When Weilyn Chong’s name and photo appeared on a Times Square billboard from the Nasdaq Tower, it instantly went viral, inspiring many young Singaporeans to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors.
Weilyn acknowledges the value of entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia despite the fact that the majority of her work with founders is focused in the US.
Growing up, 20-year-old Weilyn Chong has lived from one place to another between Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands which made her immersed in varied cultures.
Weilyn’s global exposure enabled her to be more flexible in dealing with many kinds of people especially since their family annually joins in Singapore Global Network events.
Despite their frequent moves, Weilyn’s mother made sure to give them a strong sense of connection to their roots by taking them to see their grandparents, spending time with family, and eating Singaporean food.
The Singaporean third-year economics student at Princeton University expressed how being among passionate individuals inspires her.
Weilyn started a podcast about women entrepreneurs with her failure project for “The Other ‘F’ Word” class when she was still a freshman, and she has since enjoyed it.
Together with her high school friend Ali Debow, she even converted it into a regular extracurricular activity by co-founding The Entrepre女ers Network, a podcasting startup that connects and promotes female entrepreneurs with topics including design, young changemakers, and Gen Z female founders.
Weilyn wants to increase the visibility of female business owners and give them connections opportunities. Her team has spoken with over 130 creators in a year and increased their listenership and social media reach to 30,000.
She said that they hope to get young females to dream of being an entrepreneur and understand that entrepreneurship doesn’t have to look a specific way.
Learning that bias happens between genders in the global arena as only 2% of total venture capital funding goes to women because they are women, she attended a conference put on by the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center (NEC) to address the complex issue of inequity in venture for entrepreneurs of color and women entrepreneurs.
There, she met people from the Center and expressed her interest to get involved in the work they do in any capacity.
She was asked to join the NEC board in order to represent Generation Z and put a spotlight on young entrepreneurship.
“I grew up thinking those two things are mutually exclusive – either you do charity work or you make money. But what we’re seeing is that you can raise a lot of money and make a positive impact on the world,” she said on CNBC.
