Liftoff Employee Spotlight: Clarin Tan, Customer Success Manager, Singapore
Clarin Tan joined Liftoff in April 2017 as our first Customer Success Manager in our Singapore office. Since then, our Singapore team has grown to 15 Liftoffers with Clarin playing a pivotal role in hiring and building our company culture in the APAC region. Get to know Clarin and her time at Liftoff.
What are your biggest accomplishments since joining Liftoff?
Building up the Liftoff team in APAC. We’ve grown from “small peanuts” to where we are today. Seeing the growth of the business, as well as the team in APAC has been exciting and keeps things interesting.
I feel very fortunate to be part of this team. It’s been surreal to see the team go from four people in APAC to opening three offices in the region (Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore). It’s really nice to be a part of that growth since I’ve joined Liftoff.
How do you work on the international team culture?
We don’t want to have a divided culture. We try and make sure people feel included as much as possible, which is why we started monthly team lunches. We make sure everyone gets together. When new people join, everyone has their own preferences with different palettes to cater to, so it’s important to make sure we come together for team activities, have fun, and revel in our diversity.
We maintain an open channel of communication with each other to make sure we are transparent. It’s important to make sure that as we grow, our core culture of including everyone still remains.
What advice do you have for any future new hires that are joining Liftoff, either at HQ or there in Singapore?
At Liftoff, everyone’s very supportive. As a new hire, don’t be afraid to ask questions. We were a startup, but now we’re transitioning to a medium-sized company. Culture-wise, Liftoff is very fast moving. If you have questions or improvements to processes or products, there’s channels that you can go through to try to make things better. Overall, the mentality is to never stop improving.
We maintain a pretty open culture in terms of trying to make things better. When we started our team in Singapore, it was a blank canvas. Now, there are definitely paintings on the canvas, but I feel like you can still add your own touch to it.
This is what I’d say to new Liftoffers—don’t be afraid to branch out and do something that’s even bigger or better. At this stage, we’re still very receptive to ideas that make things better in terms of processes, people, and collaboration.
Singapore has lots of great food. What is your favorite type of cuisine?
There is so much! Where do I start? I’m a really big seafood person, so for me personally, that would be crab. What we do very well is chili crab, but we also have other flavors like black pepper and white pepper. I love seafood, so I would definitely vote for crab.
What is a fun fact that no one in the office knows about you?
This is a fun fact that only people in the Singapore office know, but I recently completed a barista course, so I’m a certified barista. Full disclosure, I can only make espresso and lattes. I learned to create latte art in the form of a heart, but that’s as far as I went.
What’s the one thing you can’t live without?
One thing I can’t live without? Boba is our latest affection here.
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