Lisa Enckell from Approach joined us for a conversation to discuss their new project Approach. We started with a chat on how she started from a theatre producer and journalist to her previous role as the vice president for marketing in Wrapp working between Sweden and San Francisco. Then she shared how both her husband and her will be traveling across the world to live in 10 countries for 5-6 months that have the largest economic impact for the next 20-30 years, while spending time working with the startups and doing some angel investments in these countries. We also discussed her experience with the first stop in Indonesia and journey across other parts of Asia such as China, and finally wrapped up with her thoughts on women in leadership and gender diversity in work.
Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):
- Career of Lisa Enckell (@enckelli, LinkedIn)
- How did she get started in the area of marketing and product strategy? [1:02]
- Her previous role as VP Marketing in Wrapp [2:50]
- What is the culture differences between San Francisco and Sweden? [4:20]
- From a theatre producer, journalist to the role as the VP marketing for Wrapp, what are the interesting career lessons you have learned? [5:42]
- How does one operate in an executive role operating with founders of a startup as the company scale? [7:07]
- What are the advice you have for marketing for early stage startups? [8:46]
- What are the important metrics in marketing for a startup? [10:17]
- How did she get started in the area of marketing and product strategy? [1:02]
- Approach
- What is the motivation behind Approach? [11:30]
- The idea is to spend 5 years living for 6 months in each of the 10 countries which both your husband Andreas and you view to have the biggest economic impact in the next 20-30 years, how do you select the ten countries? [12:35]
- Of the ten countries, China, India, Indonesia and Japan are in Asia, what are the interesting parts of these countries that have caught your interest? [13:54]
- Observations about Asia
- From your travels in Indonesia and China, what are your first impressions of the startup community? [15:10]
- What are the interesting innovations you have observed from Asia? For example, mobile platforms beyond operating systems such as Wechat? [16:28]
- What is her impression of Indonesia as they have stayed there for a couple of months? [17:36]
- Does the startup ecosystem in Indonesia compare to those from US and Europe? [19:06]
- What are the differences from the perspective of:
- Cultural: Founder attitudes and team structures, Talent flow from Europe to Asia. [21:01]
- Infrastructure: What are the challenges you see in startups in these places such as transportation, payments, logistics and mobile broadband? [21:55]
- Cultural: Founder attitudes and team structures, Talent flow from Europe to Asia. [21:01]
- You have selected Singapore as the base for Approach, what is the reason behind the choice? [24:30]
- What are the things you want to achieve with Approach with reference to Asia?[25:56]
- From your travels in Indonesia and China, what are your first impressions of the startup community? [15:10]
- What is the motivation behind Approach? [11:30]
- Women in leadership: What are your advice for both men and women on gender diversity and across all industry? [27:10]
Podcast Information:
The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Aspirus Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium) and Linkcious (and check out their other product, Chiibi). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Aspirus and sign up for their mailing list.
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