Grit7 Maalis 2022

CCO Instabase, Ozge Ozcan: Rising and Falling - Like a Phoenix

Instabase’s Ozge Ozcan believes that many women have been fed a false story about motherhood: That it can be seen as a “decelerator” to one’s career. Instead, she’s found that raising two daughters has made her more competent in the chaotic, fast-paced world of early-stage startups. Through this experience, she’s had to learn how to be an “amazing leader” at home and in the office.

In this episode, Ozge and Joubin talk about her experience as an immigrant to the US from Turkey; the surprises she encountered taking her first real job at a then-much smaller MongoDB; how she’s learned to prioritize family over work, or vice versa; the challenges of running a customer success team; and how she has been able to hire more than 60 people in only a year at Instabase.

In this episode, we cover:

The dualities of Ozge’s home country, Turkey, and how she learned English (05:12)
Wrestling with guilt in all aspects of her life, and raising two daughters with her husband (09:35)
Understanding your triggers before burnout takes hold, and the dark side of grit (14:48)
Working at MongoDB, “there was so much emphasis” on feeling (22:18)
Spotting and fixing broken processes in enterprise tech, and when to apply old-school problem-solving (26:15)
A common misconception about how pregnancy and motherhood affect women’s ability to thrive at work (35:03)
What Instabase does and why Ozge decided to join another early-stage company (37:18)
The importance of metrics for customer success (41:00)
Recruiting for CS teams and the non-negotiable skill Ozge looks for: A high tolerance for ambiguity (44:18)
What she says when startup founders ask, “How do I set up a CS team?” (50:01)

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