Story: Lean In

Charlene’s penthouse, Pavillion Suites, was located on the top floor of an upscale part of KL, with sweeping views of the majestic Twin Towers in plain sight. Tall floor to ceiling windows, and the sculpture of a bare-chested Venus, with her aloof smile, gave a stark welcome to Charlene’s guests as they passed through the magnificent lobby. The granite floors were so shiny that it reflected my silhouette as I walked over it, my footsteps tapping to the tunes of the music played in the background. Charlene’s penthouse was an extension of herself – opulent, over the top, unapologetic.

I let out an embarrassingly ugly cry as Charlene stood up from her lounge and walked over to greet me. In tears, I clutched on to Charlene tightly, almost like a child in a store who has finally found her mother after wandering around, lost. Charlene sat me down beside her on her plush velvet sofa and offered me a drink.

“What’s the matter, my darling?”

In slow and careful words, alternated with muffled sobs, I relayed to her what happened with Khairul Illias of RR Capital.

“Poor girl,” Charlene comforted me in her low, sympathetic and sincere voice.

“We must take matters into our own hands. It’s time for us girls to lean on each other,” she said firmly.

After a sip of her ginger tea, I was refreshed and my mind became lucid again. This was just a blip in the journey of building something meaningful, not a setback that will bring me down. I regained my composure, my tears dried and our afternoon ended with laughs.

Later at home, as I was preparing for bed, Charlene shared a video on TikTok. To my surprise, the video, with a passionate plea for women to support other women against discrimination faced as we are about to build a business, reached 200,000 views. There were comments that expressed rage at the incident retold by Charlene and to my surprise, financial pledges were made to help build my start-up.

“Ting! You have received a new order for Yo!Helper.”

“Ting! You have received a new order for Yo!Helper.”

My phone was buzzing with a sudden surge of orders for Yo!Helper’s services, more than what I could cope with. In a sudden turn of events, my business bank account swelled with a gush of payments for our services.

Messages started pouring in to show support and there were also women who reached out to share their experiences with predatorial VCs, even to the extent of exchanging money for sex. Some of the stories were horrific, and from what I can gather, what I experienced was relatively mild in comparison, just the tip of the iceberg.

I woke up the next morning to see that Charlene’s TikTok video had reached 1.9 million views. News spread around like raving wildfire and it was picked up by VulcanNews.com and several media outlets. My story was now one of the main headlines with hashtags like #mansplaining #metoo to encourage other women to come out with their own stories of discrimination within the start-up industry. I became, overnight, a heroine.

Then, out of the blue, I received a familiar text.