Anita Moorthy: Engineering To Marketing
In episode #14 of My 2.0, guest Anita Moorthy, CEO and Founder of The European Startup Show, shares her transition from being a computer engineer to product marketing and podcasting.
Anita has experienced several transitions in her life, starting from when she was studying computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, working in their coop programs when she realized at the end of her term that she really didn’t want to become a programmer but instead chose to become an IT consultant, focussing on the bigger picture in business. She wanted to understand the power of IT as an enabler melding it with business.
In her second transition, she started a company in Boston focussing on doctors and nurses, and how they could use technology as a platform to be more savvy with information from consumers. She took on product development as her responsibility and enjoyed building a business so much that she went on to pursue her MBA at the Sloan school of Management. She then moved on to Siebel as a product manager, where she was the CEO of her product, managing all aspects of it, bringing together business, management and engineering. And it was when she realized her passion to be the go-to-market aspect of a product. In her personal life, she experienced a lot of transitions by virtue of her husband moving across the globe for his career.
Anita feels that the way to find out what we’re going to be good at is by moving through a series of experiments. To understand and embrace curiosity about people, cultures and the unknown. To tap into what is accessible and leverage that to build current or new skills.
For any new careers we transition to, she does not feel that we need to have the full skill set for our new career. But that we build on the core skills, using self learning, and by learning through our network, and subject matter experts.
She started her podcast as she was transitioning from her last company and learning a few new things about herself - how she learns and communicated. And as the pandemic struck the world, and she immersed herself in the world of podcasts, she realized there wasn’t a podcast based on startups in Europe. And hence the birth of her show!
Her advice to her pre-transition self is to grow and learn in every aspect of the job and not take it so seriously. To enjoy the journey and not just the goal. To reflect on the growth and not be stocks in the weeds.
Her transitions have always been supported by people, her family, her husband and her network.
To be better prepared for future transitions, it’s best to have an idea of what we are good at and what we would like to be good at. And of not being afraid but have the confidence of doing new things successfully.
As for encouraging entrepreneurship in girls and women, she feels the US does a great job at providing the right opportunities, rewarding both successes and failures and building a culture of risk tolerance. She also thinks we should encourage our children to solve abstract problems so they are viewed as fun and not fearful.
She thinks her experience of living in so many countries around the world has made her personality and experiences more complex and richer. While she does not have roots that people have when living in the same place for a long time, she wouldn’t trade her rich experiences for it!
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