She Loves Tech’s Leanne Robers on visibility for the right reasons

As part of this year’s Women Of The Year celebration, the Her World x Singtel “Hello Possibilities” award is presented in collaboration with Singtel and recognises inspirational female game changers who have made it their business to improve the lives of women and society at large through their company’s impact, creativity and clever use of technology.

As far as prominent women in tech go, Leanne Robers is up there.

In the past five years she has been selected as an Obama Leader (Asia Pacific), awarded Booking.com’s Tech Playmaker of the year and Champion of Change in 2020 and was in Singapore’s Top 100 Women in Technology. Most recently, she was awarded the Woman of the Year special award in Monaco.

But these accolades all serve a purpose – exposure for She Loves Tech.

“When we first started getting awarded, it really, it did feel good,” she says thinking back. “The reason is because it felt like such a thankless job for so many years. And so I think, you know, we saw this as people starting to recognize the work that we were doing. The Monte Carlo Woman of the Year Award was especially meaningful because it wasn’t just recognizing the good work that She Loves Tech has done, but also the advances in technology in Asia. It was the first time it had an Asian recipient in all its 11 years.”

She is also quick to stress that these awards go to the whole She Loves Tech team, and not just her.

“People think that certain individuals are super people, but the reality is that, no, it’s not just about one person. A business can never be about one person. It’s always a collective effort.”

Case in point, She Loves Tech was the brainchild of her co-founder, Virginia Tan who is also the founder of Lean In China, and her friend Rhea See who is now She Loves Tech’s CEO. Many of the women who joined Lean In China were entrepreneurs in tech, and Virginia wanted to give them a platform to gain recognition. Leanne was introduced to the pair by Virginia’s cousin Nicole who said they should “have a chat”. This grew into She Loves Tech’s signature start-up competition and then expanded to other verticals including the She Loves Tech conference as well as acceleration programmes which run the gamut of mentorship to workshops to webinars. 

I ask Leanne about the need to be visible in a space like tech that is so highly competitive and male-dominated and she nods emphatically.

“It’s uncomfortable for many, even for us at She Loves Tech. I remember our early days when the team was doing really good work, but because we were not visible, it was actually slowing down our goal. So visibility really matters. You can create the best technology, or, you know, technology that changes the world, but if nobody knows about it, then nobody knows about it.”

Often female start-up founders start from an impact mindset, with a goal to change their communities and societies. Leanne believes all founders have to start this way – pinpointing a problem that needs to be solved, but not having visibility decreases the impact. One of the reasons this happens, she believes, is the confidence gap.

“Women tend to sell themselves short,” she says. “We have mentors that always tell us, ‘I wish your founders knew how amazing they are.’ They actually don’t communicate their value enough that investors see the real value of their technology that they’re building, and so their growth is decreased. So many good businesses end up shutting down because they can’t get enough capital.”

One of the greatest things about the She Loves Tech competition, is that many of the competitors end up being each other’s biggest supporters. Says Leanne, “Even though it’s called a competition, it’s so community-driven. Our founders tell us this is unlike any other competition they’ve been in because the people who are cheering them the loudest on stage are actually their competitors. They are the ones that help them, give them pointers and practice with each other. It’s really as much collaboration and cooperation as a competition.” 

She Loves Tech’s collaborative nature comes back to the relationship and dynamics of its three co-founders. “The three of us are such different people, but actually, in many ways, that has been a good thing,” says Leanne.

“We all have different perspectives and opinions. But I think what we’ve learned is to ask ourselves, ‘Who has the best viewpoint and what is best for the business?’I think that’s how we’ve overcome a lot of the challenges.”

This discussion comes back to visibility, in particular Leanne’s, who is probably the most visible of the three, and who has clearly put some thought into this.

“Last year, I asked Virginia what she thinks is my greatest strength. She said; ‘You’re so good at helping to amplify the work that we do, and I think that that has been important.’” Leanne has thought about this at length and has leveraged that visibility with a goal.

“Visibility isn’t just about being visible with no substance,” she shares.

“So many people think they are not comfortable being visible because they’re not comfortable bragging. But the truth is, if you are just telling facts, it is not bragging. One thing for us that is important is that we can continue the work that we do. So it’s not just about an award, it’s about how we can - through this award, or through this accolade, or even through this interview - reach people that can help women tech founders, and I think that for us is really important.”