Fairygodboss Of The Week: Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Fairygodboss
Fairygodboss
This week, at the United State of Women Summit, we had the privilege of meeting Sukhinder Singh Casssidy, who is ambitious, gracious, wise and articulate. Sukhinder sets a great example for all of us to embrace risk and ambition and try many new things. And, in addition to her day job as CEO of Joyus, she is single-handedly creating more gender diversity in the tech industry through theBoardlist.

Fairygodboss of the Week: Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
Founder, theBoardlist AND CEO, Joyus
San Francisco, CA

FGB: Tell us about your career. How did you get to where you are now?

SSC: Since I was young, I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Growing up, my father ran a medical practice in a small town in Canada, and I started helping him out when I was 10 doing things like filing his income taxes. My father was highly entrepreneurial and a risk-taker — he was one of the first buyers of AOL stock.

After college at Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada, I moved to New York to work for Merrill Lynch as a financial analyst and then to London, where I worked for British Sky Broadcasting. I ended up visiting a friend in the Bay Area and loved it so much, I decided to stay. I slept on a friend's parents' couch for almost three months looking for my first job, and my father was the person who encouraged all of that risk-taking.

My first job was disheartening; I was told I was too aggressive and was being given more menial tasks. I quit within 6 months and went to work at Junglee in business development, which was acquired by Amazon shortly after I started.

After building my career in business development at Junglee, I co-founded Yodlee, which built financial data systems. We eventually went through four rounds of funding and went public long after I left. I met Larry Page and Omid Kordestani from Google, and ended up becoming President of Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations.

Post-Google, I took on a role as CEO-in-Residence at Accel Partners while I planned the next phase of my career. I got the opportunity to step into the CEO role at Polyvore, which combined multiple things I was passionate about: fashion, design and technology. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out because of differences in the vision for the company — but a great learning experience for me personally.

I started Joyus in 2011; we bring engaging, entertaining video content in fashion, beauty and lifestyle to women who discover and buy compelling products through our platform. In addition to Joyus, I also started theBoardlist in 2015 as my passion project — increasing the representation of women on tech company boards.

FGB: What is an accomplishment that you are proud of?
SSC: Being a mom to 3 amazing kids.

FGB: What is a challenge that you've faced and overcome?
SSC: Failing in my first CEO job at Polyvore.

Lightning Round:

FGB: What do you do when you’re not working?
SSC: Hang out with my family!

FGB: If you could have dinner with one famous person - dead or alive - who would it be?
SSC: Tim Cook

FGB: What is your karaoke song?
SSC: “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor

FGB: What is your favorite movie?
SSC: Love Actually

FGB: What book would you bring with you on a desert island?
SSC: The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

FGB: What is your shopping vice? What would you buy if you won the lottery?
SSC: Vintage designer clothing finds

FGB: Who is your Fairygodboss?
SSC: Omid Kordestani, my boss at Google. He has a way of making everybody feel special.

FGB: What is the #1 career tip you'd like to share?
SSC: Learn how to sell your vision. Getting sales experience of any type is a muscle everyone should build.

Fairygodboss

Fairygodboss is all about women helping other women - so each week, we celebrate a woman who made a difference in another woman’s career. Is there a woman who has made a difference in your career? 
Celebrate her and thank her by nominating her here.