Hande Cilingir
Co-founder & CEO
Insider

(5.0)
Review

Awards:

  • Top Women Leaders 2020

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Hande Cilingir is currently Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Insider, responsible for running efficient operations, building a strong company culture, managing overseas growth, supporting sales and marketing teams, sharing and developing Insider’s technology. She founded Insider with five fellow co-founders upon their lucrative exit of a highly prestigious language school. Following studies at London School of Economics, she completed master’s degree at Shanghai Normal University. During the time in China, she worked as an investment consultant in global companies like PepsiCo and Vestel.

Reviews

49 COMMENTS


  1. – She is always the one to Inspire, engage, and energise the entire team. She creates this positive corporate culture that empowers us to be successful while adhering to the company’s mission and higher values. – She make the teams lives easier. She always strive to boost staff productivity and improve efficiency within the business. -She is not afraid to disrupt old traditions It’s easy for companies to exhaust processes and habits without questioning whether it’s still the most effective means of operating. Hande can recognise when methods have become tired and require innovation. Overdue change can inject life into an organisation and quicken the pace. At the same time, she knows how to take calculated risks when it comes to driving innovation. – She understands mistakes happen. She can distinguish between errors that are made out of negligence or not. She also take the appropriate action to provide better support and ensure the mistake isn’t repeated. – She is an excellent communicator and even better listener. She has the ability to be consistently clear, whether it’s setting deadlines, expressing company needs or showing teams how things are done. It also helps with employee encouragement and boosting morale. – She invest in learning and development No matter whether an employee has no experience or whether they have 20 years under their belt, Hande recognises that every employee within Insider should be granted with the training and the tools to keep their skillsets updated and relevant. In turn, the business will benefit from this too.

    Mid-Level Professional, submitted on

  2. Her communication level with the team is amazing. In Covid Period, her announcements and clearifications help everyone in the company to feel safe. Everyone was thinking and hearing forced usage of annual leaves or firings from other companies. However, she kept informing everyone about the status of the company with the numbers. Whenever, I talked with my friends in other companies, I’ve realized how lucky I am to have a CEO like her. She follows your personal development very carefully. Let’s say an employee is working for almost 1 year however they didn’t improve themselves enough, she’s informing their heads to push them more. Hande never forgets! One day I mentioned her that I’m looking for some customer success metrics and etc. 4 months later she shared a brand new podcast with me directly related with this topic.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  3. Hande taught us that something can be built from the scratch. She has always been an inspiration for all of us. Her dedication to the idea helped to create a strong community. “Ask Me Anything” sessions are also helping to have ideas about the company and its future. Her transparency makes us comfortable even in the worst cases. In pandemic, she immediately prioritized the people who are working and contributing to the idea. She really cares about team’s personal development. She invested on learning and development, leadership schools, entrepreneurship sessions. All these make you believe that you are not hiring or working for a place that you don’t trust. Managing 24 countries, 550 people all around the world is really hard to control however she already did it and will do more, I believe.

    Staff, submitted on

  4. I have joined Insider since the beginning of this year and in the past compared to all the CEO’s I have met, I’d say she is the first women leader that has refreshed my take on ‘hard work, truly cares & passion’. She tries hard to ensure every ones views and opinion in the team matters and always tries to implement ways to connect to the whole team around the world in 26+ regions. Even during the pandemic the struggles that the company went through her first response to the team was ‘I will ensure non of my team will ever lose their job in this company’, on top of this she always goes the extra mile then other leaders I’ve known and met thus far so I’m very pleased to be nominating her for this.

    Staff, submitted on

  5. Having to oversee 24 countries, her level of care towards her colleagues didn’t falter. She really cares on each of our personal growth and worries that we might have both in terms of work and personal life. She wants us to become a family which means that she wants us to be able to be comfortable in sharing all of our worries with one another. Hande will also give us her 110% in every thing that she does, even when she’s sick she’ll be there for us and show us support in the toughest of time. Furthermore, Hande ensures that all of us in each of our regions are happy and that our needs are met. An amazing leader, an inspiring one indeed.

    Staff, submitted on

  6. Hande is a strong leader and an inspiration to every single member of Insider community with her leadership skills. Working with her for more than 4 years, I’ve got the chance to witness how and why people see her as a role model. That she never stops impressing on Insider members its core values, which are hard work, care, impact and personal growth, is what makes her leadership rather purposeful. As Sequoia states in their ethos, she is resolute and determined. She is a creative spirit, an underdog, an independent thinker and a true believer. She believes in people and their potential, who believe they can make a difference.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  7. Currently Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Insider, responsible for running efficient operations, building a strong company culture, managing overseas growth, supporting sales and marketing teams, sharing and developing Insider’s technology. Being a 1X entrepreneur, founded Insider with five fellow co-founders upon their lucrative exit of a highly prestigious language school. Following studies at London School of Economics, completed master’s degree at Shanghai Normal University. During the time in China, worked as an investment consultant in global companies like PepsiCo and Vestel.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  8. Hande is a very unique leader embracing all of her team members across 24+ countries. She is very transparent in sharing all the successes and failures achieved as a team and at a personal level as well. She always tries to empower her team members, via keeping the organization as flat as possible. I don’t think you can find any other CEO in eho is this much reachable and she is a one that the employees call her as “elder sister”, with both love &respect.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  9. Hande is a fantastic leader to work with. She is an amazing story teller, a great negotiator and above all someone who sets and drives Insider’s culture. She truly believes and always sets the benchmark for one of our core cultural value – ‘care’. It is amazing to see how she has led our teams across 24+ countries to believe in one single vision of building a world class software product outside of the silicon valley.

    Mid-Level Professional, submitted on

  10. Hande is a leader with clear passion. She is an inspiring female entrepreneur with a strong commitment to make her vision come to life. From day one of joining Insider, the goal is clear: “We are determined to show that a software company from the east of the world will succeed in Silicon Valley”. It’s a unique yet deterministic sense of leadership that feels outstanding.

    Staff, submitted on

  11. Hande’s best strength from my opinion is the way she manages a negative situation. She always kinds a solution around. The best I would say is during Covid, she managed to keep things going and it gave us all the confidence to succeed. Her people skills are excellent, she knows every single person’s name in the company and knows how to bring the best out of everyone.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  12. Hande’s best strength from my opinion is the way she manages a negative situation. She always kinds a solution around. The best I would say is during Covid, she managed to keep things going and it gave us all the confidence to succeed. Her people skills are excellent, she knows every single person’s name in the company and knows how to bring the best out of everyone.

    Mid-Level Professional, submitted on

  13. – A very enterprising personality – Kind as well as assertive. Has been able to put the company on a growth trajectory with ease, despite the market conditions and the hyper-competitive environment. – Created a great working culture with true emphasis on it, ensuring the company values are not just paper boards, but inculcated in every employee.

    Mid-Level Professional, submitted on

  14. Hande is an extra ordinary leader that She has been leading the growth of Insider across the globe. What makes her unique is that she strongly believes caring one for another is the secret of her company’s success. Moreover, she thrives to create impact in people’s life by encouraging everyone go above and beyond.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  15. She learns from past mistakes. She never repeats the same mistake. She listens and gets feedback. I have a super good relationship and working with her and learning more than 6 years. The most important feature she adapts the changes and responds immediately. We felt always we are always on winners side.

    Senior Level Professional, submitted on

  16. In world of RnB there is Beyonce, the same meaning for me Hande inTech company world. Working hard to beat all goals, going above and beyond for people in the company, always give more than others can give back, make push your limits and be strong! Hande is the insipiration for all of us!

    Staff, submitted on

  17. Hande is always sets very clear goals and expectations. She holds all teams with responsible as well as externally with customers, partners, medias and organizations. she’s very outstanding on her impressive leadership capabilities, excellent in coach and grows people and teams.

    Staff, submitted on

  18. communication, responsiveness, focus, integrity. Hande is a highly driven CEO, that cares about the team’s personal growth, and the longevity of the company. she strives to succeed in the SaaS business, as well as giving the team an opportunity to grow from all over the world.

    Staff, submitted on

  19. Hande’s key strength is her communication ability, she can communicate the company’s idea and ambition in such a way that can inspire the whole team. Hande able to touch any seniority level and cultural background in the company thus drive everyone to the same direction

    Mid-Level Professional, submitted on

  20. Hande is an inspiring and a visionary leader. She has a strong passion for running efficient operations, building a strong company culture, managing overseas growth, supporting sales and marketing teams, sharing and developing technology.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  21. Hande is an inspiring and a visionary leader. She has a strong passion for running efficient operations, building a strong company culture, managing overseas growth, supporting sales and marketing teams, sharing and developing technology.

    Staff, submitted on

  22. Hande has the perfect blend of vision and execution. In a rapidly changing tech environment, growing client expectations, pandemic crisis and fast growing company, Hande is clearly driving the company to success and profitable growth.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  23. Hande is a leader who is able to speak confidently about Insider product and business, that’s a given. But at the same time, she is very skilled at listening to others. She has great dedication and strong confidence.

    Mid Level Professional, submitted on

  24. She is very powerful and has wide vision. Mostly she is targeting right question to right and she can detect problems so quickly. However, she is very good at managing stakeholders. She came 0 to 1 and developed herself.

    Staff, submitted on

  25. When we see all of the cofounders of Insider, There is only one woman on the board, and that is Hande. I admire Hande for her hard work and dedication to lead Insider’s boat. Her enthusiasm is contagious.

    Staff, submitted on

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