‘You have a constant reminder that life can be joy’ – Tanya van Gastel on being a digital entrepreneur in Barcelona and the hidden benefits of being a woman in tech

Tanya van Gastel is an AI genius, globally influential technological innovator and Lego fanatic. More specifically, she is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of The Multiverse AI, a highly successful company specialising in B2B and B2C AI-generated professional headshots. 

Tanya’s background is accomplished. Google, McKinsey and Walmart make up just a fraction of her high-profile client portfolio, and it makes sense that she has been featured and recognised in Forbes 20 Women in Tech, the BBC, DigitalTrends, and the Wall Street Journal. She has worked with the EU Chamber of Commerce in cybersecurity and investment, as well as assisting growth and funding for early-stage tech companies with the global venture capital firm, Orbit Startups. Not to be forgotten is her first self-built website, Capybara Affirmations, which produces personalised messages of motivation featuring some very cute furry friends.

With her entrepreneurial work, Tanya is changing the game when it comes to accessible and hassle-free headshots and spreadsheets. I interviewed her to learn more about her start-ups, AI Sheets and The Multiverse AI.

Barcelona has offered Tanya new start-up ecosystems in which to nurture her love for artificial intelligence and champion inclusivity in the industry. Transitioning from corporate roles in multiple global cities such as Antwerp, Tokyo, and Shenzhen to being a solopreneur in Europe, she knows her way around a range of diverse professional cultures as well as the digital landscape.

Listen below to hear about her influence in the industry, her experiences and advice for women in tech, why she’s an advocate for ‘building in public’ and why Barcelona ups her gives her work-life balance.

Interview Transcript

Hi, how are you?

I mean, I'm really good actually. Yeah, I feel like I'm properly caffeinated, so I'm okay.

Yeah, me too. It's key.

It is key! You're the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of the The Multiverse AI, a company specialising in AI-generated professional headshots. You left your job with a large corporate firm two years ago to set up startups. Last year, The Multiverse AI reached $250,000 in revenue, attracting clients like Google, McKinsey and Walmart. So, Tanya, what inspired you to co-found The Multiverse AI?

Yeah, it took a long time, actually, for me to go full-time on entrepreneurship. I think I did that about a year after we started. So, I was freelancing for an entire year, and then not until Multiverse was actually able to generate a proper revenue and, give out a proper salary did I jump over to do that full time. I was able to freelance and do Multiverse at the same time, and I really needed that, because I needed the peace of mind that my financials were taken care of. And so, for me, that was super important.

So, I would say that, getting back to your question, how did I come about that? I really like learning more about new technology. And so I've always been the kind of person to be up for other people to ask me: ‘Oh, what is like the smartphone that I should get?’ Or: ‘What app do you use for this?’ Or: ‘What's your productivity system like?’ And I love those questions because I'm really into it. And so, when AI kind of came about, I was playing around a lot with the LLMs, with the image generators, stable diffusion Mid-journey, all of that. And then I started making models of myself, my own face, and I would generate all kinds of different photos from it. So, some of those photos were professional photos. And so that's kind of how I approached my co-founders, how we got started with the Multiverse.

Can you tell us a bit about what exactly The Multiverse AI encompasses?

So, what The Multiverse AI does is you upload ten photos of yourself, then our AI goes and makes a model out of you, and then you receive one hundred professional photos of yourself, you can then go and choose the one that you like the most. And so, we do that B2C as well as B2B. And the reason that it's super useful B2B is because, if you are Google, and you have a sales team that is completely remote. It's around one hundred and fifty people who are all over the world, because they need to be on the road or whatever, and you cannot possibly get all of them in the same room, get a photographer in and take a photo of them. You need to find a digital solution.

And so we are that digital solution, and that has only really been possible in the last two years or so. And so, we’re really one of the first providers to be offering this for people B2B, because now you can get a professional headshot that has the same background, same style, same lighting, same everything, for your entire team, without them needing to be in the same place. And so that's super powerful.

More importantly, though, I would say is you can't actually tell that it's AI. And so you go on my LinkedIn, or, you know, a lot of other people's LinkedIn these days: that's a completely AI-generated photograph.

Two questions from this. How do you think the generative AI feeds into the debate around the ethics of artistic integrity and creativity? And do you think that this is going to be really useful for the world of theatre and screen, such as actor headshots?

I think in terms of the integrity of it, I feel like it is a very complicated question when it comes to trademarking and copyright for creative fields, right? We're talking about what if you generate something in, like, a specific artist style, stuff like that. I think with professional headshots, we are really going in on democratizing the ability to get a good photo.

And so, what does that mean? It means that if you are somebody who is maybe a student, or you are a job seeker, you don't generally have the budget to go out and pay $400 for a really good headshot, and that is what it costs, and that's actually what you need to find a really good job. Whether you're out of school or you're doing a job transition or whatever it is, you know that that helps so much, because you know one of the first things recruiters will always say is: ‘Update your LinkedIn photo! Update your profile. Make sure that you actually look hireable’. It makes a huge difference in your entire career to have a really good headshot, because that first impression matters.

And so, in my opinion, that's really what we're doing. We’re really making sure that, instead of paying $400 you can now get that photo for $29. And so, I will also add that as a girl, as a person who has done professional headshot photo shoots, it is a pain! It is a genuine borderline tragedy and crisis anytime you need to get professional hair and makeup done, and then sit four hours in front of a camera and drive over, or walk over, or take a subway back and forth; it's around five hours. And then you get the photos usually two weeks after, and then you don't like them because it was hard and you don't like posing. And so, between this and uploading some photos of myself that I take from the comfort of my own home and getting them online, I personally much prefer the latter.

And so, I think there's a space for real photographs still for real photo shoots. But I think it's nice that there's a different option as well. Because, you know, I personally use both. I use photos from real photo shoots, and I use photos that are AI-generated, and I think they serve different purposes. But I think it's a really good thing for the market and for consumers that you can choose because now you don't only have to pay $400.

It does sound like a really useful service and important to make headshots more accessible. So, we've talked a bit about Multiverse AI can you tell us a little bit about AI sheets, which is something that you just launched this week?

Yes, of course. So, AI sheets gives you the ability to use an AI formula in all of your spreadsheets. So, what does that mean? And why did I make it?

I don't like spreadsheets. People talk to me sometimes about like a V lookup or a pivot table, and I'm thinking: ‘I don't know what you're talking about’. I find it's difficult to work with, but I understand the core value position of a spreadsheet, and I think it can be really useful to see things in a grid and have that kind of overview. So that's how I prefer to think about spreadsheets.

I love ChatGBT. I use it for a lot of different things. And so, AI sheets is basically the ability to use ChatGPT in your spreadsheets for everything. So, it makes that you don't have to use any formula anymore. You don't need to remember an equal sum or an average or whatever. You can just use English, or whichever language you want, to piece formulas together. So, using AI sheets, I can basically say: ‘equals AI’, and then add all of these up – and that it does that, and it does that with everything.

So, for me, it's been super useful. I've been using it for a long time now, and AI sheets is basically how I'm launching it in public. So, it helps a lot, for example, for marketers if they want to create a social media calendar, or, if you're a project manager, and you just want to ask your spreadsheet: ‘Who is working on this project next week? What is the next step that they should be doing?’ And you can just ask your spreadsheet using AI sheets, instead of needing to go in through a billion different tabs and find out where a specific cell is for a sort of thing. So just makes your whole life easier, to be honest.

That does sound like it would make your life easier. Okay, and that's just a week old?

It launched a week ago, but I've been working on it for about three months, and it's also been used already by about twenty-five beta users. And then since the launch, about thirty-eight people, I think forty people now have installed it just this week, including some bigger businesses. So, it's been really interesting seeing how they are implementing AI sheets in their workflow. Some people are using it for generating reports in spreadsheets. Some people are using it for their financial data. Some people are using it for sales. It's very interesting because you really see all the different use cases that there are for people and so you can get really creative with how you want to use AI sheets. So, I'm really excited to see what else will happen.

That's exciting to see that it's already picked up so quickly. Amazing. Can you tell us a bit about the challenges that you faced moving from a corporate job in a large city such as Shanghai or in Shenzhen to starting up your own company in Barcelona?

Yeah, I think it's so interesting to think back about corporate life and what I do now. And I would say that there are three really big differences, pros and cons. And I think the first is just that in corporate you have a very clear job description. You know? Your job description is your title, your function. I used to work in marketing and PR and so my job was essentially: talk to journalists. Communicate this. Communicate that. Prepare the specialities. Prepare the draft. Okay, done. Ready. I know exactly what to do. Also, if I don't know what to do, my boss will tell me. So, it's really clear. I would say, when you start your own company, nobody tells you what to do – pro and con – and so you just kind of have a problem, and then you figure it out, and you Google things, and you fail, and you learn, and you fail and you learn again. And so that's a whole process. So, I say, first, nobody tells you what to do.

And then second, I think, there are no meetings when it's just you – or maybe just you and like other people. You make all the decisions, right? So, it used to be in corporate that: ‘Oh, I would like to change the font of this website’. What does that mean? It means that I've made that decision. Sure, nothing happens, and I can't do anything. I've made that decision. I need to go talk to my boss get approval. They maybe need to go to their boss and get approval. If I get approval from my boss, I need to schedule a meeting with the IT department. I need to onboard the IT department on why and how I would like to execute this thing. I need to go and talk to procurement to get a budget to maybe go and do this thing so it can move forward with it. I need to implement four or five different things, ask permission on four or five different levels, have probably ten hours of meetings about all of this, and then you can go and execute. And that is whether you want to change a font, you want to do a campaign, you want to make an image, you have any kind of idea. It's an iterative process of collaboration. And that is so nice and wonderful in many ways, but it takes a lot of time. What I do now is I just go into it, I just click, click, and it's up. It took two seconds, right? I think the big lesson is that the work doesn't take that much time, but collaboration does take a lot of time, and I think awesome things can come out of it, but it does work slower.

I would say the third thing is probably that you have almost too much freedom. You can be hyper-efficient but then other days you’re thinking: ‘I'm very overwhelmed today’. Then just take it one at a time. In a job, you go to your job, you're in the office, you're doing your 9 to 5, or, in my case, 9am to 9pm, and then you get out.

You worked 9 to 9?

I worked really long hours in corporate – really, really long hours. I still do, but now there are also periods where it's a little bit less. Well, I would say it's just more normal. What I usually do is I try to be very good at whatever side quest I want to do; I'll do it but then I also write it down on my organiser, my to-do list, my whatever – so then I actually know the things that I've done, and at the end of the day, I don't feel like: ‘today was chaos’. Yeah, that's not true, because you've actually done a lot of stuff and you've been really productive. It just wasn't what you originally set

out to do.

Yeah, which is fine, yeah. And sometimes that's how the best things happen.

It is. I totally agree.

So, you told me that for you, as an entrepreneur, it's all about ‘building in public’ and transparency. Can you tell us a bit about how you ‘build in public’, and also how that might help people understand a bit more about some of the misconceptions around AI?

So ‘build in public’ is basically where you share a lot online about how you're building your business – maybe your metrics, your wins, your fails. Everything. And I started doing this because I saw a lot of other people out there doing it, and I've been really grateful for people who are super honest and authentic about the way that they share their journey of building a business. And so, I kind of aspired to that, you know? I aspired to be able to be helpful in that way. And I feel like it's my way of giving back because it's really rare. It's really rare to see businesses be this honest about what is working for them and what is not working for them. And I think in the age of AI, so many people now are starting their own AI business, right? People are bootstrapping with tools like Lovable or, you know, building like little no code tools or low tools. And I think it's awesome because really building a business you get to exercise so much creative freedom and get to exercise so much interesting problem-solving. And so, seeing a whole community of people building in public in that way is really, really cool.

Because everybody approaches things in a very different way and there's no one set path. I think when I was younger, I used to think, oh, you know: ‘I need to finish my masters. I need to get this job. I need to stay on this track. I need to get promoted. I need to specialise. I need a niche’. And I found that really difficult because it didn't really fit with me, you know? I'm much more of a generalist. Of course, my background is in marketing, but I have learned so much more now. I've learned how to develop; I've learned how to make websites; I've learned how to make apps, and there's no job description for that. And the only way that I could know that this was a possibility was by seeing other people do it.

I will also add that I think there are very little women in this space. There are some – I think there are some, but I still think it's very rare to kind of see a girl building things by herself, doing that successfully. And, yeah, I just think it's important that people know it's possible, you know? We're out there and we can do things. Let's have more people in that room, you know? Because I go to so many panels or chats or whatever and usually, I'm the only woman. Or maybe there's one more. And so, I think girls don't do it as often because we think it's not for us. We think that the system isn't built for us, or we can't do it, or we put ourselves down. We have a self-limiting belief about: ‘I don't know how to do it, so then I'm not going to do it’. But that's the wrong cycle because you should really be considering your relationship with failure and your relationship with failure to be one that is loving. You should love failure because it means you're learning and you need to feel a little bit more, because otherwise are you growing enough?

Yeah.

So, I feel all the time. I'm terrible – I've learned that I'm terrible at so many things, and I try to be a little better at it, and that really pays off over time. The first time I tried to build a website: depressing! Really, it's terrifying! It's terrifying. You're looking at a block of code. And the first time you do this, you just try to tell yourself, let's look at it one minute longer.

I can't even imagine what building a website would entail.

No, that's the thing – that's the thing: you should not know. But then you look at it every day for one minute longer, and in a year, you will have made a Capybara Affirmations website, and it's really cute. And so great things can come from that, you know? But it's like: ‘Am I okay with failure?’ And I think for girls, that's such a hard thing.

Definitely.

I totally get it.

Could you tell us a memorable success story about when your AI positively impacted a client's story or a client's professional profile?

Can I share my own?

Yeah, please!

So, I'm not photogenic.

I don't know if that's true!

I don't know. So, I think there's different takes on this. You know when your friend takes a photo of

you and they say, ‘That's such a great, cute photo!’?

I think everyone thinks they’re not photogenic.

Yeah, but then – let's say you take a photo of your friend, and you think it's the best photo ever, and they will tell you that they hate it. I understand that and I think most people understand that, because you have a certain take on what kind of photos you like of yourself – which angles, which you like, which you don't. I specifically like this angle [turning her face].

You know when you see a video of yourself when it's shown from a weird e angle and you just don' t… because you always see yourself head on, and you see yourself… And every time you look in the mirror – without really trying, without knowing we're doing it – we pose a little bit for ourselves. And then someone else will say, ‘That’s a really good picture’, and then you just think: ‘That's not how I see myself!’

Exactly.

‘That's not the beautiful side that I see myself’.

One hundred per cent, and it's like we forget that we exist in 3D.

Yeah. That’s so true!

And so, you know the photos that you like. So, you can now just use those to generate a professional photo. So, because of that bias – the selection bias that you only upload photos for yourself that you like – your professional photos with Multiverse that are AI-generated based on the photos that you love already are always great. They're always the photos that you actually like, because it's the angle that you like, and it's that same angle in all your professional photos.

And so, for me, I have paid multiple times to get a professional photo shoot done. I paid up to $200 to $300. (This was in Asia as well, so it's a bit cheaper). And every time it was around six hours and a lot of the photographers were saying, ‘Tilt your chin a little higher, or do a little, do a different expression’. I just hate it! But also, I still realise how important it is to have that photo because this is how everybody sees you on everything these days. We're all online; we're on Slack, we're on WhatsApp or on LinkedIn, or whatever. You're talking to a client you're talking to – you don't even have to be in sales but you're talking to a client or an external person. They don't know what you look like in real; they just have the photo! And based on that photo, if you're wearing a shirt or a tank top, that's a totally different impression, you know?

So, if I want my life to be easier, I have a good, professional photo, and then people actually believe me more. I have to work less. You know? It makes your life easier. I swear it does because people go in and they immediately already assume: ‘That's a great photo. She takes her life and her job seriously’. So let me tell you, it has changed my life because I don't have to go in and convince you that I am professional. You already think that because of this photo that you've seen of me being in this setting. And you couldn't tell that it was AI-generated – and I was wearing a shirt and a blazer – and you automatically think: ‘That girl, she knows what she's doing’.

‘I want to hire her’.

‘I want to hire her, or I want to work for her, or I want to give her money’. Whatever that is, whatever that means for you, that's what your professional photo does. It helps you work less. I think for, you know, everybody has so many different identities. I wear my work hat, or I wear my Lego building hat, or I wear my exercise hat. Whatever it is, you represent yourself differently and the way that then people see you in that context; that's how they think about you. So, your co-workers just think of you as ‘work person’; people in your gym think of you as ‘exercise person’ because they see you in that way. And so that photo helps to set that, fix that, and really solidify that kind of reputation that you have.

It does. Thank you for sharing that. Cycling back a little bit to what you were saying about there not being enough women in the room in tech and enough space for female voices, what advice would you give to women who are either starting out or progressing their careers in the tech industry?

Yeah, I think we should start believing that it's not that hard. This is super counterproductive because it is hard. But I think there's this thing happening where we tell women it's so hard to be a woman in this space, and I think it's counterproductive, because who wants to go and do things that are hard?

Okay, so let me pitch you an alternative scenario. You have a super unique strength built in and nobody can take that away from you. That's fact. That's a thing. I can go and talk about being a woman in this space. Men can't do that. Claim that as your superpower. Secondly, you are not a threat. Nobody sees you as a threat or a competitor. As a woman, generally, you are perceived to be a little softer, a little more mellow, maybe a little less aggressive. And I'm not saying that you have to be that or change or do anything; that's just also built in. That means that you can actually go and talk to your competitors and ask them for help, and honestly, if they are men, they will probably give it to you too. That's a strength, right? That makes it easier.

So, let's change that narrative a bit about ‘it's so hard’. Yes, I know! It is. Because I have been in the space, I know it is, but also think about the strengths, right? There are actual, tangible things that we have that men don't, and I think that's really powerful. So, embrace that uniqueness of being singular in the area, your industry, the list of companies that you want to build, because of who you are. And it’s…I'd say that's the first thing. Embrace your uniqueness, right? Don't let that hold you back. Because sometimes it is just in your head. Sometimes it's not, but a lot of the time it is because we think because it's harder for women that this is happening…because I am a woman.

Yeah. I think it's a really powerful point, though, across any industry, really. You're not gonna get as far if you try and blend in; you might as well capitalise off the thing that you have that other people don't.

Yeah, one hundred per cent. That's such a great way to put it. And it is that. I'd also add that – it really like, goes back to this…I think we're so in touch with – I would say, in general, women are more emotionally mature and that a lot of the time puts us a little bit more in touch with how we think about certain things, to the point that sometimes we get so in our own head, you know? And because we have so much pressure to be this, be that, look like this, look like that. And it can make it really scary to go out and do things and be judged for it.

And let me tell you, no matter what you do, you will be judged. It doesn't actually matter if you do this or don't because the people who will stick with you and not do that will continue to do so no matter what, and the people who don't will continue to do so no matter what. So why don't you go and do the thing that you want to do and then see what happens and chase all your dreams? And if it doesn't work out, fine, you have what you have. And if it does, that's great! You know? Claim that! So, yeah, do the thing!

If you're not feeling embarrassed, you're maybe too comfortable. That's such a weird thing to say. That's not what I mean. But I think it's a really powerful thing to feel like you have failed and then learn from that because I think failure should not be painful. It is, but we attach that to it. The thing in itself is not telling us that we're doing bad. No, it's an uncomfortable thing but you get used to it, and then you learn.

I think that's really true.

We care so much, you know? And then all this negative self-talk that comes from that too… Just be nice to yourself, man. Treat yourself like you treat your best friend. Be nice to yourself. Say nice things about yourself. Remember all the things that you've done already. You don't need to change or do whatever; just be fully yourself and don't feel embarrassed about it. This is such a hard thing to do but I feel like being away from corporate life also has really helped with that because I don't have a boss who can tell me that I can’t do something. Yeah, I don't have to represent an organisation; I am the organisation. And if this is what I want to do, then this is just kind of what I want to do.

Yeah! Do you feel like being in Barcelona culturally – you know, the different way of life, the different business environment – do you feel that that's changed your relationship with yourself as a businesswoman?

I think the community in Barcelona has. I think there's a really great and powerful community of entrepreneurs here. I went to for drinks yesterday, for example, with another female founder, and it's really nice. You know? We just go out, have fun, enjoy the time together and chat. And I think being able to relate to somebody else in that way is super, super helpful because it makes you understand that you're not the only one. And so, there's a lot of really cool entrepreneurs in Barcelona; that definitely helps.

And then secondly, I would say that it's beautiful out here. It's literally blue skies right now; we're twenty minutes away from the beach. Yeah, walking distance! It's not that I go that often, but I like knowing it’s there waiting for me, you know? So yeah, I do tend to work a bit more than the average person, but I think I can also step outside and really disconnect. And growing up in Belgium, I would say that you don't go outside and disconnect. I mean, you do, but it's quite grey; a lot of times it's a bit harder. Here you can really… you have a constant reminder that life can be joy. And so, you only need to look outside to remember it’s okay. There are other things. Just shut the laptop.

Yeah, I feel like that’s a sentiment that a lot of other people that I’ve spoken to have and share, which I think is a really beautiful thing to have. Anyway, my last question: Do you have any upcoming projects or anything that you’re excited about?

Yes. Well, they’re all AI Sheets related. So, we’re building a new feature. It’s called ‘Ask Your Spreadsheet’. So, this is kind of a thing that I was talking about earlier. You can ask your spreadsheet questions and it will answer.

So, let’s say you have a set of financial data or marketing data. You just dump it in your spreadsheet usually. And now you have to go figure out: ‘Okay what can I do with this information? What is actually helpful for me?’ You can just ask your spreadsheet, based on this data: ‘Which projects should I do today? Which are projects that are revenue driving or give you a lot of views or comments or engagement or whatever? You can ask your spreadsheet, which months were the best and why? Which months were the worst and why? Is there a spike? Do you see any patterns here?’ And it will just give it to you. And you don’t have to download anything; you don’t have to use different software. It’s literally all already in your spreadsheet. You just ask the question and then it’s there.

Kind of like an AI agony aunt.

It is a bit like that!

Is there anything else that you want to talk about?

Yeah. I am talking about all of this – about the building journey, about the mindset, the thoughts, the hesitations, the doubts, the struggles – on LinkedIn and YouTube.

Awesome! Well, thank you so much for speaking with us at Barcelona Metropolitan today. It was a pleasure having you.

Thank you.