A Single Mom Who Rewrote Her Story And How You Can Too - Elise Tan, Founder of Asia Startup Network, Remarkable Women Asia| Ep 42

There is a part of women having it all that nobody talks about honestly. The postpartum depression that sent her to the hospital for a month. The marriage that counselling could not save. The Thursday nights her daughter went to her father, and she did not know what to do with the silence.

Elise Tan has lived through all of it. And she built two communities from the rubble.

She is the founder of Asia Startup Network, a community of 5,000 startups, investors, and ecosystem partners across the region, and Remarkable Women, a growing network of 1,000 women in tech and entrepreneurship. Before that, she was a Director at Vertex Ventures, one of Southeast Asia's best-known venture funds.

What she built is impressive. Who she became is the real story.

Because behind all of that is a single mom of a seven-year-old who went through postpartum depression, a sudden job loss, a painful separation, and a season of alcoholism, all at the same time. And instead of letting that define her, she used every single bit of it to build something real.

She did not have the answers. She just refused to stay stuck.

What we get into:

💯 Why she tried to score 100 at motherhood and what it cost her body 

🪞 How her daughter became her mirror, reflecting back both the good and the parts she is still working on

💔 Why she calls divorce a pointless grief and what it actually takes to move through it

🍷 The Thursday nights her daughter left and what she reached for to fill the silence

✍️ How journaling 50 dates over four years helped her finally understand what she was actually looking for in a partner

🧘 Why she stopped believing the end justifies the means and what motherhood taught her about kindness over being right

🏃 Why she no longer believes in having it all at the same time and what she thinks we should be asking instead

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CONNECT WITH ELISE AND HER COMMUNITIES

👋 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisetanyl/

👋 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gratitude_devotions/

👋 Asia Startup Network: https://www.asiastartupnetwork.com/

👋 Remarkable Women Asia: http://www.remarkablewomen.asia/

👋 Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment: https://positiveintelligence.com/saboteurs/

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Chapters

00:00 What Did a Month in Hospital Teach Her

00:59 Introduction

03:25 When Everything Fell Apart at Once

09:43 How Did She Find Her Way Back

20:03 How Did Asia Startup Network Begin

23:13 Can Women Really Access Capital in Asia

26:18 Why Did She Build a Community Just for Women

28:21 What Does It Mean to Rewrite Your Story

35:36 What Dating After Divorce Really Looks Like

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Watch more: Lessons From 5,000 Moms | Liying Tay, Founder of Crunchmoms | Ep 41  - https://youtu.be/bamcpRZT5pU?si=EKvURLeJ36r50W0L

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💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/make-it-work-asia-podcast/ 

🎵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Make-It-Work/61566472637714/ 

🍏 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/make-it-work/id1701442085 

🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/78ulY0B27nYxGB6jPCABPI?si=abfc48d037d943be 

📥 Email: [email protected]

Join our free Mommas Making It Work WhatsApp community: https://bit.ly/MIWcommunity

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