I thought after more than 170 episodes of Womenpreneur Asia, I might become harder to surprise.
I haven’t.
I’m working on Season 12 now and I am just as excited about this season as I was about Season 11. [Season 12 should air sometime in November so stay tuned.]
Perhaps even more so.
Because once again, I’ve had the privilege of meeting women from across our region who are building businesses I would never have imagined—and hearing the stories behind why they started.
And that, more than anything, is what keeps me coming back to the microphone.
A cat groomer in Singapore
Take Jen.
She has built a cat grooming business and academy in Singapore.
A cat grooming academy! It’s the kind of business that immediately makes you curious.
How did she get into this? What does it take to build a business around something so specific? (There’s a deeper backstory to this and I really want you to hear the episode when it airs.)
And what made her see an opportunity where most people might simply see a niche?
These are the conversations I love because they remind me that entrepreneurship doesn’t have to follow a template.
Sometimes, you just notice something that other people don’t.
A Cambodian woman who never quite felt she belonged
Then there’s Sokuntha, the first Cambodian woman to appear on Womenpreneur Asia.
Her story stayed with me.
She was born breech in a refugee camp and almost died and later, grew up in France, and yet despite all of that movement across places and cultures, she told me she never quite felt that she belonged.
Today, she teaches ambitious women how to trust themselves again.
There is something deeply moving and interesting about that journey.
The very thing that may once have made you question where you belong can eventually become part of what helps you guide other people.
I can’t wait for you to hear her story.
And then there’s Karon…
My preliminary calls with guests are supposed to take about 30 minutes. Our calls help us discuss angles for the recording and help me understand the guest at depth.
Karon and I talked for more than an hour.
At some point, I knew:
Ah. This is my kind of tribe.
We couldn’t stop talking about possibility thinking, collaboration, and the things that are often missing when people try to collaborate.
You know those conversations where you keep saying, “Yes!” and “Exactly!” and then suddenly realise an hour has gone by?
That was us. Our conversation was simply too engaging.
Our podcast episode was just as energetic and filled with strategies for collaborations.
Falling in love with the qipao
Then there’s Julie of Hong Kong.
She fell in love with the qipao—the elegant Chinese dress—and built a fashion business around it.
But what I found fascinating was that she didn’t simply preserve the qipao as something beautiful from the past.
She reimagined it for everyday wear.
There’s something wonderful about taking an element of culture and asking:
How can we make this relevant to the lives people are living today?
That tension between heritage and possibility makes for a fascinating entrepreneurial story.
From a Borneo wild mango seed to skincare
Vellarry’s story took me somewhere completely different.
She creates skincare for people with eczema and sensitive skin, using the bambangan seed. Bambangan is a wild mango endemic to Borneo.
And what caught my attention was not just the skincare itself.
It was the idea behind it.
Taking a little-known Malaysian fruit and finding value in something that would essentially have been discarded as waste. (And Vellarry’s social enterprise hires local women.)
There is so much entrepreneurial thinking packed into that.
Look at what already exists.
Look at what others overlook.
Then ask: What else could this become?
That question fascinates me. (Because I too have created a project that repurposes usable books – the project has generated more than a million ringgit since we began in 2016. That’s another story for another day.)
Inspiring women to grow podcasts
Another podcast guest, Khine, from Myanmar, told me something during our conversation that genuinely surprised me.
She said I had inspired her to start a podcast in the Myanmar language.
How amazing is that?
I started Womenpreneur Asia because I believed we can’t model what we cannot see.
I wanted to document the real stories of Asian women entrepreneurs so that other women could see what was possible for them too.
And suddenly, years later, one of those women was telling me that I had become part of the reason she wanted to tell stories herself.
It reminded me of Sharyne from Fiji, who also told me that I had inspired her to start a podcast for Fijian entrepreneurs.
Those moments are incredibly special to me.
Because they remind me that sometimes the work we do travels further than we realise.
And then there’s Lakshmi — my bonus episode
I also spoke to Lakshmi, who is based in the US, who started a matchmaking platform for Indians living abroad.
And the story of how it started is wonderfully entrepreneurial.
She was finding it challenging to find a suitable groom for her daughter.
So she did what many resourceful people do when they can’t find what they need- she created something which was initially a simple WhatsApp group.
Today, that WhatsApp group has evolved into a platform connecting serious Indian suitors abroad.
I’ve made Lakshmi’s episode a bonus episode because, technically, she sits outside the geographical focus of Womenpreneur Asia.
My focus has always been on women entrepreneurs in the Asian region.
But Lakshmi is Indian and her platform specifically serves Indians living abroad.
So while she may be based in the US, the community she serves is very much connected to Asia.
And I thought her story was too interesting not to share.
It also reinforces something I love about entrepreneurship:
Sometimes the business is hiding inside the problem you’re personally trying to solve.
Why I’m still doing this
After all these seasons, I’m still curious.
Still asking questions and still fascinated by women who see an opportunity where others don’t. Still interested in the stories behind the businesses. I never get tired of the stories.
And still surprised by the connections that happen when you simply put yourself out there and start a conversation.
Season 12 is bringing me women from Singapore, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and beyond—with one bonus episode reaching into the Indian diaspora in the US.
Different countries, businesses and life stories.
But underneath all of them, I keep finding the same thing: Possibility.
The possibility that your past doesn’t have to determine your future.
That an unusual idea can become a business.
That something overlooked can become valuable.
That culture can be reimagined.
That a WhatsApp group can become a platform.
That collaboration can create something neither person could have created alone.
And sometimes, that sharing your own story can give someone else permission to tell theirs.
That is why, after all these years, I’m still excited to press record.
Season 12 is coming.
And I can’t wait for you to meet these women.