Joshua Kevin is Experiments Lead at Xendit. Before Xendit, he was the Co-founder and CEO of Talenta, an HR software startup that was acquired by Sleekr (now Mekari).

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

Building R&D products in the B2B and Fintech world - sounds fun, but most of the time it's a hard and lonely process.

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

About me:

Most people might think that I'm an Extrovert, but after a full cycle of building a startup, I'm actually an Introvert nowadays. I'm happy being indoors during the weekend and doing The Joy of Missing Out. Gone are the days of attending all networking events and happy hours

About my job:

Despite being a unicorn, we're very disciplined in using our resources and will only hire behind the curve and hit our metrics (typically 30% MoM) - this creates a real founder/ownership situation where we don't have the luxury of time or resources, and we have to do things that don't scale.

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

I'd say building (at 22 years old) and exiting a SaaS HR company in a region/country where SaaS wasn't even a big industry yet was definitely one of the toughest years of my life but also the most rewarding.

Even today, I get messages from people using Talenta for their company. To one-up this, not long ago, my sister joined a company that soon after onboarded with Talenta. To hear my sister proudly say, "My brother founded/built this product," left a deep impression on myself.

Joining Xendit is a close second. I actually felt that I've grown much faster and learned more in 2 years at Xendit vs. 4-5 years at my own company. I think I made a lot of mistakes as a newbie founder (I'm still sorry to my team at Talenta), and it made me a better learner at my second builder gig.

Environment (both pace of the company/industry you're working in & people you work with) is also super important, and Xendit has provided that for me (we're hiring!)

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?

I'm working in "traditional finance" of Web2 but have always been interested in this wave of Web3 and how it'd disrupt the industry I work in.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

Classic, but growth at "all costs." That means sacrificing for better opportunities for your personal and professional growth. Also, that means sacrificing weekends to learn or build your network.

One more - find a mentor and reach out to people that you admire. People think everyone is busy, but I also believe people are generally kind/nice. They always want to help more people, so reach out and find your mentors!

🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Any product I'm building! but in all seriousness, always happy to talk about life, business, and its challenges

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Black Mirror - living in a tech bubble makes this even feel like a close reality.

🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Can't go wrong with Classic Chocolate, but Baskin Robbins in Korea has this flavor called 엄마는 외계인 (My Mom is an Alien), and it's my go-to while in Korea.