What goes on behind the Womenpreneur Asia podcast? What are my ups and downs in producing this show? And what have I learned throughout this journey of speaking to Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia? Hello and welcome to the final episode of 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 and inspire you as you navigate your business journey. This episode is sponsored by...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 7Ep. 14
Today’s episode is a little unusual as we feature someone who is not an entrepreneur but has an empowering message for everyone. Shivani Reddy wears many hats - she is a HR and Organizational Development practitioner, startup mentor, coach, speaker and finally, #IAmRemarkable ambassador. Her 15 years of experience spans positions in renowned organizations such as Groupon, Societe Generale, NIIT Limited, and TDCX Malaysia. Shivani is also the Partnerships Manager at Girls in Tech Kuala Lumpur and...
Jan 26, 2024•59 min•Season 7Ep. 13
This episode features Brenda James, the visionary Founder and Principal Florista of Nook Flowers located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her floral business is unique in that stands apart from others on the twin pillars of creativity and sustainability or in her own words, "responsible floristry". In this episode, we unravel Brenda's 15 years as a business owner and florist and uncover what makes this unique Malaysian floral studio what it is today. For Brenda, Nook Flowers is more than a business—it...
Jan 19, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 7Ep. 12
Today’s guest is a returning guest and I wanted to bring her back because she has a great story and a fantastic business. And it’s all fully online. I love fully online businesses because I am a big advocate of this - after all my own business is all about the digital world! Today I am speaking to Michelle Hon who is the founder of MomBoss Academy in Singapore. If her name sounds familiar, yes, she was featured in Season 4, Episode 8 so if you want to know her backstory of how she ended up start...
Jan 11, 2024•1 hr•Season 7Ep. 11
Hana Chua is the Director of Business Finance at Kebun Kota Sdn. Bhd located in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia. The family business that she is in comprises many moving parts - from aquaculture to sustainable farming to technology transfer to creating ripples in the local cafe scene with their cafe arm, Roots. The Chua family's commitment to sustainable farming and smart urban agriculture forms the cornerstone of Kebun Kota. This commitment also extends to Roots, a cafe that started as a haven for bo...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr•Season 7Ep. 10
Today’s episode is with Soundari Mukherjea, CEO of Soundbytes11, who is originally from India but now calls Hong Kong her home. As the CEO of Soundbytes11, an organisational consultancy, she focuses on working with leaders and teams to harness the power of storytelling to drive business outcomes. Her expertise spans various domains, including change management, personal branding, cross-cultural intelligence and diversity and inclusion initiatives. In this episode, we discuss how great stories ca...
Dec 29, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 7Ep. 9
Today I am speaking to a Malaysian entrepreneur, Genevia Chin who is the founder of Wonkie Ice Cream, previously known as Three Tiers Ice Cream. Genevia, a spirited entrepreneur with a passion for frozen joy, started her first ice cream venture, Three Tiers Ice Cream when she came home to Penang after working in Singapore. In today's episode, we'll uncover the evolution of Three Tiers Ice Cream into the newly rebranded Wonkie Ice Cream (and Genevia explains why the rebrand was necessary). Genevi...
Dec 22, 2023•57 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Today's episode is with a visionary Malaysian entrepreneur in Hong Kong., Janice Chew who is the principal of JC Legal. In the ever-evolving realm of corporate law, Janice Chew has emerged as a trailblazer. As the principal and founder of JC Legal, a bespoke corporate law firm, Janice has not only defied traditional norms but has also brought a fresh and fabulous perspective to the legal industry. In a field where the norm dictates that legal firms typically hire paralegals as their first staff ...
Dec 13, 2023•55 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Helen Tan of Double Woot Fashion Talks About Influencer Marketing 🌟 Join us on an inspiring journey with Helen Tan, the creative force behind Double Woot fashion! Hailing from Penang, Malaysia, Helen and her sister have built a cult-like following for their quality fashion at affordable prices. From the early days as a pre-loved clothing shop on Blogspot to a global sensation, Helen shares her 18-year entrepreneurial voyage. Dive into the challenges faced during the COVID pandemic, innovative m...
Dec 08, 2023•58 min•Season 7Ep. 6
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 busin...
Nov 30, 2023•57 min•Season 7Ep. 5
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 embark...
Nov 23, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 7Ep. 4
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 ...
Nov 16, 2023•56 min•Season 7Ep. 3
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 s...
Nov 09, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 7Ep. 2
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...
Nov 03, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 1
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'l...
Jun 15, 2023•36 min•Season 6Ep. 14
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...
Jun 09, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 13
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 As...
Jun 02, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 12
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 clien...
May 26, 2023•57 min•Season 6Ep. 11
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 developi...
May 19, 2023•43 min•Season 6Ep. 10
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 ...
May 12, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 9
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 disap...
May 05, 2023•59 min•Season 6Ep. 8
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 treatme...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 6Ep. 7
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 em...
Apr 20, 2023•48 min•Season 6Ep. 6
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 sti...
Apr 13, 2023•57 min•Season 6Ep. 5
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 w...
Apr 07, 2023•50 min•Season 6Ep. 4
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...
Mar 31, 2023•51 min•Season 6Ep. 3
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 abo...
Mar 23, 2023•49 min•Season 6Ep. 2
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. Thi...
Mar 16, 2023•49 min•Season 6Ep. 1
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 gre...
Dec 09, 2022•55 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Today’s episode is with an entrepreneur from Malaysia, Kaniza Shafie. She is the co-founder of Kebun Kota in Kuantan, Pahang. She is also an architect and mother of five. We started by talking about her farm, Kebun Kota which supplies fresh harvest her cafe, Roots. Kebun Kota is a 14-acre farm that was once a quarry. Kaniza is proud that she and her husband, Dr Muhklis Chua, regenerated this brownfield into an eco-friendly urban farm and agriculture research centre that she lovingly calls Kebun ...
Dec 01, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 13
