Women of Wolt – Kimsy, restaurant owner

To celebrate International Women’s Day, this interview series highlights some of the women who make Wolt, well – Wolt. The series includes Wolt staff, restaurant partners and couriers partners. 

In this post, we’re introducing Kimsy Pon, who is the co-owner of popular restaurants LieMi, Kabuki and Soosi. Kimsy is based in Helsinki, Finland. 

What is your story? 

Restaurants are a family business, and I naturally grew into the role of becoming a restaurateur. I see myself as an entrepreneur, I’m always there to solve any problems or help any of the 5 restaurants that I co-own with my partners. I’ve worked with Wolt since their early days in 2015, and it’s a great addition to our restaurants. 

What do you do with Wolt?

Wolt is a business partner for us. We make the food and they handle the delivery side and everything that comes with their service. 

How long have you been partnering Wolt? 

Since 2015, so almost 6 years now. 

What drew you into becoming a restaurateur?

It comes from my family. We’ve always had a restaurant with my family, and I carried it on from there. LieMi was one of the very first Vietnamese restaurants in Helsinki, and we now have three locations for Liemi, as well the japanese restaurant Kabuki, and we’re opening Soosi, a new concept that’s focused on tasty curries in Kamppi today.    

What’s the best part of your work?

As an entrepreneur I get to do everything. I might step in and help in the kitchen or counter, as well as plan the launch of our new restaurant. As I’ve been working in our family restaurants, I’m super used to being handson on getting anything done.

What advice would you give to anyone considering joining Wolt? 

It’s worth it. The app is so broad and customers can order anything on Wolt. It’s easy and worth it. 

Anything you’d like us to mention with regard to International Women’s Day, being a woman in your industry or at Wolt?

From my experience, the restaurant scene is fairly equally all things considered. I haven’t run into issues and as entrepreneur-at-heart, I’ll always find a way. Just focus on getting stuff done.

The theme of International Women’s Day 2021 is #ChooseToChallenge (quoting IWD website): “We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.”

 If you want to support the cause, post a photo of your hand raised with the hashtag #ChooseToChallenge and take action to call out inequality – not only today, but every day as well.