Meet the Team: Isabelle Styslinger

Q&A with Silicon Foundry’s Associate

Before joining Silicon Foundry, Isabelle was a strategy consultant at BTS, a firm focused on helping businesses across the technology, energy, biotech, and commercial sectors execute impactful and lasting strategies. Before this, she worked in product at Netflix, where she concentrated on creating and implementing solutions, operations in compliance with emerging privacy regulations, and as a lobbyist for tech companies in D.C. She is a California native and graduate of Wellesley College, from which she received a BA in Political Science with a concentration in Technology Policy & Internet Law at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tell us about your career path — what are the key experiences that led you to Silicon Foundry?

I started my career at the intersection of technology and policy. On my first day of college, in an internet law class, I became absolutely fascinated with how statutory laws were not keeping pace with technical innovation. The ambiguity of how our right to privacy, for example, was evolving (or not) with technology led me to initially pursue a career in D.C.

During this time, I brought together a diverse array of people — from policymakers and scientists to business leaders and technologists — to create partnerships and mutually beneficial opportunities. Through these connections, we helped pass business and consumer-friendly legislation that brought more clarity to how consumers are protected online.

This experience codified my desire to work with technology companies — to learn about both their new innovations and their concerns for the future — and to be a bridge for them to other actors and opportunities that could help them grow and also bring value to consumers.

Since joining Silicon Foundry, what excites you the most about your role?

That no day is the same. Silicon Foundry has given me the opportunity to dive into such diverse topics — topics that I didn’t even realize I was interested in. One day I’m researching how computer vision technology can be used to streamline maintenance checks for equipment, and the next it’s the future of sustainable packaging or how livestream shopping can be leveraged by retailers.

What “superpower” do you bring to the team?

Bringing disparate perspectives and opposing views together to find common ground.

You’ve worked across the public and private sectors, from DC to SF. How does this bicoastal, cross-sector perspective inform your work at Foundry?

It helps me understand and translate between sectors — not just public and private, but also between the traditional, well-established companies prevalent in the North East and tech start-ups I grew up with.

What sector or industry trend are you most fascinated by at the moment?

COVID-19’s impact on the retail industry.

Obviously we’re seeing retailers, and especially traditional brick-and-mortar institutions, investing more in online marketing and their online shopping platforms, while adapting their supply chain to respond to an increase in online orders.

However, what’s particularly interesting to me is how retailers can bring in-store experiences online. Trying on clothes or testing out a piece of furniture, shopping with friends, picking up a product and seeing how it feels in your hand — consumers view these experiences as integral to their purchasing decisions but COVID-19 essentially prohibited them.

In response, companies are using AR/VR to allow consumers to visualize what products look like in their home, creating online shopping platforms that let consumers shop virtually with friends, and using stores solely as experience hubs.

Even after COVID-19, consumers are expected to purchase products online well above their pre-pandemic levels. This means we’ll continue to see retailers innovate around how to bring these in-person retail experiences online.