Let’s see, how an issue led Claudia Kolonas from being an employee at his father’s business to building her own startup, Pluang.
About Claudia Kolonas
Meet this businesswoman, Claudia Kolonas. Kolonas belongs to a business family. She always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Between 2007 and 2011, she graduated from Occidental College with a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology. During her college years, Kolonas was a molecular biologist. However, she didn’t enjoy this course much, which is why she made the decision to work at her father’s company, Celebes, rather than continue with it.
Kolonas joined her father’s business and worked there as an investment advisor on various projects, including multi-finance, investment management, and insurance. Furthermore, from 2014 to 2016, Kolonas pursued an MBA at Harvard Business School.
The entrepreneurial journey started
Kolonas’ story begins when she meets her co-founder, Richard Chua (future husband). They met as section mates, and they talked to each other about how much they are passionate for investing, technology, and entrepreneurship.
During that period, when they were talking about all this, both Kolonas and Richard observed that Americans have unparalleled opportunities to create wealth, but Indonesia didn’t. Only 0.5 million individuals in Indonesia, out of a population of 250 million, made investments. This research sparked an idea in their minds.
When Claudia Kolonas came up with a solution
Kolonas thought, Why not help the Indonesian millennial generation (born from 1981 to 1996) to create wealth through investment? Subsequently, they discovered that various Indonesians (especially those with lower to moderate incomes) were interested in investing in gold.
Kolonas saw a business opportunity here and started pursuing it. In 2019, After two years of completing an MBA, both Kolonas and Richard launched their startup, Pluang.
What is Pluang?
The financial app, Pluang, is based in Indonesia. Users of Pluang can invest small amounts in various assets, such as US stocks, gold, mutual funds, cryptocurrency, and many more.
Investors can begin using the platform’s user-friendly and accessible design. People can start investing with as little as Rp5,000 (about $0.35 USD) for US stocks and cryptocurrencies and 0.01 g for gold.
Kolonas pursued her passion and transformed an opportunity into a multi-million-dollar business.
Kolonas says, “With enough support, entrepreneurs can deliver more positive impact than governments or non-profit institutions combined.”
