What’s it like to be an attractive woman in tech? GrabTaxi executive and runway model explains

If you live in Metro Manila, there’s a good chance you’ve seen GrabTaxi cars painted as cartoon characters and wondered, “who pushed for that idea?”

In addition to being the assistant general manager of GrabTaxi Philippines, Bautista is a professional model. Photo Credit: Jar Concengco.

That person is none other than GrabTaxi Philippines assistant general manager Natasha Bautista. People call them “pussy cabs” – a play on “pussy cats.” There are three of them: Sexy Fox, Bipolar Panda, and Mr. Moose. The painted cars have been getting a lot of media attention, again affirming that cartoony cuteness is a valid business strategy in Asia.

Image courtesy of GrabTaxi Philippines Facebook page.

The character cars came about as a result of Bautista and team wanting to do something viral. Previously all the marketing efforts of GrabTaxi Philippines were targeted at the same demographic since they were using the same marketing channels. According to Bautista:

We needed to tap into a different market, but we can’t expect that result if we don’t change our strategy. As Einstein said, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’, and we definitely did not want to be insane. Well, scratch that, we actually want to be insane but in a good way. We wanted to be crazy enough to do something extraordinary so that everyone would be talking about us – therefore the birth of our crazy character cars roaming around the Metro!

See: Part-time model, full-time GrabTaxi executive Natasha Bautista introduces us to GrabCar’s stoic drivers

Attractive women and their advantages in tech

When not leading the company’s disruption of the transportation industry, Bautista also moonlights as a professional model, gracing billboards in the Philippines and runways across Southeast Asia. Bautista is a card-carrying member of Professional Models Association of the Philippines (PMAP), and she regularly appears in the pages of premiere magazines like Preview.

This photo of Bautista appeared in Meg Magazine.

Models are a rare species in the tech world, one which gets undeniably more attention. While Bautista’s experiences are of course not representative of all women, they are a valid data point to understanding the role of gender in tech.

In broaching this conversation with Bautista, I started by asking: “Have you ever intentionally played up your attractiveness in the business world?”

The price of beauty