In Her Words: Christina Teo Has A Third Lease on Life
After early successes as a technology sector executive, she retired young, reinvented herself, and found new love and new purpose.
When you turn 40, you start asking yourself some questions, and then again when you turn 50 and 60 and so forth. My turning point, so to speak, was at 41 when I first retired. After being at the forefront of technology — launching the first laptop, the first broadband modem, and the world’s first Windows smartphone — I quit my corporate life and a job that I was so proud of, packed up, and went to New York City to look for a husband. I was inspired by Sex In The City.
When I landed in New York, people thought I was crazy to go look for a husband. I met him at a party. He wasn’t even supposed to be there. He crashed it. We just danced. We hardly spoke. It got very late at night, and that was it. I was enrolled as a student at NYU so I could stay in the States, and I was partying a lot. I was catching up for lost time because in my younger days, I didn't do that.
New York changed me. Before I went to New York, I wasn't someone who was very chatty. I was very serious. I was very business oriented. New York turned me into this connector. And very soon, people were saying, “Wow! You've only been here for nine months, and you know so many people. You're connecting people, and we love the kind of people you connect people with.” For years that’s what I did. I realized that that was my flair.
I got married at 46 and I wanted to be a housewife. For eight years — I call those my desert years — I didn’t do anything. It was like everything I learned about myself and picked up in New York just went away. I dabbled in some retail fashion business, but I really didn't go out and network. In some ways, those years were kind of lost because I thought I was obsolete. I truly believed I was irrelevant. I was happy and I was financially independent enough to be able to take care of myself for the rest of my life. But for someone who is very strong, who had a very good career, and was always at a technology breakthrough moment to admit to herself that she was done was scary. I really didn't expect the kind of comeback that I’ve had.
It was really when I turned 53 and I came back to Singapore, my home country, that I started getting involved with startups. That was when I truly understood that there is a whole new world out there. There's a whole new paradigm. It was intimidating. I was attending events, and everybody was half my age. I didn't know how to introduce myself because I retired in my 40s. There’s kind of a huge gap when you tell someone, “I’m ex-Yahoo or ex-IBM,” because really what they want to know is, “What are you doing right now?”
The startup ecosystem is so complex. It was like a maze to me. That triggered my curiosity. I said, “Wow. Now this is something interesting to tackle.” Today I run a program called C-Shark Tank. It’s the world's first C-suite executive angel syndicate where corporate executives fund startups. This is a very immersive program where C-suite executives come together and learn from each other. Besides engaging startups, what they value is learning from each other because they all come from different sectors. There are different functions represented. Some are CEOs, some are CMOs. There is a lot of trust. They trust the way I curate the startups. They trust that because of my previous corporate background, I understand what they're looking for. I understand what resonates with them.
We have 170 C-suite executives in our program. The execs were attracted to my proposition because a lot of them are from the Boomer era, where they kind of stay in the same company for 20 or even 30 years and so they don't have a chance now to try a different industry. This is the glimpse at getting their toes into another industry.
It is a structured and efficient program that engages and funds early-stage startups. Our formula has been continuously tested and refined through 8 seasons since the first season starting February 20, 2020, with more than 150 C-suite executive angels a.k.a. C-sharks. I started out doing three seasons in a year, back to back. Now I do it once a year.
We divide it into stage one and stage two. Stage one is when the startups pitch, and then everybody gets a chance to question and learn from each other. Stage two is when we break you up into smaller clusters, almost like you're interviewing for a job. We scrutinize the founder a little bit more, including the body language and the way they handle Q and A. Very often, decisions change at stage two, because in stage one the founders are so good at pitching. They've got a lot of practice. When it comes to stage two, the kind of questions that our C-suite executives ask may not be the same as the kind of questions the venture capitalists would ask. It's a little bit more detailed, and they need to know the financials, etc. It's a closed door event. I don't like public events for this kind of pitching. It's also a way of honoring the founder, so that they can share more transparently with us.
I just turned 60 in December. Sometimes I feel like I'm living on lost time. There's so much I want to do now. I'm glad that I'm not feeling so old that I'm not willing to try, or that I don't dare to try. In fact, one of the things that my husband appreciates about me is that I never give up and I always dare to try. He feels it's so scary sometimes, the things that I try.
If you had an opportunity to give advice to your 25-year-old self, what would you say?
This is one of the questions that I shy away from the most, really, because in a way it doesn't add up. The world has changed so much. I really wonder how it would matter what I would say to my 25 year self. But I will say that I could have done a lot more networking in my younger days. I also wish I had stayed in touch with my ex-colleagues. I do miss that big family kind of belonging. Because I retired younger than most people, I kind of lost that time of building deeper relationships with ex-colleagues. So sometimes I envy people who say, “Oh, I'm catching up with my ex-colleague in another country.” You can have new friends that you have just met and you can make very strong friendships, but the good old friendships, the sentimentality of that, is probably something where I feel I've missed out.
Belle Curve Stories is about women who are navigating life with grit, grace and growth. What do those words mean to you?
I have done that grit a lot in my 20s and my 30s. I worked seven days a week. I only traveled in the last three weeks of December as a reward to myself, because December is my birthday month. I paid my dues and it also means I lived alone. I left my country at the age of 23 and I moved to different cities, so you kind of don't have any strong ties in anything. That's a price I paid, and I’d gladly do that again.
In terms of grace, I'm so thankful. When I was young, I never thought that I would grow old, because I had a lot of energy when I was in my 20s and in my 30s. I never ever thought about growing old. The word “old” didn’t come into play, but now I'm glad I'm old. It was only in my 50s that I realized it's organic. It wasn't like I had to go and learn it or sign up for a course or sign up for a coach. I've never had a mentor and I never had a coach.
“If you can empower others, you automatically empower yourself anyway.”
It was an organic awakening that I'm in a good place right now, so I should give back. I was a self-centered, career-oriented woman — very ambitious. And then when I reached my 50s I thought, “I know I've got a lot to give, and I must give. There is no other choice than to give.” I call that grace. I’m thinking of what else I can give and how else I could give. That really makes me joyful. If you can empower others, you automatically empower yourself anyway.
A big part of the purposeful giving back that I do is through the WomenChangemakers series where I provide a stage for corporate C-suite women to share their personal stories, not their corporate achievements. Audiences of women ranging in age from their 20s to 50s have the opportunity to listen to female executives talk about how they went through the trenches before they got to where they are today, which was inspiring and life changing for many people.
I’m in my third lease of life. Getting involved with startups is fascinating because otherwise I wouldn't bother to read. I’d rather watch Netflix and enjoy wine at home. But because you're involved with startups, you start noticing things; you start getting interested in things. I mean, before, I wouldn't care about climate or sustainability, let alone read about it. I think that kind of growth is fascinating, and I wish for everybody in my age group to have this opportunity.
I think for me when it comes to growth, it should not be just about business growth or financial growth. I go to New York every year because I think you also need personal fun and feeling young and actually hanging out with young people. People I hang out with in New York are half my age.
Next year I'll spend less time in New York because I want to travel around the world for big global conferences. I want to learn more facts and learn more about history. I want to gain more real knowledge, not just the fun side of things. I want to really to know what's going on. I want to be more involved with the future of work, the future of climate and all that. I want to know more people in that space and participate in conferences. I want to stay in communities of those sorts to really deepen my knowledge, because right now it’s good, but it's not good enough.
As told to and edited by Teresa Bellock and Sandra Ditore.
Christina Teo, proudly 60, is the founder and chief builder of she1K. A former technology executive and innovator, she is a true connector of people and ideas. Born and raised in Singapore, Christine is a global citizen and a life-long learner, striving to understand our world and her role in it.
