The moment I decided to launch platform13 by Leila Fataar

It’s funny. I don’t think there was an actual moment I decided to start Platform13. It simply felt like the next phase in my career.

I have been surrounded by creativity my entire life. My uncles were and are famous musicians, who have broken boundaries in apartheid South Africa since I can remember, my grandmother designed swimwear, and my mother was a pattern cutter and clothing designer. I, myself, never had that type of craft creativity, rather a keen sense of what resonates in terms of culture and the like. I can’t codify it, but it is a skill that has followed me throughout my life and career.

Culture, for me, is the stuff of life – it’s how we communicate, what we wear, eat, see and listen to. It’s how we behave and what influences us. It's living and breathing and changes all the time. Reading and analysing the signs as culture shifts, and flexing plans (in a way that makes sense for that brand), is how I keep the companies I am working with relevant.

And so, it is in everything I do – launching an independent boutique publicity agency at 26, running it for 10 years, and spending the last five years working at global companies in cultural roles. The HUGE societal, political, cultural and technological transformational shift we find ourselves in means all parts of the creative, communications and marketing industries are trying to find a new path.