Lost and Founded Series – Cynthia Siantar

Cynthia Siantar, Co-Founder of Call Levels, a real-time financial monitoring and notification service, believes in working and playing hard. Proof of the latter? She enjoys partying, has modeled for a friend’s swimwear line and is proud of it. Afterall, “it’s her life”.

People say you are "Cynthia Siantar, Co-Founder of Call Levels". Who do you say you are?

I'm smarter than I look. It’s definitely not said by me, but I would very much like to agree. It’s a compliment either way.

Best moment in your startup life. It was so good you wanted to fly;BusinessClass.somewhere with someone, and pop open the most expensive bottle of champagne there.

Still waiting for that moment to pop the champagne, but so far I’ve been pretty pleased with getting our first institutional investor (500 startups) and getting nominated for London's Appster Awards Best Fintech App despite having no physical presence outside Singapore.

What secret did you hide from your co-founder or partner or parent for the longest time? Why?

I do enjoy partying. Nothing to hide about, I just don't really talk about it.

What's the most eccentric thing about you? If VCs found out, they wouldn't have signed the term sheet then. But hell with that now.

I once modeled for a good friend's swimwear line (http://www.kblu.com/blogs/journal/56045060-women-we-know-13-cynthia) and was quite proud of it!

Have you ever cried? Or what was the lowest, crappiest moment in your start-up life. You wanted to give up everything. You wanted to kill someone. (During your startup career of course) Tell us more!

All the time – especially when I watch sappy movies. Crappiest moment would be the day we decided that *this is it* for our previous tech startup, but instead of giving up or killing someone, we pivoted and Call Levels is the result.

What are you up to today? What gets you up in the morning?

Preparing for meetings in London. Am up early nowadays cos I'm still rather jetlagged...

How do you keep yourself physically and mentally fit for start-up life?

I sign up for Groupon fitness deals!

Offer a life hack (or two) to a young founder.

Don't be afraid of competition or sharing your ideas with other people. Most startup fail because of suicide rather than murder.

Movie or song that best describes you.

It’s my life

Favourite quote.

The best startups almost have to start as side projects, because great ideas tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies – Paul Graham

Who and what inspires you?

My dad.

Tell me about Cynthia Siantar in 2030.

Still doing what she believes in with the support of those closest to her.