Cartier: An award and a pair of chopsticks

A recap of my year as a Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellow

Last year this week I returned to Bangalore after a month in Paris attending the Cartier awards function, a conference and some time in INSEAD business school. It was the first time in 8 years I was away from my team and work for more than 2 weeks. 

As a part of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellowship we (33 fellows recognised for their impact ventures from around the world) came together in Paris. The awards week was a culmination of almost a year-long effort. It was one of the most thorough application processes with strict guidelines for companies with proven impact, revenue and scale. The application process, jury interview rounds and due diligence by investment firms was an intense process.

When the fellowship started I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was it yet another female founders gathering (very rarely one has time for them)? Was it a networking opportunity? 

What I got out of it was way beyond what I had expected. 

Let’s talk about the awards week

The awards week in Paris was like a fairy tale, especially for people like me who had spent a decade studying mathematics (a big part of a mathematician’s life is spent in basement offices coding away from the regular people) and the next 7 years building a business out of an idea (most part of it talking and convincing hundreds of clients and shying away from big events). 

The highlight of the week was meeting Amal Clooney, having my little daughter there, wide-eyed in awe learning what human rights law actually entails, the journalists, PR and cameras all around. The moment where I finally drew up the boldness to tell Ms. Clooney while taking group pictures – “you have been my role model for many years, you are amazing” and her replying back “no you all are. I have read about each one of you” – was a little bit jaw dropping so to say the least. But beyond all that champagne and glamor, it was truly one of the most impactful times of my tenure as an entrepreneur. Let me explain why.

I met and became friends with some genuinely good people

The first day of the fellowship we got to meet the people who conceptualized the program. Starting with Cyrille Vigneron, the CEO of Cartier. When I first met and heard Cyrille Vigneron and Wingee Sin speaking about the concept, I was truly taken in by their crystal clear thinking, genuineness and most importantly their humility. The idea is to select the ventures which have potential and help in their efforts to scale and make more impact. And they stayed true to that mission in every way.

Wingee Sin and her team spearheaded and put in an incredible amount of time selecting fellows, juries, knowledge partners to make this program as valuable as it can be for impact entrepreneurs. From then on every time she has taken out time to meet for lunch in Paris or a drink while traveling I have been in awe of how she manages to support and amplify each one of our works – not an easy feat with 900+ fellows all over the globe. And the same holds true for the whole CWI team Maéva Mendy, Marine Buisson, Vera Bersudskaya, Anmol Prithani, Sweekrity Goyal, Meng Xu and Alma Ullén- I think I can safely say they are friends who will reach out anytime any of us need any help in our businesses or personally. 

But the biggest and most important part of this fellowship has been the impact it has had on my business. Early on during the awards week I connected with Jamie Jia Mei Soon-Kesteloot, one of the science and technology jury members. As a lawyer and scientist herself there was an instant connection and shared interest that kept us in touch. But the most amazing part of it is how Jamie went beyond her role as a mentor and supported and became one of our biggest collaborators. She is now a partner and client with whom we are building one of our flagship gamified content to be rolled out to one of France’s biggest brands employing over 200,000 people.

We are not so alone after all

I think one of the least talked about topics as an entrepreneur is how lonely it is. It sometimes helps to have a co-founder but unless they are a real partnership, as a leader of an organization the responsibilities are mostly on one person. There are stresses of keeping the company profitable, not getting used to status quo, pushing for growth or growing a team. Even in parenting there is always someone to discuss, carve out responsibilities or even argue. In leadership none of those exist. 

Being part of this fellowship my most valued experience has been having a group of high functioning individuals next to me – discussing business needs, fundraising anxieties, exit dilemmas or simply just having a drink together after being the tough guy in the room every morning, every day. 

This is not easy to achieve, we didn’t know each other just a few months ago but somehow the spirit of this program makes that magic happen. Last week one of my co-fellows, Yvonne Brady, returned from Shenzhen and sent me the most beautiful pair of chopsticks as a gift and an invitation to visit her and her family in Dublin. Yvonne is someone I have looked up to as a highly successful entrepreneur not just in Ireland but in Europe and the support I receive from her makes this journey so much more fulfilling. 

Whether it’s Charlot Magayi and Mariam Torosyan stopping by just to cheer me on during a talk, Atilana Piñon and me having the longest coffee date ever discussing everyday challenges or Megan Lam and I sharing family titbits and laughing on IG, there’s always a friend around. These days no matter which city I am in we meet, over a drink or a coffee we brainstorm we try to be there for each other.