Guest blog entry and interview written by Sue Heilbronner, CEO, TravelShark and Adriana Gascoigne, CEO/Founder, Girls in Tech
Q: Tell me a little about your schooling/work history and how you came to launch a start-up?
A: I had planned to be a lawyer since childhood, and I went to law school after graduating from university. I worked my way into a criminal prosecutor role with the U.S. Justice Department. After practicing law for 8 years, I began feeling like I was missing a creative aspect to work. In 1999, I started an ecommerce baby gift company in my basement while practicing law by day (even entrepreneurs do some risk management). I did everything, from building the website to running daily stacks of packages to the post office. I made hundreds of mistakes — every week — but I learned a great deal about the web, analytics, online advertising, SEO, marketing, manufacturing and more. I loved it, relishing the sales and marketing functions, and I sealed my entrepreneurial future.
After a year, it was clear to me that my passion lay in business and not in law. I was able to secure an exciting online business development role at Discovery Communications — parent company of Discovery Channel and 15 other international networks. I sold the baby company, and made the full-time transition.
After five years learning the ins and outs of business in a larger company — which was packed with talented people — I felt a desire to return to a more nimble environment. I joined an online travel marketing company as head of sales and marketing, and grew it from nine people to 150 talented employees, with clients and revenue growing apace. After a few years at this company, I joined two other startups, disruptive companies in publishing and online education, and was then hired to run TravelShark, which had been founded by my two business partners a year earlier. My travel experience made me a good fit for the role, and the early stage was the perfect time for me to join and have an impact.
Q: What was your passion in launching a travel business?
A: I didn’t start TravelShark. I joined the company first as a consultant in 2009, when I helped draft the business plan, and then in 2010 as CEO. The company was founded by my partners Chairman David Leppan and COO Graham Easton in 2009, and they sought me out for my online travel experience. My passion in returning to travel after a few-year hiatus is that I find the online challenges and opportunities to be uniquely exciting in the sector. Travel is among the largest online verticals, and the fastest growth of all is occurring in Asia, where our company is headquartered. So returning to the industry and joining two talented partners in a fascinating business model made perfect sense.
Q: If you were to give entrepreneurs one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: One? Oh, give me two!
First, these “lean” principles now in vogue to me come down to a sense that perfect is the enemy of the good in a startup centered on the web. Internet businesses uniquely afford an entrepreneur the ability to be nimble, to test, and to quickly ascertain the results of their efforts. I sincerely believe in getting products out early, learning what the market thinks, and allocating resources for marketing that might have been used to bridge the gap between “good” and “perfect” in the product development phase.
Two: Do favors, as many as you can. I’m a big believer in helping people when I am able. I believe that “networking” is far more about being awesome and helpful than it is about drinking martinis together at trade shows. When people ask for your help and you think they’re quality people, give of your time freely, promptly, and capably. Honor commitments. Do things for free. Make introductions. Establishing a reputation for being a partner within the entrepreneurial space is invaluable. You are and will be regarded as candid, trustworthy, and decent. When you need input on a product beta, you’ll have it.
Q: Why did you launch (or move) your company HQ to Singapore?
A: Our company was launched in Singapore by PR David Leppan and his co-founder Graham Easton. They chose Singapore because it is at the center of the fastest-growing region in online travel (and many other sectors). Having relocated here in 2011, I am continually impressed at the dynamism of the city and of the startup and overall business climate here. With strong businesses at www.SingaporeHotels.com, www.BeijingHotels.com, www.KualaLumpurHotels.com, and www.BangkokHotels.com, the location continues to offer returns to our firm in sales, business development and networking in general.
Q: Tell me about a mentor who made a huge impact in your life. How did the relationship affect your career? You?
A: I met a very talented, seasoned executive at Discovery Communications. He was the CFO of Discovery.com at the time, and I had numerous opportunities to work with him on large partnerships, acquisitions, and other significant deals. Mentoring was really important to me in those days, because I had been in the legal field for eight years and felt a little behind in my professional development in business. Mainly, I listened and asked endless questions during those years.
When I began thinking of making a transition to a smaller company, this mentor helped me garner a senior sales and marketing role in the online travel company I joined. He knew one of the executives at that company, and made that introduction. By that time, he was working in a large hospitality company, and his network in the industry was sizeable. In this role and those that followed, this mentor routinely served as a sounding board for decisions small and large. He was and remains extremely generous with his time, and over more recent years, the relationship has grown more reciprocal as my experience has increased.
I ascribe my career trajectory to this mentor and to others along the way. More recently, I’ve been privileged to serve as a mentor to others. Being a mentor, both to my own employees and to new companies, is among the most enriching aspects of my work life.
Q: What is it like being a female exec in tech? (There are so few of you out there) How do you recommend we change that?
A: I don’t think about this too often in my normal work life. My company is pretty balanced between men and women, in numbers and influence. Even if developers are more heavily weighted toward men, the marketing of technology products is more even, and I think in most cases tech startups need a wide range of talents and types to create a successful technology company. I’ve been very interested in Sheryl Sandberg’s recent writings and speeches, and I think there may be a perception among women that tech companies are more male and that they carry more risk. I think the latter factor may be most significant in terms of women not choosing the sector. As we get further from the massive upheavals in the tech sector of the early 2000s, however, I’m hopeful the gender dynamics shift in tech companies — a newer sector in general in comparison to law firms and consulting firms — and that the numbers will begin to even out.
