My guest today is someone who's weathered the storm of change right alongside me. Back in 2016, Cyrielle Thomas and I got laid off (with 200 other colleagues) from our beloved jobs at Yelp. As her hiring manager, I was honestly concerned for her future. I knew she'd get snatched up in a second (which she did, by UberEats and later Airbnb), but I feared she'd never find a position that lit her up as much, as her community manager role did with Yelp.

Well, boy was I wrong! Not only did she find her footing, she used all of her local-loving, community-building, connection-making wisdom to brew up a whole new tourism genre, one that, quite literally, fits her to a "T." (sorry for the puns, I can't help myself)

About Cyrielle Thomas:

Born in France and raised in Africa, Cyrielle Thomas moved back to France at 18 but felt like a stranger in her home country. After experimenting briefly with medical studies she moved to Bordeaux to get her marketing masters at INSEEC. In 2013, she joined Yelp to oversee all local community and marketing efforts in Bordeaux. After Yelp closed its international marketing division, she launched UberEats, and then Airbnb "Experiences" in Bordeaux. In 2017, she discovered the world of Japanese tea but was frustrated by how difficult it was to find and connect with the best tea and producers and businesses. Inspired by wine tourism in France, she came up with the idea for Dokocha, the first tea tourism platform in Japan, making her the first female foreign entrepreneur in the tea tourism industry in Japan. In 2020 she moved to Fukuoka, Japan (Bordeaux's twin city), where she oversees a team of ten to grow Dokocha and its sister company, Digitomenu.

In our delicious conversation we cover:

• Cyrielle's upbringing in Cameroon and how that shaped her outlook.

• Why coming back to France was a shock to her system.

• How she manifested landing her dream job at Yelp.

• What was holding her back from succeeding at Yelp.

• How our "special 1:1 time" together freed her to embrace risk.

• What her experiences at Yelp, Airbnb and Uber taught her about entrepreneurialism.

• How she fell in love with Japanese tea.

• How she came up with the idea for her tea tourism company.

• What she did after every single French bank rejected her.

• Why she decided to relocate to Japan to build her business.

• Facing gender bias and overcoming stereotypes as a female founder.

Links and mentions:

https://www.dokocha.com/

https://digitomenu.com/en/

Bossypants (the book I gave her that she keeps on her desk)

Credits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice Fortin

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