice, one Championship Edition in 2021. Khush is my colleague and Associate Director. She’s part of the key investment team that invested in the team. We’ll ask her more about that later. So Hi, Khush, Hi, Paulina how are you today?

Paulina Purnomowati: I’m good. Thank you. How are you, Elise?

Elise Tan: Good. I’m excited for you know, this whole month of International Women’s Day. So, I can’t wait to hear more about you. And also from Khush as well. So Khush and Paulina, do you know who found who first? How do we discover TipTip?

Khush: Thanks for that. Very, very happy to be here. And who found who first? Yeah, I think that we’ve been always in touch with Albert Lucius, who is the CEO and founder of TipTip, since our investment into Grab. For those who are not aware, Vertex was a Series A investor of Grab. And Albert was part of Kudo which was eventually acquired by Grab. So, when we got the news that he was starting something in the creative economy space in Indonesia, we definitely wanted to be a part of it and get the opportunity to work with him and his incredible team, including Paulina here.

Elise Tan: Paulina, when did you first meet Khush or anyone on the Vertex team? 

Paulina Purnomowati: I think I met Khush once in one of our meetings. First, it’s online meetings. And then I just met Khush, I think, three weeks ago, we had a Valentine’s Day with the investors. 

Elise Tan: And what’s your first impression of each other?

Khush: She’s very bubbly and one of the brightest CMOs I’ve met in the past. I think she’s very passionate and enthusiastic about her role, especially dealing with a lot of creative minds in this industry, right? She is no less. And, yeah, we just bonded and clicked during our first meetup. 

Paulina Purnomowati: The word investors sort of like some kind of some level of intimidation to us. There’s no secret to everyone, but when I met Khush, and then I spoke to her, it was just so fluid, and Khush is such a friendly person. And likewise, be also a bubbly person. So right away, we clicked at least that’s from my end. That’s my first impression of Khush.

Elise Tan: That’s really nice to hear. Paulina, wouldn’t you tell us more about TipTip?

Paulina Purnomowati: Sure. So TipTip is a marketplace for digital content. So basically, it connects creators and their supporters, not only to share and monetize their activities, so digital content, live sessions, even offline sessions, and more to their supporters, but also to engage. So it’s a two parties, or even third-party platform for creators to engage with supporters and monetize their activities. But at the same time, supporters can also engage with the creators and promote as an affiliate to creator’s contests and make money as well. So it’s like a win-win platform for all these two entities, creators and supporters. That’s in a nutshell.

Elise Tan: How has the journey been like, you know, I think we invested last year.

Paulina Purnomowati: As a startup in a very early stage it’s never been easy. Like the idea is there but then we’ll put one and then we learn a lot about it and then we have to improve the product market fit. But the more I spoke to creators, the more I spoke to supporters, the more we know what they need. So it’s not so much only about sharing and monetizing their contents for creators, but also to engage and connect with supporters. And likewise.

So what we know is that the supporters yes, would like to consume video content, events, live sessions, anything that but they also want to engage. And one thing about Indonesia is that Indonesia is a very social market. It’s just our culture, we’re very social, we’d like to meet each other, and we love to eat together. So when social media is here, it’s crazy. Right now we’re about 280 million population in Indonesia. And I think the social media, penetration is about 191 million Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all of which have about roughly 100 million users in Indonesia alone, so that shows the culture.

And that’s where, like, TipTip, we feel like you cannot just monetize, for creators, you cannot just monetize if you don’t engage. So these kinds of features, we decided to add more and more, because we know it is only after we launched, and then we hear them, we see them and then ‘oh, actually they also want to talk with creators. So things are good, but not as easy. So again, like what you said, yeah, it’s never been an easy journey.

But for me personally, it’s very exciting, it’s a very mindful opening because I think we also have the first-mover advantage here. When people ask who is your competitor in Indonesia? I literally can’t say one because there’s none that is literally the same business model for us. At the same time, that’s not just our first mover advantage, but at the same time, you have to educate about what you’re doing. So that is also not easy.

Elise Tan: Yes, it sounds super interesting, especially because Indonesia is a country with so many people who are on social media platforms. So this brings me to Khush. Khush, can you tell us how we developed the thesis and then discovered TipTip?

Khush: Sure. I think there has been quite a bit of activity happening in the creator economy space, and it I think boils down to two main reasons. Number one is I think the market itself is very sizeable and it’s structurally growing in Southeast Asia. I think currently, the market is about 2.2 billion as of 2022. And in five years time, I think it’s poised to grow to about 68.3 billion more revenue streams are added it could be freemium, it could be through tipping or it could be through brand partnerships as well.

And the second point is obviously the rise of influencer marketing itself. I think influencer marketing has seen a tremendous, tremendous growth in the past few years, mainly driven by an increase in overall content consumption, and also accelerated by COVID-19, obviously, and obviously, in Indonesia, I think as Paulina mentioned, Indonesia is one of the most social countries, we have about 78% social media penetration, or about 191 million users on social media. A lot of people in the younger generation, and I speak this, based on personal experience with my nieces, and nephews, as well, all of them want to become gig workers and online creators as opposed to becoming full-time workers or consultants or a banker.

Obviously, along these lines, Southeast Asia is poised to have over 2 million influencers by 2027 across various platforms, paving the way for high-engagement platforms to not only exist but also enable creators to monetize. So that’s more on the market. Now, why did we select TipTip? I think they are very well positioned in Indonesia to obviously capitalise on this favourable, sizable market. Like Paulina mentioned, there’s barely any competitor if you think about it, that’s doing something exactly the same as TipTip.

Another thing is that the TipTip approach is highly, highly localised. They plan to start in Indonesia, and obviously they can expand to Southeast Asia but offering this localised solution connecting creators, promoters, and supporters, and having a community-driven approach is something that we really like in this very nascent and still fragmented industry, so I think they stand a good chance.

Elise Tan: I think TipTip has definitely been doing really well. So, Paulina, you are an early employee at TipTip. I’m just wondering if you can share how you discovered TipTip and how you decided to join TipTip.

Paulina Purnomowati: This is going to be a very interesting story by the way. Before TipTip world, I was always in fashion retail or fashion and beauty retail from FMCG. And then I go up to luxury brands and then I go up to more of like a fast fashion brands and the majority in Indonesia. So when I got a chance to join the Apprentice, I literally quit my job, I jumped in, and then after I came back from the Apprentice, I became a CCO, Chief Commercial Officer of an F&B chain in Indonesia, and then Chatri called me, Chatri is the host of The Apprentice, so he called me and hey, by the way, how are you and that he offered me a job in Singapore.

So that’s how I moved to Singapore and worked for one of his companies Evolve MMA as a VP of Business Development, basically. So I think it’s only about like a year, that I’ve worked with Chatri. And then I got this dark message on LinkedIn from Albert Lucius Hey, I watched you in The Apprentice are you interested? So my first reaction was hmm. And then I told him, I just wanted to meet first. So I met him and then I talked a lot, I asked a lot, and I really want to know and get to the idea of what is the business model already going on, what’s the vision, etc.

And then I get to meet the other C levels. And it’s just a very easy decision for me to say, yes, it’s a crossing between gut feelings, but also like seeing how the future is going to be. Even before the Apprentice, when I was still in Indonesia, I had this in my head I’ve been in retail for so long, but I think what I need to understand more and like, immerse myself fully in technology. It’s in like digital because obviously, that’s where we’re going through or towards.

So when this comes in, and especially TipTip is all about content creation and content creators that’s something that’s not so alien to me. I’ve been working with a lot of them because I’ve been working with brands. So in the past few years, content readers, and especially influencers, have been a key instrument for marketing. So I’ve been working with a lot of them. So I know how it is from the brand side and from their site.

And then obviously, particularly after The Apprentice, and then I know the site from the creators, alone, too. So when this comes in, it is really just like a puzzle click and so it’s an easy yes to Albert, that then, for the challenge, I would say it’s a challenge because it was very early stage. And like, we haven’t really sort of gone so far into like, what the strategy of the product gonna be, etc. So that’s how I actually, you know, come across with TipTip. And finally, like, be in TipTip.

Elise Tan: I look at the kind of marketing you have done, and it is really super interesting. I’m going to ask you more about the Apprentice experience later on. But for now, I’m going to ask you, what have been the Hard Truths that you experienced being the CMO at TipTip for the past year?

Paulina Purnomowati: There are several levels. But I think what I would like to put out first as a Hard Truth is that when you’re an entrepreneur, and you starting a business, you have an idea in your head, like, Okay, this is the business model, this is going to work. And then you put the products out, you test it with the market in a smaller scope. And then you learn, you learn meaning like, Oh, yes, but not so much that, you know, so you have to add something more. And then you try it again in a bigger market. Yes, they grasp more, but not yet there.

So I think this is the same with all entrepreneurial experiences or business models. So startup is one of them. It’s just one of them. Especially when you’re creating something that is not yet there, out there. So it literally puts like, for me as a CMO it’s not just about okay, how do I market this? No, like, you really have to think about not only how to market this, how to sell this, how to acquire creators and supporters, but also, how do you grow and build the platform to really suit them, to really like to cure their problems.

What are your problems, you really have to do both, like listening and then adapting and then doing it. So that is the Hard Truth of it, like, when you start something, you feel like you know it. Yes, you know it, but it’s probably only 20% of what you should know. 

Elise Tan: And you know what, for our previous episode, we have been speaking to many founders as far as investors. So it’s really refreshing to hear from you because you are the first C-suite guest that we have on our show. And I see that because you are in a very early stage of the company building, you are like an owner.

In our previous conversation, we also talked a lot about how you went to get your MBA in the US. I think as females, we are kind of a different breed compared to maybe the Western world. And I think you mentioned that when you were in the one championship, you felt it very strongly. So what kind of advice would you have for women leaders?

Paulina Purnomowati: Well, I think it’s not only being probably female but also Asian culture tends to be less outspoken as opposed to the Western. I think it’s just by culture again, my culture but it’s going to be different in between individuals, because how are you being brought up to what probably the difference. So in my experience in The Apprentice, and during my first years of MBA as well, being an Asian student, and female, I remember I have to really have my form from inside to speak, like, I think for females and especially Asian females, you have to really be very confident, you know, like, even before you say.

So, I think the majority of people would have this bubble thought in their head before they speak if you’re a female, and if you’re an Asian female, it’s like, should I actually say this, this is right to say, like, will it be embarrassing? Is it good? Is it necessary? And that things like, it’s in your head. If I can give a tip is like, first, I did it to myself. So I tried to build my confidence first, on my own level, not see myself as a female, or as an Asian.

No, like, I tried to rip all that off, you know, it’s just like, I have a thinking, and we’re all human. And I just have to say it. So I just tried to rip that off. And I think that for me, it helps. But a lot of people ask me, but how? It’s not that easy. And sometimes things can be very intimidating, especially if you’re in a business, like setting and you’re talking to directors, you’re talking to investors, right? That can be very intimidating. So for me, I think the first way to go is to do it casually. So from my early times, I tried to talk to more international people, or like people with a very different background from me.

So I tried to be confident in that setting. So when it’s needed to speak in that more formal setting, so at least I conquered my own fear of being confident. And that really, really helps. Yes, I think that the most important thing that a lot of females, especially Asian females, think is, should I speak Oh, by the way, my boss is here. Oh, by the way, I’m the only female in the room. So there’s that. And what I can say to us is that sometimes it’s just in our heads.

Elise Tan: Yeah, that’s very true. And I like that you mentioned how we actually have artificial limits on who we are or who we should be. And sometimes it’s really in our head, you know, it’s so important to know that we are enough and that we have something valuable to share. I want to also direct the question to Khush because, Khush, you have studied overseas, and I’m sure you have seen many different cultures. So what would you advise for females who want to become leaders, you know, top of their arena?

Khush: I think I am myself, I am a minority in Indonesia, right? I am actually Indian, and Indonesian and it’s not very easy for us to penetrate into the workforce over here. I think I’ve been lucky enough to study overseas. I studied in Singapore, Canada, came back, and eventually got a job in banking. I think one thing that you need to do is obviously be very persistent. Come with a very confident demeanour as well where you try to achieve the stars.

Because if you don’t jump that high, you will not even know where you can hit eventually. So always aim for the best and never feel pressured by a lot of, say, men around you. I think what really helps in Indonesia is also the community aspect. There are a lot of women’s communities, and accelerator programs that are very female-focused, that basically give you the tips and tools to basically make it to the next step or progress forward.

I think this is something that is very incredible. I myself am a part of a few of these communities where I participate and try to give back as a mentor, and a speaker, for all the womenpreneurs out there. So I think that with the strong support system, I think in Indonesia, a lot of women are able to break barriers going forward. Obviously, you just have to be very confident like Paulina mentioned, and do not limit yourself.

Elise Tan: I love that, you know, how both of you not only overcome barriers, or the odds in what you’re doing but also helped to mentor other women. I may revisit this afterward. But now I want to kind of change the gears a bit. So, Paulina, I mentioned that I’m going to ask you about your experience at The Apprentice. I mean, this is very interesting, because I don’t think any of us in our portfolio or investment team had the chance to be a top five finalist in our show. Tell us about your experience. And actually, what are the Hard Truths?

Paulina Purnomowati: Oh, wow, where do I start? It’s a very humbling experience, I would say. Because I think the challenge is not merely the challenges of the show, like, it’s not literally only the this is a challenge, physical challenge, of course, that’s that, but I think in my experience is that you have been working in a very low setting as a leader, for example, and in an area that you already very comfortable with, and you know, all the metrics, all the drills, right. And suddenly, it’s you just putting yourself into situations where there is a group of strangers, which everyone is claiming to be the leader.

So you have to earn your respect, you have to earn that. Whereas in a setting of a company, if you’re given a title, then your team will have to listen to you, right here it is not. And so that’s one that’s already hard. And then on top of that, these people 16 of us come from very different backgrounds. And it’s chosen by default like that. So very different cultural backgrounds, personalities, and backgrounds of expertise as well.

I was in a team with people that had very different kinds of thinking. So the thing that you can easily, normally say like, Okay, let’s go A because A is the right thing. Now you have to explain to them why A, so it’s rarely stressful, but it’s very humbling because for me, like, when you’re ready at that stage of level, in working in companies or your background, you have a certain level of ego that you think you know, everything or like you know how to run things, basically.

Now being in those situations I really have to be humble and listen, because not all of the business challenge is on my expertise, and it’s by default, designed to be like, so we have to take turns. Not only that, I was in a team with people who were probably half of my age, so the age gap also made it even difficult, more difficult.

So all of this is really an experience that for me right now is mind-opening. So if people ask me like would you do it again, maybe not. It’s just literally like a lot of us have PTSD after the show. But literally, literally, like we have a PTSD day after because it’s not only that, you know, the physical challenge that you have to wake up every day at five am, and you to sleep at 2 am.

Literally, you don’t sleep for two months. So it’s really like pressing you down. And you know, like you’re being stretched super, super, super thin. And that’s also the moment when you know yourself. So I learned a lot and there’s a lot that I can take out from it even for myself.

Elise Tan: Wow. I can’t imagine and I don’t know if I can put myself through that. But when you were sharing it really made me recall the phrase, Whatever didn’t break you makes you stronger. So earlier on both of you have shared how Indonesia is a social country and we see, that it’s distinctive from the other parts of Southeast Asia and India as well. I want to understand, maybe an easy one a quick one is, what are some of the customer stories that you have actually gone through I think for you, Paulina during your time at TipTip?

Paulina Purnomowati: We use a lot of different kinds of creators. I mean, that’s what we want. We’re not only aiming for influencers, or the creators that already are known, and like being endorsed, but we’re opening our doors to pretty much everyone that can have quality content. And in my early days in TipTip, there’s this one female, she’s I think in her 40-something and she’s just a regular person, not an influencer.

But she knows a lot about her thing, which is what I think back then it was she was talking about how do you do social media for Ebo Ebo in Indonesia, we call it Ebo so it is like not for the young sort of. So she’s just doing that, and then just doing it to her own network. So I think in her first month doing this, and she was very passionate about this, I think she earned about 4 million in a month, and she just has no influence.

Elise Tan: Which currency is this?

Paulina Purnomowati: Oh, sorry, 4 million rupees. So it’s about probably $386. And this is from someone that it’s no influencers. And if you are doing if you’re sharing what you’re sharing on regular social media, The one that can make money from the big names only when you have a lot of engagement and followers, you get endorsed by brands, or the platform pays you because of the engagement.

And there’s no way this lady can do it on that social media platform. So with this, and she got like $386 dollar I remember, like, she’s posting in her social media, like, Oh, my God, I get my 4 million out of TipTip and it’s for me striking my head like, oh, wow, like, there’s no way this person can make that much of money in the normal social media. And that’s what this is all about. And more and more to call that now.

Now, this is another side. There’s a group, they’re famous, but not so nationwide famous. So they have an audio show, podcast, and Spotify for free, and they already have the following. But it’s free, on Spotify, it’s free. So then they started, they tested, they did a video version of this, and they sold it on TipTip. And they do it religiously, every week before they put the audio version free, in Spotify. And they actually make money every show like every show, they get several million rupiah again. So for them again, they were like, Oh, wow.

So this is just more and more showing me that, you know, being very, very honest, a lot of people shows me why people pay, like there’s a lot of free condoms on YouTube and Instagram, and so forth. Why do people want to pay? People pay often you know, I see this. So I think the key literally is just for the creators, you really just have to focus on you know, who are your supporters or what is your strength to share, and then you build that into content. 

Elise Tan: Yeah, so I think going back to Khush, so Khush recently, you mentioned about how TipTip has been able to pivot a strategy and find an even better product market fit. So tell us more about that.

Khush: Sure. I think with any seed stage company, mind you TipTip is a fairly young company they’re bound to iterate to find the correct product market fit or playbook as you mentioned. Some companies discovered this early on in the ideation stage, and some companies found out a little later, after a few trial runs, AB testing, and pilot projects.

So in terms of TipTip, obviously, the core mission and vision still remain the same; it’s centred around how creators can monetize. And obviously flywheel effects started to be seen with creators, promoters, and supporters coming into play. But they’ve always kept their core mission of monetization fairly intact, I would say.

It’s just a strategy on how they can scale quicker changes. And I want to applaud the team actually, because of their data-driven decisions, they were able to iterate and pivot rather quickly, in a few months’ time to identify that correct recipe or playbook to be able to scale further and as I mentioned in today’s climate, it’s not very easy to fundraise and obviously a lot of startups, or companies have the pressure from investors to deliver results and performance

And I’m very proud to say that I think TipTip has been able to hit that milestone fairly early. And yeah, hopefully, the growth trajectory continues to play out.

Elise Tan: Yeah. So over to you Paulina it is interesting how any content can be marketed and monetized. So would you think that anyone can be a content marketer or influencer?

Paulina Purnomowati: If they want, they can, but unfortunately, today’s not everyone. So, I mean, that’s a hard truth. Because, again, because of the free social media, now, a lot of people especially I’m talking about, particularly the Indonesian market are educated that if you want to make money in that world, then you have to go viral. It’s about engagement again.

So now people’s virility is not so much of the quality of the content. But, sometimes anything that’s crazy, can become viral. And usually, the ones that are crazy and nonsense, become viral. And I have been hearing a lot of sad stories about this, I don’t know, if you guys know, like, for example, there’s news that there’s this kid in the suburban area, they tried to hit themselves with a truck just to get an engagement, and some of them actually died. And then there’s another story where, like, a person bathed in muddy water and it becomes viral.

People want to see that, but people will not pay for that. So to go back to your question, I think, if the person, and this can be anyone has something to share that they know of, it’s their expertise or strength, and they know how to share it, but you have to know how to record yourself, how to share, etc. but again, we make it easy, by the way, it doesn’t have to be video, it can also be in a deck.

So as long as you know that and you have that, then anyone can. So I think that’s the answer. It’s not for everyone, like our perceptions of content today in social media. But if anyone, in any way anyone can use that formula that I just mentioned, then yes, it can be for anyone.

Elise Tan: Interesting. And I’m just wondering, you know, you sound cliche, but you have three tips for excelling on TipTip.

Paulina Purnomowati: Three tips for TipTip. So one knows your strength, so you know what to make or build in the content, and you understand what productions work for you that are sellable for the consumer. And number three, do sell for it like think of it as an entrepreneur. We use the word creativepreneur. And so do not rely on the platform to boost you, we can always boost you. But by data, when you boost it yourself, the result is always much better. 

Elise Tan: Wow. And you mentioned about boosting. So can you tell us a bit more about how that is done? How do you help the discovery part?

Paulina Purnomowati: So obviously, on our homepage, we would showcase themes that we see by data that people are interested in more, or there’s a seasonality of that. So for example, last month, we brought up comics, because at that particular month, we are aiming for creators from the comic industry. So that is one strategy.

But the more evergreen strategy is that we try to showcase good-selling or fast-moving content on our homepage, not only to help them sell, but it actually give an example for the new creators to build their own. And then, of course, we do digital ads, it’s very basic. So it’s just when we’re doing digital ads, and it’s directing that the conversion level is higher.

So that’s what I meant by boosting. So, first we sort of like do a hand pick or data pick on which one would have higher conversions, and then we boost them with our ads. So as opposed to just running a generic, we would go tailor into that, which we find works better.

Elise Tan: Yeah, I see how your previous experiences are translating to doing well in your role as CMO at TipTip. Thank you so much, both of you for sharing tips for female founders and leaders, as well as the interesting titbits about influencer marketing, content creation, as well as customer stories at TipTip. So Paulina, before we end the show, tell us what’s going to happen next on TipTip.

Paulina Purnomowati: So these two quarters or six months will be a very interesting month for us because actually, we’re adding more and more features and offerings in the platform for creators and supporters. And one of the key things that we’re going to launch in Q2 is creator subscriptions. So what I mentioned and these discussions earlier, it’s all ala carte selling, meaning like one content than you buy, like, you buy one content.

Now, the more we research, both creators and supporters, the appetite for subscriptions to a creator is high. So that’s why in Q2, that will be our big, big launch of additional features that we have that creators now can sell their own subscription. So let’s say I’m a creator, so people can subscribe to Paulina, for whatever I’m sharing. And this goes both ways. For supporters, we find that by our research they see a better value of money on that when you pay subscriptions as opposed to just one.

But from the creator side as well the challenge with selling one is that producing a long content is apparently not easy for everyone. And for a consumer or supporter if they want to buy they want it long. So when you do a subscription that breaks that, so you literally just for creators so should we just can do if it’s a video, just a five-minute video where you just have to make sure that in a week’s time you probably like post three, five minutes for you, which is easier to do.

Right now people are already doing it you know, anywhere else. So that breaks those two obstacles. So we’re very excited about that. And we’ve been testing it to several potential creators and supporters and both sides were like, very excited about that.

Elise Tan: Any last word Khush?

Khush: Yeah, I actually want to thank Paulina for making the time to be part of our Hard Truths series. We are thankful that you have Vertex alongside your journey to building TipTip and we continue to work together to ensure you guys hit more, more and more milestones ahead.

Paulina Purnomowati: Thank you so much Khush and Elise for having me. It’s always a pleasure talking to you both. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Elise Tan: Thank you so much.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the conversation as much as we did. Before we close, do remember to check out the podcast notes via the link in the episode description. We have for you the entire episode transcript, bite-size summaries, and a wealth of other resources and content that we’re sure you’ll love. Also, if you enjoyed today’s podcast, please spread the word and give us a thumbs up. It would help others find the show and mean a lot to us. Thank you for joining us. This is Hard Truths by Vertex. See you next time.

Guests: Paulina Purnomowati & Khushbu Topandasani

Paulina Purnomowati is the Chief Marketing Officer at TipTip, the go-to monetization platform for Southeast Asian content creators and a one-stop shopping and learning destination for digital content and live sessions for everyone. Prior to joining TipTip, Paulina was the Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Evolve MMA, Asia’s premier martial arts championship brand. She has nearly 20 years of experience in brand building, marketing, innovation, business development, and corporate development for leading brands such as L’Oréal, P&G, Evolve MMA, Chanel, Mount Scopus, Valiram, Mitra Adiperkasa, Global Brands Group, TOD’S, and ERHA CLINIC. She was the sole Indonesian representative and top five finalists for The Apprentice: One Championship edition in 2021.

Khushbu Topandasani is an Associate Director of investments at Vertex Ventures South East Asia & India, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her portfolio includes TipTip, Fairatmos, Dailybox, Cosmart, Fairbanc, and Sirclo. Prior to joining Vertex, Khushbu was a Product Manager at Citibank where she was also part of the prestigious Management Associate Program. At Citibank, she undertook several roles including Corporate Banking, Insurance, Wealth Management, and Cards & Loans. Khushbu also interned at Ernst & Young Singapore and Starwood Hotel & Resorts Singapore (now Marriott International).