Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. Every week we spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.
This week’s Q & A is with Tereza Nemessanyi, Microsoft’s Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Tereza runs Microsoft’s business with Startups along the Coast. Formerly founder of HonestlyNow.com. She has worked with companies such as Walt Disney, Interpublic Group and IBM. She has an MBA from the Wharton School. In 2011, she was named one of Forbes “Ten Female Entrepreneurs to Watch.”
1. What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?
Reinvention has been a recurring theme for me – I’m like a cat in that respect. But the big one for me was when I decided to re-orient my career back to my origins, which was the Startup world. I thought I would be welcomed there; this turned out far from the truth. I decided to tire people into acceptance of me, with a stretch goal of 100 events/1000 online comments
2. Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?
My current boss has been terrific – a great amount of latitude to apply my experience,.
3. What is your biggest goal right now?
Professionally: Impact, scale and legacy. Personally: sustainability and nurturing my family and friendships.
4. How did you get your first job? How did you jump to your second job?
When I was graduating from college in 1992, the job market was pretty terrible, but it was the early days of big transformation in Eastern Europe, and Prague, specifically. I am of Czech heritage, and it seemed silly to stay here an suffer through an entry level telemarketing job when I could be venturing into all kinds of new things over there. It really seemed like “where the party was”. I’d always been a strong writer, so I landed there an pick up gigs as a freelance journalist. But I quickly learned that (a) I’d want to earn more money, and (b) that I was interested in digging much deeper than transactional news journalism would allow. One of the great things about writing is that it’s an excellent way to meet people. I was particularly interested in the nascent commercial broadcast television market, which to me would quickly explode; and in fact, a national broadcast license was up for tender and someone was going to win it. So I met a bunch of the players. Then, one day, I got a call from a woman saying she’d gotten my name from a mutual contact, as she was part of a group which had just won this national television licence. She needed to move to Prague fast, and needed an apartment. This mutual contact had told her that I was the person in the know. So I said “Sure, I’d be happy to help you find an apartment. By the way — are you hiring? Because I’m looking right now. What a coincidence!” And that was it. I became her assistant and the first employee of what became the first commercial television network in post-Communist Europe.
5. How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?
Not much. I love what I do and try to integrate it. If it’s joyful, it’s not so much like work. Now my girls are old enough that I like to unplug with them. We try to vacation in places that are electronics free. On weekends, we focus very much on family time, and try to have Sunday dinner.
6. What’s the best networking contact you’ve made? How did you make it?
I am incredibly lucky to have a network of outstanding people. I say “lucky”, but for sure, it’s an outgrowth of years of hustle and relationship development. And yet, all relationships are two-way – we are at the other’s mercy for whether they wish to engage. With that preamble, I have to say that Sara Holoubek has been, hands down, a life-changing networking contact for me. I wrote my first Op Ed on Sara’s prompting, and as I write this, am sitting in DC getting ready to attend a set of innovation meetings at the White House – an opportunity created by Sara. She has been incredibly generous with me. The funny thing is, we met via another common connection, Pavel Dolezal, a Czech entrepreneur whom I met in reading online comments on Fred Wilson’s blog, AVC.com. Relationships can happen from any direction – and it’s so important to be open to that energy.
7. What cause do you most want to advance?
Hands down – pulling girls into the tech pipeline, and pumping them up to the very top. Inclusive innovation is the best innovation – these organizations become remarkably better, and also, it distributes wealth for more inclusive downstream investment. Women and our other under-represented groups are our nation’s most undervalued economic resource. It’s where the growth is. Plus – selfishly, I have two daughters. I do believe, in this case, that’s what’s good for my kids is good for everyone.
8. What song can’t you get out of your head?
I’m a singer, so my favorite songs are ones I’d love to sing myself. This will sound depressing, but one of my favorites for self-soothing is the beautiful Mezzo Soprano solo in Handel’s Messiah, “He Was Despised”. For me, it’s a meditation on how, if you’re doing truly ground-breakingly and game-changingly important, people will feel threatened by that. So much so that they might hate you. But when you have the conviction that what you’re doing is right for the greater good, you must continue on. This is the price of great change that matters. On the lighter (and cheesier) side, who doesn’t get sucked into “Defying Gravity”, from Wicked? Best Broadway song, ever.
9. What is the best piece of advice you ever received?
Find the smartest people doing the most interesting things, and physically put yourself in the middle of the action. Make them your circle, and do great work. These are the places where fascinating early opportunities emerge – it almost becomes hard to NOT hear about great stuff. Then be ready to be opportunistic and move fast.
10. Who on the list of prior Honorees would you like to meet?
Tough pick! But one stands out. I’ve been a fan of Nancy Spector, curator of the Guggenheim Museum, for a long time. We have met, however, it was way too quick. I’m dying to do a Vulcan mind-meld with her.
Check out Tereza Nemessanyi’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!
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