The Hive's First Buzz
Every first has a story. Ours began the way most engineering stories do — with setup work and one big question: how do builders from a small city compete on a global stage? Ninety minutes later, four of us had covered infrastructure, careers, marketing, and the one discipline that ties it all together — data.
Who was there
- Robby Widyahartono
- Bani Adam Afandi
- Angga Nova Perkasa
- Helmi Susanto
How the story unfolded
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It started with a terminal
Bani and Robby opened the session the way engineers do — deep in setup. There was a Virtual Private Server to configure, and CLI tools and npm packages flying by. From a video review, the conversation drifted to career paths: AI engineer, senior developer, senior manager — at global tech companies, the kind of engineering positions we aim to land.
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Then the career talk got serious
When Angga and Helmi joined, the conversation went global. Interviews, applications, and what it really takes to work for the world from Indonesia — down to the tax and location math for roles based in Australia and Singapore. Helmi walked through openings he had been tracking on Indeed: product engineer, senior principal engineer, system designer, data analysis engineer — most of them remote or hybrid.
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From code to market
Helmi then shifted the lens from building to selling: products don't win on engineering alone — design, branding, and monetization experience matter just as much. That opened a long thread on affiliate marketing for the US market powered by YouTube content, micro-influencer strategies, and managing Instagram and TikTok accounts in a way that keeps business owners' trust.
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An automation project, behind the scenes
Bani and Helmi also talked through an automation project idea — from the infrastructure and a backend for a multi-channel platform to an image-analysis piece. It's all still on the drawing board; what it needs now is a lead, or a team, to push it into reality.
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Closing on the numbers
The session ended where every good business conversation should: on the data. Online-store profitability, operations centered in Singapore, Google Ads, product lines, conversion rates — and one shared agreement: every decision deserves to stand on clear, analytical data.