The journey of Edho Zell in building Social Bread

Creativity could become an extraordinary business core in this digital era. Edho Zell is a good example of a young entrepreneur who harnesses this power through his startup, Social Bread, which is now thriving.

Building a digital agency

In 2009, Edho began his career as a content creator. At that time, YouTube was still a new platform for Indonesians. With a creative spirit and a forward-thinking vision, he started pioneering a digital-based creative business. Today, Social Bread has transformed into a top-tier digital agency, targeting micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs).

His journey since 2009 has brought him fame and success through YouTube. After achieving success, he leveraged his skills to build a digital agency.

At early stages, his company focused on the B2B segment and even secured major corporate clients such as Pertamina, Jasa Marga, and Auto 2000.

However, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the government imposed a nationwide lockdown. Many small sellers around the church that used to visit by Edho struggled to sell their products. They turned to Edho for help, knowing that he has a good experience and knowledge about the digital world.

Seeing this, Edho Zell and his friends established Social Bread, focusing on assisting MSMEs. Initially, they only intended to help fellow church members, but Social Bread quickly grew and gained widespread recognition.

Edho started the business in an unused office space. From there, his team began operating Social Bread with four other people. For content production, they used existing equipment, such as cameras and lighting, worth around IDR100 million.

Edho Zell took on the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Social Bread, while his two friends, Lidia Tirza and Ester Jeanette, became the Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.

The business took off rapidly as MSMEs embraced Social Bread’s services. The most popular service was social media management.

In today’s era, the phrase “Opening a social media account is more important than opening a store” is widely recognized, highlighting the growing demand for social media presence. Meanwhile, live shopping has not yet been fully adopted across all business sectors in Indonesia. For example, restaurants in China have started selling via live shopping, whereas most Indonesian restaurants have yet to follow the trend. Social Bread is optimistic that Indonesia’s restaurant industry will soon catch up.

Impacting MSME sector

Edho’s core business principle is to ensure that Social Bread directly benefits MSMEs. Therefore, the company’s strategy focuses on driving sales, as MSMEs require fast cash flow turnover.

“They usually need to see returns within 1-2 months after making an investment,” he said. This strategy differs from that of his previous corporate clients, who typically focused on brand awareness for a period of six months to a year without an immediate need for sales.

Some MSMEs have seen their revenue double or triple with Social Bread’s services. One MSMEs, in particular, grew an exponential sales increase, growing from Rp80 million to Rp1.5 billion in just three months. 

Currently, Social Bread serves 200-300 MSMEs per month, operating in five cities: Tangerang, Bandung, Semarang, Bali, and Surabaya.

To market its services, Social Bread heavily relies on TikTok due to its high traffic, making it easier to promote the brands. The typical customer journey starts with TikTok exposure, followed by TikTok Shop engagement, live shopping, and finally, transactions on e-commerce marketplaces.

With rapid business growth, Social Bread has also attracted investors. So far, the company has completed two investment rounds.

In the first round, angel investors included William Tanuwijaya (former CEO of Tokopedia) and Herman Widjaja (Tokopedia’s Chief Technology Officer). In the second round, Social Bread secured seed funding from East Ventures and Living Lab Ventures.

In total, Social Bread has received Rp400 billion in funding. This investment has allowed the company to expand beyond social media services to include live shopping, product shipping, branding, TV commercials, billboards, and even concerts. These expansions have made Social Bread even more profitable.

Despite its success, Social Bread faces dynamic challenges. One of the main challenges is the changing algorithms on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, which impact marketing reach for its clients. However, Edho views these challenges as opportunities to innovate continuously.

To enhance productivity, Social Bread has adopted artificial intelligence (AI). The company has improved content production efficiency with AI assistance, increasing its daily client service capacity from three to ten. Social Bread also continues to expand its expertise in live shopping, one of the biggest trends in e-commerce today. 

Empowering content creators

One of Social Bread’s key innovations is the launch of Creator Academy, a training program designed to nurture talented content creators. The academy offers paid membership training programs as well as scholarships for promising young talents. A partnership with Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) has further strengthened Creator Academy as a vital initiative in developing Indonesia’s creative economy.

Currently, Social Bread has 200 full-time creators and 500 part-time creators involved in its ecosystem.

Seeing the success achieved so far, Edho envisions a bright future for Social Bread.

Edho Zell aims to serve up to 7 million MSMEs across Indonesia. Social Bread is exploring partnerships with the government and other institutions to build a more inclusive ecosystem for MSMEs.

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The original article was published on SWA Online, on 13 December 2024.