PEERS

Today’s episode is all about closing the gap: pleasure, that is. Liz Klinger is the Co-founder of Lioness, a sexual wellness company responsible for creating the world's first and only biofeedback smart vibrators. Translation: you can see when and how to improve your orgasms by understanding what arouses you.  Like a true taboo-breaker, Liz doesn’t leave much to interpretation as she reflects...

Some people make babies, Georgia Branch grows 7-figure start ups. Impressive? Yes. But behind every successful bi-line comes a cost most of us don’t choose to check. As the founder of mature-aged model agency, Silverfox and wellness brands including Hemple CBD, Georgia has experienced the praise, recognition and commercial status of being a true entrepreneurial “success story,” but she’s also felt...

There’s a cultural divide and your brands know it. Christie Ding is the Co-Founder of Brand Catalyser, a full service marketing agency specialising in cross-border and cross-cultural marketing strategies for brands wanting to expand into the Asian market. With a pragmatic mindset and youthful voice, Christie reflects on the year that changes everything, overcoming her introverted tendencies and th...

Ethical fashion has become a trend, a buzz word - something with flare but no substance. Then, along came Sophia Danner-Okotie, a Nigerian born entrepreneur who wanted to create something familiar as well as fashionable. The result is Besida, a black-owned boutique and online store based in Atlanta that offers women’s fashion that’s both sustainably and ethically made in Nigeria. With charm and al...

Hope felt awfully far this year but never completely out of sight and note entirely out of reach. In today’s final episode of 2020, Host and Founder Michelle takes a moment to give her honest recount of the year that was. A time of great loss, unbearable uncertainty and high hopes.  As a company we lost, we won and we learnt a lot. From missing people to missed opportunities, Michelle tracks...

Nyha Shree: An entrepreneur who pursued option D to find herself. As the Co-founder and CMO of conversational commerce platform, Jumper.ai, Nyha helps bridge the gap between e-commerce and brick and mortar retail.  In this week’s ep, we hear from Nyha as she reflects on her indecisive adulthood, how we can get ok with pursuing option D and the ‘aggressive’ commentary inflicted on hard-working...

Maxine Ryan is a Fintech entrepreneur changing the way people think about money. A two-time founder, Maxine is the former CEO of Bitspark, a cash-to-crypto solution company, and now ProsperApp, the TikTok of financial literacy for the millennial and Gen-Z generation. In this insightful chat, Maxine reflects on the importance of connection with older generations, why we are not our thoughts and how...

Kim Kaupe is a self-confessed ‘accidental entrepreneur.’ As the Co-founder and CEO of The Superfan Company, a fan engagement agency creating merchandise, products and programs for entertainers, celebrities and brands, Kim is seen pulling concerts together one day and working with Oprah the next. In this humorously candid interview, Kim shares the realities of realising her childhood dream job, the...

Wendy Chan is a finance grad who took a long hard look at a career working for someone else before thinking: what else? As the Co-founder and CEO of PackMojo (a B2B start-up helping businesses get affordable, custom packaging), Wendy spends her days combining her love of strategy and design to make something functional, affordable and different. In this no-holds-barred chat, Wendy reflects on the...

Safaath Ahmed Zahir is a leading women's rights activist in the Maldives and the founder of Women and Democracy, a non-profit organisation promoting gender diversity in the workplace. In this inspiring episode, Safaath reflects on her upbringing in a country resisting the call of democracy. With insight and hope, Safaath paints a path towards female empowerment and economic independence through he...

Youssef El Kaddioui is a two-time startup founder and Forbes 30 under 30 alumni. As Founder and CEO of The Scalelab, Youssef helps companies to grow by finding them new clients, but we’re not here to talk about his resumé. In this humbling interview, Youssef reminds us that life is configured by undetermined rules and unclear paths, it is up to us to define it ourselves. Youssef explores the...

Yulkendy Valdez is a tech entrepreneur, social justice advocate, and public speaker but in this episode, we’re asking who she was before. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Forefront, Yulkendy helps employers, schools and youth non-for-profits prepare for the next generation of workforce but it was what she witnessed as a child in the Dominican Republic that pushed her to break the box society conf...

Most people finish writing a thesis and head towards tequila, Kinga Jentetics turned to self-publication instead. Realising she could put her work out there without a third party, Kinga wondered why other writers were left waiting? PublishDrive was created in 2014 as an act of creative autonomy, allowing authors to distribute their work without having to push for it to live outside their own pages...

Human trafficking. That’s only one of a spectrum of problems Emily Kennedy is solving through her tech company, Marinus Analytics.  If it seems unimaginable, you’d only be half-right. Emily doesn't rely on the ‘real’ world to eliminate it, instead she constructs an artificial one. Harnessing the sophistication of AI technology, Emily and her team at Marinus Analytics solve social problems by...

As the founder and CEO of Planable, a content review and marketing collaboration platform, Xenia works with the likes of Christian Louboutin, the United Nations and Hyundai to take the admin out of content planning and bring teams greater transparency, enjoyment and creative freedom, but the role of ‘boss’ has proven to be less ego-boosting and more soul searching than she anticipated. In this epi...

Money touches us all, but only certain people are included in that conversation. Kate Crowhurst saw first-hand how fractured our financial systems are, wanting to change the conversation to include young people and those from lower socio-economic households, she decided to be part of the change, rather than wait for it. With a background in teaching and a Cambridge alum, Kate developed Money Bites...

It’s no secret that businesses spend thousands of dollars a year researching ways to better understand their audience but what about their people - the ones who work for them? Having personally seen the impact of exclusion, diversity and bullying in the workplace, Andra realised businesses need to look at their people, not their product line, to be the best they can be. With this empathy-centric v...

Many of us start working unsure of what we want to do, even when we’re in it. It’s a feeling that rang true for Arianne Sackville when she gained an IBM scholarship that wasn’t all that she’d imagined. Like many of us, Arianne is young, hardworking and sharp but that doesn’t mean her youth should be wasted in work that does not serve her. While making a segway into the consumer goods sector, ...

On paper, Nikita Gupta’s foray into the professional world seems seamless. With a degree in Computer Science from Cornell University, a place on the coveted Forbes 30 Under 30 list and the co-founder of female tech start-up Symba, Nikita’s transition from school to work looks ideal (and it is). But her entry to technology wasn’t inspired through gaming or innovation, instead it was her lifelong pa...

Meha Nelson is a Founder, Researcher and Deployment Software Engineer. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. To Meha, it’s simple: the work is at the centre of her title, not the fuss around it. Meha is the Co-founder of Predina, an engineering start-up which developed a machine to predict the risk of road traffic crashes in real-time. Since leaving, she has focused her sites as the Produ...

Technology is a tumultuous terrain for those of us who aren’t comfortable trekking it. For an outsider, it seems loud and complicated but exclusive: a place only a few can talk their ways into. Lubo Smid loved computer science as a kid. For him, the notion of tech was simple because it was synonymous with contentment. As the Co-founder and CEO at STRV, a software design and engineering company. Ba...

As a young Doctor in London, Mala Mawkin saw first hand the holes in the hospital system, but it wasn’t until both of her parents required urgent care that the pin finally dropped. Hospitals work to fix the problem at hand but it’s the patient’s responsibility to fix their lives afterwards. This wasn’t right. There needed to be more care, more support and above all, more equality for those who don...

Everything was fine until it wasn’t. Like most millennials, Merissa Forsyth was living a comfortable life; thriving in her marketing career and climbing up the corporate ladder. Everything was good and hopeful until a feeling hit. It came swifty and it stuck. It made her stop. Something felt off and yet everything was fine. The niggling gut-tingling sensation turned itself into one clear thought:...

Growing up in Central New Jersey as a child of Fillipino immigrants, Sandro Roco had a keen sense of ‘otherness’ but this feeling of difference wasn’t a source of pain, instead it altered his curiosity towards the vibrancy around him. Fast forward a few short years, Sandro’s curiosity for culture shapeshifted itself into the form of Sanzo - the first asian-inspired sparkling beverage company, with...

For all our ‘restless’ peers out there who can’t stay in one place for too long, you’re not alone. Sometimes, moving from one job to the next can boost your skill set and set you up as an impressive Jack (or Jill) of all trades. In this episode, Ayla Kremb takes us through her fascinating career from Sweden to Singapore, and how we can leverage our skills to achieve success from one job to the nex...