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Womenpreneur Asia

Business & Economics Podcasts

Womenpreneur Asia is a show for women entrepreneurs in Asia to share what they know with other women who aspire to be entrepreneurs. It's about the gritty yet inspiring stories, the little-known struggles and the much-talked about sweet success of being an Asian woman in business across Asia. Womenpreneur Asia is created and hosted by Krista Goon who is a Malaysian entrepreneur, author and marketer. All episodes are sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Location:

United States

Description:

Womenpreneur Asia is a show for women entrepreneurs in Asia to share what they know with other women who aspire to be entrepreneurs. It's about the gritty yet inspiring stories, the little-known struggles and the much-talked about sweet success of being an Asian woman in business across Asia. Womenpreneur Asia is created and hosted by Krista Goon who is a Malaysian entrepreneur, author and marketer. All episodes are sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Language:

English


Episodes

Jenny Tay, Managing Director, Direct Funeral Services Pte Ltd, Singapore

11/30/2023
Jenny Tay is an entrepreneur from Singapore taking on the world of funeral services with a zestful and innovative spirit, no pun intended. She is not afraid of challenging norms and stereotypes about the deceased, death and dying. As the Managing Director of Direct Funeral Services Pte Ltd, she is transforming the funeral services industry - usually dominated by rough-talking men and surrounded by superstitions - one taboo at a time. To Jenny, the funeral services business is a hospitality business. When she married in 2015, she made the front page news as she and her husband decided to take unusually daring wedding photos - she was photographed in her wedding finery lying in a coffin and sitting on the coffin! Jenny and her husband worked to revamp society's shoddy perception of funeral services and raise the bar for funeral directors. Jenny approaches this business with deep respect for the deceased. She recognizes the equalizing nature of death, emphasizing our shared humanity beneath societal roles and gender differences. In her determined way, Jenny revolutionized the industry, pushing forth innovative ideas as she was dissatisfied with outdated practices in the industry. Despite facing resistance, she believes families deserve a compassionate and personalized approach during times of grief. She introduced uniforms and name tags for her team, redesigned funeral settings and backdrops to reflect calm and elegant spaces and even humanized the departed by creating biographies for guests at the wake and funeral to know them even in death. Her ideas didn't stop there. Concerned after overhearing how an adult explained death inappropriately to a child, she and her husband decided to author a children's book that approached the topic in a non-morbid yet respectful manner. This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. For more information, show notes and links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Duration:00:56:44

Amutha Subramaniam, Founder & Director, HERS Manufacturing, Malaysia

11/23/2023
Welcome to Season 7 of the Womenpreneur Asia podcast! I'm your host, Krista Goon, and I'm thrilled to be back, uncovering the amazing stories and strategies of Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia to inspire and support you on your own business journey. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest, a remarkable Malaysian entrepreneur, Amutha Subramaniam, the founder and director of HERS Manufacturing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Amutha's journey is nothing short of inspiring. At 47 years old, she embarked on her business with absolutely no knowledge of e-commerce, and for the first two years, she struggled to make any sales. However, her unwavering eagerness to learn about online selling and her persistence ultimately paid off in a big way. Today, she runs a highly successful 7-figure business, exporting food and beverages to the Pacific Islands. It wasn't an easy path for Amutha, though. After her divorce, she found herself as a single mother with no capital, but she refused to be defined by her circumstances. Moving from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur, she faced her challenges with courage and stepped out of her comfort zone to chase her ambitions. The essence of this podcast lies in the belief that each of us carries a powerful story within ourselves. These stories have the potential to inspire other women to embark on their own ventures, be it a business or a movement. Amutha's journey from ground zero is a testament to the fact that with an unstoppable attitude and determination, one can overcome any obstacle and learn everything one needs along the way. For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com Today's episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. Please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast so that we can reach out to more women entrepreneurs in Asia.

Duration:01:10:48

Jolly Nguyen, Founder of EVOL, Vietnam

11/16/2023
Today’s episode is with Jolly Nguyen who is based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She is the founder of EVOL Vietnam, a social enterprise that is raising awareness of urban citizens about the importance of reducing single use plastic and preventing these plastic from polluting the ocean via community projects. This is the second time we are recording this conversation because the first time, we had some audio interruptions and I wanted to showcase her work better and so this round, we re-recorded the episode and I must say I am excited for you to hear about Jolly’s strategies and tips. In this episode, we spoke about strategy, fundraising, stakeholder management, networking and partnership-building for a greater good. She talks about asking for support for her projects, engaging her stakeholders beyond financials and expanding her network every time she goes out to speak or participate in conferences and programmes. Jolly is a well-networked individual and has seen the power of networking pay its dues directly and indirectly. For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. A big shout out to ForGood Vietnam, our partner who introduced Jolly Nguyen to Womenpreneur Asia.

Duration:00:56:28

Coco Wong, Co-founder of CEO Kids International, Hong Kong & Malaysia

11/9/2023
Coco Wong was the first wedding planner in Hong Kong who grew to become the top wedding planner in Hong Kong for the rich and famous. She spun off a publishing business, florist business and more. At one point, she was the wedding consultant for Hong Kong Disneyland! Despite being at the top of her game, she was never afraid to stop when it was time to stop. And stop she did. But that wasn't the last of her entrepreneurial ventures. Today’s story is as fascinating as it is inspiring. It is the story of a remarkable and agile entrepreneur who is now focused on growing future leaders. Today’s episode is with a Hong Kong entrepreneur, Coco Wong. She is the co-founder of CEO Kids International and currently makes her home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Coco is truly a serial entrepreneur with a strong conviction and a creative mind. She started many businesses and she was never afraid to walk away or sell them. In all her ventures, she admits that money was never the motivation. In fact, she’s always been one to focus on giving and doing good. Coco shares her mistakes, her highs and lows and what she has learned over the past 3 decades of being an entrepreneur and what she is most excited about now. For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Duration:01:20:35

Safaa Nasseh, Managing Director of ARKAD Plus, Morocco

11/3/2023
Failures are lessons in themselves. They’re expensive mistakes and painful too but you can always find a way to use your mistakes and failure to get stronger. Today my guest and I talked about her first failed company and partnership and the lessons she learned from that time in her life. While depressed and angry, she recounted that the failed business helped her understand what went wrong and taught her much about starting partnerships in foreign countries. Many years later, she decided to use her skills and experiences to start her own company to help foreign companies get started in her home country of Morocco. Hello and welcome to Season 7 of the Womenpreneur Asia podcast and I am your host, Krista Goon. My mission is to uncover the stories and strategies of Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia to help you as you navigate your own business journey. This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio. Today’s episode is with a Moroccan entrepreneur, Safaa Nasseh in Casablanca, Morocco. She is the Managing Director and founder of ARKAD Plus, a business that provides professional advice and expert knowledge about starting businesses in Morocco and working with Moroccan businesses. In this episode, we spoke about her first business - the business that failed and taught her priceless lessons about partnerships and trust. Using the lessons learned from that harrowing episode in her life, she went back to work and in the process, realized she was excellent at building relationships and connecting people and businesses. During the pandemic, she realized that she wanted to start her business again but this time, much wiser and much more intent on leveraging the strengths and experiences that she has honed while under employment. For more information about Safaa, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Duration:01:00:35

Krista's 15 Favourite Episodes from Womenpreneur Asia

6/15/2023
Someone asked me recently, who are some of your favourite guests on the podcast and why? What have you learned from your guests and from creating and producing this seasonal podcast since 2020? It got me thinking so today you are in for a treat with this bonus episode. This is the final episode of Season 6 of the Womenpreneur Asia podcast. After this, I take a quick break before Season 7 starts in October. Most of the time, I end my season with a guest interview but this time, I decided that I'll be your guest. I'm amazed that I've produced 86 episodes so far and that yes, I am celebrating myself today. But it's never about me. I love that you're here too. Without listeners and supporters such as you, my podcast wouldn't have gone very far at all. Today, I am sharing with you my favourite episodes of all my six seasons. And I shall also share with you what I’ve personally learned and taken to heart after speaking to so many Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia. It has been an empowering journey for me as I learned to become more self-aware of my own thoughts and perspectives about entrepreneurship. So which were my favourite episodes throughout these 6 seasons? Here are my top 15 selections. Listen to the episode to find out why these are my favourite episodes. Maresa Ng of Spark Group Asia, Malaysia Dr Vimi Ramasamy of Stravik Business Consulting, Malaysia Anja Juliah of Athena Holdings, Malaysia See Wai Hun of Juristech, Malaysia Zhafira Loebis of Babyloania, Indonesia Maaike Doyer of Epic Angels, Singapore Nancy Tran of Medifood, Vietnam Michelle Hon of MomBoss Academy, Singapore Titaporn Tuchinda of The Growth & Change Company, Thailand Soline Lin of Vietnam Dental Tourism, Vietnam Debbie Edirisinghe of Child Action Lanka, Sri Lanka Kanyachat Lerttanapaiboon or Elle of Her Hyness, Thailand Cha-Ly Koh of Urbanmetry, Malaysia Deepa Jivan of J Gordhan & Co Ltd., Hong Kong Jocelyn Pantastico of Olivia Technology Group, The Philippines Which is YOUR favourite among all the 86 episodes of Womenpreneur Asia? Which entrepreneur’s story made you a better entrepreneur or inspired you to think differently or work and live differently? I’d love to hear from you. Just DM me on Instagram or send me a message. Today's episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Duration:00:36:09

Winnie Wong, Author & DEI Entrepreneurship Advocate, Singapore

6/9/2023
Today’s episode is with a Singapore-based author, Winne Wong. Winnie is an educator and researcher and has had more than 10 years of corporate experience working with start-ups and tech companies. Her ebook launches today on Amazon, 9 June 2023. If you love books, Winnie is offering her ebook as a gift to you at US$0.99 for the first 200 readers. In this episode, we talk about her book, her book writing process, and her findings and key learnings from her book titled “You Don’t Have to Look the Part: How East Asian Women Thrive as Entrepreneurs”. In her book, she writes about Melanie Perkins of Canva who took 3 years to fundraise and who wrote a note to keep herself going despite the initial rejections. She also recounts the story of Vicky Tsai, the founder of Tatcha who was told she didn’t look like a CEO and was asked to step down from the business she started. We spoke about being the role models that we aspire to follow, we also spoke about doing something despite the fears and the humiliation of failing. Winnie took a year to write her book and even raised money through pre-orders. She has had to market the book too leveraging LinkedIn (she said Twitter and Instagram just weren’t her thing) and has found supporters for her book from people she knew and people she didn’t. Here’s a fun fact about Winnie: her parents are Malaysian. For the full show notes and links, go to: WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Duration:01:11:24

Dato Judy Cheng-Hopkins, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, Malaysia

6/2/2023
Today's episode offers a unique and enjoyable twist. It was recorded on-site at the residence of our esteemed guest, Dato Judy Cheng Hopkins. She is a remarkable Malaysian woman with an illustrious 36-year career at the United Nations. She is also a Penangite who splits her time between Penang (Malaysia) and the US. She culminated her tenure as Assistant Secretary-General in charge of peace-building after conflict, working under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Prior to this role, she served as Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Director of the Asia Bureau and the Balkans at the World Food Programme, and dedicated ten years to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Africa. During our conversation, Dato Judy and I delved into a lively and incredible discussion about stepping outside one's comfort zone, shattering the glass ceiling, strategic decision-making, and how to become someone worthy of sponsorship. We also touched on her recommended book for smart women leaders while exploring how she reached the pinnacle of her career as a highly respected woman leader on the international stage. Although Dato Judy clarifies that her advice primarily caters to women aspiring to rise within large organizations and corporations, I discovered that the leadership insights she shared are invaluable for everyone, including women entrepreneurs. For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Duration:01:01:01

Afshan Nasseri, Founder & CEO of Aam Creative, US & Pakistan

5/26/2023
Cultural authenticity. Helping brands talk to niche audiences respectfully and authentically. Today’s episode is with Afshan Nasseri, the Founder and CEO of Aam Creative is a dynamic digital marketing agency comprising a diverse team of 15 talented women of color, scattered across the globe. Afshan embarked on her entrepreneurial journey at the young age of 24, achieving remarkable success within just her second year of business, generating a six-figure revenue in US dollars and building a client portfolio of over 45 esteemed brands. While initially operating as a comprehensive 360 agency, Aam Creative is now embracing specialization, and in our conversation today, Afshan delves into the common entrepreneurial dilemma of maintaining creative excellence while navigating the path toward engaging with larger players in the industry. Afshan recognized a crucial gap in the Western marketing world—the absence of cultural perspectives. The creative space was in dire need of individuals who genuinely lived and breathed the Asian cultural experience, encompassing both the Muslim and South Asian viewpoints from the lens of Generation Z and millennials. Today's episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio. For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com

Duration:00:56:43

Nancy Tran, Co-founder & CEO, Medifood, Vietnam

5/19/2023
Today’s episode is with Nancy Tran, Co-founder and CEO of Medifood.io, Vietnam. Medifood started by supplying organic vegetables on a subscription basis but now produces healthy rice crispy snacks that are sold via subscription boxes. Besides producing for Vietnam, her rice crispy snacks are now available in North America. Prior to founding the business, Nancy was as market analyst at VNDIRECT Securities and marketing team lead at VEAS Exhibition & Advertising Services with focus on developing markets such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam in the agriculture sector. Nancy started Medifood in 2016 because she was passionate about healthy eating and helping Vietnamese farmers earn a better living except that she didn’t know a thing about agriculture and organic farming. In today’s episode, she talks about the struggles of farming and why farmers ate chemical-free vegetables while they supplied chemical-laden vegetables to the market. She talks about the separate plot of land that farmers kept to grow their own organic vegetables for their family’s needs. She started by buying these organic produce and selling them to the city. While she grew a community of enthusiastic believers in organic farming from buyers to farmers, she couldn’t make the business work. She was underpricing her vegetables and the work was tough. In the end, she decided to pivot from her original idea to manufacturing food products using organic ingredients grown by the local farmers. Today, Medifood is a platform where you buy tasty and nutritious snacks and still help local farmers sustain themselves through organic and natural farming. For the full show notes and links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Duration:00:43:17

Grace Goh, Freelance Copywriter, Singapore

5/12/2023
Today’s episode is with a Singaporean freelance copywriter, Grace Goh. Grace has always loved travelling and she decided that a freelance writing and communications business suited her lifestyle most as she went all over the world. Grace was a digital nomad long before the term became trendy! A couple of years later, she even partnered up with a fellow Singaporean to establish a business to teach English abroad in countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. While everyone was worried for their jobs during the pandemic lockdown, Grace said she hit one of her best months as a freelancer. And yet she is taking a career in reverse by going from freelancing to full-time employment. She calls it the Great Rejoining. In this episode we dig into her reasons for wanting to rejoin the corporate workforce again, why she decided to close her English teaching business and how the freelance world differs from the full-time and why she chooses the latter. We also talk about starting companies as revenge (yes, that is a story that you need to hear) and the lessons learned from partnering up with others in a business. Today’s conversation is unusual but at Womenpreneur Asia, I want to show you the realities, emotions and experiences of entrepreneurship - these are what I call the gritty realities of entrepreneurship. I never shy away from the strange or unusual. In my conversation with Grace, she was initially unsure if her story could fit what I had in mind. I said that it would be helpful to share her story if only to enable us to reflect on what it means to be in business and to understand that entrepreneurship comes in all experiences, emotions and colours. For the full show notes, go to WomenpreneurAsia.com Today's episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio.

Duration:01:17:07

Yolanda Lee, Founder & CEO of Uncommon, Singapore

5/5/2023
Today’s episode is with Yolanda Lee who is the founder and CEO of Uncommon, a private network for female leaders headquartered in Singapore. It is a private, vetted space where women from different fields and backgrounds can unite and it is also a private, group coaching community aimed to help female leaders transform the future of work. Yolanda says that being a woman in leadership roles in fast-growing tech companies was great but it came to a point where “ all of a sudden all the women disappear and it's incredibly lonely.” She had so many questions that her peers couldn’t answer. “And I started Uncommon organically out of a need. I felt as a female leader I wanted to connect with women who are really in that same boat and write the playbook for how we get ahead and what it actually means to get ahead.” Yolanda bootstrapped and launched Uncommon in December 2020 and today, it has hundreds of members from different fields and backgrounds with a growing waiting list. For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Duration:00:59:01

Soline Linh Le, Strategic Board Member, Vietnam Dental Tourism, Vietnam

4/28/2023
Today’s episode is with Soline Linh Le from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I’ve met many entrepreneurs who wear many hats but Soline takes the cake. She is an entrepreneur, a university lecturer, a woman leader, a community developer and a gender equality advocate. Most of all, she is an ecosystem developer and her story will explain how she did it. She first had the idea to start her business, Vietnam Dental Tourism when foreign friends commented positively about visiting Vietnam for dental treatments. Paying attention to this, she realized that dentistry could be a way to grow tourism, a sector she was deeply familiar with. She brought together dentistry players and tour operators in Vietnam to create a medical tourism business to attract foreign tourists and American Vietnamese. But that’s not all. The dental industry creates waste and she wanted to tackle the waste issue. Dental businesses were slow to adopt technology and she wanted to help them speed up their digital adoption. So it was not just about entrepreneurship but building a sustainable ecosystem with the right players while adding sustainability, digital adoption and gender equality to the mix. We also spoke about her passion for paying it forward through her community involvement for Vietnamese women and her 3Es concept, her studies in Switzerland and the ecotourism role she took up in Uganda and why despite it all, Soline chose to return to Vietnam. Her story is fascinating as well as compelling. For the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. If you've enjoyed the show, please rate and review our podcast! 

Duration:01:12:16

Nora Swann, Director of Nora Swann LTD, New Zealand

4/20/2023
Today’s episode is with a New Zealand-born Samoan entrepreneur, Nora Swann. As the Director for Nora Swann LTD, Nora started many fashion initiatives from founding the largest high-end fashion show for the Pacific people in New Zealand (Pacific Fusion Fashion Show) to leading New Zealand’s first Pasifika modelling agency, Swann Modelling Agency. She started a wellness programme, Dressed In Confidence supported by New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development and Ministry for Pacific Peoples to empower Pasifika people to learn about positive body image, professional styling and self-confidence. In other words, she is helping to keep the Pacific fashion story alive. In today’s episode, she talks about being a minority in the fashion industry as fashion was never a path for the Pasifika people. She has had a big year in business. In January, she was recognized by the New York City Journal as a ‘top personality disrupting the fashion industry in 2022’. In March, she was featured in the International Entrepreneurs Herald followed by another feature story in Forbes Monaco in August Nora was also a successful applicant for the East-West Centre’s 2022 Changing Faces Women's Leadership Seminar in Oahu Hawaii and received a partial scholarship to represent New Zealand along with 12 other women from USA, Asia and the Pacific. She also won the Kanumea Afine Loto Toa -Pacific Woman in Business – Pacific Business Trust. To get the full show notes, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com Today's episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. Please rate and review the Womenpreneur Asia podcast if you have enjoyed today's episode.

Duration:00:48:26

Milena Nguyen, Conscious Business Coach, Soulforest Education, Vietnam

4/13/2023
Today’s episode is with a Vietnamese entrepreneur, Milena Nguyen. She s a conscious business coach at Soulforest Education. Milena’s story is about tasting failure at a young age when her yoga studio closed after 2 years. You will love today’s interview as we discuss entrepreneurship from the perspective of inner and outer journeys. We spoke about permission and transitions and that entrepreneurship is learnable and why women should own their own brilliance. Her story began with a successful stint in Europe, working for AIESEC, the world’s largest organization for youth leadership development, overseeing 127 countries. Right after leaving AIESEC and coming back to Hanoi, Milena was buoyed by a desire to live her passion. In her early 20s, she decided she didn’t want to get a job. She loved yoga and at 24, decided to open her yoga studio in Hanoi, Vietnam. She believed she was a great yoga teacher and in many ways she was but she wasn’t a great yoga business owner. Milena says that two years into her studio, she closed it because “we were barely getting by. I told everybody the reason for closing was that I wanted location freedom, which was true, but it wasn't the full truth.The other reason for closing was that we were struggling so much financially.” Milena took that lesson of failure and decided to bet on herself a second time. Today she is in a very different place and a much smarter and successful entrepreneur because she says finally she has created a business that serves her best. Listen to the episode for the story of how she pulled herself out of feeling like a failure and the mindset reset that she had to undergo with the help of her coach. This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. Get the full show notes and more at WomenpreneurAsia.com Like this episode? Check out the other seasons and other Asian women entrepreneur stories on the website.

Duration:00:57:09

Eleen Chan, Managing Director of Lifestyle Ventures Sdn Bhd, Malaysia

4/7/2023
Today’s episode is with a Malaysian entrepreneur, Eleen Chan. Eleen is the managing director of Lifestyle Ventures Sdn. Bhd whose principal business is in supplying chili paste to businesses. When the business started in 2003, they supplied fresh chillis to customers but over time, ventured into processing chili. Her story truly has humble beginnings because she and her late husband started the business from home. Thanks to a benefactor who supported them, they grew the business into a factory with 30 employees. Eleen was contented with her Business-to-Business (B2B) business for many years until the pandemic struck. When the pandemic hit, her revenue fell by half and she had to figure out how to sustain her factory and continue employing her employees. She didn’t want to retrench her employees and decided that she had to create retail products for the mass market if she wanted to continue being in business. Under these trying circumstances, Eleen founded a Malaysian brand of ready-to-eat Nyonya chili condiments and pastes and named the brand Man Fook (which interestingly, has its own story so listen to the episode for more). This episode is brought to you by Redbox Studio. For the full show notes and links, visit WomenpreneurAsia.com If you have enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the podcast.

Duration:00:49:50

Anna Melissa Nava, Co-founder & CEO of 1Export, The Philippines

3/31/2023
Today’s episode is with a Filipina entrepreneur, Anna Melissa Nava. Anna or better known as Mel is the co-founder and CEO of 1Export whose tagline is “helping businesses go global”. She was a fun and energetic person to talk to and didn’t shy away from recounting the early days of her business when she took on a ghostwriting job to produce the Philippine export guidebook so that she could make some money and keep her business running. Today she has a team of 55 people located in 2 countries, the Phillippines and Indonesia and it is a far cry from the days when she used to scout for free co-working spaces to work in! We debunked the myths of exporting, how she came into this business, how she is growing right now with her team of 55 in two locations in Asia and what drives her. We also talked about the early days of her business and how the greatest lesson she has learned came from her customers. She thought it was all about the technology until she met a customer who said outright that he didn’t need the technology, he needed to solve his problems with exporting. This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio. Subscribe to my email list and you'll be the first to know when new episodes air (as well as other news and good stuff). More show notes and links at WomenpreneurAsia.com

Duration:00:50:49

International Women's Day Special: Part 2 with Maaike Doyer of Epic Angels, Singapore

3/23/2023
This is episode 2 of a special two-part episode with Maaike Doyer of Epic Angels, a Singapore-based angel network in conjunction with International Women’s Day. Epic Angels comprise female executives and operators who want to give women the confidence to invest, by learning about the investment process, and understanding how other women invest. They focus on early-stage startups in Asia across all verticals and invest in pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds. In our previous episode, we talked about getting funded if you’re a female startup founder in Asia. In this episode, we continue the conversation about the other side of the coin - what does it take to become an angel investor? Get the show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Duration:00:49:17

International Women's Day Special with Maaike Doyer, Founder & Managing Partner of Epic Angels, Singapore

3/16/2023
Today’s episode is with a Singapore-based Dutch entrepreneur, Maaike Doyer who is the Founder and Managing Partner at Epic Angels. Although she is not Asian (as I only feature Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia), I made the exception and invited her to be part of this special International Women’s Day 2-parter episode. We get an insider look at what angel investing is about, how female startup founders in Asia can get funded via angel investing and how to get the attention of angel investors. This is the first part of a two-part series. The next episode is about how women can become angel investors and Maaike will debunk some of the myths about angel investing as well as invite you to be part of her angel investing network. If you know any female startup founders who need to hear this episode, share this with them. In this episode, Maaike talks about the cupcake test, the 2-minute test, what should be in your pitch deck and when you should be pitching to investors. Maaike wants to democratize angel investing and make angel investing accessible, like getting a cup of coffee. The Epic Angels network comprising female executives and operators wants to give women the confidence to invest, by learning about the investment process, and understanding how other women invest. Get the full show notes at WomenpreneurAsia.com This episode is sponsored by Redbox Studio.

Duration:00:48:50

Tina Kekoolani, Creator & Owner of Haleakala Supah Shots, Hawaii

12/9/2022
Today’s BONUS and final episode of Season 5 is with a food entrepreneur from Hawaii, Tina Kekoolani. Tina is the creator and owner of Haleakala Supah Shots. Her Haleakala Supah Shots is a healthy re-imagination of the classic Hawaiian chili pepper water. Her immune-boosting elixir is made with Hawaiian chili pepper water, fruit juice, vinegar, organic agave and hand-harvested Hawaiian sea salt. Tina lives as a teacher and farmer on the island of Maui, having moved to Maui from Oahu where she grew up. Tina moved to Maui in 2000 to work on a Kahoolawe bomb clearance project and has been on the island ever since. When the Kahoolawe project ended, Tina began teaching and connecting with her community. At school, she teaches Hawaiian Studies to local children. When she is not teaching, she is growing food and making raw, vegan elixirs. Tina founded Haleakala Supah Shots in October 2016 and at the local community fair, sold out of her first batch of 40 bottles. In 2019, her elixirs were named the best new food product at the Made in Maui County Festival. She experienced a rush of orders during the pandemic lockdown in March 2020 because everyone was concerned about boosting their immunity. Tina speaks of her products in a way that’s totally different from other entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to. She brings reverence to her products and imbues them with spirituality which I appreciate. We don’t speak enough about spirituality and particularly in the entrepreneurial context. I am also delighted that I cap the season with an episode with a Hawaiian entrepreneur who believes deeply that community health is community wealth. As we have experienced over the past 3 years, we are nothing without our health. As I wrap up my podcasting year (and a total of 72 published episodes as of December 2022), I look forward to taking a break and enjoying the holiday season. Season 6 begins in March next year and I hope you will continue to share my podcast with friends who are on their entrepreneurial journey. Each of us needs that one story that lifts us and I hope my podcast gives you a buffet of stories that you can listen to over and over! Thank you for being with me on this journey as I podcast my way into more stories and experiences from Asian women in Asia. I am already preparing for Season 6 and I can tell you, my guests for Season 7 are incredible indeed. Stay tuned for their stories and strategies. Remember to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are. And that’s it, my friend. I’ll see you in 2023. Be well, be happy and appreciate your business journey! ======================= Get the full show notes: WomenpreneurAsia.com Subscribe to the Youtube channel Follow us on Instagram =======================

Duration:00:54:54