Every Friday, Everyone Wins with Arisan

ipyum is a remote place, and the people who work here form a close-knit community. One of our regular rituals is the weekly arisan—a uniquely Indonesian tradition that blends chance, camaraderie, and small-scale financial support. Across Indonesia, from village verandas to city offices, arisan offers a way for people to connect, laugh, and share a moment of community in an otherwise busy week.

Arisan runs in multiweek cycles, with the number of weeks determined by the number of participants. Each week, all members contribute a fixed sum to a communal pot, with a personal commitment to do so for the entire cycle. One participant wins the pot each week by lottery—and crucially, everyone wins once per cycle.

At ipyum, we play every Friday morning (Friday is also payday). After everyone pays in, those who haven’t yet won roll three dice. The highest score takes home the pot. Participation is entirely optional, but around 80% of the team chooses to join. Because most staff are the primary breadwinners for their households, we intentionally keep the stakes modest—100,000 IDR per week, which amounts to less than 10% of a typical monthly salary.

True to the Indonesian spirit of flexibility, we’ve adapted arisan to fit our team’s needs. With 30% of our staff working offsite, onsite teammates take turns rolling the dice on their behalf. And when a new team member wanted to join midway through the cycle, Komaria (ipyum co-founder and financial wizard) found a way to make it work—no surprise there.

I happened to win this week (yay!), but honestly, playing together is always a win. Arisan breaks down hierarchy, brings us together, and strengthens both our team and our community.