What is the key to unlocking your startup’s full potential?
In episode 49 of Women Disrupting Tech, you get the answer from the always-inspiring Arosha Brouwer. Spoiler: it’s not about the money.
Recently, Quan announced that they secured new funding (bringing the total funding to $3m) and concluded an exciting new strategic partnership with the most significant occupational health and safety service provider in The Netherlands.
In this episode, Arosha returns to Women Disrupting Tech to share her insights, strategies, and experiences from her journey from startup to scale-up. This knowledge is invaluable whether you’re a female founder or a male ally.
When you’re ready for 45 minutes of female founder magic, click the play button below, or search for “Women Disrupting Tech” in your favorite podcast app to listen.
Building a Company With Grace and Empathy with Arosha Brouwer | Episode 49 of Women Disrupting Tech – Women Disrupting Tech
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About Arosha Brouwer and Quan
Arosha Brouwer was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Australia. She is the CEO and co-founder of Quan. She and Lucy Howie founded the company in 2019, just before COVID-19. Prior to Quan, Arosha worked for large international companies like PwC, DSM, and TNT. As of 10 April, Arosha is also a lead mentor at the Dutch New Narrative Lab.
Quan is a B2B SaaS Software company that focuses on helping teams measure and proactively manage their well-being. In 2022, Quan was the first Dutch female-led startup to be accepted into a YCombinator program.
Quan recently concluded a strategic partnership with Dutch Occupational Health Care provider Zorg van de Zaak to ensure that 1 million employees in the Netherlands can identify mental health issues before they lead to employee burnout. You can learn more about it in this press release, where they also announce closing their bridge funding round.
You can learn more about how Quan can help your organization measure and proactively manage employee burnout on its website or by following it on LinkedIn.
Tip: Listen to episode 3 to learn more about Arosha’s and Quan’s journey.
The magic you can expect in this episode 🪄
After being my guest in episode 3 of Women Disrupting Tech, it’s safe to say that Arosha Brouwer has been very busy.
Over the past two years, Arosha grew her company while raising new funds and attracting additional customers.
But she also had to downscale the team to survive a funding crunch before concluding an exciting new partnership with The Netherlands’ largest occupational health provider.
And, in the end, Quan also managed to secure funding as part of a bridge round. How about that for a roller coaster ride?
To allow you to benefit from her experiences, and because it’s just a heck of a story, I asked her to come back on as a guest. And I can tell you, you won’t be disappointed.
Because, in this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, Arosha shares valuable insights:
🛠️ Her software’s role in supporting both customers and her team through tough times
🤝 A new partnership that taught her that entrepreneurship is also about building a network of people who can help you
👩💼 Being a founder and being a CEO of a scale-up come with totally different requirements
And she reveals the genius move that helped her company survive the challenging funding environment.
When you’re ready to listen to an absolute masterclass in personal growth as a female founder, tune into the episode on Apple, Goodpods, or Spotify.
You can also find the podcast by searching for “Women Disrupting Tech” in your favorite podcast player.
What makes this episode really magical?🌟
The episode is a masterclass in personal growth. We talk about building a company from startup to scale-up, attracting investors who are a good match for the company’s values, and having to let people go while you continue to build a great product.
When she shares her own experience about having to let people go, Arosha has some important advice: “There should be no black box to this.” She argues that being transparent about the reasoning kept the remaining team motivated because they saw the grace with which it happened. And it kept the leavers loyal to the point that they would want to work with Quan again.
As we recorded the podcast on International Women’s Day, I asked her what it meant to her. To Arosha, it is a day to recognize all the amazing women who have done something to, in spite of the conditions, make it easier for another woman. From the pioneers we all know to that Sri Lankan woman standing up against her family to say that her daughter deserves her education and she’s not going to marry young.
What’s coming up?
In episode 50 of Women Disrupting Tech, we’ll learn from Martine van de Gaar about the cryptographic magic of secure multi-party computation (MPC).
After that, Alice Pavin will be my guest to discover the answer to the following question: “How do you balance feminine and masculine values in a tech startup ecosystem that is dominated by men?”
So stay tuned for some great episodes!
Feedback? Let me know!
When you’ve finished listening to this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, Let me know by leaving a comment below or by sending me a DM on LinkedIn.
And if you would like to suggest a guest that I absolutely must have on the podcast, send me an email.
Women Disrupting Tech | The Podcast 
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