The urge arrives late at night, after the kids have gone to sleep and the laptop is shut: I could do that. And it can feel like that's impossible because of timing. But today's conversation shows you that starting a startup as a mom is not a timing problem.
Elisa Lu has never asked herself whether she should. She only asks how. She co-founded an AI hardware company with no coding background and no engineering training, as the mother of two young boys, while relocating her family to Germany for her husband's career, with co-founders spread across three time zones. That is three solid reasons that everyone would understand as a reason to wait. But Elisa didn't. She treated all of them as logistics to be solved for.
Elisa, today's guest, is co-founder and COO of Memoket, and her career before this was a deliberate walk towards the part of a business where decisions actually get made: supply chain at Procter & Gamble, building manufacturing facilities as a young graduate, then a deliberate move into marketing, because marketing was where the business outcome was decided rather than serviced.
In this conversation Elisa makes her journey sound so ordinary, so casual you think 'yes well, of course'. She makes the hard parts sound easier than I know many of us think they are. There is travel, there are weeks away, there are children who cried the first time and adapted faster than she expected. There is a husband with his own career and no assumption that either of them is the default parent. And there is a clear-eyed answer to the question of whether she ever doubts it, which is yes, at three in the morning, and her response is to keep moving.
We also discuss whether luck has anything to do with this, or is it something else? It is worth listening for how often you use the word 'lucky' about your own career.
This is for anyone weighing a founder move, a side project, or any leap that currently feels badly timed.
WHAT'S COVERED
→ Why "should I?" is the wrong question, and what to ask instead
→ How to build in an industry you have no technical training in
→ What the logistics of founding actually look like with two young children and a partner with his own career
→ Why saying "I'm lucky" quietly erases the choices you made
→ The 3am doubt that every founder has, and what to do with it
→ Why "stay stable" is the worst advice she was ever given
RELATED EPISODES
Is entrepreneurship the right next step for you — https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/210-is-entrepreneurship-the-right-next-step-for-you-with-alex-batdorf/
The realities of leading as a young mom — https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/233-the-realities-of-being-a-leader-as-a-young-mom-a-coaching-conversation-with-madeleine-lambert/
Breaking out of your comfort zone and preparing for venture funding — https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/263-breaking-out-of-your-comfort-zone-emily-dinu-on-mindset-grit-and-preparing-for-venture-funding/
CONNECT WITH ELISA LU & CHECK OUT MEMOKET
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisa-lu-71757810/
Memoket — https://memoket.ai/
Ready to stop waiting for the right moment in your own career? Book a strategy call — https://tonicollis.com/lets-chat/
This episode was sponsored by our guest, Elisa Lu. Thank you Elisa and Memoket for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community. Toni has been testing the Memoket Gem and talks about it in the episode.
