Believe in what you want so much that it has no choice but to materialize.
She divides her time between Boston and San Francisco. Christine holds BS Computer Engineering degree and a Harvard Business School alumna.
Where did the idea for Dremel Analytics, e-Journal and Caviar Beauty come from?
It offers Big Data and Analytics solution. Hadoop deployment, algorithm design, solution deployment and diagnostic strategy.
The business leaders are turning into Big Analytics solutions allowing them to make the best business decision and monitoring performance daily. This includes powerful, flexible and scalable platform allowing a business decision to be analytical, strategic and operational.Business Intelligence has been the pillar to achieve competitive differentiation.
I’ve been in IT for the past 15 years. My career expertise revolves around Big data and Analytics. This is a just continuation of my current career and taking it to the next level being an entrepreneur.
e-Journal (Position: COO)
It is a digital notebook that you can record video, live class/meeting, take notes, add pdf and live meeting for class and business meeting.During our first pilot release, we got 20,500 downloads in less than a month! Please check it out too!
This is a great product and partnership with my co-founder Alan Cruz. The ability to have a digital notebook and live meeting at the same time is what we need either during class or meeting.
Caviar Beauty (Position: Chairman)
Family-owned business. A superior skin care line that makes use of all-natural purest ingredients to gently remove skin impurities and smoothens skin texture. It’s certified 100% natural and 0% chemicals. “Beauty never goes out of fashion!”.
This is my passion and love! I believe that we should always take care of ourselves. Look good and feel good!We are fortunate to have great clients in Manila. We export to Malaysia and Dubai too. I am in the position to structure the business and looking forward to more growth!I am obsessed with our products. Asia is known for beauty products and nature loving. When I was young, we used to go to spa every week – facial and massages in Manila.
Plus, monthly dermatologist visit. No worries about the cost! It only cost $5 to get a massage and $10 for facial that time! This is very common in Asia!
When we moved to New York, I find the some brands harsh for our skin and impractical to buy.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
My typical day involves problem-solving and setting priority.
· What is the severity of this business issue – Sev 1, 2, 3 or 4?
· What is being asked / problem?
· What are given information?
· What is the solution?
The ability to apply simple and focus are very important. I’d like to get things done as a leader. It saves effort and time. The time that can be used to relax or workout.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Creating a product that people want!
Requirement
• Business Objective
• What product?
• Who are the users?
• Why?
• Where?
Personas
• Primary
• Secondary
• Negative
Constraint
• Time
• Cost
• Resources
Design Alternatives
Option A, B, C
What’s one trend that really excites you?
Mobile Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the best! I can see that we’ll be getting rid of our laptops and moving everything to mobile.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Prioritizing. Urgent vs. Important.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
My first job as a Software Engineer at one of the biggest electric company. It has 132,000 employees and 20 Billion revenue. I was part of Network Team and the only female among mid 40s-50s male group. I was incredibly excited until my director asked me to “wash the grapes” and “make coffee”. Yikes! I worked very hard to get this role and felt I couldn’t apply my knowledge in engineering. I was 19 yrs old and immature. I resigned after two months. I don’t think it was the worst job rather a great lesson I learned to voice out my opinion.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
Extreme focus, due diligence, ability to network meaningfully
and lots of “NO” for unimportant parties.
I am always very nice, generous and taking care of others most of the time.
I usually end up doing many things!
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Only perfect practice makes perfect.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Creating a product that people want! Ask users and get as many feedback as much as you can.No matter how much marketing effort and cost, they won’t make sense if users are not engaged. The ability to understand how many times or hours users would you’re your application daily.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Hiring People. Wrong Partnership. Fire immediately. Move on and extreme due diligence next time!
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Robotics and Automation. Robot that could do household chores. Example: fold clothes from laundry and cook.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Professional: Website hosting (new business) $50
Personal: Products from my own skin care line (Caviar Beauty). $45
I believe in taking care of yourself. Beauty never goes out of fashion!
Relationship: I treat my friend at Wendys’ $5.00 meal !
We enjoyed with lots of laughter and catching up! hahahaha
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Founder’s Dilemmas by HBS Prof. Noam Wasserman
• Startup bible for all entrepreneurs.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road: A Harvard Psychologist’s Guide to
Becoming a Superstar by Harvard Prof Dr. Myra S. White
• Guiding principle to be a superstar.
Being the Boss by HBS Prof. Linda Hill
• Guiding principle on leadership and management.
They are amazing professors. I was fortunate to attend their class at HBS.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
Leadership and Innovation:
• John Sculley
• Steve Jobs
Having it all (Career, Great Family & Charity)
• Bill Gates
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.