How Rosa Svahn’s search for an inclusive and global work culture led her to Freshworks

Finland. Russia. Spain. Thailand. Turkey. Estonia. The Czech Republic. The United States of America. Germany.

As someone who has called “nine countries around the world home,” Rosa Svahn is every bit of a globe-trotter. She was born in the beautiful Nordic country of Finland— home to eighteenth-century sea fortresses, museums, national parks, ski resorts, and a vast uncharted wilderness. And since then, she has never put her feet up from a life of adventure.

Journeys of a lifetime

When Rosa was only 13, her family moved to Moscow, Russia. “My first move abroad really opened my eyes to the possibilities outside Finland. Before this, I was really in my own bubble. I did not think a person like me would ever get the chance to travel the world,” she says. “It also made me more hungry to see what else is out there,” she adds.

As an Erasmus exchange student, Rosa completed her higher-secondary studies in Boston, USA. “English is not my first language, so I was thrilled when I was accepted because that meant I would get the chance to immerse myself in the language and culture,” she says.

I have always enjoyed seeing new places and meeting new people. 

Her openness to new experiences has been at the heart of her growth as a person. After graduating high school, she worked as a tourist guide in Spain. “I was 19. I lived in Grand Canary and Mallorca– famous islands in Spain,” she says. On her days off, she would go on road trips and unwind on the beautiful beaches of Magaluf, Nikki, and Alcudia.

A decade later, she still keeps in touch with some of her “local” friends working in the hotels.

After all, your network is your net worth.

In 2012, Rosa traveled to the island of Phuket in Thailand. “Although it’s a very touristy area, the people are so friendly. It’s a totally different kind of hospitality from what I was used to in the Nordics,” she says. It was also around this time that she realized that she needed to “do something more with my life.” She says, “The tour-guide lifestyle felt all-consuming. Even though it was nice, it was not forever. That’s when I decided to go back to studying.” Rosa then traveled to Estonia for her bachelor’s degree in international business – where she met many Finnish people who shared her experiences of living abroad.

Rosa has always been open to new experiences–at work and in life. Having lived in so many places, she is candid about her learnings. “When you travel and live abroad, you really grow as a person because you are out of your comfort zone,” she says. “Even obvious things like healthcare are not so obvious in a new country, so it really helped me be more independent and optimistic.” Traveling has also honed the problem-solver in her. “Even though some things seem harder when you are abroad, you work through it, and things work out,” she adds.

Rosa also has a master’s degree in economics and business administration. It was through her university’s job board that she first heard about Freshworks.

Rosa describes the work culture at Freshworks as “supportive and cheerful.” In a watercooler chat for ‘A Freshworker’s Life’ series, this inspiring Freshworker opens up about her passions and motivations for impactful work and empowering communities so that everyone can feel like they belong. Keep reading to know more about what drives her at work, and in life.

Delight made ‘inclusive’

Rosa has always been passionate about “sustainability, diversity, and inclusion.” It started when one of her friends gifted her a book about gender inequality in the Nordics, where she came across Madeleine Albright’s famous quote, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” She says, “The book really opened my eyes. I started reading different statistics, and it came to me as a real phenomenon.”

Following up on her passion, she took a course on gender studies–which culminated in her writing her master’s thesis on gender bias in AI-enabled recruitment. She was also working as an intern with a D&I consultancy in Helsinki, Finland when the job opportunity at Freshworks came knocking.

I always imagined myself working in an inclusive and international setting. And when I saw the Freshworks job advertisement, it just felt right.

Rosa was also excited about the chance to work in the traditionally “male-dominated” industries of sales and technology. “I took it as a challenge. The activist in me wanted to do my part for women,” she says. Rosa had never visited Berlin before, but she was happy to relocate to Germany, where most of the business development professionals for emerging markets are based. “I feel like wherever you go in the world, it’s very important to learn about sales. And tech, of course, is the future now. So I’m really glad that I took up this opportunity at Freshworks.”

At Freshworks, Rosa’s “versatile and multicultural” team is responsible for finding new opportunities.

My team is often the first contact with a prospect or a lead. As business development professionals, we have a lot of freedom to decide how we want to contact prospects.

She is refreshingly forthright in what she brings to the table. Considering honesty, her “superpower” at work, she says, “I love that my job comes with a lot of freedom and responsibility. I’m passionate about building great relationships with clients and prospects because a lot depends on it.” 

An advocate for inclusion through action, Rosa is proud of her seat on the management team of Prideworks. “One day, my manager, James, came up to me and asked if I would like to play a part in building Prideworks since I had always shown interest in diversity and inclusion. It made me so happy to see that he has been listening and showing me opportunities to contribute in this space.” Rosa says that it’s her dream to expand diversity and inclusion initiatives into something much larger and “help everyone bring their authentic voices to work.”

When she’s not working, she enjoys working on her podcast on popular culture–Metacast. “I have always been very passionate about pop culture, but when I first had this idea, podcasts were not really a thing in Finland. So, naturally, I was too scared to start. But then the pandemic hit, and I found more time for myself. So my friend and I started recording episodes,” she says. At first, their set-up was “home-made. We had a laundry basket that we covered with blankets and did our recording inside so we didn’t have any echo.” Now, almost two years strong, Metacast is thriving with twenty-eight episodes on anything from Harry Styles and Megan Fox to escapism in pop culture and politics.

Cover and image design: Saikat Das

Interested in working with inspiring leaders like Rosa who have discovered their potential, passion, and purpose at work? Look no further! At Freshworks, we empower people who power businesses, and we are hiring across roles.