Meet the Matchable Team: Foong, Founder and CEO
With International Women’s Day fast approaching, we caught up with Matchable’s founder and CEO, Foong, to chat about her career in corporate volunteering and being a woman in the startup world.
Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what your career has looked like so far?
Sure! I’m Foong and I’m the founder and CEO of Matchable, a b2b startup that matches companies and their employees with innovative projects at non-profits and impact startups.
I’m from a pretty traditional Asian family so my parents always wanted me to pick a traditional vocational job - become a lawyer, or dentist, or doctor - that sort of thing. So, I read Law at uni and then I became an accountant… I actually worked at PwC for 13 years; I joined as a graduate, eventually made Director, and it was at that point that I started to ask myself - is this really what I want to do for the rest of my career?
At the time I was advising on mergers and acquisitions for private equity and real estate funds, and I realised that it just wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So, I took a sabbatical for 3 months to try and find my purpose - I know, very millennial of me - and that’s when I found Matchable.
“I started asking myself - is this really what I want to do for the rest of my career?”
Have you faced any barriers to your career because of being a woman, or an Asian woman?
Hmm… It’s interesting - I think yes, I have faced some of those barriers. Definitely with fundraising, there’s lots of stats out there that show that only 1% or 2% of funding goes to women and mixed teams, with the rest going to male founded startups.
At the same time, I’d say I’ve never experienced overt bias or discrimination myself. I have heard, anecdotally, a lot of stories from female founders who’ve pitched and then received feedback that their skirt was too short… I’ve never personally experienced that, luckily. Still, I think that the environment is set up in such a way that unconscious bias is facilitated.
Looking back at my career at PwC, and also at my position now as an Asian, female founder, I do feel that there’s a lot more awareness of the imbalance in opportunities given to female and minority founders. In a lot of ways, I’ve probably been the beneficiary of some of the initiatives to combat those imbalances. So, it’s sort of been swings and roundabouts for me.
Do you think the startup space and the corporate, accountancy world pose different challenges to women?
That’s a good question! I think there’s definitely a very general bias that affects both spaces, that as a society we need to work through. I mean, PwC is a really well established company with 20,000 people, with it’s own processes and D&I teams etc, comparing that with startups and the startup world… I think both have pros and cons.
At PwC there were a lot of structures in place to try and reduce bias and inequality, and the people at the top definitely had the right ideas and attitudes when it came to implementing them. The leadership there was really amazing in terms of that. At big organisations, though, implementation is much more difficult - getting these initiatives to filter down into the different teams and parts of the company can be really hard. There’s definitely more hurdles to overcome as a bigger company.
In the startup world, I think organisations have the benefit of really being able to set their own rules. Of course, there’s still unconscious bias and discrimination, but it can be easier to address when you’re a much smaller business.
Looking at Matchable, it definitely doesn’t seem like there’s an issue with gender bias!
Haha I know! We need to go the other way… we need more men!
Have you been inspired by any specific women in your career?
I think I’ve ended up taking elements from different people that I look up to, to try and combine them into who I want to be as a leader and as a person.
When I was mid-management level, it was all about the Sheryl Sandberg ‘Lean In’ movement, and she was definitely a big influence in terms of how I think about gender and balance. I know everyone’s a fan of Brené Brown and I love her as well. Plus, she’s an introvert and I’m definitely an introvert, so seeing her stand up and do these amazing TED Talks, telling stories in such an engaging way, and really driving home a message… I think she’s amazing.
“My advice is just to go for it.”
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Hmm… I think always remembering to have perspective. Maybe because it’s really relevant to me at the moment - trying to fundraise and run a business at the same time.
It can get quite easy to get sucked into what you’re doing day-to-day, and that can become the be-all and end-all of who you are and how you identify yourself, and also how stressed you get. Some of those small things can feel like they’re huge, because they’re so big for you in that moment, and having the ability to press pause and take a step back is really important.
Plus, when I do step back, I realise that I get to work at and build something I love everyday. That’s amazing, it’s such a privileged position to be in.
Coming to think of it, I think it was my mum who told me that…
Do you have any advice for women who dream of becoming entrepreneurs?
My advice is just to go for it. If it’s something that you’re passionate about, if you can support yourself for 2 or 3 months to go out and try the thing that you’ve always wanted to do, you’ve just got to do it. It might be scrappy and unpolished at first, but you’ll get there, and it will be worth it.
ABOUT MATCHABLE
At Matchable we work with companies and their employees to match them with high impact and innovative skilled volunteering projects at non-profits and impact startups.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how your employees can upskill through our social impact projects, get in touch here.