Meet the IWD Scholarship Winner: Sana Tayyab

We're so excited to introduce one of the two winners of our 2022 International Women's Day Scholarship – Sana Tayyab, Founder of Fintech company Flamingo!

We recently spoke with Sana about her journey launching Flamingo, how we can better support women in emerging technology, and her top tips on reaching financial goals.

Congratulations on winning the Stone & Chalk International Women’s Day Scholarship! Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey so far.

Thank you, It is a good milestone for our company and myself. Stone & Chalk have given us a chance for faster and more sustainable growth.

I am a Design enthusiast, Entrepreneur and Product Designer. I work with Impact Startups in HealthTech, Fintech and Social. My background includes Product Design, Concept Development, Prototyping, and Implementing digital solutions for a variety of high-profile clients and startups, including Pepsi Co. Nestle, Ford Motors and Playpal, Inc.

I also Co-founded Playpal, Inc. in 2017 and with an amazing team Playpal, Inc raised Seed Capital of 2M USD. Playpal, Inc was featured in Forbes 53 Women-Led Startups Disrupting HealthTech, and Acquisitions International USA.

Can you tell us about Flamingo and its purpose?

Flamingo is a personalised financial platform that helps users manage their finances & set savings goals based on their desired lifestyle. Flamingo was founded with the vision to "Assign a purpose to every dollar". What we stand for is what we are all standing on. Being mindful with your financial planning begins at Flamingo.

What made you decide to start Flamingo?

“I am one of the 13 million Aussies who are without a financial backup plan or an emergency fund.”

There is an extensive gap between expense management and wealth-building tools. Despite a growing number of financial tools and resources, there are limitations on personalised solutions. Our one true mission is to “Democratise Financial Wellbeing”.

What was it about this opportunity that made you decide to apply?

A Startup needs representation and community. For us, there is nothing better than the S&C family. S&C's mission aligns well with ours and we look forward to adding value to the community.

What advice would you give to women in emerging technology? What do you wish you had known?

“Emerge”. Materialise your ideas. The time is now. We need more problem solvers because innumerable problems are unsolved.

I learn something new every minute. If I had known that a mission-based startup would give me so much joy and hope, I would have started this journey earlier.

To this day women can be very underrepresented in the tech industry. How do you think we can better support women and encourage them to consider a career in tech?

I see a lot of women not just in Australia but all around the world seeking careers in Tech. This is a huge growth compared to past decades. Representation is still missing and that can be achieved by creating communities led by our peers in the industry. We all need someone to look up to and if we have the support of women leaders in the industry it will encourage more women to start their entrepreneurial or business journey's in emerging technologies.

What are your top tips for planning to reach financial goals?

Financial Planning has been made complex to a point where people find it challenging. It is not. There are five simple stages to a goal :

• Identify
• Accept
• Set Target A and Set Target B.
• Achieve Target B.
• Be happy, celebrate and then go on to achieve Target A.
• Plan only for a foreseeable future.
• Prepare for uncertainty i.e create an emergency fund even if it’s a small one.
• Diversify your savings portfolio.

What’s next for Flamingo?

Exciting things are happening. We are partnering up with some innovative startups to provide our users with a comprehensive “goal-setting module”. We are developing our second layer for “Smart Analyst” that will help users identify key areas while planning.

We also aim to release our “Forecasting feature” later this year, it will be a game-changer.

Aside from the app, flamingo tech is educating its users by providing real-life scenarios and literature to help them take action.