[In English] Behind Goola — Indonesian F&B Startup with USD 5 Million Secured in Funding

Meet Kevin Susanto. Kevin is the CEO of Goola, an F&B business he co-founded with Gibran Rakabuming, the first son of President Joko Widodo, and Benz Budiman in 2018. With 5 million USD secured in funding with Alpha JWC Ventures, Goola boasts a rapid growth for a business still in its infancy.

This independence season, our Purwadhika PodClass team was honored to have the chance to sit down and talk with Kevin. Read along as he shares the story behind Goola and how it has blazed a trail for Indonesian businesses in the F&B sector.

Hi, Kevin! Can you tell us a bit about what you do before starting Goola?

I’ve previously helped with my family business in the plastics industry. We supply e-commerce and retail businesses with plastics. My gears shifted when, last year, Mas Gibran and I came up with the idea of Goola: Indonesian drinks made modern.

How has it kept you busy these days?

Now, as for Goola, we’ve been busy trying to expand 160 outlets in the coming future.

Who have been with you on this journey?

My co-founders are Mas Gibran and my best friend, Benz Budiman.

What is the driving motivation behind starting your F&B business, Goola?

At first, we noticed the appreciable amount of foreign F&B brands dominating the Indonesian market, especially those selling bubble teas. And so we asked ourselves, “How are foreign drinks so well-received by the Indonesian market while local drinks lose their popularity?” From the way we see it, Indonesia has a population of 280 million lives. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese population, for example, only amounts to about 10% of ours…and yet their bubble tea drink has gone viral globally. With a stark difference in the number of population, why can’t authentic Indonesian drinks be popular too?

This has been our motive, driving us to revolutionize Indonesian drinks that would otherwise remain in the streets. This includes Es Doger, Es Cincau, Es Kacang Ijo, Es Ketan Hitam to name a few. At Goola, they are repackaged as modern drinks with the hopes of returning its popularity to the locals, especially millennials.

Explain how you came up with the name “Goola”

We wanted to come up with a catchy name that people can easily remember. We were also looking for a word that would be standard enough for foreign visitors to pronounce. Hence the name and spelling “Goola”, consistently pronounced as gula even in English. Sweet!

Goola’s menu offers 22 varieties of refreshments, but which specific drink are you most proud of designing?

Our very own Es Doger Jeger is a popular choice in our Signature series. I would say that it’s a childhood favorite for many, especially those living in Jakarta. As a kid, I used to grab the drink at a street vendor. Once it became a rare habit, I started seeing it less and less. Come to think of it, where can you get Es Doger at the mall? All we recognize are popular drinks like bubble tea or brown sugar…

Our brand aim is to reach the malls, where we could present our drinks in a modern way such that our locals would be proud of the original Indonesian drinks. Instead of drinking only bubble teas, they can now opt for Goola’s beverages. Our menu offers Es Doger and, my personal favorite, Es Jerit a.k.a. Jeruk Nipis Mutiara. I like refreshing ones! As for our signature series, my favorite picks are Es Doger and Es Goola Aren — the Indonesian version of brown sugar boba.

Wow, an Indonesian take on brown sugar boba — that’s new!

Okay, let’s get technical. What is your digital marketing strategy to ensure that your business is growing in the digital world?

Right now, I would say that marketing is the mainstay of our growth strategy. Here’s how we differ from foreign brands selling boba: we have to first educate the market. Educating the market is something that is very hard, especially when people have started drinking boba for 20 years back. They go, “Oh, this is milk tea and this one is bubble tea…” Everybody knows. They have numerous franchises; starting with ten franchises, then another ten, they continue to spread globally.

When it comes to Indonesian drinks, you could say that we’re the pioneer. We are the only ones to hype them back. We gather all our traditional drinks and gave them a modern twist.

So, you’re saying that part of the challenge is educating your market?

Indeed, educating the market has (so far) been the most challenging for us, Goola.

Well, what innovations would you bring to ensure that your business is at the top of the list of customers preferences?

What I believe is that, in this modern era, the most important thing to do is collaborating. So, in the future, expect Goola to collaborate with other iconic local brands! Moving forward, we will keep on innovating our products with the hopes of going global with Goola.

Wow, that’s very nice to hear! Goola is going global, guys!

That’s the vision. But first, we have to educate the Indonesian market to better understand what Goola truly is about as well as the importance of taking pride in our drinks. Authentic Indonesian beverages now have a chance to enter the foreign market.

I greatly agree.

Okay, so far we have talked about the story behind Goola as well as your experience in business. From your experience, can you share some things to consider before starting an F&B business?

Before you start an F&B business, the most important thing is the concept. First, what kind of ideas are you looking to develop in the business itself? Ask yourself, for example, “In Goola, what concept are we trying to market?”

If we’re only capable of following existing concepts, you will only be some player in a long-running game. As for Goola, in this case, we go against the norms. While others go for beverages on-trend, we resort to old-school refreshments. So, there’s that for my first tip: picking the right concept.

Secondly, standardize your food products. Can you achieve consistency in flavor in each of your locations? Standardization can easily be the single determining factor of success in the F&B world.

The location holds an equal value of importance. Goola’s first outlet started out in Jl. Raden Saleh, Cikini, which is also Markobar’s first location here in Jakarta. We tested the market to see how they would respond to our products; would they be interested in our take on Indonesian drinks? From there on out, we saw an opportunity as their excitement built for more of our menus. We started off with 5 menu items and continued adding more gradually.

We branched out to Plaza Indonesia and then Pacific Place, which gains us exposure in Central Jakarta. Next, we planned to open our fourth branch in Tokopedia Tower with the aim of attracting the millennials back to their roots; to take pride in authentic Indonesian drinks. Our latest branch at Mall Kelapa Gading launched on the 3rd of July, 2019. For this one, we collaborated with Padang Merdeka because we shared the same vision and mission of elevating local products.

That must have been an adventure for you.

Have you ever been faced with a challenge? How did you approach it with your team?

In the world of F&B business, every day brings new challenges that need resolving. They have to be tackled daily, and giving up is not an option. If you work hard and know where you are going you will get there.

I’ve heard some exciting news coming from Goola. Would you care to share it with us?

We are fortunate enough to secure funding from Alpha JWC Ventures. We secured from them a grand amount of 5 million US Dollars, which we will use to open 160 outlets this year ahead. Now, we’re arguably the forerunners of Goola: modernized Indonesian drinks. As pioneers, we want to scale and dominate the market all at once. Scaling takes time, but with funds received from Alpha, we believe we can dominate this market.

This has been a very insightful conversation, Kevin. Thank you so much! All the best for Goola!

Join the conversation by leaving comments below :)