AMA: Bayu Prihandito, founder of Life Architekture

Bayu Prihandito established Life Architekture to help people find their individual paths to success and happiness. We sat down with him to discuss why he felt drawn to life coaching in the first place and how to create a top-quality business culture. 

Hi Bayu! Could you share the story behind your business, including the problem you set out to solve and the inspiration that led to its creation?

I started my life coaching business out of a personal revelation.

I was chasing goals that felt hollow because they weren't mine, leaving me feeling empty inside. The saying "Your mess is your message" resonated with me deeply. It's about leveraging my own struggles to guide others in finding and following their own paths to success.

What were the initial challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

The initial hurdle was my ambition to help everyone immediately. I quickly learned that's not feasible. I had to pinpoint exactly who I could help the most and clarify the specific problem I was solving. This helped sharpen my focus and clarify our mission for both myself and my clients.

Could you tell me a bit more about your team, and how you've grown the business?

The team is just me and my partner. He's the tech whizz, taking care of our website and SEO, while I'm all about the coaching, sales, and being the public figure. Our growth has come from truly listening to our clients' needs and consistently delivering on them. We keep each other accountable and constantly strive to improve our services.

What's your North Star metric?

The number of courses and sessions booked. It's a direct reflection of how many people we're reaching and helping, which is the whole reason we're doing this.

Have you embarked on a fundraising journey?

We've chosen to bootstrap our company, which has been both challenging and enlightening. It's taught us to be resourceful and thoughtful with our decisions.

Start with what you have and keep your personal overheads low, so you can invest as much as possible back into the business.

That would be my advice to other founders.

Do you have a share scheme in place? If so, what does that do for your company?

No, we don't have a share scheme in place at the moment.

Can you share a unique tradition, celebration, or inside joke that's become a part of your startup's culture?

Because we work remotely from different countries, we start every meeting by teasing each other about how good the location we currently live in is and how tasty the food is.

We also joke around about choosing a country for our yearly in-person meeting. It's our way of creating a sense of togetherness and starting our weekly meetings on a light note. 

If your startup were a character in a fictional universe, who or what would it be, and why?

If our startup were a character, it would be "The Candleman". Just like a candle brings light to a dark room, we aim to bring clarity and direction to those feeling lost in their personal "darkness".

If you could magically add one skill or quality to every person in your organisation overnight, what would it be?

I'd infuse the ability to instantly turn thoughts into action as in practice we often overthink and underact. This change would accelerate our pace, allowing us to learn and adapt quickly from our experiences, feedback, and setbacks.

We totally agree with that! Thanks for sharing your story, Bayu.