Leaping Continents into a Dream Job
An Interview with GUILD Member Anke Huiskes
Anke Huiskes grew up in the Netherlands in a family of entrepreneurs and pretty much always knew she would be one herself. She designed her university studies toward this goal, and was five years into a high-powered management job when suddenly her husband was offered a position in San Francisco. So, a few years ago she took the leap. Now, as Director of Sales for Willow, a new wearable breast pump startup, Anke has benefited from her experience as a young professional mother. She is off to a great start, having contributed to the company’s recent success at CES where they won seven awards. We talked to her about how she built a network from scratch and pivoted into her dream job in San Francisco.
Interview by Susanna Camp.
Tell us about your career arc so far.
I grew up in a little town in the Netherlands in a warm family full of entrepreneurs. My father, his brothers, my brother — all had their own companies. For me it became a possibility to become an entrepreneur myself, to see other people doing it, and it made the barrier lower. After six years of university, I joined the Business Development team at Procter & Gamble in the Netherlands, and I loved it. I’m quite competitive so I liked the thrill of growing a business. Although I learned a lot at P&G I always knew I wouldn’t stay too long because things were too much predefined.
Now, as Director of Sales at Willow, I get to wear a lot of hats. Because it’s a small company, I do a lot of other stuff besides sales — consumer experience, user support, e-commerce, working with data. It’s a small team and we have so much to do. I really like that variety. For me it would be hard to go back to a big company because it’s harder to do something really new. At P&G, I did one thing, and I was doing the same thing as the person who had the job before me. I tried to do it better — but it was still very limited. Whereas now, I really started from scratch, and I continue to figure out what works. If what you’re doing isn’t working, you iterate and then you change it, and you try it again. You’re working with a lot of smaller projects. Wearing many hats, I actually get more done.
How did you decide what to study in college and how did that lead (directly or indirectly) to your career?
I always wanted to have my own communication consultancy company. At university, I found a brochure promoting the field of Communication Science that mentioned you could start your own firm when you’re done — so that’s what I did.
In my fourth year of study, I started a research firm with a friend. It was quite successful: over the course of two years, we worked with over 10 companies and employed 15 students. This led to my job at P&G. Since then, most of my jobs have been in marketing, sales or commercial operational roles.
Were there any unexpected influences that determined your choice of career?
My husband was running a start-up that was growing quickly, and they needed someone in the US to expand the business. It was a bold move but I quit my job at P&G, and we left for San Francisco to start all over again. It was the scariest thing because you literally start from nowhere, with no network — but it turned out to be the best choice we could have made. It doesn’t happen too often that you can start with a blank slate and figure out what you want to do. For me, I wanted to get into the tech scene so I started to learn to code. This wasn’t a success because I don’t have the patience. It turned out that working on hardware products with a strong software component was my sweet spot.
I was lucky to get a cool job at Pebble, the smartwatch maker, where I could define my own role. I started working on market development for Europe and was successful in growing the business from 0 to over 4,000 retail stores in 24 countries all over Europe — it became the fastest growing region for the company. Learning about wearables had a direct influence on my next job with Willow.
What women do you admire?
My mother is a positive, strong, and very caring person. She managed to combine doing her own thing and having a job she liked, with being the best mom we could wish for. She did it all — and she had three children! Especially now that I’m a working mother, I can see that you can be a mom and still do what you really want.
I’m impressed by strong, independent women who are not afraid to make a bold move and get off the beaten path. I’ve met many impressive women over the last couple of years in San Francisco. My former manager and friend KR Liu, who is dedicating her life to making hearing aids more affordable, or my friend Johanna Lehmann who made a bold career move. She launched a personalized children’s book company and just published a new cute and uplifting book called The Forest of Life. She inspires me because she is trying out different ways to make her hobby into a business. A lot of people think about doing things like this, but they don’t take the leap. I really appreciate women who say “I know it’s not going to be easy, but I just want to do it. I’ll see where I end up, and at least I can’t say I didn’t try.” I appreciate women who follow their heart. What I’ve learned from the strong women in the Bay Area is that you’ve just got to get out there and do it.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes you learn, but at least you keep moving forward.
How does your personal passion take you further in your profession?
The job I have right now is a true passion project. Our son was born at 33 weeks so he spent his first weeks in a little incubator in the hospital. For me it was super important to breastfeed him, but because he was so tiny, and not with me 24/7, that wasn’t possible. I had to pump seven to eight times a day — basically every three hours — day and night. And I hated it. I was so fed up by this whole experience and couldn’t accept there wasn’t anything better on the market than this stupid device so I decided to start my own company designing a better pump. I quickly found out this was very difficult to do alone, but fortunately, a good friend introduced me to the inventor of this amazing product — a truly mobile breast pump. He had a strong team of engineers and medical device people and was looking for a business person to work on the commercialization of the business.
So I quit my job at Pebble and joined the company. For me this was meant to be, using the work experience I gained at Pebble in the wearable space and the passion I had to revolutionize the breast pump industry. I feel very grateful to be able to work on this amazing product that will improve the lives of so many moms (and dads) around the world.
What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?
When you are starting out, work hard, but also enjoy yourself while you’re doing it. I’m competitive, and I like to work — but the whole journey should be nice. In college, I didn’t only study, I went out with friends and traveled a lot. I’m not sure if I was really looking to be anything by a certain age. Now that I’m older I have a better idea. And it’s even more important to me to do something good.
Do you have any humorous job stories?
Talk about funny jobs! When I first came to the US I did a lot of volunteer work — helping out at conferences, giving away food vouchers and badges at events. I had one job where I was just helping a friend put letters into envelopes and putting stamps on them. At the end of the day I was really proud I had a check for $120 but on the other hand it was surreal. I had been managing a team of twelve people at P&G and here I was sitting in this office for an entire day putting paper in an envelope — something anybody could do. But on the other hand, it kept me going. And while I was there, I met a girl who introduced me to a guy who introduced me to another guy, and that’s what it takes to start over. It gave me a lot of self-confidence. Wherever I end up, I know that I can make it work. (Even if this means putting paper in envelopes!)
What is your favorite networking method and why?
Being introduced to someone by a good friend. Those connections are the best because someone did the pre-vetting for you.
Another thing I did to build my network was this: I like to cook, and I like food. So when I first moved to San Francisco, I would throw dinner parties. I would invite two or three people I knew, and I would ask them to invite two or three more people. It’s a great way to meet people. I did this six or seven times and built up my network.
I would also go to a ton of meetups and conferences. But the conferences can be expensive, so while I wasn’t making money, I would volunteer at the conferences. You have to work for a few days, but then you can attend the workshops for free.
Why are you joining the GUILD? What did you learn from beta-testing and what do you want to get out of it?
That “good friend” is now the GUILD :) Pre-vetting happens automatically so you’re hooked up with a person who is a good match — a new friend, co-worker, mentor or future business partner — who knows? Let serendipity happen.
What’s your mantra?
Don’t settle. Life is too short to be bored, so go out and explore.
