This CEO built a business with capital of IDR 935 thousand, now the profit is IDR 1.2 T


Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Wealth does not happen overnight. This is also what billionaire Noah Kagan said.

He initially founded the company with capital of IDR 935 thousand. However, now the company's profits will be IDR 1.2 trillion in 2023.

This started when he founded the AppSumo application. This is a marketplace for selling or buying digital products such as marketing tools, ebooks, or online courses.


In his book “Million Dollar Weekend”, he explains how to be successful in business. He said he was inspired by MacHeist, a site that offers discounted software packages for Apple users.

This then makes it possible to provide similar services for PCs. Kagan then emailed a number of founders of popular apps such as Imgur, an image-sharing service popular on Reddit, to offer to promote a discounted version of the software in exchange for a percentage of what he sold.

A golden opportunity when he contacted Reddit to ask if he could advertise the deal on the site for free. “Why not? Our users love Imgur. They'd love to get a discount,” Kagan said, recalling Reddit's response.

This then made him take a step forward. He then paid a web developer in Pakistan US$48 (around Rp. 748,000) to build a website with a PayPal button.

Then he paid US$ 12 (Rp. 187,000) for a domain name. With initial capital of US$60 (Rp. 935,000) he started his “business”.

“Your natural instinct when you want to start a business may be to learn as much as possible. You may spend days taking courses, reading books, and watching YouTube videos to build your skills. But in the end, you're wasting your time,” says Kagan, loaded CNBC International.

“You have to start today. You can't keep watching videos,” he added.

Kagan said executing ideas is important. It's true that not everything is successful, but shape it as an “experiment rather than fail” moment.

“Successful entrepreneurs… take action first, get real feedback, and learn from it, which is a million times more valuable than any book or course. And faster,” he stressed.

According to him, someone starting a business should not be afraid of rejection. Even though it was annoying, he said it was a reference for launching new ideas.

“That alone helped me accept that I would be rejected and turn it into a game versus a blow to my self-esteem,” he added,

He said the bottom line entrepreneurs have to get people excited about “giving you money.” According to him once “you find something that works, double and triple it”.

“The best businesses are successful businesses,” he said.

“I started three other businesses that did similar things. And when I finally dropped those things and really focused on what was working, that's when my business really took off,” he explains.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

Next Article

The Lifting Equipment Business is Tempting, Here's the Reason

(sef/sef)