The YOT Project

EP15 - Women Founder Series - Russ Siriprapacharoen - Find your own definition of success

Welcome to The YOT Project’s Women Founder Series, where we talk to inspiring female founders & entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia about the highs and lows of building a company and the mindset you need to create your own success story. Russ Siriprapacharoen is the founder and CEO of Karun Thai Tea, an up and coming Thai Tea brand that has elevated Thai tea to the next level. Karun is now in 11 stores across Bangkok. It's the first elevated Thai tea experience that's taking Bangkok by storm. Starting a business was not an easy task. Russ was convinced by her mom to take the family recipe to the market, but she didn't have experience running a business before. She then joined an edtech startup as a co-founder to learn everything she can about business and upskill herself on F&B business. Learning machine is the word to describer. She then left the startup to finally pursue her family's vision and start Karun. But luck was not on her side as a year later, COVID hit. We talked about: *How she learned about startup in just a month *What entrepreneur means in practice *The struggle of Karun during COVID and the turnaround *How she remains sane mentally as a first time founder.

EP14 - Women Founder Series - Suvita Charanwong - Shifting mindset from SME to startup

Welcome to The YOT Project’s Women Founder Series, where we talk to inspiring female founders & entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia about the highs and lows of building a company and the mindset you need to create your own success story. Suvita Charanwong is the Co-founder and CEO of Tellscore, South East Asia's leading influencer marketing automation platform that lets marketers work with influencers directly. Before running her own startup, Suvita started her own digital marketing agency. She then built a social listening platform as a tool for her team and her client, then realizing that this platform can be turned into a scalable product. She shared about how to be an agent of change and the shifting in mindset from running an SME to a startup. We talked about: *The shift from managing a lifestyle business to building a startup *The challenge of changing culture & team required to make that shift *The secret to believing in yourself and doing something out of your comfort zone.

EP13 - Women Founder Series - Net Supatravanij - How to turn passion projects into business

Welcome to The YOT Project’s Women Founder Series, where we talk to inspiring female founders & entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia about the highs and lows of building a company and the mindset you need to create your own success story. Net Supatravanij is the Co-founder and CEO of Ally, the app turning local venues into safe spaces and bystanders into allies. Net also just launched her new doughnut brand, Doughnut Library and also just started Friends of Friends, her new project helping people fall in love IRL. Today Net is going to share with us her story, how she manages to do it all whether it’s a social enterprise startup, f&b business or other projects she has been working on. We talked about: *Time-management skill required to run 3 profitable businesses *The importance of passion, but also consistency *How she turned passion projects into money-generating businesses *What keeps her going even when she feels like an imposter

EP12 - Women Founder Series - Shannon Kalayanamitr - Take risks & defy the status quo as a female founder

Welcome to The YOT Project’s Women Founder Series, where we talk to inspiring female founders & entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia about the highs and lows of building a company and the mindset you need to create your own success story. Shannon Kalayanamitr is the CEO & Founder of Alaunius. After starting her career in investment banking, she got drawn to social impact work after the Tsunami hit Phuket, Thailand in 2014. She volunteered to help people evacuate from the area and the effort to search and identify dead bodies. Since then, her life's work has been centered around social impact and how to contribute to others. That had led her to found her first company Orami which was later sold at Series B. She then became an investor at Gobi Partners before returning to become a founder again with Alaunius, a healthcare platform that digitizes and analyses healthcare data in Southeast Asia. We talked about: *Challenges of being a female founder before SEA tech scene was a thing *Mindset for building up your career and finding your own path *How to build confidence *Taking small wins and getting out of your comfort zone.

EP11 - Women Founder Series - Susli Lie - Navigating motherhood as a founder

Welcome to The YOT Project’s Women Founder Series, where we talk to inspiring female founders & entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia about the highs and lows of building a company and the mindset you need to create your own success story. Susli Lie is the Partner of Monk's Hill Ventures, a leading Southeast Asia's early-stage VC fund. Frustrated that no one is fixing the problem of access to education for Indonesians, she decided to become a founder herself and solve the problem that's close to her heart. She set out to found Erudifi, a student financing startup that provides capital for Indonesians and Filipinos to go to college. Erudifi later joined Y Combinator and raised its series A from Monk's Hill Ventures. We talked about *The hardest thing of being a founder *The importance of choosing your co-founder & your life partner *How to juggle motherhood and career *What it takes to pursue a demanding career & wanting to maintain a balanced family life. "You have to force yourself to think critically about what you want from your life. Career is just one thing, but beyond that too. The more you do that, the more intentional you can build your life."