HTBV Podcast: How Roshni went from babysitting to owning SEA’s Largest Parenting Empire
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.
Watch/ Listen to the episode on
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/hard-truths-by-vertex/id1659392336?i=1000644323698
YouTube: https://youtu.be/cPxpwoILliQ?si=o4Eljhb4z-ftkmB6
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0wQJtg4Lz5kcrLoXVKlBCS?si=WtaiMKrlSvaES6yfIzqdtQ
Who we are
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 want to share and uncover Hard Truths — raw, unfiltered insights and venture capital experience across Southeast Asia & India. Tune in to hear from leading founders, innovators, venture capitalists and industry experts in the region and to gain industry insights from those in the know.
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 3,500 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.
Watch on episode:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/hard-truths-by-vertex/id1659392336?i=1000644323698
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0wQJtg4Lz5kcrLoXVKlBCS?si=WtaiMKrlSvaES6yfIzqdtQ
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!
Elise: Hi, I’m Elise Tan, and I’m your host for this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex podcast. Today, we’re back with a special episode. So I’m here in Motherswork. Our portfolio company, The Parentinc, has announced the acquisition of Motherswork in Singapore. Today, I’m going to interview none other than Roshni Mahtani Cheung.
Roshni is the group CEO and founder of The Parentinc, The Parentinc. reaches 25 million parents across Southeast Asia monthly.
As a female sole founder, she is also very active in building up the startup community. In 2015, she started the Female Founders Network to help over 3,500 female founders to be able to share knowledge and also network with each other. Roshni is also an executive producer of a docufilm, Untouchable, Children of God. This is about how young girls are trafficked from Nepal to work in brothels in India. It’s a truly inspirational film.
I recommend you to watch it. Roshni is also the Obama leader for the 2019/20 batch for APEC. So right now I’m really excited to interview Roshni.
Hi Roshni!
Roshni: Hi, thanks for having me here. I’m so excited to be part of the Vertex podcast.
Elise: Thank you so much. And this is also a special episode part of our International Women’s Day program. So Roshni, today we are at Mother’s Work to tell us about this press conference that’s happening today.
Roshni: Oh, yeah, it’s such an exciting day. We announced that we acquired Motherswork and this is our first foray into physical retail. So now you know, we’ve come a long way from what started off as a blog at theAsianparent to then having our own brands, Mama’s Choice, Little Rei, and now having physical retail, Motherswork.
And I think what’s even more important is that it’s a big day for Sharon, the founder and CEO of Motherswork, where she’s put her blood, heart, soul, and sweat, because she comes and joins our team as well. Yeah.
And I feel like you are kind of helping her to continue her legacy and to build on it.
Right. So this is really amazing. Yeah. So, you know, the question that people always ask you first will be, how did you come to start The Parentinc or theAsianparent,
I’m an accidental entrepreneur
Roshni: I always say I’m an accidental entrepreneur. For now, right? My entrepreneurship journey did not start with me waking up and saying, Hey, what’s the biggest total addressable market that I can go after that is growing at a kind of like 50 percent year on year?
No, none of those things, right? It really started off with the fact that I really wanted to dig deeper into What is it that women actually need when they transition into their life of motherhood?
So it all started when I was a babysitter in New York City. I was babysitting these two beautiful children, three and six, in the Upper East Side and the way they were being parented was the complete opposite of everything I’ve ever seen. So it was a first hand look on the asian parenting versus western parenting.
But the whole theAsianparent got triggered when this little cute girl asked me, what’s your favorite fruit? And I said, durian. And she says, what’s that? And I said durian. And then she said, I want to try. And besides the fact that In my head, I was going, where can I buy durian in New York City? But the next question was, can a three-year-old eat durian?
Is it too heaty for them? So, you know, it was that first important question that made me go, let me start researching online. And I was very shocked and very, very upset to find that there wasn’t much content for anything that was asian related online. The world was being dominated by western parenting information and how to raise your child.
But if you look at the world’s population, Asia is more than half of the world’s population. So how about we celebrate our culture, our customs, our lifestyle? And that’s what I try to do with theAsianparent.
Elise: Definitely your content, you know, your idea has added value to so many parents in Southeast Asia.
So you share with me that every month, 30 million of digital pregnancies are going to your platform, you know, understanding how to raise happy, healthy children. So I think that’s really remarkable.
Roshni: So we have just deep insight from the start of life, which is just so fascinating and so humbling as well.
Elise: Yeah. And I can see that, you know, how your company has grown over the years. And also now with going from digital to offline, it all makes sense.
I think maybe just last year, you rebranded your business as The Parentinc. And I think you know, that has a story behind it. Do you want to share with us?
Parenting needs a community that’s passionate yet open to change
Roshni: So when I first started off the company, it was called Tickled Media and the vision was to start off and be an online publisher of multiple different magazine titles or e-magazine titles. So we tried, we had a few other titles, which are now all defunct, because at some point, two things hit me. The first was parenting was a big, total addressable market, but there was not enough demand from partners who were interested in tapping into parents. The second thing was that if you want to build a community, you need to have a group of people who are passionate about something. And it cannot be a transient passion. It has to be a passion that, you know, they’re willing to invest a lot of time in, a lot of focus in, they’re genuinely consumed by it, and it’s consistently changing.
So, for example, the parenting journey. Trying to get pregnant is a different journey from pregnancy. First trimester of pregnancy is a different journey. You’ve got morning sickness. Last trimester of pregnancy, you’re just thinking about when is the baby coming out? How do I get the baby out? What baby products do I have to buy?
So even in the pregnancy journey, each trimester is so different. Then you’ve got postpartum, you’ve got confinement, you’ve got all of your problems, right? A lot of women lose their hair during postpartum.
And the first six months of a baby’s life, they need to be exclusively breastfed and you’re going, what is going on? Right? Like my, my baby’s sustaining on me, but I don’t have enough supply or, you know, my gosh, I’ve got, you know, cracked nipples, which is a real problem. So you’re going through all of these things and it keeps changing.
Suddenly the kid is turning one. They’re learning how to talk. How come my kid’s not talking yet? Why is my kid not walking yet? And then the kid reaches 18 months and you go, which preschool do I send my kid to? At two years, you’re wondering about, hey, how do I get my child to start learning languages? And you know, right brain versus left brain.
So it’s like you’re consistently engaged because it’s like you’re learning a whole new world. All the way until the child is in university. And so you’re able to build a sticky community. And that’s not something that you can say for a lot of other communities.
Today you may be interested in a fast car. But in six months later, you might like another brand of car, or maybe you’re not interested in cars anymore. You move to ships or you move to aeroplanes. So hobbies could change, but parenting, it lasts you a lifetime.
Elise: Yeah, I mean, when you put this in this perspective, I can imagine the amount of time that parents would spend on your platform, you know, learning about different things along the way.
And there’s no way we would have learned this elsewhere, And because I’m also a mother of a young child. I can totally resonate with what you shared. You know there’s just so much to learn and to discuss with other parents.
Yeah. So it’s amazing. And I have a small confession to make, you know, because you’re one of the few female founders, In the early, like 2008, 2010, I have always, you know, grown up to say like, I want to be like Roshni if I’m an entrepreneur.
Roshni: That’s so sweet of you.
Elise: Yeah, and you mentioned about how things are changing all the time, you know, especially how parents are consuming information differently across times, you know. So how did you, you know, evolve as The Parentinc along the way?
Media monetization cannot grow to be a scalable business
Roshni: Yeah, so when I first started theAsianparent, it was just a blog and it was really about one way dissemination.
I know all the answers, I will give you the answers, right? I wrote the first 1,000 articles myself. To me, this was preparation for myself. If I get pregnant, how do I know everything?
And then, when I finally got pregnant in 2016, I realized, oh my God! No one really wants to read articles. People want to learn from other mums. I mean, I can read an article about the 10 best potty training tips, but I really want to hear from another mum — how did you potty train your kid in three months?
Please teach me. The second realization was, my gosh, during pregnancy, there’s so much to learn. How can I get information in bite size? And how can I get it multiple times? So don’t give me one article to read today, but tell me that, hey, these are three things I need to know by this week, and remind me about it.
And so the engagement has to be very interactive. Once I had the baby, it was also very clear to me that I was spending a lot of time recording things. What’s my baby’s height? What’s my baby’s weight? How many times did she poop?
I was like fascinated with her poop. I remember Darius and me taking out photographs after photographs of poop. And sending it to each other. This is what her poop looks like after carrots. This is what it looks like after eating corn. and it’s a very normal behavior because anyone who’s listening here who’s a parent would be like, I know this, I resonate, and anyone who’s not a parent would go, what’s wrong with you?
But like, we’re obsessed about tracking. And instead of giving a paper and pen and pasting it all across. How do we create new tools which allow people to track it and by tracking it, then you can, you know, there’s comfort in knowledge, like, okay, baby’s fine.
Baby’s growing normally? So that’s when we developed theAsianparent app. So theAsianparent app was actually developed when I was pregnant. And then I’d be proofreading all the content because I resonated with it.
And so that’s the first evolution that happened when I became a user of my own product and I realized I was doing everything wrong.
Roshni: So once we developed theAsianparent app, I think that was the first game changer. Then the next game changer was — okay, so we’ve got content, which is needed, right?
Because at the end of the day, people search for things. At least that was the past behavior. Then the next behavior was, okay, I want to track my baby. I want to also track my pregnancy and I want to meet other mums. The next behavior that we realized was that you don’t just want to hear from other normal mums, you want to hear from VIP parents. You want to hear from influencers, KOLs, micro influencers. What are they saying? What brands did they use? So that was our next evolution where we launched VIP Parents, which was our micro KOL community.
So we say okay, micro KOL can become influencers for the other brands. So we launched VIP parents in like 2017. 2016 was app, 2017 was influencer. we were one of the first few who jumped on the influencer micro influencer bandwagon.
Roshni: Oh, sometime around 2018, don’t worry about revenue. 2019, we realized. monetizing media is very hard. Because I had grown the largest community and yet we were struggling with monetization. So in 2018, we had the hard realization. We’re the number one community across all markets.
Nice business but we still can’t make much money. What’s going on? Yeah. And so, you know, we sat down with the board. We talked openly and candidly about it.
And I told them, you know, all my struggles, right? And that the realization that maybe media monetization was a nice business model, but it couldn’t grow to be a VC backed, scalable business tha someone like a Vertex or anyone else on our cap table would be looking for.
The question was what do we do from here? And, you know, we were on the drawing board and we bounced back and forth a few ideas. At that point in time, I moved to Indonesia. And when I was living in Indonesia, two things happened. The first was the realization that Indonesia was passing a law that most products had to be halal certified.
And when I walked around into all of the shops, I realized that a lot of brands were not halal certified. I thought maybe there’s an opportunity here. And of course, you know, Southeast Asia, the biggest religion is Islam. And across the world you know, birth rates around, you know, certain religiously predominated cultures are increasing.
So I was going, my gosh, the birth rates in this community is increasing .There’s a need for halal products and nobody seems to really be doing it. I’m living in the country, which is the world’s largest Muslim population. Why don’t I launch products? So I started thinking about is there potential in here? The second realization was that big brands were focused on baby market, but nobody was focused on the mummy market.
Because it was a traditional concept that in the olden days, you spend everything on your kid. Yeah, that’s true. But now you have less babies. You start to spend on yourself. You go, Oh my gosh, my hair is falling. Maybe I need a postpartum shampoo.
So I said, there’s actually a full target audience that has been overlooked and I couldn’t name big brands that were focusing on mum.
And then I also couldn’t name big brands that focus on breastfeeding. People were focusing on the pump and were focused on the equipment around breastfeeding.
They weren’t doing things for the breastfeeding journey in terms of skin care. So I felt that there was a huge opportunity in breastfeeding as well. And that’s what we doubled down on. So in 2019, we launched Mama’s Choice. Our first SKU was pregnancy toothpaste. And then pregnancy mouthwash. And then in 2020, sometime in February, we launched Stretch Mark Cream, which is now our hero product. And we started launching more and more and more products. And COVID hit. That was a whole different ballgame altogether because nobody knew what was happening.
I had this new brand and we were making money and I remembered going back to the board and said it’s not media that can make us a unicorn. It’s products.
But then I got supply chain disruption. And you know, I don’t know what to do.
The first thing that I did was I moved back to Singapore. Okay. Because I was living in Indonesia. Yeah. And, and, you know, Singapore was a little bit more safer.
Elise: So thanks for sharing, you know, I just feel that with your response to the previous question and also how you were observing the market changes, you are such an observant and I just feel that with your response to the previous question and also how you were observing the market changes, you’re such an observant and detailed person. And I think that is really one of the most amazing things about you as a founder. At the same time, you know, which is really hard is to be able to also have the vision, right? (Usually it’s hard to be both detailed and big picture as a person) To move things, to be able to make big decisions. Yeah. So that’s truly remarkable. Yeah. Thanks for sharing, you know,, what you have done and along the way, you know, you have. You have been, I think, one of the few females who have been able to fundraise round after round. I read that in 2022, you raised 22 million and then you also then raised your CVC.
So, and you have made a few acquisitions along the way. So do you think that maybe this is a time where you would, buy instead of build, you know, and how do you decide when to buy and build? You know, that’s always a question people ask.
How to decide when to buy & when to build?
Roshni: Yeah, no. So I have done both, right? I’ve built. And I’ve also bought, so this is the second company that we’ve bought. It gets easier each time because now you know what you’re looking for.
So this is very different because I’ve known Sharon for a long time. I know Motherswork for a long time. I’ve been a Motherswork customer myself and I have such huge respect for the founder.
In this last two years, as we’ve gone from being a loss making company to an EBITDA positive company and really just doing a lot of cost realization and figuring out the fundamentals of our business, right?
The heart of it has been, what is the culture that I’m trying to build and who are the people that I want around me building this culture?
After we started taking on a lot of rounds of fundraising from 2019 to 2023, early 2023, in many ways, I feel like we lost our way. As a founder, it wasn’t just that I wasn’t operating the business as much because I was spending so much time fundraising and strategy, but I lost touch of the mums. Because I started bringing in a lot of people who cared about the business. And the business model and launching things.
And I may have hired based on your resumes (instead of perhaps someone who’s passionate about serving mums). But I didn’t focus on why I started this company, which was the mums. I want to serve the mums. I wrote the first 1,000 articles. I could have chosen any industry in the world and I chose mums before I was a mum (myself). So that means I love this market. I love the community. I built the app with my own hands. You know, I had gone so far away from my community and how do you build what people want? If you are so out of touch with your community? I made all the right steps before because I was so close to the community.
And then it was like, after launching all of these things, I went far away from it. And so buying Motherswork. And more importantly, Sharon — I met a fellow founder who could have done anything in the world. And 25 years ago, she decided to focus on mon and baby. And she sustained herself these last 25 years. Because one thing she cares about it — the mother. So it’s about finding other people who are truly on this journey with me, who really care about the end user. Because how we monetize is will automatically come not if you have the audience, but if you understand the audience.
Elise: You know, I think it’s really brave of you to say that, you have kind of admit that you have kind of lost track along the way, because I think that’s not easy to say but I’m glad, you know, you kind of found back where the focus is, which is in this case, customer centricity.
Yeah. You know, with the interviews that I have with various of our Vertex founders, I think customer centricity is always one of the key elements for success.
Yeah I feel so amazed that you have so much self realisation as well and knowing what you want and what resonates with you and then also the kind of business that you want, the culture that you envision. And as we looked back the conversation that we had, how perhaps the western sharing, you know, that if you build, people will come or like when you have enough people on your platform, money will come that you might not work in Southeast Asia. It’s different. And it’s so hard, you know, to borrow someone’s playbook and applying to a totally different market with different population, culture, beliefs. Yeah. And then, later, you know, realizing that it will be products that can help you to grow and then become profitable and right now figuring that, culture is the one that will be the foundation for enduring company.
Yeah. So I think all this is like really good insights for the founders.
And maybe at this point I want to ask you, you know, what do you think, the hard truths that you would offer to someone who you’re going to start a business?
Be ready to commit 15 to 20 years of your life to the entrepreneur journey
Roshni: The first one is be ready to commit 15 to 20 years of your life. The startup journey is not a five year journey. And if you’re not ready to give 15 years of your life, please don’t do this. The second thing is build something that you’re not going to get bored with.
Because it’s going to go through highs and lows, right? But if you don’t even like your own industry, then you’re dead. It’s going to be the most painful experience of your life. So for me, it was like, it’s mum and baby. Even my next company will be on mum and baby. I love mum and baby. So I love the sector.
So that’s what sustains you. I think the third thing is really be honest with your board and be direct with your board. And there are times where your board knows a lot, but there are also times where your board knows absolutely nothing and they will take you in the completely wrong direction.
And you need to have confidence in yourself as CEO to stand up and say, I disagree with you. You’re wrong.
Because nobody knows actually what they’re doing. Everyone’s feeling it but nobody knows your business the way you know your business. So don’t get swayed by what different people tell you. But you must have a conducive working board.
You know, if board meetings are dysfunctional, then it’s again going back to culture, right? It’s the same thing as if your management meetings are dysfunctional because you have people who have different opinions and you can’t get everyone aligned. The same way for your board, right? If you actually can’t have your board being aligned with you, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
So it’s not about valuation. Valuation doesn’t matter. It’s a long game anyway, it’s 15 years. Valuation is going to go up, going to go down.
But if you have a board that is not working with you, who doesn’t trust you, and you can’t be honest with, then you’re in trouble.
So I would advise entrepreneurs that choose your investors very carefully. Please, for God’s sake, hire a lawyer when you’re looking at your term sheet and your SHA. And don’t hire the cheapest lawyer, hire lawyers who know what they’re doing. So and you might even end up after 15 years, with only 1 percent of your company. So you know, don’t get over diluted right? Because it’s a long haul game. So, choose your investors correctly, hire the right lawyer. Make sure that you don’t give all investors board seats. And you only choose investors that you can truly work with to be on your board. Fight to keep those investors on your board for rounds and rounds.
Elise: And you know, you mentioned about having the right investors on board. Tell us about how did you get to meet Vertex?
Vertex is not just a team, it’s a family
Roshni: So I met Vertex. Vertex reached out to me because there were members of the Vertex team that was using theAsianparent. And I think Vertex had looked at the parenting space for quite a while. I don’t think Vertex just looks at sectors. They really, really focus a lot on the team.
Elise: True.
Roshni: And, you know, it was, it was quite difficult because I’m a sole founder. So, you know, and at that point in time, I didn’t even have a kid, right. The Vertex team was very forgiving on all of that, where, you know, I’m not matching my target audience. Nor do I have like a team, right? Because their main thing was, if you give you the money, will you hire? And I said, sure, I’ll try. But what I can promise you is that. I will not stop. If I’ve taken your money, I will work my butt off to give my shareholders a return on investment.
So if it is in my control, I will make sure that this becomes an investment you’re proud of.
And, and I think, you know, the most important thing was that I met with many different people at Vertex, all the way from Kee Lock to Joo Hock to Carmen and to even members of Vertex who are no longer with you guys.
And I could connect with every single one of them. And I felt that, you know, Vertex as a company, itself is so family friendly. I mean, look at Carmen herself. She’s got four children Yes, she walks the talk. Yeah, you can be an amazing investment professional, you can be a partner in the fund and you can rock motherhood in style So it was a case of wow here.
I have someone I can look up to. Someone who’s older than me, has done more than me, who’s willing to work with me, but at the same time, not trying to control me. And I think that was what brought Vertex and me together because you guys were interested in the space, but you were also really looking at which founders you want to back. And for some reason, I’m think. I’m very grateful for that. The Vertex team felt that they could bet on, they could count on me.
Elise: And, I’m sure we’re very glad to have been working with you on this journey. You know, definitely it’s not easy. You mentioned about the ups and downs, right? But, you know, you are so strong as a female sole founder.
I think really, really, that’s not easy.
And as, as I look at the portfolio across the years, you know, you might have been the one who started us feeling confident about you know, investing into sole founders who are females. So after you, we kind of know how do we work with female founders? You know, how do we help them go through the different phases in life?
How do we help them to assemble people that can be around them so that the business runs no matter what happens? Yeah. So thank you for that.
Roshni: I’m really grateful to the Vertex team. So you’ve seen the ups and downs, and I will never forget the fact that when I went to the board meeting to announce that I was pregnant, I was so, so stressed and so nervous because I was like, how do I tell the board?
I had a whole, created a whole business plan on Roshni’s pregnancy. What’s going to happen? When am I going to potentially go on maternity leave?
What happens in scenario A, B, C? And you know, I was ready to present all of this. And then I said, guys, I have something to tell you. And the team was like, okay, well, what’s going on, right? I’m pregnant!
And there was no like shocked faces or fallen faces. The first thing Joo Hock did was, Congratulations! How many months along are you?
And Carmen was like, Oh, so exciting! Have you decided which doctor OBGYN?
They spent the next 30 minutes not going through my plan on how I’m going to survive my pregnancy and the business.
Elise: Yeah, it is. It is. And thank you so much for sharing this anecdote because it’s so important, you know, to kind of be able to support the founder, not just because the business would bring us the profits, right. Would be able to not only bring returns for our LPs, but also being able to be supportive of their journey.
I think this is a nice time to also talk about female founders because, you know, this is part of our International Women’s Day series. Every year we celebrate that. And this year, even more, because we announced our fifth fund of $541 million. Out of which $50 million, we want to dedicate it to female founders or co founders.
Yeah, we’re definitely looking to back more female founders in the region. I want to also now ask you, you know, what are some of the advice, hard truths you would give for female sole founders or co founders?
Yeah. Especially for the series.
Hard truths for female founders
Roshni: So I think, it’s really about first knowing yourself and being authentic with yourself. You are going to slow down during pregnancy. That is the avoidable truth. Having kids might slow you down as well a little bit. But if you accept that it’s a 15 year journey, this is only a small blip in the 15 years. You bounce back and then you are more efficient than ever because you have no time for nonsense because you have kids to go home to tend to. So it actually puts you on steroid type of turbocharged of kind of efficient, but you will have a little bit of a downtime. So make sure that you plan that as you are figuring out your founding journey, because there’s always going to be ups and downs in business.
So first of all, A, be very open with yourself. It’s whether you tell others, or not. That’s your decision, right? But you need to be honest with yourself. Are you planning on becoming a mum?
Are you not planning on becoming a mum? Are you planning on taking a motherhood break? Or when are you planning on actually having a baby and work that into your life? So that’s the first thing. The second thing is that, talk to other women. It is so important that we create a tribe of other women who can support us. Because the journey that we experience as female founders is different from that of the male’s journey.
And if you’re older, it’s not just about pregnancy, it’s about menopause. It’s also a different thing. A guy’s not going through it. So, you know, it’s important to be with a tribe of other women who understand and have been through that process because they can turn to you and say, Oh, this is what you’re going to experience. This is normal. This is not normal.
And then the reason having another tribe of women founders working together is very important is because women haven’t been in the workforce for a very long time, which means that we don’t have a lot of role models to look forward, look up to.
Because 50 years ago, our mums weren’t working. So women entering the workforce is a last 50 year phenomena. Which, but men have been working all their lives. Yeah. So they have a lot of role models to look up to. So it can feel sometimes a little bit very lonely because you don’t see enough women in leadership position. And it’s not because we’re not competent and it’s not because we’re taking a motherhood break. It’s just because there hasn’t been a lot of women working for a very long time. And over a hundred years, 200 years, 300 years, this will normalize. We will see a lot of women in leadership position. But, it’s important to surround yourself so that you realize that you’re not alone and there are other people that you can look up to.
Elise: Yeah, I love how you put it in perspective because really 50 years isn’t long and for guys, you know, they do have the boys club. We are now only starting. So in 2015, I believe that you have created a community called Female Founders Network of 2,000 female founders across Asia. And then in 2019, you started something. Tell us about it.
Female founders’ network of 2,000 female founders across Asia
Roshni: Yeah. So, I started female founders with this amazing founder called Dr Meri Rosich. I have learned so much from her, and I’m so indebted to her, both from a business perspective as well as just in my motherhood journey.
You know, besides what Marie and me were trying to do, which was really, try to help more women start up businesses. By 2019, we realized that, okay, there’s more and more women who are starting up businesses. So that’s not the challenge.
The real challenge is actually women who have taken on VC funding. And women who are in private sector running very large organizations or publicly listed companies, there isn’t a lot of opportunities for them to get to know each other and meet and really create a network, a club of their own.
And so I realized I knew so many amazing women, but they didn’t know each other. So I set up a dinner and I said, I want you all to know each other. My friends must be friends with each other and you’re all amazing women. So get to know each other. And that evolved into dinners in each other’s house every quarter.
And from a group of like, the first group was 20 of us. It grew to about 45 of us who are P& L holders, running businesses across Asia, you can talk about anything under the sun, but one of the purposes of this as well is to, we thought that we were no longer going to try to jostle for a seat on the table.
We were going to build the table and we’re going to build our own seat. So these are all the women who are sitting on the table together. And if they get an opportunity, for example, there’s a board position. Then their role is to bring in another woman and not say, hey, I don’t know enough women who can do this because, hey, there’s a whole network of women who are capable, who are competent, who are so bloody smart, who can actually contribute to other businesses as well.
Elise: Very, very cool. You know, I realized that maybe one of your gifts is really bringing people together because you have brought together the community of parents, mothers, and now also the female founders and also other women who are in leadership position as well.
So you mentioned a really good point about how we actually need to build, you know, this table and not be, you know, competing against each other and killing each other, right? When, when we are all starting out. Yeah. So I think really, really, that’s so important.
In the recent years, there’s been some unhappy episodes, you know, with like Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes and also Zillingo’s, Ankiti Bose. What would you say to people reading about this news?
You know, how, how do you regain the kind of confidence around female founders?
Regaining confidence on female founders after the Elizabeth Holmes incident
Roshni: So, Yes, so we have had, of course, right, two episodes of female founders who kind of did not do their fiduciary duties, right? I can only name you these two and this is like one in Asia and one in the U.S., right?
I can name you 10 blow ups of males in Asia and 10 blow ups of males in the US. So the whole idea is that this is always going to happen. So I don’t think it’s a case of, oh, it’s a female or it’s a male. There’s always going to be a group of founders who are not aligned with their investors and who, or either end up cutting corners, etc.
So even for us, right over the years, I mean, we’ve had challenging years right where we’re losing so much of money or we’re not making enough revenue. You know, of course, it’s tempting to just be like, oh, my gosh, how do we sweep it under the carpet?
Right? But the whole idea is that for us, we never tried to like you know, fake GMV or whatever. It was a case of, oh yeah, go back to the board la, with tail between your legs saying, I tried, you know, I really, really tried, but my numbers are like, this jialat, you know, clearly I got a wrong strategy. So don’t, don’t get angry at me on why I didn’t deliver.
Try to help me diagnose, because we have put in the effort. We have worked our buttocks off. So, you know, if we haven’t achieved, it’s not, I cannot be paiseh (ashamed in Singapore slang) to come back to you to say I failed miserably because the startup journey is all about punting. So it’s all about saying that, Hey, I’m betting on something and it could potentially grow into a unicorn.
So we’re going to make lots of mistakes and sometimes you’re just going to take lots and lots of Play Doh and drop it right at the wall and something’s going to stick. So, you know, punish us when we make mistakes. Because that’s how you get your outliers. So I think it’s about the ecosystem where VCs and investors really need to be very clear to their founders on their expectations.
And founders also need to be very clear to the VCs on that. You know, if you’re looking for like hypergrowth right from day one. I can’t deliver it. Yeah. but if you’re looking for, I’m going to work and consistently try to find how I can give you return on investment. You got to trust me on it.
Elise: Yeah, you’re very right to say that, you know, sometimes because female founders are among the few, when things go wrong, it tends to be more in the media compared to the counterparts. So that’s hard to avoid. And I like that, you support that about, you know, the transparency and the kind of collaboration with the investors — not kind of hiding things under the carpet, because I think in the end, the truth always prevail. Yeah. I think, I think it takes so much courage and that’s the right step, right? To be, to be truthful and then to be able to work things out.
I also want to ask you about something outside of, you know, venture and investing and startups, which is, I came across a trailer of the docufilm, which is the Untouchable: Children of God that you have been an executive producer of. I saw the trailer and I was really touched about it.
You know, what you are shedding light on, which is the children who are the, the young girls who are trafficked from Nepal and then working in the brothels of India. So I’m really curious, you know, how did you come up with this idea? How, how did it all happen?
Roshni: It’s always the right time, right place, and people knowing what I’m passionate and interested in.
I think there’s no doubt about it if it comes to do with anything to do with children, with women, with mums. Sign me up. I’m interested. So, you know, the case of Untouchable Children of God. It’s just the whole idea that there could be young girls who are trafficked out of their bedrooms, stolen in broad daylight or in the middle of the night from their own safety of their own bedrooms, and cross border trafficked into a neighboring country, taken away from their families and forced to be taking steroid injections so that they can develop more womanly body parts and then sold to brothels to serve men. To me, this is just like, even till now, I have goosebumps thinking about it, right? It is not just an insult and a travesty to women.
It’s young kids whom our duty is to protect as adults, when I heard about what was happening, it just incensed me, right? This is just a fundamental human right we’re talking about. That is bigger than all of us. You know, and how can I not do something about it? How can I not put my money, my time, my effort, my care around this? Because It’s important. And you know, at the same time, the director of the documovie, Grant Knisely brought together different various skill sets. Some people were great with music and some people, you know, was able to help with distribution, some with a camera filming, et cetera. And it was just really about what can we do. And we can’t stop this epidemic from happening because this involves things that are bigger than us, right?
Yeah. But can we bring to light what is happening because then hopefully can mobilize the same anger in more people because there’s only two things that move the world, love and anger. So, you know, so for me, it was the love of his children, but it was anger on how vicious and degrading humans can actually be.
And I was hoping that more people by watching this film would feel the same way and would help do something about this. Yeah,
Elise: I mean, I only watched the trailer, but I was already really deeply affected by it. You know, it. It’s like if I have never come across this, I wouldn’t know. Yeah. So, so it’s so great that your, you and your team had created that because that creates the knowledge and with knowledge, then people can do things. It truly scales the impact that we can create together. Yeah. So that’s really amazing.
Last two questions for you. So the first one is time management because you know, you, you have done lots of things. You build your own business. You are running different organisations, being on the board of various organisations, having a child, a family. How do you manage it all? Is there a secret?
There’s nothing called work life balance — life is work and work is life
Roshni: secret? So there’s no such thing as work life balance. Work is life. Life is work. So I think it was just being able to marry the fact that I bring my daughter for meetings. She comes to the office all the time.
But, like, for me, it’s more like she can learn outside of the school environment too. So she’s, you know, I’ve taken her to many different countries. I’ve taken her to our different factories, she had sat in while I’m interviewing and hiring people. She had sat in while I’ve let go of people. She has sat in for board meetings.
I remember there was this one time where I had to deliver something like investor updates, right? And Carmen called me and she said, hey, you haven’t delivered your investor updates. We need to know your numbers.
And my kid was super young and she was crying. And I said, I, you know, she’s not stopping to cry. And at the same time, I have to deliver this to you. And she said, okay, why don’t you put you know, video cam, let me see, maybe I can help. And she sang to Shan, and she did video, like, camming with Shan, just so I could have time behind my laptop to be able to send out the numbers.
Elise: She didn’t tell me about this, this is very interesting. You know, you’re always finding innovative solutions to problems.
And then last but not least, you know, because this is the beginning of a new year, you know, what lies ahead for The Parentinc? What are some exciting plans?
Future plans for The Parentinc
Roshni: So, you know, so now we’ve got the four parts of our business, right? So we’ve got the media and the community, and that will always be the heart of the company.
Right at the end of the day, we are not a retail company. We are not an FMCG brand. We are a parent tech company. And at the heart of it is our community. So now that that is sorted and it’s been sorted for many years, we’ve got the brands. So we’ve got Mama’s Choice and Little Rei. We’ve got retail through Motherswork and we’ve got distribution of 25 other brands as well.
So it’s really about taking all of this and making sure it’s working well with each other. And expanding into more territories and more markets. So, we’ll be bringing Little Rei into all the other markets of Southeast Asia. Right now, Little Rei is only in Singapore but Mama’s Choice is available in five out of six of the markets we operate in.
And then we are entering into physical retail in Vietnam. And we’ll be entering into physical retail in more countries as well. It’s a busy year.
Elise: Wow. Sounds exciting. And I’m, we are really hopeful and happy for you. Thank you. Yeah. So thank you so much for your time
Roshni: Thank you for having me. for sharing. Power to Vertex.
At Vertex Ventures SE Asia and India, we pride ourselves as being a leader in gender-equal investing in Southeast Asia. We will continue to strive to be gender neutral in all that we do, and to open doors and empower founders, whether they be male or female, to reach their own vertex — the highest point of a journey, of achievements and of stars. If you are a female founder or a cofounder, do reach out to us at www.vertexventures.sg/apply.
