Episode 2: Hacking health with Rifanditto Adhikara
Rifanditto is the founder and CEO of Sirka, a health tech startup driving long-lasting behavior change towards healthier living.
My first interview is with Rifanditto Adhikara, the founder and CEO of Sirka (“the Noom of Indonesia”) which has recently been accepted into Y Combinator! I had the pleasure of overlapping with Ditto for a year at Stanford GSB, and I consider myself very lucky to be his friend.
In this interview, we’ll hear how Ditto is using science to supercharge healthy habits, why entrepreneurship is addicting, and what he means when he says the universe listens to us.
Jesse: Ditto, always great to catch up with you. So first things first — tell us about your journey so far and what skills has it equipped you with.
Ditto: I started my career as a Business Analyst at McKinsey, primarily working with clients in the digital banking practice. I left the firm after 1.5 years to join MatahariMall — back then it was an up and coming startup that was the ecommerce arm of Lippo Group, the region’s Walmart equivalent. I joined as one of the first employees and during the three years I was there I ran the Analytics team and then served as the Growth lead, exploring acquisition channels, architecting life cycle programs. Then I left for Stanford GSB. And now I’m pursuing entrepreneurship!
Jesse: What’s unique about your background that’s given you specific skills, insights, or beliefs that will serve you well as an entrepreneur?
Ditto: I joined MatahariMall before Gojek was a thing, so I got to see the tech environment growing rapidly year over year in Indonesia, and watching that growth inspired me to start something myself. We’re still in the early innings, potentially decades away from the maturity of the tech scene in the US, and there’s still a lot to do. With that belief, I got more motivated to start my own business.
In terms of insights, because I had done a lot of on-the-ground work at a startup before, I understand the struggle of not having clearly defined processes and where even the smallest moves impact the bottom line. In that way, I’ve always embodied the founder mentality.
Jesse: I’m curious — how did you find yourself working at MatahariMall after McKinsey?
Ditto: The CEO was a former Engagement Manager at McKinsey who worked closely with my sister, so I was connected through her.
Jesse: Gotcha, neat. So let’s talk about your startup! How did you think about what you wanted to build? What was the inspiration for Sirka?
Ditto: The idea came after a couple rounds of brainstorming. First ecommerce, then fintech, then edtech, and finally our idea in the health tech space. Sirka is a remote care program for folks with weight issues to get on-demand health coaching, backed by science. The best comparison is Noom in the US.
The idea was actually inspired by my own chronic condition — I sometimes need day-to-day guidance and motivation because it’s complex and confusing to know what foods I can eat, what I can’t eat, what kind of monitoring do I need today, it’s tricky. But at the same time, going to the doctor can be very costly. And actually, 70 million Indonesians struggle with weight issues — almost 1 out of 3 people — and chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) are the cause of nearly 80% of the country‘s deaths every year. It’s a huge problem, and that’s why it made sense to me to create a preventative care platform that offers on-demand, unlimited coaching that you can access with a tap of a button.
70 million Indonesians struggle with weight issues — almost 1 out of 3 people — and chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, and COPD are the cause of nearly 80% of the country‘s deaths every year.
Jesse: Sounds like a super important problem you’re tackling, so kudos to you. And you’re looking really trim so it must be working!
Ditto: (laughs) Thanks, I’m glad you’re seeing the hard work!
Jesse: And how’s it been going so far? How has the traction been?
Ditto: So we’re still pre-product. We have an app that’s in pilot testing currently with paying customers, but with this type of program the hard part is not just making the tech work but also making the diet program work. To prove efficacy, we need lots of time and samples which is what we’ve been doing since last year. We’re planning to launch and start selling by July.
And so far, as of today, 8 out of 10 clients have succeeded in losing weight and keeping the weight off with Sirka. Without this program, only about 1 out of 10 of those same people have been successful in sustaining their weight loss with other diets.
Jesse: Wow, that’s great. And what’s the primary mechanism to your solution? How are you getting people going from failing in their diets, and diets are really hard, to now being 80%+ successful? That’s obviously very significant!
Ditto: Yeah, so if you think about the typical journey of a dieter, they start with “hey, I feel fat and my shirt never fits” or like me, maybe they notice their blood glucose levels are off or something else. Then they’ll look for solutions but the vast majority of “solutions” out there are useless fads, and they’ll find it really hard to sustain any meaningful weight loss. We’ve found that the key here is direct access to experts since everyone has different body compositions, different food preferences, different behavioral cues. A productive diet needs to be tailored to each individual by a coach, which is the foundation of what we provide.
We’ve found that the key here is direct access to experts since everyone has different body compositions, different food preferences, different behavioral cues. A productive diet needs to be tailored to each individual by a coach, which is the foundation of what we provide.
Jesse: Totally. And what does engagement between the coaches and customers look like?
Ditto: The way the program works is, once you download the app, we bring you to a survey that asks about your health needs, preferences, and schedule, and then we format the program into a set of tasks to complete on a daily basis — like logging your weight or food — and behind that, we have a dedicated health coaching team who monitor all the inputs and provide actionable guidance.
Jesse: Seems like an awesome product. The early results are very impressive. There aren’t many companies I’ve seen that have such strong adherence. That’s great.
Ditto: Yeah, definitely.
Jesse: So what’s been the most satisfying thing about early entrepreneurship?
Ditto: This is very personal, but I’m someone who takes a lot of pride and joy in building things and watching people use my product. Entrepreneurship scratches that itch for me. Also, entrepreneurship comes with a sense of extreme accountability that is like an emotional addition — every little thing I do has a big impact on the company, and at the end of the day, only the results matter. The highs are high and the lows are low, and I find myself getting addicted to that. Lastly, it’s an avenue to accelerated personal development. I’ve been in many situations that have made me uncomfortable and have pushed me to grow in ways I couldn’t have predicted.
Jesse: Totally. And I can say this because I was at Bain & Co about the same time you were at McKinsey, but entrepreneurship is not like making pretty slides and BS-ing through it. It’s about building something that actually works and having the results speak for themselves. It must be exciting.
Ditto: Yeah for sure!
Jesse: So here’s an interesting question for you: given you’re Indonesian and have spent time in the US, what’s something about Indonesia you wish more people knew?
Ditto: People always talk about how big the market is and how fast it is growing. Lots of people think GDP growth is only going to accelerate over the next 5 to 7 years because of the massive wave of middle income growth. But what people fail to do is to segment the 270 million population and understand their unique dynamics. While Indonesia is growing super fast, it’s also one of the most economically unequal countries in the world.
To visualize it better, the top 10% is more rich than the average Singaporean; the next 20% are as rich as the average Malaysian; the next 60% looks like the average Ukrainian; and the lowest 10% looks like the average Zimbabwean. People in each class have very very different lives even if they live side by side. To fully understand Indonesia, you have to understand this dynamic.
While Indonesia is growing super fast, it’s also one of the most economically unequal countries in the world.
Jesse: Fascinating, yeah. Especially because there are so many islands and subcultures.
Ditto: Yeah. And that’s the other interesting thing: there are 300+ languages in Indonesia, and Indonesia’s population has the highest ratio of trilinguals in the world. 20% of Indonesians can speak three languages.
Jesse: I had no idea about that, that’s super cool. So as you think about your startup, which segments are you targeting initially?
Ditto: We’re targeting families that have $300 of disposable income per month, which comes out to the top 30% or so. To go after the other 70%, you can’t have a direct-to-consumer product. So first we’re building a D2C platform and then we’ll go from there.
Jesse: Gotcha, and 30% is still like 100 million people so it’s a huge target population.
Ditto: That’s the beauty of a large nation!
Jesse: Okay, last question. What’s the best life advice you’ve ever received?
Ditto: Ooh, good question. I think the best life advice I’ve gotten is that “the universe actually listens to what you want”. Think about all the “crazy” things you’ve wanted to do but didn’t because you thought it was impossible — it’s more possible than you think if you have the right energy and intentionality! My two mentors Hendra (of Payfazz) and Anderson (of Ajaib) always say this to me: just reach for the impossible, and you might not know exactly how, but you’ll get there!
I think the best life advice I’ve gotten is that “the universe actually listens to what you want”.
Jesse: I love that, very inspiring! Well, thanks so much for the time Ditto, super interesting to hear all your thoughts, and good luck with Sirka!
Ditto: Nice chatting Jesse!
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