By SGN | 13 Oct 2020
Moving from Singapore to Houston, TX over five years ago, Sarah Kim is an entrepreneur, leadership coach, and technologist. Recently, she started Culture Architect with her co-founder and husband Andrew Kim, who is a serial entrepreneur, business mentor, and investor himself, to help business leaders navigate the complex world of culture strategy.
What is your favourite place in Houston, TX?
Houston has so much to offer in terms of food and opportunities, and it is a great place to live, work, and raise a family.
My favorite place though is our dental office, Dentalopolis, located in North Houston. I support my husband and owner with the marketing and technology aspects of the business. It has been a great experience bringing the vision to life, from the design of the physical location and the branding to the systems and processes. For months before our 2017 launch, we lived and breathed Dentalopolis, constantly thinking about how best we could offer honest, patient-first dentistry in a family setting where everyone would feel at home right away. All the hard work and startup memories are what make this my favorite place!
What is your favorite food in Houston, TX?
Houston is so culturally diverse and offers many choices when it comes to food. My friends here know me as the Singaporean foodie, and I recently started to record my culinary adventures via Instagram @trustyoursingaporeanfoodie. If you’re in Houston and need a recommendation, hit me up!
If I have to pick one dish to represent Houston, it would have to be the barbecue beef ribs from Killen’s Barbecue, best to be enjoyed with their bread pudding – a sure recipe for a food coma, but so worth it.
What is the most exciting part of your job?
I lead a couple of software engineering teams at The Home Depot while running my startup, Culture Architect with my husband. It is a lot for a working mom, but I gain so much fulfilment in this combination of work! At Culture Architect, I get to build a better world by helping leaders create a strong team culture, navigate changes, and deliver outstanding results in business and workplace. At Home Depot, I get to work with a talented team of developers to create and launch stellar consumer-centric applications. My work is not only about creating products, but also nurturing a group of high performers to develop a sense of ownership and a problem-solving mindset.
To be effective in both roles, I utilize the culture strategy philosophy developed at Culture Architect to lead the tech team at Home Depot. Through the lessons that I have learned when building teams in the past, I can help other business leaders in ways that resonate with their needs. I enjoy working at the intersection of leadership, business, and technology, experiencing evolving challenges as a tech leader at Home Depot, while also connecting with fellow business leaders via Culture Architect.
What do you miss most about Singapore?
Family and friends! Also, I’ve been craving Nonya Laksa from Bukit Timah Plaza for years since I moved to the U.S.!
Tell us one fun fact about you
Before I moved to Houston, I was Program Manager of Partnerships for Capability Transformation under Enterprise Singapore (formerly known as SPRING Singapore). I worked with startups and SMEs identifying co-innovation and partnership opportunities with MNCs. It’s probably where I nurtured that soft spot for small businesses and hence our ideal client for Culture Architect is technology scale-ups who are on their next stage of growth. We help them in their culture creation, evolvement, and change management through the culture strategy philosophy.
We will be releasing a book on culture strategy later this year. If you’d like to learn more about an “architected” approach for navigating culture strategy and practical how-to guide, sign up here and join the waitlist to be notified of the upcoming launch!
Sarah is always interested in meeting with startup founders, entrepreneurs, and business leaders with an interest in culture strategy. If you would like to connect with Sarah, please send your request here. SGN will be happy to make the introduction.