Carolina Reis Oliveira (#024)
Enjoy the ride! Life is too short to not have fun while finding your life’s purpose or building it.
Company: OneSkin
Headcount: 8
Stage: Series A
Warm intro from Nikolina Lauc (#012)
Tell us your story
I am a dreamer, a scientist, born in a small town in the countryside of Brazil.
I dream of a world where aging won’t bring any limitation to our mind and body, and that we can be dancing on the table when we are 80, 100 or even 120 years old.
I was raised as a “free bird” and I left home when I was 15 to pursue a better education. My passion for science led me to pursue a research career, but I always wanted to go further, and use that research to impact and transform human lives.
I was also inspired by my brother and my dad, who were both entrepreneurs, and showed me the beauty of transforming the ecosystem they were part of through their own endeavours. Creating jobs, generating products to meet basic needs, and helping the planet at the same. From my mom, I got the courage and resilience to go through so many hardships and still keep a smile on my face. All of this was a huge influence to start my own journey as an entrepreneur.
Tell us a story that has really resonated with you
While watching ‘Darkest Hour’, an account of Winston Churchill’s early days, one scene really stuck with me.
Churchill, sitting in his bed, couldn’t sleep and he knew Britain wouldn’t be able to reach an agreement with Hitler and would need to go to war.
Everyone was against him, thought he was crazy, thought their soldiers would die and negotiated peace was the better way out. At that moment, I could feel the “world’s future on his shoulder” - he was alone with an important decision and needed to make the call.
As an entrepreneur, I’ve felt that too many times. I’ve felt the responsibility that lies on me. I’ve needed to make important and hard decisions. I’ve felt lonely on the journey. And I’ve had to prove many people wrong.
When that happened, I trusted myself and in my gut feelings. The answer was already there, inside.
What can't you stop thinking about?
Growth and how to keep innovating with our products and technologies. The world is changing too fast and I am always thinking about how we could beat what we are doing today and develop something better.
If I could tell you just one thing...
Enjoy the ride! Life is too short to not have fun while finding your life’s purpose or building it.
If you could get a warm intro to anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
She is 73 and loves it. She is not only an example of a strong woman, smart, positive and uplifting, but she is really defying our preconceptions of what aging should be. She also mentioned that she would rather talk about science than shoes. A real role model. Maye Musk.