Podcast: Hard Truths by Vertex | Series 2 | Episode 7 - How Roshni went from babysitting to owning SEA's largest parenting empire
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To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024, and part of our annual Vertex Female Leader Series, we are sharing beautiful, untold stories of our female leaders overcoming the odds and obstacles to build businesses that are disruptive, yet transformative to the lives of many. Today we are proud to feature Roshni Mahtani Cheung.
What does it take to go from an idea to owning the Southeast Asia Parenting space?
In this episode, we have a conversation with Roshni Mahtani Cheung,, the founder and CEO of The Parentinc, a pioneering parent-tech leader renowned for owning the largest content-community-commerce online platform for parents in the region. The Parentinc recently made waves with the acquisition of Mothers Work in Singapore, marking their foray into physical retail.
Roshni reflects on the challenges of balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship, the importance of a supportive community, and the transformative power of building a business rooted in authentic passion. Get ready for a conversation that goes beyond tech and into the heart of female leadership and resilience!
Tune in here:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/hard-truths-by-vertex/id1659392336?i=1000644323698
YouTube:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pw5vNZId1PK3GtplgDCTc
(Please find the transcript here)
IN THIS EPISODE
(00:00) Introduction
(02:13) I'm an accidental entrepreneur
(05:19) Parenting needs a community that's passionate yet open to change
(08:40) Media monetization cannot grow to be a scalable business
(16:34) How do you decide when to buy & when to build?
(20:37) Be ready to commit 15 to 20 years of your life to the entrepreneur journey
(23:12) Vertex is not just a team, it's a family
(27:31) Hard Truths for female founders
(30:31) Female Founders’ network of 2,000 female founders across Asia
(33:04) Regaining confidence in female founders after the Elizabeth Holmes incident
(41:31) Future plans for the Parentinc
For the full transcript of this episode, click here.
Tune in here:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pw5vNZId1PK3GtplgDCTc
For the full transcript, click here:
Our Guest, Roshni Mahtani Cheung’s Bio:
Roshni Mahtani is the Group CEO and founder of TheParentinc — the company behind TheAsianParent, Mama’s Choice and Webtretho. Her company reaches 25 million parents on a monthly basis. To put that in perspective, 7/10 digital pregnancies in South East Asia use her platform to help raise happy, healthy and confident children.
Roshni is also actively involved in the start-up community. She is currently one of the judges at Mediacorp’s business reality show, the “Big Spark”. In 2015, she co founded the Female Founders Network, a group of over 2,500 female founders across Asia.
Besides her interest in the start-up world, Roshni is also an Executive Producer of Untouchable: Children of God — A documovie about young girls in the brothels of India and how they are sold and trafficked from Nepal.
She’s also an Obama Leader for the APAC 2019/2020 batch.
Tune in here:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6xnfEYKcSi0M4IPyijrgcW?si=Fj6GKMe5Q4GDkqngXhIYxw
For the full transcript, click here:
Celebrating women founders is close to heart for Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India. Since our first few funds, we have been leading the most number of investments into women led startup companies in the Southeast Asia region. For our 4th fund, 35% of our invested companies are women led ones. In our latest fund [5th fund], we raised US$541 million, out of which we have a co-investment envelope of US$50 million that will co-invest alongside the main fund in startups led by women founders. This #VertexFemaleleaderseries is part of our ongoing support for women in tech. Watch the video below for more.
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Your Host
Elise Tan is the Director of Communications and Community at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. Prior to joining Vertex, she has had extensive experience in investor relations and partnership at global venture funds and accelerators with more than $100m in AUM. Elise also currently runs a Southeast Asia-based startup community of nearly 800 entrepreneurs called the Asia Startup network and actively supports their startup journey through panels, meet-ups, and mentoring programs.
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Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India is a pioneer in investing in tech start-ups in this region and has helped to build a number of unicorns. In this podcast, we seek to share and uncover the Hard Truth - raw, unfiltered insights and venture capital knowledge from across Southeast Asia and India. Tune in to learn from leading founders, innovators, venture capitalists, and industry experts in the region and to gain industry insights from those in the know.
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