S3, E29 | I Hid My Pregnancy to Raise Capital: Joan Low, Founder of ThoughtFull on the Brutal Reality for Female Founders

Joan Low’s journey is a testament to the power of breaking past limiting beliefs. Growing up in an average, middle-class Malaysian family as the child of a factory overseer and a government servant, Joan became a first-generation graduate. Encouraged by her parents to dream big, she left Malaysia at age 17 after securing a life-changing scholarship to a boarding school in Canada, followed by another full scholarship to a top-five liberal arts college in the US where she majored in political science. She eventually built a highly successful corporate career, which included working at J.P. Morgan and spending six years in Hong Kong. Despite her success in finance, Joan’s true calling was shaped by a deeply personal struggle back home. She had a family member who had been living with severe mental health challenges for more than 25 years. Returning to Malaysia at age 30, she began conducting grassroots community workshops and quickly realized that many high-functioning corporate professionals were secretly operating under severe stress and anxiety. Recognizing that the traditional mental healthcare system was fragmented and entirely reactive, she founded ThoughtFull, a Temasek-backed digital mental health company designed to make daily, preventative mental hygiene as accessible as text messaging. Building a health-tech platform from the ground up to partner with major insurers like AIA and Great Eastern came with massive systemic challenges. Operating as a solo female founder, Joan faced a fundraising landscape that is still remarkably biased against women starting families. After hearing firsthand stories of fellow founders getting ghosted by investors upon revealing they were pregnant, Joan made the difficult decision to keep her own pregnancy a complete secret during her last capital raise. Proving her sheer grit, she successfully navigated this scale-up phase and ultimately signed the final investment contract while two centimeters dilated on a gym ball, closing her funding round and delivering her baby in the exact same week. 🎙️ Watch the full episode on Hello Mentor to hear the full story (Link in Bio) Follow us on Social Media: XiaoHongShu: https://shorturl.at/uVBZO Instagram: https://shorturl.at/hT6wQ TikTok (Hiredly): https://shorturl.at/0gum2 TikTok (Grow With Hiredly): https://shorturl.at/gAObT Dou Yin: https://v.douyin.com/uQlXc4X0vaY/[email protected] 🎧 Listen and follow Hello Mentor! :http://hiredly.com/hellomentor