Palais Brongniart was forbidden for women until the late 50s. Naturally, it was the perfect place to celebrate International Women’s Day 2014 #IWD. So, Catherine @cathbarba  & Delphine @DelphineRB  decided to use the venue, also known as Place de la Bourse (The historical Paris Stock Exchange), for their La Journée de la Femme Digitale 2014 Conference #JFD on March 7th, 2014.

I met Cath on my US trip with 28 entrepreneurs from around the globe – IVLP: A New Beginning program. It didn’t take long for us to understand, despite of our different background, we share the same vision, specifically in women and entrepreneurship.

I believe women should step up, and willing to explore technology and use it as the catalyst of their success. I wrote a book, Girls & Tech, to show women in Indonesia about my journey building my career, from being a web developer to tech entrepreneur, also highlight some Indonesian Women who work in technology as role models. Cath loves my story, and recommends US Embassy France to invite me as a delegate to attend her conference. Gros bisous pour vous <3

The event theme was ‘Change the Future’. I believe to change the future, we need to change our mindset.

I live in Indonesia, a country with only 25% internet penetration, less than 2% credit card users, and the slowest internet connection in Asia Pacific, it was a crazy decision to start a tech startup. There are always excuses of why it shouldn’t be done, why I shouldn’t start a business. The datas and statistics are not there to support. But as entrepreneurs said, 101 problems also mean 101 opportunities.

Every time I talked to people, they would categorized my company NulisBuku.com as a social enterprise. We do helped aspiring writers in Indonesia to have a new channel to self-published and distribute their books, this kind of service was not there yet when we arrived. But it’s hard for me to see myself as a ‘social entrepreneurs’. I’d like to be called just: entrepreneur. Entrepreneur was there to solve problems. And with the kind of problems that we have in my country, we can’t afford not to build a high impact ‘social enterprise’.

I’ve been actively organizing events and workshops in entrepreneurship with StartupLokal community, talk about women issues and empowerment with technology through Girls in Tech Indonesia, remind young people in Indonesia about the power of words through NulisBuku.com and Traveling Words writing retreat, and I believe this energy to share is not because of I’m different, but because I’m a woman.

Yes, ladies, you have the amazing trait to share the love. Why don’t you start to find what soften your heart and let it shine?

Special, special thanks for my friends Arnaud Chiaramonti & Catherine Barba Chiaramonti. They are truly the best couple, my inspiration and they gave me hope of a tender and empowering love. Bisous!