Hey, I'm Lena.

I'm originally Croatian, but I grew up in Japan and Hong Kong for most of my life. Now I live in Vancouver, Canada with my husband.

At age 6, I lived in Mizayaki, Japan where I went to local Japanese primary school and learned to speak fluent Japanese.

I moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2009 to study Economics at UBC and ended up staying here to work.

I've worked in customer service, operations, and finally product management. Mainly in startups or startup-like teams.

In February 2020, I took a break from being a product manager and went on a 19-month entrepreneurial journey.

I wanted to build my own SaaS startup but it didn't end up working out. Here's what happened instead:

• I tested six different product ideas like Hippokite and Hypothesee
• I self-published a book: The Making of Product Managers‍
• I built an audience and personal brand on LinkedIn
• I gave a bunch of talks and appeared on several podcasts
• I did a bit of freelance writing

In October 2021, I decided I was burnt out as an entrepreneur and needed to go back to a full-time job.

My goal is to normalize the return to the corporate world after entrepreneurship. And prove the value of entrepreneurial experience for company employees.

I'm now a product manager again at a Fintech company.

I'm also the writer behind Transparent Writerpreneur and a video lover.

I publish my thoughts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium and my blog. I also create videos on YouTube.

In my spare time I like to play piano, do HIIT workouts and crack lame jokes. I'm also emotionally attached to my iPad.