Episode 11: Ramen Since Seven with Isabelle Kent, CEO of StartUp Leaders

"I've been eating ramen like several times a week since I was seven. It's kind of a miracle that I don't have scurvy." Isabelle Kent, head of Startup Leaders and founder of behavioral intelligence platform Gigsaw, on the convenience food that's followed her from childhood to founder life.

In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch talks with Isabelle about building technology that helps people find roles aligned with their values and intrinsic motivations. They discuss how burnout at a corporate job led her to start interviewing others about fulfillment at work, why she took a remote job in Thunder Bay, Ontario sight unseen (and was sure she'd get kidnapped), and what it takes to run Philly's largest startup community while launching a global expansion.

Isabelle is a Ukrainian immigrant who grew up without much restaurant dining, which makes her current obsession with eating out feel like a reward she earned. Half her paycheck goes to restaurants and she doesn't regret it. She lived in Chinatown for years, a block from Reading Terminal Market, so her pantry is still stocked with Asian produce and ingredients she could grab within a two-block radius. She finds cooking deeply meditative and won't let partners near the stove for dinner. Her last meal would be noodles, any variety. When fall hits, she pulls out the Eastern European staples from her childhood: borscht, stuffed peppers, stews. She spent fifteen years in the restaurant industry, and she believes that experience taught her more about sales and investor relations than any degree could. She's closed deals sitting at bars, met the founders of the 9/11 fund at a food hall in Copenhagen, and landed a client chatting someone up at the Ritz.

Listen for:
 • Why she thinks every founder should bartend or work in a restaurant
 • The etiquette skills that help her sit in rooms with people "way out of her normal realm of existence"
 • How food helps her "code switch" in investor dinners
 • Why she'd rather spend $60K at cafes than on an MBA

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