Ulla Engeström
Founder & CEO of ThingLink
Ulla Engeström is Founder & CEO of ThingLink, an interactive media platform that empowers publishers, educators, and brands to create more engaging content by adding rich media links to photos and videos. With 1.5M content creators, ThingLink has become the most popular cross-platform solution and creative community for interactive media. A Helsinki native, and a mother of two, Ulla has recently moved back to Palo Alto to build the company HQ in Silicon Valley.
What got you into tech?
My founder story starts from a garage in Palo Alto in 2008. I had just had my second baby and hired a small group of German engineers and a Canadian front-end designer to build a layer of links that would make the web accessible on digital or physical objects.
I was completely possessed by the disruptiveness of the idea, it was the hot days of the Web 2.0, and I saw an opportunity to make a difference in how everyday objects are represented and referred to in the internet.
I believe it’s deep in human nature to get joy and satisfaction from seeing an idea materialize into something concrete, and I’ve been very fortunate to be able to build a team to evolve the idea this far.
Describe a time you’ve felt sexism or discrimination in the workplace or classroom. How did you handle it?
Discrimination or sexism was not an issue for me in Northern Europe. If you are a maker, a builder, an artist, or an academic, you are respected by your peers based on your attitude, performance, and quality of work.
Our company culture is very open and I would not tolerate any kind of discrimination from our employees, advisors, or investors. Suspicions, rumours, and talking behind people’s back kills productivity — a valuable asset that needs to guarded well.
In the tech world, discrimination is often disguised in ungrounded arrogance, exclusivity, and empty promises. It’s a waste of time, so you just need to move on and find the right people to work with. It’s harder in the early stage of the business.
What makes being a woman in tech worth it?
I don’t feel like a woman in tech, and I think this framing is disadvantageous for women. Instead, I feel like a free thinking person in society with the same creative capabilities and rights to make ideas happen and change our environment as anybody else.
The fact that there are less women building companies is partially due to the artificial separation of work life and family life. These two always intersect, and the question is how smoothly you can make them work together.
As companies offer their employees free lunch, gym, and financial services, they could equally well offer domestic helpers or “in-office baby lounges” that would support especially new parents during the first year in creating a good routine for nurturing their families at the same time as they continue to contribute to their careers. Making parents feel ashamed for combining work and parenthood is absurd.
What advice do you have for any girls pursuing a future in tech?
I have a six-year-old daughter who got a “women in science” lego set from my spouse. Now she wants to become a chemist so she can make medicine and cure cancer. The question is — how can we all offer better examples and give inspiration to girls so they believe in themselves and develop their ideas?
If they see their mothers and sisters being happy and choosing their own path, fathers and brothers sharing responsibilities (leaning in together!) and treating women with respect and equality, they will be more likely to grow up to their full potential.
