Brand Building Philosophy
📌 The primary goal was not to win the market but to introduce a new flavor/color to the Indonesian coffee scene to remain relevant and memorable to consumers ("tetangga tuku").
😊 Building a lasting impression is prioritized over being the "best tasting coffee" or the "coziest place," focusing on long-term sustainability.
🤝 Brand success is intrinsically linked to the consumer, summarized by the message: "born from a dream to contribute to Indonesian coffee, but grew because of the neighbors (consumers)."

Product Development & Market Validation
💰 Tuku initially offered a tiered pricing structure from IDR 5,000 up to IDR 35,000 to gauge consumer flavor preferences across different price points.
🧊 Tropical weather necessitated adapting products, moving from hot coffee to cold, refreshing drinks, validating that even frequent iced coffee drinkers appreciate quality flavor distinctions.
🧪 The signature "Es Kopi Susu Tetangga" formula took about 4-5 months to solidify initially, following approximately 2 to 2.5 years of personal experimentation with various coffee flavor combinations (including soda and orange).

Supply Chain and Industry Impact
👨‍🌾 The starting point for Tuku involved engaging with farmers upstream, focusing on providing sustainable, continuous orders rather than direct financial aid.
📈 The long-term vision is to transform Indonesia as a producing nation by increasing domestic consumption (which was low due to product availability/affordability gaps) to improve the economy of scale.
☕ Tuku explicitly uses 100% Arabica beans, challenging the common assumption that cheap coffee automatically means Robusta, emphasizing that Robusta also has distinct merits.

Operational Consistency and People Development
🏥 Maintaining service consistency across 51 current outlets is a major operational challenge, requiring continuous effort in people development and operational costing.
🌱 The leadership consciously invests in people development and maintaining standards because hospitality and customer experience are the core drivers for customer return.
🗣️ The CEO remains personally involved (e.g., by visiting stores and checking in with staff) to ensure team members feel supported and not isolated during growth, believing internal team morale is paramount to serving the customer well.

Growth Strategy and Future Outlook
🛑 Tuku is currently focused on controlled, cautious growth ("bertumbuh dengan penuh kehati-hatian") rather than rapid expansion, prioritizing business health over immediate volume.
🔄 The company is in Phase 2 and 3 of its 9-year journey, focused on improving appreciation for Indonesian coffee and strengthening the ecosystem by highlighting local diversity.
🌍 The long-term business goal is to validate that Indonesian agriculture strength can support a successful global brand by translating upstream capabilities into downstream performance.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Prioritize Experience Over Volume: The leadership consciously chooses to maintain quality and experience, even if it means slower growth than competitors, believing that happy, retained customers drive sustainable success.
➡️ Avoid Premature External Commitments: The CEO deliberately avoids franchising, IPOs, or external investment until the fundamental business structure and industry development goals (upstream focus) are solidified, to prevent being dictated by short-term investor demands.
➡️ Embrace Unknowing as Protection: The leader attributes their calmness regarding temptations like IPOs to a lack of complete understanding of those financial structures, focusing instead on the immediate joy of engaging with customers and improving the product.
➡️ Systems over Intuition for Scale: For continued growth, the leader recognizes the critical need to transition from purely intuitive decision-making to concrete planning supported by clear metrics and roadmaps to manage the exponentially increasing risks.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Nov 22, 2025, 14:19 UTC