Wafa Taftazani is the founder and CEO of UpBanx as well as the co-founder and Chairman of VCGamers. 

UpBanx helps everyone in the Indonesian creator economy to access financial products and services, while VCGamers is an all-in-one social-commerce platform for gamers in Southeast Asia.

UpBanx has raised $5.5M and VCGamers has raised $2.8M, both in their seed round in January 2022. 

‍

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

I build companies that use technology to solve high-value problems in the finance and gaming sectors.

‍

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

That I never planned to work in the private sector, or even in the technology sector, much less starting my own technology companies. 

My original plan was to join the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and join the country's diplomatic corps.

‍

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

So far, it's getting into Y Combinator's Winter 2022 batch with UpBanx. Few Indonesian startups have the opportunity to join what's arguably the world's most successful technology startup accelerator. 

I have admired and dreamed of joining Y Combinator since I helped set up ModalRakyat, my first startup. Last year, I finally had the opportunity to learn from the best.

‍

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

The beginning of the convergence between AI and blockchain. An AI model can only be as powerful as the amount and quality of data it uses to train itself. 

Imagine a world where most companies and systems run on the blockchain, where data is transparent and accessible. How powerful AI models could be at that point and how systemic the impact would be across sectors like finance, gaming, and many others?

‍

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

No matter what happens, never ever lose heart and give up. As long as you do this, anything, literally anything can happen. 

But when you lose heart and give up, you subconsciously create a condition where you don't allow enough things to happen.

‍

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

Theories about the true nature of our reality from many different perspectives: quantum physics, philosophy, religion, and spirituality

‍

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Interstellar by Christopher Nolan.

‍

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

Matcha.

‍

FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.