Interview Archives - Page 7 of 14

Smart Operator – Vered Raviv Schwarz

March 8, 2022March 8, 2022
by Claire

We have a smart operator and a great champion for women on the show this week.

Her name is Vered Raviv Schwarz and she’s spent the past 20 years in disruptive tech companies, based in Israel.

These days Vered is President and Chief Operating Officer for Guesty, a property management platform offering software that’s used by people renting out short term and vacation rental properties around the world. With Guesty’s multiple features they can easily list and manage their rentals on multiple sites such as AirBnb and Vebo.

Before Guesty, Vered spent nearly 6 years at the freelancer marketplace Fiverr as Chief Operating Officer. And prior to that she was a lawyer and General Counsel at other tech companies.

We’ve been struck by what a smart operator and thinker Vered is.

In this episode you’ll hear a lot of great advice including:

How some of the best advice Vered was given, and now gives herself, changed the course of her entire career
Why she’s passionate about making tech companies more diverse and what she’s doing about that
How she helps companies successfully scale and grow globally
And why Vered’s a great believer in being able to make decisions quickly.

Without further ado enjoy this episode with the switched on and dedicated Vered Raviv Schwarz.

Links

Guesty Website

Vered on LinkedIn

Vered on Twitter – @VRavivSchwarz

Interview

Life is Tough but So is She – Briony…

February 22, 2022February 22, 2022
by Claire

We’re super excited about our first guest for the year. Speaker, author and storyteller, Briony Benjamin, is known for the amazing and purposeful viral videos she creates, as well as her book, ‘Life is Tough But So are You’, which came out last year.

Briony is a master at her craft and she’s also incredibly inspiring when she talks about her cancer journey.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

The moment when Briony realised a career in accounting or commerce wasn’t for her
How her life changed in an instant with a diagnosis everyone dreads
What she thinks about when it comes to getting her creative work out into the world
And what habits she cultivates to stay on top of her content game.

Enjoy this episode with the irrepressible, funny and delightful Briony Benjamin.

Useful Links

Briony on Instagram – @briony_benjamin

Website: www.brionybenjamin.com

Must Do – watch this amazing viral video from Briony – ‘You Only Get One Life’:

Briony’s Book – ‘Life is Tough! But so are You’

Books Briony mentions:

Big Magic: How to Live a Creative Life, and Let Go of Your Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!: A Guide for Exceptional Women to Create Outrageous Success by Denise Duffield-Thomas

Atomic Habits by James Clear

The Artists Way by Julia Cameron

Jerry Seinfeld Interview with Tim Ferriss

Interview

Stefanie Nissen – Style & Hope Shine Through

November 30, 2021November 30, 2021
by Claire

Happy December everyone!

The end of the year can mean travel planning for a lot of people, and business trips and holidays are the bread and butter for the fashion entrepreneur and founder on the show this week, Stefanie Nissen.

California-based Stefanie founded her business ‘Trvl Porter’ with the idea that you would arrive at your destination to find a hand-picked travel wardrobe waiting for you at your hotel. When you’re heading home, you can buy the pieces you love, or return them all simply by leaving them with your hotel.

The business was starting to take off when Covid effectively put Stefanie’s business into hibernation. All the more frustrating as not only had the business been really starting to get traction, it had also enjoyed some great coverage in the NY Times as well.

In this episode you’ll hear where Stefanie is at today in figuring out the future for Trvl Porter as well as:

How she started her career in fashion design
The advice her designer employer gave her that made her really change direction
How losing her luggage inspired the idea for a brand new business
And, Stefanie shares how a significant trauma actually led her to have the courage to start her new venture

This episode shares stories that are both moving and hopeful. So if you’re after some inspiration, hope and courage in your life, don’t miss this one with the resilient and courageous Stefanie Nissen…

Useful Links

Stefanie on LinkedIn (Stefanie’s new married name is Barkman)

Stefanie on Instagram

TrvlPorter website

Interview

Tessa Clarke – The Difference One Person Can Make

November 1, 2021November 2, 2021
by Claire

We’re excited to be bringing you an inspiring and very relevant guest this week given world leaders have been meeting at COP26 in Glasgow for vital climate talks as this episode goes to air.

Tessa Clarke is Co-founder and CEO of the international food sharing and household goods app called OLIO. Her passion for sustainability and for creating simple ways to help all of us to take simple but powerful steps to help the environment is just what we need right now!

Tessa and her Co-founder (whom she met at Stanford doing her MBA) launched OLIO in 2015 and originally focused on food waste in the home, although now you can find new homes for all kinds of other items as well.

OLIO has just successfully closed a Series B fundraising round raising $43 million dollars from top tier VC firms who have described OLIO’s 5-fold growth in the past year as phenomenal. More than 5 million OLIO users in 53 countries are now reducing not only food waste but also preventing more than 3 million household goods going to landfill as well.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Tessa wished she’d made the time earlier in her career to stop and really reflect about what she was passionate about doing in her career
How Tessa came up with the idea for OLIO;
Her four tips for female founders raising funds;
How food waste globally results in greenhouse gas emissions that would make it the 3rd largest country in emission terms in the world.
And last but not least, Tessa shares how western householders make up for HALF of all that food waste.

So dear fellow citizen of Planet Earth, please make haste and devour this episode with the determined and passionate Tessa Clarke. Enjoy!

Useful Links

OLIO website

OLIO in the App store – Google & Apple

Dana Kanze TED Talk on the real reason female founders get less funding

Interview

Lena Andersson – Not a Quitter

October 19, 2021October 19, 2021
by Claire

It doesn’t take much imagination to work out how many challenges tourism businesses have been facing during the pandemic.

Typically, those who’ve been challenged the most can offer us the most interesting and helpful stories and advice. So our latest episode features the first of several amazing female travel entrepreneurs we’ll be featuring in the coming weeks.

Lena Andersson is the Founder and CEO of ‘Go Running Tours’, a global platform where you can book guided sightseeing runs in more than 70 cities and towns around the world.

Pre Covid last February, Lena’s business was really hitting its strides (excuse the pun!) and receiving record bookings. . . and then Covid happened.

Prior to founding her global running tours business, Lena had a successful career in marketing for large corporates in the UK and Denmark. She was traveling more than 200 days a year and that’s when she came upon the idea that literally inspired her to quit the very next day. A friend in a foreign city took her for a run that combined running with sightseeing and Lena thought how amazing it would be if she could do this in every destination she travelled to.

Little could Lena have imagined 8 plus years ago that she’d have to deal with all the trials and tribulations a global pandemic would bring.

We think you’ll be blown away by Lena’s resilience and positivity and you’ll also hear:

How Lena decided her next steps when the world shut down last year
How she’s got through the devastating impact COVID has had on her business
Lena’s career advice if you’re an introvert; and
Why she’s optimistic about the future for her business despite everything she’s been through.

Enjoy this episode with the positive and purposeful Lena Andersson.

Useful Links

Go Running Tours Website

Lena on LinkedIn

GoRunningTours on Insta

GoRunningTours on Facebook

GoRunning Tours on Strava

Interview

Mikaela Jade – Pioneering for First Nations

October 5, 2021October 5, 2021
by Claire

We have a treat in store for you today with a guest whom we reckon is one of the best storytellers we’ve had on the show.

Australian entrepreneur, Mikaela Jade, otherwise known as Mik, is the Founder and CEO of Indigital, a company developing innovative new ways to digitise and translate knowledge, culture and stories from remote and ancient First Nations communities.

Mik, a proud Cabrogal woman, is a UN Permanent Forum Indigenous Issues delegate; she’s a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Augmented and Virtual Reality; and she’s also been recognised as a Top 100 Innovator in Australia.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Mik reacted when, as a young adult, she learnt she had indigenous ancestors
How she came up with the idea of using augmented reality to share cultural stories in the national parks where she worked
How hard it was to get people to help her progress her augmented reality ideas
What happened when Mik reached rock bottom, and
The one technology Mik thinks we all need to read up on.

We think you’ll LOVE this conversation with the ever-so resilient and compelling storyteller, Mik Jade.

Enjoy!

Useful Links

https://indigitalschools.com/

https://indigital.net.au/

Mik on Twitter

Mik on Linkedin

Indigital on Instagram

Spatial Web book by Gabriel Rene

Great article – An Introduction to The Spatial Web by Gabriel Rene

Atlas of AI – great podcast with the author, Kate Crawford if you don’t have time to read her book

Interview

Katrine Marçal – How Including Women could Fix almost…

September 21, 2021September 21, 2021
by Claire

Our guest for this week’s episode is Swedish best selling author, financial journalist and women’s economic champion, Katrine Marçal.

Katrine’s two books, ‘Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner’ and her latest book – ‘Mother of Invention – How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men’ explore how women’s roles and contribution have been systemically ignored over time.

Katrine has a fun and engaging way of telling stories that show just how much we’ve missed out on by overlooking the value women bring to the table. Not surprisingly, she also shares how frustrated she is that we’ve missed out on countless potential innovations because there haven’t been enough women involved in the process.

Katrine’s first book was named one of The Guardian’s Books of the Year in 2015 and she was named as one of the BBC’s top 100 women in the same year. Her latest book builds on this impressive record.

In this fascinating discussion you’ll learn:

How the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, overlooked one very important factor when he came up with his ‘self interest’ theory and what impact that’s had on women and what we’re paid,
How innovation history has overlooked or re-written women’s vital role in computer science and the founding of software,
How and why a company that specialised in women’s underwear won the contract to make the spacesuits that took the Apollo astronauts to their history making landing on the Moon; and
How Katrine herself comes up with her original ideas and perspectives.

So sit back, enjoy and be prepared to have your eyes opened by the insightful and engaging Katrine Marçal.

Useful Links

Katrine’s website – find her books here

SheEO home page

Interview with Vicki Saunders, CEO of SheEO

Interview

Sonika Manandhar – & Her Fintech Changing Lives in…

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021
by Claire

Our latest episode takes you on a journey all the way to Kathmandu in Nepal.

We speak with Sonika Manandhar, a Nepalese entrepreneur and former senior software developer for Microsoft, who’s now a fintech founder committed to improving the lives of women small business owners in Nepal.

Sonika is co-founder and CTO of Aeloi Technologies, an innovative social enterprise and fintech that uses digital tokens to facilitate affordable loans to Nepali small businesses that are working in a sustainable and climate-friendly fashion. Think things such as electric mini buses and sustainable agriculture.

She also happens to be one of Nepal’s highest flyers, almost literally, as she was selected to participate in International Space training at the Korean AeroSpace Research Institute.

Not only that. Sonika was named a National Geographic Explorer for 2020, a UN Young Champion of the Earth in 2019, and she attended Singularity University where exponential thinking is cultivated.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Sonika is going about creating change when her customers have low literacy levels
Her advice for introverts
How her use of digital tokens is helping to build trust between financiers and female-run businesses; and
Her inspiring advice for women who want to start their own business.

So come on this journey with us and enjoy this episode with the purposeful and pioneering Sonika Manandhar.

Useful Links

Sonika on LinkedIn

Sonika on Instagram

Aeloi Technologies Website

Singularity University

Interview

Holly Ransom – Curious On Purpose

August 17, 2021September 28, 2021
by Claire

We’re excited to share this week’s episode with changemaker, leader and author, Holly Ransom.

Holly has pioneered her way into boardrooms and forums at the top end of town but what’s really interesting about Holly is her deep thoughtfulness, her fortitude to blaze her own path, and her drive to make the world a better place.

This 31 year old Aussie has Chaired the G20 Youth Summit, she’s an internationally sought after speaker and conference MC, and she’s recently completed her Masters of Public Policy in technology at the Harvard Kennedy School of Business – as a Fulbright Scholar no less.

Holly has made the most of conversations with some of the most high profile people in the world, interviewing everyone from President Obama to Muhammad Yunus and Malcolm Gladwell. These encounters, plus her own journey, have resulted in her first book, The Leading Edge.

Holly was awarded the US Embassy’s Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Leadership Excellence in 2019 and she was nominated by Richard Branson as his pick for future game changers to watch.

In this episode you’ll learn SO MUCH including:

How Holly’s life has been shaped by her curiosity about the big questions in life
Why developing depression was one of the most powerful shifts in her life and what she now does differently
How she goes about connecting with, and learning from, some the world’s most successful people
What she learnt from doing something that scared her every day for a year; and
Why she’s so passionate about busting myths around who can be a leader.

This is a memorable conversation, so don’t miss the pioneering and inspiring Holly Ransom.

Useful Links

Holly’s website

Holly’s new book – The Leading Edge

The Leading Edge – 28 Day Challenge

Holly’s podcast – Coffee Pods

Sophia Matveeva – A Non Tech Founder in a…

August 3, 2021
by Claire

This week’s episode shares the story of founder Sophia Matveeva who found herself having to make a big pivot when the global pandemic hit.

Before Covid, Sophia, a Russian by birth and based in the UK, had been making inroads with her fashion app called Enty. Think of it as a kind of ‘Uber for fashion stylists’, used by growing numbers of consumers, and being featured as App of the Day on Mashable.

However the global lockdowns last year quickly put an end to the need for we consumers to seek stylist advice on our outfits.

Fortunately, Sophia had also been developing a side-hustle giving talks and creating a course called ‘Tech for Non-Techies’ where she shared what she’d learnt as a non tech founder and CEO running a tech startup.

So whilst Sophia’s fashion-tech business stopped dead last year, her side hustle started to build real traction.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How hearing her app developers painful feedback was the best lesson she could have had
How it took Sophia till well in to her 30’s to feel confident enough to back herself
Why she chose to do an MBA
And, her advice for those without tech experience who want to work in the tech industry.

If you’re wondering how you can get a role in a tech business or startup then don’t miss this episode with the articulate and enterprising Sophia Madveeva ….

Useful Links

Tech for Non-Techies website

Sophia’s Tech for Non-Techies podcast

Sophia on Twitter

Sophia on Instagram

Sophia on LinkedIn