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Why This Female CEO Bet Everything on AI
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"Watch This Space."
Those were the three words that sent shockwaves through the Dutch tech scene last week when Marili 't Hooft-Bolle announced she was walking away from Trengo. But if you know Marili, you know she does not do "safe".
From her early days at McKinsey to scaling WeTransfer, Marili has built a career by running toward the fire, especially when that fire is a massive technological shift like AI.
In this episode of Mork Unfiltered, we are peeling back the layers on what it really looks like to lead a radical transformation. Marili opens up about the brutal reality of turning a legacy company into an AI-native powerhouse, including the gut-wrenching decision to replace nearly 85% of her engineering team just to survive the next wave.
We also dive into the "messy middle" of being a woman in leadership. Marili shares a raw, unfiltered story about being told she would not have been promoted if the company knew she was pregnant, and the powerful lesson she learned about choosing which battles are actually worth your life’s energy.
Whether you are a founder at a fork in the road or a leader trying to navigate the AI revolution, this conversation is a masterclass in betting on yourself when the system was not designed for you.
Chapters:
00:00 – The "Bombshell": Why Marili walked away at the top.
05:15 – Childhood Grit: How growing up with brothers shaped a "fighter" mindset.
11:00 – Leaving McKinsey: Choosing execution and "unknown territory" over status.
17:45 – The Microsoft Rejection: Why she said "no" to a major role to stay authentic.
26:30 – The Pregnancy Bombshell: Dealing with blatant discrimination in the boardroom.
35:00 – Hiding the Resume: The reality of ageism in the tech world.
44:00 – The AI Pivot: Why she replaced 85% of her engineers to save Trengo.
54:30 – Leaving the Peak: How to know when your mission is truly finished.
57:40 – Lightning Round: Oprah, Superpowers, and the best advice for young women.
#MorkUnfiltered #WomenInTech #AITransformation #CEOSecrets #EngineeringCulture #LeadershipTruths #BetOnYourself
If this episode moved you or gave you a different lens on adversity and growth, I want to invite you to go deeper.
I wrote Step Back and Leap for people exactly like us. People building through chaos. People trying to find meaning inside uncertainty. People choosing purpose over comfort. You can get it here:
https://a.co/d/e4nd8RT
And if you want practical tools you can use today to strengthen your resilience, I created a short, tactical guide you can download immediately. It’s called The Mork Guide to Resilience and it is designed to help you build inner strength, recover faster, and lead from a grounded place:
https://aa5c-ea.systeme.io/resilience
Because sometimes the most powerful leaps forward start with stepping back, grounding yourself, and reconnecting to why you are here in the first place.
— Patrick
View all episodes
By Patrick MorkSend us Fan Mail
"Watch This Space."
Those were the three words that sent shockwaves through the Dutch tech scene last week when Marili 't Hooft-Bolle announced she was walking away from Trengo. But if you know Marili, you know she does not do "safe".
From her early days at McKinsey to scaling WeTransfer, Marili has built a career by running toward the fire, especially when that fire is a massive technological shift like AI.
In this episode of Mork Unfiltered, we are peeling back the layers on what it really looks like to lead a radical transformation. Marili opens up about the brutal reality of turning a legacy company into an AI-native powerhouse, including the gut-wrenching decision to replace nearly 85% of her engineering team just to survive the next wave.
We also dive into the "messy middle" of being a woman in leadership. Marili shares a raw, unfiltered story about being told she would not have been promoted if the company knew she was pregnant, and the powerful lesson she learned about choosing which battles are actually worth your life’s energy.
Whether you are a founder at a fork in the road or a leader trying to navigate the AI revolution, this conversation is a masterclass in betting on yourself when the system was not designed for you.
Chapters:
00:00 – The "Bombshell": Why Marili walked away at the top.
05:15 – Childhood Grit: How growing up with brothers shaped a "fighter" mindset.
11:00 – Leaving McKinsey: Choosing execution and "unknown territory" over status.
17:45 – The Microsoft Rejection: Why she said "no" to a major role to stay authentic.
26:30 – The Pregnancy Bombshell: Dealing with blatant discrimination in the boardroom.
35:00 – Hiding the Resume: The reality of ageism in the tech world.
44:00 – The AI Pivot: Why she replaced 85% of her engineers to save Trengo.
54:30 – Leaving the Peak: How to know when your mission is truly finished.
57:40 – Lightning Round: Oprah, Superpowers, and the best advice for young women.
#MorkUnfiltered #WomenInTech #AITransformation #CEOSecrets #EngineeringCulture #LeadershipTruths #BetOnYourself
If this episode moved you or gave you a different lens on adversity and growth, I want to invite you to go deeper.
I wrote Step Back and Leap for people exactly like us. People building through chaos. People trying to find meaning inside uncertainty. People choosing purpose over comfort. You can get it here:
https://a.co/d/e4nd8RT
And if you want practical tools you can use today to strengthen your resilience, I created a short, tactical guide you can download immediately. It’s called The Mork Guide to Resilience and it is designed to help you build inner strength, recover faster, and lead from a grounded place:
https://aa5c-ea.systeme.io/resilience
Because sometimes the most powerful leaps forward start with stepping back, grounding yourself, and reconnecting to why you are here in the first place.
— Patrick