What She Learned About Leadership (That Nobody Teaches) with Sheila Lirio Marcelo

Dec 26, 2025

Sheila Lirio Marcelo, serial entrepreneur who built Care.com and cofounded The Asian American Foundation, shares a personal leadership journey. She talks about shifting from approval-seeking to heart-led leadership. She explores inner work like meditation and IFS, reclaiming full identity beyond assimilation, and practical habits that sustain resilient, compassionate leaders.

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ANECDOTE

How Care.com Was Born From Personal Need

Sheila built Care.com after juggling childcare and senior care when her father fell ill, combining marketplace and job-board experience into a caregiving platform launched in 2006.
She scaled it to 45M users, took it public in 2014, exited in 2020, then founded Ohai.ai to reduce families' mental load.

INSIGHT

Asian Plus American Reframes Belonging

The Asian plus American campaign reframes hyphenated identity by turning the dividing dash into a plus to celebrate layered belonging.
The campaign research found ~25% of Asian Americans feel they don't belong, so narrative change aims to validate composite identities.

ADVICE

Prevent Burnout By Starting With Self Love

Avoid burnout by sourcing energy from self-love and inner work so service flows from abundance rather than performance anxiety.
Practices Sheila uses include meditation, journaling, gratitude, and clarifying values to shift leadership from head to heart.

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In this episode of Big Asian Energy, John Wang sits down with Sheila Lirio Marcelo, co-founder of the Asian American Foundation and CEO of Ohai.ai. Sheila shares her remarkable journey from arriving in the US from the Philippines as a child to becoming a serial entrepreneur who built Care.com into a platform serving 45 million families. She opens up about transforming from a "tiger mom" leadership style to leading from the heart, and reveals how inner work and meditation helped her move from chasing approval to finding authentic power through love and service.

What Sheila Lirio Marcelo Shares:

How Asian Americans can break free from stereotypical leadership patterns by shifting from performing for approval to leading authentically from the heart
The power of inner work practices like meditation, journaling, and Internal Family Systems to heal childhood imprints and transform limiting beliefs into sources of strength
Why embracing our full identities—rather than hiding parts of ourselves—represents a fundamental shift from assimilation to integration, celebrating how our diverse backgrounds make us whole

About Sheila Lirio Marcelo

Sheila Lirio Marcelo is a serial entrepreneur and community leader who has built multiple platforms serving millions of families. She founded Care.com in 2006, scaled it to serve 45 million users, took it public in 2014, and exited in 2020 when it was acquired by IAC for $500 million. She is co-founder of the Asian American Foundation (TAAF), launched in 2021 to address Asian hate and promote belonging, safety, and prosperity for Asian Americans. Currently, she serves as co-founder and CEO of Ohai.ai, an AI-powered personal assistant platform helping families manage their mental load. A Harvard Law and Business School graduate who became a mother during college, Sheila has been recognized in Fortune's top 10 women entrepreneurs and Forbes' 50 over 50 list. She is a grandmother, mother of two, and dedicated advocate for caregivers and Asian American communities.