Yasmine Mustafa is a social entrepreneur and community leader fueled by a passion to leverage technology for good. She’s the CEO of ROAR for Good, a certified B-corp with the mission of utilizing technology and education to create safer workplaces. Before that, she founded and sold her first company to a prominent content marketing firm in Silicon Valley. Yasmine brought Girl Develop It to Philadelphia, a non-profit providing affordable opportunities for women interested in learning software development. In addition, she sits on the board of Coded by Kids, a non-profit organization committed to providing free tech education to inner-city youth. She is a 2x TEDx speaker, discussing challenges she experienced migrating to the United States as a refugee and discovering she was undocumented. Her “Birth Lottery” talk highlights the challenges (and opportunities) inherent in each life. The BBC selected Yasmine as one of its 100 Women of 2016 due to her work in empowering women. She was also recognized as Upstart 100’s most dynamic people shaping business, Philadelphia Magazine’s Top 20 Best Philadelphian’s, Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2016 Tech Disruptors, Technologist of the Year by the Philly Geek Awards, and Innovator of the Year by Rad Girls. She is the recipient of the “Women of Courage” award from Lutheran Settlement House and “Visionary Leader” by the City of Philadelphia. Yasmine graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a Business Management Degree.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Elon Musk founder of SpaceX
- Serena Williams
- Sara Chipps Cofounder of Jewelbots
- Sara Chipps, and Ayah Bdhir of LittleBits
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I get the question a lot of how did you start two tech companies as a non-technical person and I would say that is still a challenge for me because sometimes I feel like an imposter when it comes to building product. Am I asking the right questions? Am I not asking the right questions. So I would definitely say that being a non techy starting a tech company is and continues to be one of the biggest challenges? ”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High Book by Kerry Patterson and Joseph Grenny and Ron Mcmillan and Al SwitzlerFavourite Quote:
“We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behaviour.” Stephen M.R. Covey
Recommended Online Resources:
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Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“I think the learning that I had in terms of ‘treat others the way they want to be treated’ versus the way you want to be treated, its helped me so much. I would say this has been the number one most critical leadership skill that I have learned that I would pass on to other people”…[Listen for More]
More About Yasmine Mustafa:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.” Zig Ziglar
Other Quotes From the Chat with Yasmine Mustafa:
- “I think one of the best things that I have done is tell people what the idea is because it gets better over time… if I wouldn’t have done that initial research or talk to people about that idea, I would have created a product that ultimately would have failed”
- “I think self-awareness at the end of the day is really key. Being able to access where you are, how you are feeling, what your strengths are, what are not your strengths are to implement intentional ways to grow from those experiences. I feel like with everyone whether they are an entrepreneur of not it is really key to be a better human which I feel like if we are self-aware and we focus on self-growth we put ourselves in a position to be more likely to succeed”
- “I don’t know if there is such a thing as secrets [to success]. I think that its clickbait that articles use to read their articles and listen to the podcast”
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