Pledge 1%'s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Paulwyn Devasundaram
Founder, Medoo
Sydney, NSW, Australia
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
Founder of Medoo. We’re an early stage startup building software to support coaches (and managers, therapists or anyone who takes on a coaching role) accelerate the growth process for their clients and help them reach new heights of inner development.
This year's International Women's Day theme is "Embrace Equity." What does this mean to you? How can we build workplaces that are more equitable and inclusive?
Embracing Equity to me means putting the humans (staff & customers) above all else. I truly believe that doing so will create the space for the business to thrive.
Embracing Equity to me also means taking the long term view, and consistently making progress towards creating workplaces where everyone feels a sense of belonging. This means being intentional about the kind of workplace culture we want to create, being intentional about modelling the behaviours that cascade down from leadership, and being intentional about the incentives for career progress.
None of this is easy, it takes time and consistent effort. But these consistent efforts will compound over time!
Do you have any mentors or role models who have helped you on your personal journey?
- Anu Bharadwaj, President of Atlassian
- Emma Jones, Founder of Project F
- Brendan Humphreys, Head of Engineering at Canva
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
"Be brave and courageous, because all you have is now" - Ronni Kahn
The past few years have brought many new and unprecedented challenges. What keeps you motivated or inspires you to stay optimistic?
I love what we are building at Medoo, and it's easy for me to stay motivated because I am passionate about what we are building.
This is not to say that I'm doing this all on my own: I have an incredible amount of support from friends, family, old and new colleagues, to name a few. They have given me their time, expertise and support, often for free, because they believe in what we are building.
Pledge 1% helps companies of all sizes and stages leverage their assets for social good. Why do you think it's important that companies prioritize social impact? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
We're a pre-revenue startup at the moment, so we pledged 1% of our time. Last year, we did a cleanup dive in Sydney as part of our 1% activity. It opened our eyes to the sheer volume of pollution in our oceans, and it was heartbreaking to see the impact that it has on our beautiful marine life.
While this one dive may not make the biggest difference, we believe that every little bit matters. And we're ever more motivated to increase our impact work, as we scale up our business. Imagine what we could do if every business contributed in some way! This is why I love Pledge 1%.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
I'm going to break the rule and use two words 😄 'Blue Flame': A flame that burns hot and bright, and yet is cool and soothing at the same time.
I think this captures the feeling that I try to create within my inner self, and what we hope people can create for themselves with Medoo.
Do you have any unique or useful life hacks to help get through your day?
Life hacks' implies to me that there is some little trick or small thing that unlocks a magical level of productivity or success.
I don't think life works this way, and the reality is pretty simple: consistent effort gets rewarded. Humans are terrible at being consistent, so a person who shows up every single day, and makes progress will create a compounding effect that gets rewarded over time.
Do you have any go-to apps or tools use love to use?
Medoo 🙂
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
We're launching Medoo to the public very soon! And we're planning to apply to YC this year. 🙂
