The Tamil Creator Podcast (Ep.35): Sumi Shan - Former Politico & Co-Founder of Agritech Startup (Dunya Habitats)

Sumi Shan (@sumishan1) is a connector, former politico and co-founder/Chief Strategy Officer at agritech start-up Dunya Habitats (@dunyahabitats), which was originally started to help minimize food scarcity issues in Indigenous and refugee communities. In her professional career, Sumi has managed award-winning communication and advocacy campaigns across corporate, government, and non-profit sectors over the last 17+ years. She joins Ara on this week’s episode of The Tamil Creator to discuss topics including her experience as a female Tamil in tech, managing egos while operating a business with family, how she went about building her extensive network and talking about the topic of food scarcity & farmers having become an afterthought in the world we live in.

Podcasts

Nov 02, 2021

Ara Ehamparam

Business Owner

Toronto, Canada

"The Tamil Creator" is a podcast started by me (Ara Ehamparam). As someone who is extremely inquisitive by nature, I created the podcast to chat with, spotlight, and learn about brilliance among creators in the Tamil community - and among creators in general from all over the world.

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To get more information, please visit the website at TheTamilCreator.com.

Timestamps

00:19 - Ara introduces this week’s guest, Sumi Shan
03:28 - Running for the Ontario Liberal Candidate Race for Scarborough Rouge Park
07:53 - How do you reconcile the role of government versus companies
11:42 - Dunya Habits; what it is and what it does
18:42 - How the data Dunya Habits provides is beneficial to farmers
22:55 - Food scarcity and farmers having become an afterthought
28:49 - Self-funding Dunya Habits and overcoming various barriers
34:14 - Initially garnering international interest before deciding to set up shop locally
38:32 - Doing business with family; managing work frustration and trying to ensure it doesn’t crossover into personal life
41:15 - Being a Tamil female in tech
44:13 - How Sumi went about building her network
48:35 - Where Sumi sees herself and Dunya Habits in the next 3-5 years
50:01 - What Sumi is insecure about; fear of failure and fear of success
52:08 - Hobbies and interests outside of work; family time, travelling
53:21 - The personal legacy Sumi hopes to leave behind
54:16 - Creator Confessions
57:29 - The Wrap Up