Member Spotlight: Marieliesse Gouilliard
“Courage, to me, is staying open instead of rigid: being willing to question your own assumptions, listen more, and understand that someone else's approach isn't wrong just because it's different from yours.”
From studying Computer Science at the University of Chicago to building her own company, Marieliesse Gouilliard has always had a passion for creating things from scratch.
After working across several SaaS products, Marieliesse experienced first-hand how a customer could leave a product they had spent months deciding to purchase simply because they couldn’t find a feature that was already there. That experience led her to build Autoplay AI, which helps AI support agents use real-time user behaviour to guide customers towards relevant features.
In this inspiring conversation, Marieliesse reflects on the resilience and self-belief that have shaped her journey, the challenges she has experienced as a woman in engineering and technology, and why staying open to different perspectives is so important to being courageous, authentic and inclusive.
To begin, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m French, grew up in London, and studied Computer Science at the University of Chicago. I’ve always loved building things from scratch.
After graduating, I worked across several SaaS products, and one moment stuck with me. After a six-month sales cycle to land a customer, we lost them during onboarding because they couldn’t find a feature we’d already built. They went back to their old, less powerful but more familiar system.
That was an existential crisis for me. We’re building these powerful products and still losing customers, not because the product isn’t good, but because people don’t know it exists.
CS teams end up spending their time explaining how things work instead of having higher-value conversations about business impact. That’s the problem I built Autoplay AI to solve.
How did you get where you are today?
A lot of resilience, self-belief and, even when the odds felt stacked against me, a stubborn kind of optimism.
Grabbing opportunities instead of waiting for permission. Not letting other people’s perceptions or judgements define how I see myself or my own potential.
I genuinely believe the biggest limitation most of us face is our own limiting beliefs. If you can get rid of those, there’s very little you can’t do.
“I genuinely believe the biggest limitation most of us face is our own limiting beliefs. If you can get rid of those, there’s very little you can’t do.”
What were the main challenges you faced as a woman in CX?
I’m building in CX, but my background is engineering, and that’s come with its own quiet challenges.
I remember walking into my machine learning class at the University of Chicago and being mistaken for being in the wrong room, then sitting down as the only woman in it.
Nothing about this situation is new or unique to me. Plenty of women in tech have a version of that story.
It’s just about learning to navigate it and keep going anyway.
Tell us about a moment that shaped you into the woman you are today.
During my gap year, I got really sick, about 50km deep into the jungle in northern Colombia during a trek to the Lost City.
There was no possibility of evacuation, no helicopter and no way out. I was vomiting, badly dehydrated, dealing with a brutal stomach bug and completely stuck.
I ended up trading everything I had for a donkey and made a 20-hour ride down mudslides to get back to civilisation, eventually reaching a hospital by scooter.
Moments like that put everything into perspective. When you’ve been that sick, that far from help, with nothing but grit and a donkey to get you out, it recalibrates what you think you can handle and what actually counts as a hard day.
What makes a woman courageous / collaborative / inclusive / authentic?
There’s no single “right” way to do things or to live your life.
Courage, to me, is staying open instead of rigid: being willing to question your own assumptions, listen more, and understand that someone else’s approach isn’t wrong just because it’s different from yours.
Authenticity and inclusivity both come from that same place: genuine curiosity about other people’s experiences, rather than assuming your own lens is the default.
“Courage, to me, is staying open instead of rigid: being willing to question your own assumptions, listen more, and understand that someone else’s approach isn’t wrong just because it’s different from yours.”
Keep the Conversation Going
Marieliesse’s journey is a reminder that sometimes the biggest barriers are the ones we place on ourselves. Her experience also highlights the importance of staying open to different perspectives and continuing to move forward, even when you find yourself in unfamiliar territory.
Her story shows how resilience, self-belief and curiosity can shape the way we approach challenges, build businesses and work with others.
If you’d like to connect with a community that champions growth, collaboration, and the power of women supporting women, you can join the WiCX Inner Circle waitlist today.
