Stories

December 20, 2022

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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.

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Image Source: Locke Bio

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How This Sci-Entrepreneur Became A Company CEO At The Age Of 18

Capitalizing on her 14-year-old self’s science enthusiasm 12 years ago, Cathy Tie, transformed herself into a successful bioinformatician and entrepreneur.

At 18, the young Canadian became the co-founder of the $1 million dollar worth Ranomics company, a health risk prediction provider. While she co-founded Locke Bio, an e-commerce platform for pharmaceutical and other FDA-approved product suppliers when she was 23.

Today, the 26-year-old sci-entrepreneur shares that having a broader view is her key to being integrative and cross-disciplined in the many fields she is engaged in, as art and creativity are easier said than done.

During an interview with CNBC, Tie mentions her ability to connect ideas and see them far differently from how others perceive, including how science can grow and expand for beginners which she thinks is more artistic and creative than technical. 

This skill, however, is uncommon among teenagers. Yet, Tie’s innate dexterity manifested in her secondary years as she reserved a special place for science and relevant practical activities in her heart ever since a kid. 

Discontented with the standard curriculum, she wrote unsolicited letters to her professors seeking to tour the school labs, perform studies, and assist in their scientific projects, which taught her a lot until she had her first paper published in a peer-reviewed journal at age 16. 

However, she realized that getting entrepreneurial financing is better than relying on academic allowances since she could do more research. She applied to entrepreneur programs to assist her in the startup world.

Upon getting acquainted with Leo Wan who was then a Ph.D. student at the school where she was a neophyte, they worked together and were admitted into IndieBio, a startup platform that finances and mentors science entrepreneurs.

With Tie having prime knowledge on how to figure out issues on genetic trial precision, she subsequently co-founded Randomics with Wan after quitting college and leaving for San Francisco where she became the CEO for the three early years.

Thereafter, she was asked to apply and was accepted to The Thiel Fellowship, which aids a $100,000 subsidy to out-of-college inexperienced entrepreneurs.

A year following her collaboration with Cervin Ventures, she founded Locke Bio, which currently has three U.S. and Canadian business resources.

Tie’s business is nonexempt to challenges that a company experiences, yet, hard work and reflection make it possible for her to always “see the bigger picture. In this light, she and her team have a lot ahead for the company.

Image Source: Maye Felices-McDonald Facebook

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Former Caregiver Now CEO Of Multi-Million Dollar Companies In The US

Stirred by her dream, perseverance, and thrust, Filipina-American Maye Felices-McDonald etches her name as the owner and CEO of quite a few businesses in the US such as GETMEFIT Slimming Products, and Mama’s Angels Senior Care.

Maye’s voyage was not a piece of cake. She developed her entrepreneurial skills as a vendor of sweets and paper dolls in school when she was still a kid, as a caretaker of her mother’s sari-sari store (sundry store), and as a student assistant when she was in college while studying Ladderized Nursing.

In 2017, Maye started as a part-time caregiver who made her car home for eight long months. Eventually, she courageously established her own caregiving firm named Mama’s Angels Care and later on catered to and met the caregiving demands in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia starting with three caregivers to 49 healthcare providers at present. With this, she was also able to help fellow Filipinos by hiring them into her company.

As a dream-chaser, Maye capitalized on her 5Ps: Passion, Persistency, Perseverance, Positive Mindset, and the Power of Resilience which led her to the realization of her dreams which she found in the US.

As her business considerably grew, it became distinguished in the US, and in September this year, she proudly ramped up her well-known product on the esteemed New York Fashion Week runway putting in high spot her advocacy of unifying health, wellness, fitness, and fashion and her drive to take part in her young ambassadors’ will of fostering mental health awareness to the young ones.

Maye toiled and worked hard in achieving her dreams making her more than deserving of receiving laurels for her successful business undertakings along the lines of Modern CEO, Most Influential Young CEO for Business and Entrepreneurship, and Best Slimming Product of USA.

Image Source: Brían Nguyen Instagram

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Vietnamese-American Transgender Model Made History Winning local ‘Miss America’ Pageant

In the 100-year history of Miss America, 19-year-old Brían Nguyen has become the first transgender contestant to win a local Miss America Organization beauty pageant, Miss Greater Derry 2023.

The teenager from New Hampshire won a crown, title, and scholarship. She ecstatically wrote on her Instagram, “No words can describe the feeling of having the opportunity to serve my community and represent my community for the very first time at Miss New Hampshire.” 

Nguyen continued, “I am so honored to be crowned your new Miss Greater Derry 2023, and I am thrilled to show you all what I have up my sleeves. This will be an amazing year.”

Founded in 1986, the Miss Greater Derry Scholarship Program awards scholarships to young women in the Greater Derry area for academic skills, talent, character, community service, and poise.

The Miss Greater Derry Scholarship Pageant is also a preliminary event for the Miss New Hampshire Pageant and, ultimately, the Miss America Pageant.

As the new Miss Greater Derry, she recently attended the annual Best Buddies Champion Gala to support those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. $150,000 was raised over that night to help out their champion nominees. She will be working with Best Buddies New Hampshire throughout her reign.

Image Source: Carla Tramullas / MycoWorks

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MycoWorks’ Sustainable Mushroom Leather Raised Over $187M From General Motors and Hollywood A-Listers

“Growing the future has only just started. This industry will continue to surprise people,” says Philip Ross, co-founder of MycoWorks, a mycelium material founder and producer.

As the innovator of high-quality mushroom “leather” for the luxurious Hermes bags, the business acquired $187 million from Natalie Portman, John Legend, and General Motors and will soon cover the latter’s electric car interiors.

Ross unintentionally discovered leather-like material in reishi mushrooms, a fungus he farmed for his cancer and AIDS more than four decades ago. He then became a mycelium artist and featured his fungus-based works at famous museums.

According to Sophia Wang, co-founder of MycoWorks whom Phil met six years before they founded the firm while working together on art ventures, Ross’s discovery marked the “leather’s” birth to the globe.

Wang and Ross continued to discover more about mycelium and later realized that the material is enticing to buyers who don’t like synthesized contaminants and materials which are produced from animals.

Alongside raising their funding source, the company also conducted a groundbreaking at South Carolina Factory with the aim of attaining a sufficient supply of their fancy product.

With about 200 employees, Matt Scullin, the company’s CEO, said that the “Brands are making very significant changes to address what is really a growing demographic of people who want to buy sustainable products that have provenance and traceability and a lower carbon footprint, lower water use—and mycelium does all of those things.”

Compared to animal leather, the mushroom leather-like material is far more environmentally friendly as the former adds up to about a million tons of carbon dioxide which is tantamount to 30 million cars’ yearly emissions.

Despite environmental and animal issues, people prefer biomaterials or “next-gen” materials over the past decade making it in-demand as multi-billion dollars are invested in the industry.

Nonetheless, Hermes’ firm in France is soon to release its $4,200-worth “Victoria” bag made from MycoWorks’ amber-hued exquisite mycelium.