Francesca: Hello and welcome back to Centsational Chats where we dive into the stories of extraordinary women who are making significant strides in their careers and lives. I'm Francesca, your host and today I'm thrilled to welcome Venus Modabber. She's based in New York and she's currently the global Google Alliance senior manager at PWC and also co-founder of Salad House. Venus’ journey is nothing short of remarkable, from making impactful decisions in the dynamic world of tech and finance to nurturing her entrepreneurial spirit with the creation of Salad House. She embodies the essence of versatility and resilience at the same time and as a professional balancing a demanding career and motherhood Venus insights are invaluable for anyone navigating similar paths. So Venus, thank you so much for being here with us today, thank you for your time. It's a pleasure for us.
Venus: Thank you! Thank you for having me Francesca. Love to be here.
Francesca: Thank you. So could you please start by telling us a little bit about your role at PWC?
Venus: Sure! So I work at PWC. It's a global consulting firm. I'm based in New York and I'm part of the tech alliances team. So that means that we work with our alliance, our counterparts, our tech counterparts, Google, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, in making sure that we deliver impactful outcomes for our mutual clients. So we work with Google at a global level to say how it is that we can embed technology and deliver the results on the clients where we're delivering projects and that they're delivering projects on as well. It's a pretty interesting role especially now.
Francesca: Great! In your experience what are the key trends shaping the tech and finance industries globally?
Venus: So I think the buzz word which if I had a dollar, if I had a cent for every time that it was mentioned I would be a much richer woman is AI clearly. So there's no escaping it. I think every company is grappling with how to embed AI, what are the systems processes, what are the cultural changes and how it actually impacts the company. I think it's a buzz word that's here to stay and it's also creating a lot of uncertainty I think in the workforce I mean never like this year has tech been under a magnifying glass for layoffs which have never really occurred. Tech has always been a safe haven right. Finance you've had your finance crashes and the ups and downs and there were I mean you and I graduated right in a year in which it was the worst year for finance and cyclical.
Francesca: Ever!
Venus: Ever! But tech has always been safe from that so far and said this year has been brutal and so I think this is also a way of companies trying to understand how AI is actually shaping everyday job duties. It's shedding some layers. I think it'll come out stronger in the end.
Francesca: And for someone like you in the end transitioning from banking to tech oriented role, do you feel you have any advice you could share with our women who might want to make the same move?
Venus: So I think that career path and I think this changes by country. I think it's a very cultural approach. So I think that in the US the way a career path is decided is based on your skill set and your interest. The knowledge that you can learn everything, if you're smart enough you can learn everything. I think in Europe maybe in Italy it's more about the skill set you know and where you can apply it and so I think that creates less flexibility in terms of switching between career paths. I remember when I started my first job in Italy at Deloitte it was in audit and it was like I would be doing audit my whole life because no other job after two years, or three years of audit would actually let you switch because it's like oh you're an audit expert, you know nothing about audit after two years or three years anyway to be honest with you, so it's not like you become some expert. Instead from there I switch the finance in London because in London they understood, you know what, the skill set that you bring and your goodwill, you can grow in another role and so same thing I think with moving then from finance to a more consulting tech role it's what is it that you bring from that experience into your new role. So there's a lot more flexibility I think that from the finance world what I mean I joined Finance especially on the consulting side in an era in which there was Dodd-Frank, there was SEC regulation, I mean it was just like really really intense period for I think for consultants with all the regulation coming down and so the consulting firm had lot to do clearly and so we were very busy and I think that now tech is under the same scrupulous agenda in terms of legislation in terms of public opinion. You have figures like Bezos and Elon Musk that are everyday names, right. The way Jamie Dimon could have been in the finance world when everything was going up in the air for finance. I think for women trying to approach moving careers it's more how it is that you show value in what you did previously and can bring it to the next one. So when I was actually going to tech I was like look I've been in very very uncertain periods in the finance world and I think tech is going to be the same right now. The relevance of the agenda right in terms of you need to see where it's sitting historically. Is it sitting on top of people's agendas and right now tech is so I'm happy about this flexibility. I think it brings a lot I would challenge everybody in their current job to say if anybody tells you oh you're not supposed to go in you know you need to go down the audit route necessarily question it or you need to go down the marketing and question it and see what are the other jobs that actually value your experience as opposed to your skill set.
Francesca: But I think you said a key point here that is all, in the end, it all comes down to the cultural environment where you find yourself and you pointed out that in the US and even in London when you move to London you know most of the times you can even find people who are graduated in history or in philosophy out of the Anglo-Saxon environment who in the end start a finance career and this is something that usually in more Continental Europe this doesn't happen because as soon as you find and choose your like University path and kind of like you're stuck in there and then also the first jobs that you decide to do after you get graduated then are the ones who try or tend to like sign your path forward, right. So I mean your point is absolutely valuable. So it always depends on where you are and where you live. I mentioned in my intro today that you are also a, you're kind of like a hybrid because you've got a very strong entrepreneurial spirit as well as you know, I mean what for example inspired you to co-found Salad House during your sabbatical year?
Venus: So salad house was a labour of love that was born out of a period in which I should have been more relaxing in six months sabbatical and that didn't end up being so I'm very happy for these six months but it has been a labour of love. I took six months off PWC and wanted to travel and also had this idea of salad house with my brother, my co-founder, because we he went to University in Italy and was shocked by the lack of salad chains and salad bars the way they're conceived in New York like in New York a salad is something that is a full meal it's huge it's mixed it has proteins it's just like it's not a side dish right and it's the staple of every office life in New York. When he got there he was like this isn't here I went back to visit I was like actually you're right and so we started this journey on founding salad house. We clearly don't come from a hospitality background so it was all completely new for us. We had also never set anything up in Italy from an entrepreneur country, as a country right where to start entrepreneurship. So that was also interesting path discovery into bureaucracy and processes and just you know the way of doing business in Italy
Francesca: It’d be challenging I would say as well right.
Venus: I would say if you do it in Italy you can do it anywhere.
Francesca: Yeah.
Venus: Just for the type of…
Francesca: I tend to agree.
Venus: It's a different level like labour laws for example right. Like that's completely different from the US. In the US economy that's build that favours entrepreneurial spirit you need to have certain types of labour laws as well, so it's just a different journey, but so we started with one it was supposed to be very much a proof of concept. It went really well so we started fundraising for the second one. So far it was all very grassroot friends and family. We started fundraising for the second one and by fundraising I mean we would ask everybody if they knew people who knew people who knew people who knew people. So it was very much basic, even then that was entrepreneurial right. So we were too small to go to actual funds because they say you need to have a certain turnover before you approach funds you need to have certain processes in place and we weren't there yet. So we contacted everybody we knew and did our fundraising rounds we pitched we had them come in we showed them processes we sent samples. It was very fun but also very challenging clearly so then we managed to open up our second location near Duomo in Milano and that one caters more to the offices which is our main customer base and yeah so then we were supposed to open another three in Milan because a fund was actually interested in joining us. But what happened as you can imagine lunch in the covid world and also post-covid world is a different type of activity because smart-working has completely changed the dynamics and the office lifestyle. So now we're entering a new era of Salad House which is how do we cater to this smart working which is the new normal? So how do we try to be successful in the new normal. But yeah so that's the journey, journey for Salad House. Right now I'm based in New York and Salad House is in Milan so when I go to Italy I visit and check in but I'm not…
Francesca: Yeah it's a, it's predominantly it’s your brother is in charge of it, right.
Venus: Yeah my brother's mainly.
Francesca: But I think you were one of the pioneers here because as you rightly pointed out, I mean salad was seen normally as a sort of side, not as a complete meal with proteins ,carbohydrates and everything in there. I think you also contributed to a sort of like shift in nutrition and how also salad as a main meal can be a complete full meal for lunch in this case or even dinner. Why do you believe nutrition is crucial for overall well being and success? I mean, why you started from food is just because you kind of saw a product gap?
Venus: I think food needs to respect lifestyle, right. So it needs to adjust accordingly. I think for the lifestyle the majority of us have, having a sit down meal with a main course a second and a side dish just isn't feasible anymore. I think the countries adapting to that are also the countries that have more examples of Diversified restaurant business. Um, diversified menus diversified food experiences right and I think that Italy is changing in that regard because of the hours that are worked, because of the expectations from employees, because of just you know the way Society is changing and I think that salad house really cater to that changing Society needs. I mean before nobody used to, for example deliveries, I mean when I went to college x amount of years ago, deliveries just weren't what they were now. You can't exist if you're not on a delivery platform or understand what having a fleet to manage delivery means. I think to answer your question you know, how did we get into the food business, was it only for the gap or was it for the nutritional things? I think it's for how nutrition often reflects changes in society.
Francesca: So going back more to career balance between your career and your personal life as a mom, is there anything you would like to recommend? Also because you know most of the time I guess you also have to make a few trips out to Europe and then down to Italy also to check out your business, how do you usually manage these trips with your daughter?
Venus: I wouldn't say there's balance. So my personal view is that it's a bit of a myth. I think you need to. There are periods in life in which you focus on one thing and periods on which you focus on another and sometimes you need to focus on all of them together but with less intensity or sometimes you focus only on one with more intensity. So I think that I've personally had all these phases in which I focus very much on my career, I focus very much on my business, I focus very much on family and I think the balance is admitting to yourself that you're going to have a first place a second and a third place in terms of priority in that moment and coming to terms with that. In terms of balancing, how I've balanced it or unbalanced, is I'm going with the flow in the sense that right now I'm fine with putting my baby who's two and first place with my job and then for example Salad House as a step back. That said, you need to organize it so I think the key to having any sort of prioritization is having a good sense of what it takes to enable you to do that. So for example we had for Salad House, it's an example, we had to hire a very good manager to manage the stores that means that you're going to be spending more money on hiring that type of talent. We could be spending less, get a more junior person, but I specifically chose a higher paid manager because my expectation is that they deliver certain results and that they support me in the way that I can't be close to the business right now because of my prioritization, so that's one thing. It's being clear on what it takes to get you to make that choice with work for example daycare and babysitters. Is that easy? No. But what does that mean, that you cut down on other things. I have a clear supporting husband, supporting family here in New York, so clearly that plays a lot into it. But at the end of the day whatever balance one talks about it's just simply where you decide to put your investments and organize yourself and what it takes to enable you to put that on top of your list. I've never had all three things going 150% right. I've had one going 100 one going 90 one going 60, so it's coming to terms with that at least for me.
Francesca: And I really thank you for your transparency, because sometimes people say I just do everything at the same time and I'm perfect. But nobody's perfect. So in the end it’s a question of prioritizing. As you said there are different stages in life. Sometimes I mean you want to spend more time with your kids because they're younger and then after a while you want a chance to invest just in your career and so on and so forth. Do you have any advice for like aspiring entrepreneurs especially women who are considering starting or their own business or just a side hustle?
Venus: For the way I've approached it and I'm very on the cautious side so I'm a conservative person generally. Even though I've changed countries, changed industries, changed jobs, started a side business notwithstanding all this, I tend to consider myself quite conservative. I personally feel that if you're going to start your own business, to really think about start your own business and give up a salary and give up a stable job and give up being an employee I think you really need to consider how is it that I can explore this through a proof of concept, through maybe a lesser version of the business while I continue having my paycheck. That means putting in more hours, that means you don't have weekends, that means you after you check out of your job, even if you have crazy hours as Finance had you know you finish at 9pm- 10pm, guess what…
Francesca: Then you start another job.
Venus: You start another job, that's just my point of view because I feel that you never want to find yourself in the position of not having your independence and not being able to say I need to do this right, I want to do this or I need to do so. I think having economic backing is very important. I personally would not feel comfortable having put all my eggs into one basket and then saying…
Francesca: Diversification! Not just in portfolio, but also in life.
Venus: In life, but to do that you need to take a step back sometimes right so you can't. That means having maybe a co-founder that's more in it. That might mean you have less equity though. Are you willing to have less equity but also be able to keep a stable job on the side, I mean as your main job right? So there are various choices that come with what I just said. With not going full in into your side business. Are you comfortable with those choices and the consequences of it? So for me that has always been a sticking point. I think somebody once asked me you know what would it take for you to leave your tech consulting job and go full on and I said I don't know because when I'll get to that I'll know, but right now I feel like I'm a more complete person and a happier person. I'm happier in my job in consulting and I'm happier in my entrepreneurial, by having both.
Francesca: It's a very good point because in the end people see side hustle like something that you start, you see if it's working or not and then potentially transform into full-time business. But there are even people as you rightly pointed out that they just enjoy the side hustle but that's it and that keep it as a side hustle not as your full-time job. To conclude if I can, just my last question would be like how do you see the role of platforms like Cent for Woman in supporting and empowering women in their careers, their personal growth, their financial independence? I mean, do you think these platforms have a significant role to play in regions like Europe? What's your personal view?
Venus: Absolutely! I think women need to share more. They need to share more because it enables, I think better decision-making. The more stories we share, the more insight, the more connections we make among people. I think that's where our power lies and I feel like platforms like this are a good way to do that and to enable that. I think men have always gone through history differently and their success differently but that's not necessarily going through our strong points right. So for me hearing a man talk about his career and hearing a woman talk about their career I approach it differently, in the way I receive the information. So I think platforms like this are great for that and thank you for setting it up.
Francesca: Thank you! So Venus, and I never know how to pronounce your name correctly. Is it like Venus or Venus? It’s a…
Venus: As you wish, as you wish. It's both right.
Francesca: Is it both ways? Okay great! Thank you so much for, you know, sharing your invaluable insights and you know for being a role model to women who are striving to make their mark in the world. I do believe that your story is a testament to what can be achieved with perseverance. Because as you mentioned during your six months of sabbatical, you didn't go to Maldives and then relax on a beach but you decided to really work hard, with passion dedication and a commitment to personal growth. So thank you, thank you so much for your time today.
Venus: Thank you so much
Francesca: And uh you know to all our listeners. I hope this episode has motivated you to push your aspirations with confidence and remember the importance of balance in every aspect of your life. Last but not least of course be sure to subscribe to Centsational Chat podcast for more empowering stories and practical advice. Don't forget to check out our free resources on Cent of a Woman website for further inspiration and guidance on your journey and then thank you for joining us today. So keep striving, keep thriving and remember that your journey is as unique as you are. Thank you, Venus!
Have a great day all!
Bye!
Venus: Bye bye!
