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May 30, 2024

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Welcome to another edition of AHN awaken*! Apart from our guest, I’m excited to introduce a new member of our team, Han Yue Yin! Han Yue is a current Stanford GSB student and was my fellow jazz bandmate in college. Although this article was written by me (Edwin), Han Yue co-interviewed with me and will be taking the lead on writing some great articles in the future. Everyone, please welcome Han Yue!

Our guest for this edition is Larry Liu, co-founder and CEO of Weee! (exclamation mark included). Weee! is the leading online Asian supermarket in America, think Amazon but for Asian groceries. Larry is an exceptional founder, and his journey of immigrating to America without any connections into founding a company worth $4.1 billion truly exemplifies the American dream. As an aside, Han Yue and I were especially excited about this interview as avid users of Weee! ourselves. Without further ado:

The Origins of Weee!

Our first question for Larry was how the idea for Weee! first came about:

Originally, we started as a WeChat (Chinese messaging app popular with the American diaspora) group-buying company. I believe it was really an opportunity we observed around the 2014-2015 time frame. This was when WeChat became extremely popular among Chinese immigrants and many people formed WeChat groups to buy food together, among other things. We found this to be a very interesting business model. As you may know, I was an eBay seller for more than 10 years and was familiar with the traditional e-commerce model, which is search-based. So, when I saw the group buys, I thought it was a completely new model, not search-based, but recommendation-based. I believed it was very promising. That’s when we decided to quit our jobs and start the business. However, it turned out not to be the right model. We pivoted in 2017 because social buying was not what we thought it was. It was not the ultimate solution to solve the lack of service experienced by Asian Americans for their food needs. The delivery-to-home model is a much better model. So, we pivoted in 2017. I believe it’s one of the greatest pivots in history.

The reason we pivoted was because we couldn’t grow the original group buy model. We couldn’t raise money because we didn’t grow. This forced us to think very hard about the fundamentals. That’s when we realized that the reason most people used group buys was actually because they didn’t have easy, affordable access to the food they love. It wasn’t apparent in the beginning because people were group buying all kinds of things. But those were only distractions. When we thought deeper, it was about the food. That’s why we had to pivot. 

Following up, we asked Larry what lessons they were able to port over from their group-buying stage into their current business model:

We learned a lot during the group buying stage. We had already built some warehousing and delivery capability during the group buy era. Many vendors didn’t want to sell to the group leaders directly, so we had to build a warehouse to buy a lot of products from the vendors. We acted as the supplier to many of the group leaders. This already made us into the warehousing and delivery side of things. We also learned that people were willing to wait for great products that were hard to find. This gave us the confidence to not do same-day delivery or on-demand.

Obviously, we had to ask what were these products that people were willing to wait for:

It’s usually the products that are hard to find even at Asian supermarkets. For example, super fresh fish, very fresh produce, and fruits. In the early days of group buying, the Pacific Black Cod was very popular. People were buying pork bellies together because they were not easy to find in mainstream supermarkets. During winter time, a lot of Chinese immigrants make sausages themselves, so they buy a lot of pork bellies. 

One of our most popular items was Kyoho grapes. Kyoho grapes are not always available in Asian supermarkets. Additionally, Asian supermarkets have issues with consistent quality, the range of products, and the fact that a lot of people live far away from those supermarkets. That’s why those kinds of products were very attractive. During the group buy days, we would never do tofu, soy sauce, or green onions. Those kinds of products were not considered exciting for group buys. So we only would do, like I said, super fresh seafood or produce or restaurant food or things not so readily available.

The Business of Weee!

One of the big ongoing initiatives at Weee! is adding storefronts for more ethnicities, complete with their own goods. We asked Larry what opportunities and challenges they’ve experienced expanding into more ethnicities:

All of them are very underserved, which makes our business very attractive to all these ethnicities. If you look at U.S. history, there was a very important piece of legislation passed by Congress called the Immigration Act of 1965. It really started this whole demographic shift in this country. It’s a once-in-a-century shift. That’s when the Asian and Latino populations started to grow in the U.S. Right now, if you look at the Chinese population, five to six million people in the U.S., this group is still quite small, less than two percent of the U.S. population, so it’s very hard for mainstream supermarkets to try to serve the specific needs of Chinese Americans. It doesn’t make sense for them to focus on this two percent of the population and try to bring in thousands of products to serve them. That gave opportunities for offline Chinese supermarkets, but the offline model is not the ideal model to serve low-density populations. That’s why there aren’t that many such stores. 

Ranch 99 is the biggest Chinese supermarket chain. The biggest Korean chain is H Mart. It took them more than 40 years to build less than 100 stores. The reason is that the population density is not high enough for them to build thousands of stores. All the mainstream supermarkets have thousands of stores. But these ethnic ones can never achieve that, which means they will always be more inconvenient to access. And that’s physics. You just can’t have that many stores when the population is so low. The good thing for our business is that our model is a better model. You don’t have to drive to us, we deliver to you. We have very large warehouses and we can cover a very wide range. Another big advantage for us is that we can be authentic to multiple ethnicities. An offline Chinese supermarket can never be an Indian supermarket at the same time. An offline Korean supermarket can never be a Filipino supermarket at the same time. No matter how you design this, it’s impossible. But online, you go to us, the first thing we ask you to do is choose the store. You choose the Filipino store, it’s all Filipino. You choose the Vietnamese store, it’s all Vietnamese. We can really be authentic to multiple ethnicities, and that can only be done online.

One thing that caught our attention was Larry’s point about how sparse populations inhibit additional stores which inhibit accessible stores, which would make more people turn to online stores such as Weee! We were curious if the converse was true, whether or not customers use Weee! less in Asian-dense areas where there are accessible in-person stores, like in cities such as Cupertino, CA:

That’s actually not the case. We actually have a lot of customers in Cupertino. Here’s the reason: our assortment is not the same as offline Asian supermarkets. A lot of things we carry, they don’t carry, and a lot of things we carry consistently, they don’t carry consistently. The assortment of items is differentiated. We also have a third-party marketplace. Right now, we have more than 50,000 third-party marketplace products on Weee!, these are all products that brick-and-mortar stores don’t carry. We have sellers in Japan, Korea, and China. Some other sellers are local restaurants and local bakeries. For example, on Weee! you can buy a local bakery product at the same price you would pay in the local bakery, and that is just not available in other apps. You can go to DoorDash, you buy the same product, you pay 40 percent more, 50 percent more depending on what’s your total order value. We have a lot of products that actually aren’t available from Asian supermarkets. In fact, we have slightly better prices than Asian supermarkets because our supply chain is more efficient. Even if you live in Cupertino, we have a better selection and prices. Plus, you don’t have to go out. You don’t have to spend your entire Saturday afternoon grocery shopping. You have better things to do. I’m not saying offline supermarkets shouldn’t exist. That’s not what I mean. We actually don’t see them as competitors. I think that they will exist for a long time and a lot of people like shopping offline. That’s totally fine. We just try to serve underserved communities and we believe we have better products and services than anyone in the marketplace.

A common customer behavior in Asia that hasn’t quite made it to the US is browsing online stores. For instance, most people who go on Amazon already know what they want to buy and only search for that, you generally don’t wander a disparate tab and scroll through those listings. Given that Weee! targets people from Asia, we asked if Larry has noticed such behavior on Weee!

Our customers tend to browse more. With our design, we actually want people to browse more. There’s a common belief that grocery shopping is boring and repetitive. Almost every single website prominently features a ‘buy again’ option. Amazon does that because it makes sense. If you think of shopping as a chore, then it’s logical. However, we see grocery shopping, especially for immigrants, as an opportunity to discover exciting new things that they may not even know exist in the U.S. We always try to create that excitement. That’s why we want people to browse. These exciting products are also important for our user acquisition strategy. People tend to tell their friends about the exciting things they find on our site. If you buy things from Amazon or Safeway, you probably won’t tell your friends about it because it’s the same old thing. But our customers actually tell their friends a lot after they buy something from us because we offer a lot of exciting products.

For our readers (and ourselves!), we asked Larry for examples of some of these exciting products on Weee!:

Nowadays, we’re really strong at seasonal fruits. We really care about flavor because our customers do too. We carry things like the Ori Mandarin from Israel, which is very tasty. Our dragon fruits and coconuts are super popular. In fact, we’re America’s largest retailer of fresh coconuts.

It’s fascinating because this ties in with our multi-ethnicity strategy. We have a lot of customers from different ethnicities. People from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and India all consume coconuts. We are the only place that aggregates so much demand for coconuts and our price is unbeatable. For instance, if you go to Whole Foods, a coconut costs $4.99 each. If you buy on Weee!, it’s $14 for nine. It’s the best price on the market and our volume is really big. We’re also strong in fruits, vegetables, and hot pot-related products. We have all kinds of sliced meat, lamb, beef, pork, and different sauces and vegetables.

Larry’s Personal Growth

Although Weee! is not Larry’s first venture (he did some dropshipping previously), it is the first business he has scaled. As such, we asked him about his process of learning how to be a leader:

It was not very natural. It was a very steep learning curve for me. I managed like two people before I started Weee! at my previous company where I worked in finance. So I had very limited management experience, but as a founder CEO, you just have to learn everything on the fly. Not just managing people, but also how to raise money, how to come up with business strategies, and how to communicate the strategies to your team. 

I read a lot of books. I like to read. So I guess I had some knowledge on paper. This was my opportunity to apply that knowledge to the real world. I also reflect a lot. I’m a huge believer in deliberate practice. So I think I approached the job as something I need to really break down into different areas. For each area, I try to have some mechanism to get feedback and to check whether I did well or not so well. One of the reasons I was really attracted to retail is because retail gives you a very fast feedback loop. If you do a B2B business or pharmaceutical, it can take years for you to get the feedback. But in retail, if you do something right, you can literally see the results in minutes.

Also, I later realized that my finance background gave me an unusual habit. I try to forecast everything. For a lot of people, if you ask them about their strategy, they can’t tell you the impact of that strategy. I think forecasting is important because it requires understanding the mechanism between the input and the output. It also gives you the chance to constantly compare your expectations to the actuals, allowing you to fine-tune your understanding of the business. That feedback is very beneficial for improvement. 

I also hired really good people and learned from them. Our COO is very experienced. When she joined us, she managed teams with hundreds of people. I learned a lot from her. A lot of our management practice is what she brought to us. It’s really a combination of learning from experienced leaders and your own curiosity to constantly get better, to seek feedback, and just a lot of hard work.

We followed up by asking Larry if wished that he had done anything differently in his journey:

I think everything that happened was necessary. If I went back and told myself 10 years ago the things I know today, I still wouldn’t learn from my own advice. There are so many management books, and so many wise people out there. They give talks. Can you really learn from that? Even this conversation, can you really learn from this? I don’t think so. I think it’s just one piece of information. When I read a book now, I see it as one data point, one piece of information. I have to actually do it or be in the process of doing it, then revisit the concept I learned on paper and try to connect that concept to my real experience to make it part of my own. But without the doing part, the information is just a piece of information, nothing more. I could go back and tell myself a lot of things, but it wouldn’t help me 10 years before.

I have the habit of reading certain books over and over again at different stages of my life. For example, one of my favorite books is Sam Walton’s autobiography, “Made in America”. It’s very interesting. Throughout my journey, every time I read it, I pick up different things. The book didn’t change, I changed. A lot of things I didn’t understand before, but now I can understand because my experience grew. Sam Walton, I think when he wrote the book, he was diagnosed with cancer already. He probably gave everything he knew and put it in the book, but unfortunately, most people don’t understand all those things. They have to experience it and then they can relate to that. That’s why I think reading a really good book over and over again is a good idea.

I had heard Larry talk about Sam Walton in other interviews before so I figured that Walton must be one of Larry’s favorite entrepreneurs. We asked Larry what draws him to Sam Walton:

There are a few things I really admire about him. Firstly, in his whole life, he only did this one thing. He started Walmart and then he just stuck to it. He spent his whole life working on that. I’m attracted to that kind of entrepreneur. I’m not attracted to so-called serial entrepreneurs. I admire people who just try to do one thing super well, the best in the world. Also, he’s kind of an underdog. He was in Arkansas, a Midwest town. For a long time, Walmart only served towns with less than 5,000 people. It’s like how we at Weee! focus on serving minorities.  But he, as an underdog, built a business against all the odds. He started in the late 40s, and early 50s. His company went public around 1980. It took him 30 years to bring the company public. But even going public was just the beginning. In the next 20 years, I think Walmart’s stock price grew like a thousand times. Now, I think it has the most revenue out of any U.S. company. He was the richest man in America, but he lived a very simple life. His values very much match my values. So, I do see the parallels with us. If you read his book, you will love him. He’s very simple. I like a simple life. I don’t want things to be so complicated. Just figure out one thing you want to do, and then go for it and spend the rest of your life pursuing it. 

Asian Representation and Identity

Given that Weee! is the largest platform selling ethnic foods, we asked Larry how he sees Weee!’s role in enhancing the representation of ethnic food in the broader American landscape: 

We actually have a lot of mainstream users, and they’re growing very rapidly. We are the top seller on TikTok Shop in the U.S. in the food and beverage category. Almost all our customers on TikTok are mainstream Americans. I think it’s a less intimidating way to shop for products from another ethnicity if you do it online. Let’s say it’s a Middle Eastern store. You just want this one thing, you really like the lamb, what do you have to do? You have to drive to the store, go in, and it’s very unfamiliar. The barrier for mainstream Americans to try Asian supermarkets is a lot higher if they try to do it offline. It’s a lot lower if they do it online.

Personally, I found this extremely insightful as I had never thought of that. When you go to ethnic grocers such as Ranch 99, the store employees sometimes don’t speak very much English. I never thought much of it since I can speak the language, but I can see how the experience could be a lot more intimidating than buying online. For our next question, we asked Larry how being an Asian immigrant has impacted your founder journey:

I’m a first-generation immigrant. I came to the U.S. 20 years ago. My experience really put me in the position to do this business. That’s why I want to be like Sam Walton. I think this is almost a perfect business for me, and I want to keep doing it for as long as I can. There are so many smart people in the world, but what you can accomplish has a lot to do with what position you are in to see and recognize a great opportunity. I just felt like I was at the right place at the right time and I had the right experience and I met the right people. I owe everything to my background as an Asian immigrant to do this business. There were a lot of challenges in the early days. It was very difficult to raise money because people in the VC industry, the mainstream investors, didn’t really understand this opportunity. They couldn’t relate to it. But we were lucky enough to find Asian partners from those investment firms in every round of financing. I think I counted eight or nine rounds. In every single round, there was at least one Asian partner in the deal. They understood what we were trying to do.

Shoutouts

If you ever find yourself looking for Asian groceries, please consider joining millions of other users and trying out Weee! You can order on the web at https://www.sayweee.com/en or through the app, which you can download from all major app stores.

Weee! is also looking to grow their exceptional team across all functions. If you would like to work at the fastest-growing ethnic e-grocer, please check out their available job openings at https://www.sayweee.com/company/careers.

Thank you Larry for joining us!

Related Articles

Image Source: IGO online shop Ph Instagram

Blogs, Development, Ideas, Stories

Teen Student Entrepreneur Earns Millions Through Online Business Thanks To Mother’s Mentorship

16-year-old Irish Oloris from the Philippines has not only been successful in launching her beauty products business, but she also inspires others to follow their dreams and make them a reality. 

She wasn’t interested in starting her own business when she was young, but after being mentored by her entrepreneur mother, she learned the strategies and tried them. Today, she was able to make her first millions from the sale of skincare and other beauty products in her online shop Irish White Corp.

Irish has decided to invest in land in Zambales, Philippines, and is now a property owner at a very young age. With her motivation and inspiration, she desires to continue her online business to generate additional funds for her college education.

The young CEO encourages other young people like her to dream big and begin early. One of her favorite quotes is ‘Dream at a very young age,’ because for Irish there are no limits to dreams. She thinks it’s wise to lay the groundwork for future success by first focusing on the little things.  

Irish proved that any young person with an entrepreneurial spirit can establish a business at any age. Can you imagine what you could accomplish if you get going right this minute?

  • 2 min read
Image Source: The Guardian / Unison Creative

Stories

TukTuk Box Founders Highlight Southeast Asian Flavors With Snack Kits

Laotian American Christy Innouvong-Thornton and Beatriz Aurelio-Saguin of Filipino and Indonesian descent use food to explore and share their heritage.

“Food is our love language. In the Asian community, sometimes our parents don’t like to express their emotion,” Beatriz told the Guardian, “But they’d give you a big bowl of rice and your favorite dish when you’re sad, and you know you’re loved. For us, food is also an ever-changing storytelling vehicle.”

They wanted to find a way to debunk racist stereotypes about the foods they grew up eating while giving back to Southeast Asian communities.

In 2020, Christy and Beatriz founded TukTuk Box to raise money and awareness for Thai refugees.TukTuk Box is a specialty food retailer and subscription box company focusing exclusively on Southeast Asian products and purveyors, working with people from the diaspora or identifying as BIPOC.

For Christy, starting TukTuk was also a way for her to heal and create a relationship with my biological mom. 

Most of Beatriz’s dad’s siblings were born in Jakarta, while her dad was born in the Philippines, which made him only know a few staple Indonesian dishes. But because of Tuk Tuk Box, he’s been able to learn more about his own background.

They told The Guardian that they’ve curated their products from Asian stores all around California, Thai Town in LA, and Cambodian communities in Orange county. Before the pandemic, they also had a lot of snacks directly imported from Thailand and the Philippines.

Christy and Beatriz are publishing a cookbook soon featuring different stories and recipes from folks in our community that they have collected over the last two years.

  • 2 min read
Jeremiah

News, Stories

Gleaming Presence of Tremendous Communications Shining an Iridescent Light on AAPI

Jeremiah Abraham, the founder and CEO of Tremendous Communications, had bumps in the road in getting to where he is today. Starting his business right before the pandemic, he doubted the path that he created and considered quitting everything that he was doing. But with mentors along his side and his determination to uplift the AAPI community, his company has contributed to protecting and celebrating the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities when they needed it the most.

Working at renowned companies like Disney and Warner Bros., Jeremiah has spent years hustling at the intersection of technology and entertainment. Using his talent in marketing, he has constantly shed light on the AAPI community by promoting films such as Everything Everywhere All At Once and co-producing the Filipino American musical drama film Yellow Rose. He still finds ways to balance work and life by tearing down the systematically ingrained notion of working from 9 to 5.

In this one hour interview, Jeremiah lays out his story of how he entered this industry, experiencing ignorant approaches to different cultures in a white dominant workplace, and his immense passion for AAPI representation.

Blend of Tech and Entertainment

I got my degree in computer engineering from UC Irvine and that was when I needed to decide what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to make a difference in technology back then, so I got that degree. One of my first jobs was in the aerospace industry. I was working there and I realized that I was just really bad at math. I didn’t think I could realistically pursue this as a long-term career. It was one of those moments where you had to have this introspective, realization, or catharsis about what you thought you were going to be and what you want in life.

Then I found this blend of tech and entertainment, which I was always interested in. I ended up being a front-end developer for Disney, which was a nice blend of the programming skills that I learned from school and the entertainment brands that I’ve always admired. Social media was still fairly new at these companies. This was back in 2007, and I would say that the biggest leap from this tech world to this communications world was when I discovered a Master’s program for Digital Social Media and Online Communities at USC. So I worked at Disney full-time, and at night I tried to get my master’s degree. I knew in my head what I wanted to build for myself and that was this intersection.

An intersection of my interest in engineering and social dynamics is interesting because a lot of people didn’t know why I even majored in computer engineering and minored in sociology. Engineers build societies, but you can’t build it without understanding it first. I ended up pursuing this even more and realized that I had a knack for marketing which I ended up pursuing after receiving my degree at USC.

Uplifting the Filipino Community

After I got my master’s degree, I decided to pursue my thesis project as a full-on business venture, which was an online community and editorial group for Filipino Americans called BakitWhy.com. Uplifting the Filipino community has always been a constant in my life. Since high school, I was part of a Filipino club where we celebrated our culture and volunteered for Filipino community organizations. I knew that whatever I did, whether it was engineering or marketing, was in the service of our people.

So I started this website and it was one of the first, if not the first, Filipino American digital destinations for editorial and news content. We were covering events and a new emerging digital identity among the Filipino American community. I called this the golden age of Filipino YouTubers back in 2007. These were the days of HappySlip, NinjaDrops, ndtitanlady, and more. We were able to rally this community both on the digital side and also offline to develop not just a thriving company and brand, but a lifestyle destination that people could relate to. I wanted to create something wonderful for us.

One of the things that I pride Tremendous on is that we’re not just there to engage the AAPI community as a business, but we primarily want to instill genuine progress and impact. We are immersed in our Asian American community. We don’t clock out after a certain time and say “Sorry we’re done today Asians, it’s five o’clock and we’re not going to do anything anymore.” No, this is our life. This is what fulfills us and I think it helps set our campaigns apart. The way we communicate and interact with our clients also influences the strategy we give to them because we’re not just looking at numbers, we’re looking at people. We are all about uplifting authentic Asian American experiences, diasporas, stories and narratives. For us not to be authentic with that presence in our daily lives would be hypocritical.

One of the things that I pride Tremendous on is that we’re not just there to engage the AAPI community as a business, but we primarily want to instill genuine progress and impact

– Jeremiah Abraham

Marketing in a White Dominant Setting

There was one instance where I was the only person of color in the room at a large entertainment company, still very green and inexperienced. I didn’t feel like I had the authority and the voice to chime in and redirect these senior leaders of this space. And they’re sitting around going like, “Hey, it’s February next month. It’s almost Black History Month. What can we do?” And then someone just started listing off all the movies in their catalog that had some resemblance of Black narrative. And I’m just like, “All right, well, that’s very top-level. But what more can we do? Can we bring in more people who actually represent this community in the room and have a conversation about it?” That situation really helped me realize that we needed to be part of that room of decision-makers. Being there that day sparked a drive in me that I’ll never forget.

One of the things that I had issues with while leading the publicity and marketing for Yellow Rose before we got acquired by Sony Pictures, was that people didn’t understand what Filipinos were, that our stories were relatable to all moviegoers, and that we were equally as valuable in Hollywood. People couldn’t wrap their brains around this and asked “Why is a Filipino family living in Texas? Do they really sing country music like that? Will non-Filipinos even relate to this?” They were seeing the Filipino diaspora within one specific lens instead of embracing the spectrum of the Filipino experience. They didn’t realize that there are mechanisms that historically pushed us to these areas that we’re thriving in, to these places where they may not think that there is a large thriving Filipino community. The lead characters are Filipino American, but the story is universal. If you took the lead characters out and made them Latinx or Black, for example, you would still have the same emotion. You’d still have the same humanity. You’d still have the same story. It just so happened that these people are Filipino. This is one of the things that Jo Koy discusses during his  interviews for Easter Sunday. The movie isn’t about Filipinos, it’s a movie about his family and his mom. That’s one of the biggest things I appreciated about this film. It’s a story for everyone.

The first movie that I ever saw when I moved to the United States was Superman 2 with my dad and that’s always ingrained in my head. I was in such awe of this superhero and I’ve always wondered how impactful it would have been if Superman was Filipino. That would have made such a big difference for me growing up. I love Christopher Reeve as Superman, but imagine if it was a Christopher Santos or a Christopher Dela Cruz in that heroic cape instead! Today I’m so happy that our next generation can enjoy seeing themselves as heroes with films like Shang-Chi and people like Iman Vellani as Kamala Kahn making a difference.

I think it’s incredibly important for us to make these decisions on how we are portrayed and valued for ourselves, with representation across every part of the process –  behind the camera, in front of the camera, in business and below the line. We can bring these little nuances of authenticity to these stories that are so important and help shape the next generation of folks who want to do this work. 

They were seeing the Filipino diaspora within one specific lens instead of embracing the spectrum of the Filipino experience. They didn’t realize that there are mechanisms that historically pushed us to these areas that we’re thriving in, to these places where they may not think that there is a large thriving Filipino community.

– Jeremiah Abraham

A Chronicle of Starting a Business Right Before a Pandemic

Starting a business at the cusp of a global pandemic was a big lesson in resilience. There is a lot of strategy, planning, introspection and decisions that need to be made behind the scenes. I had been planning Tremendous for years. I spent so much time creating the structure of it, the business strategy, forecasting our trajectory and all those things that you need to help lay the foundation of a business… then the pandemic hit and I needed to shift very quickly.

Tremendous incorporated in 2019 and started to plant the seeds of studio partnerships. When we were ready to sign a couple of contracts, all the major movie studios suddenly shut down. I had to take a step back and I realized the mission of Tremendous is not rooted in movies and entertainment, but it exists to uplift the visibility of Asian Americans as a whole. We couldn’t work in entertainment at the time but that didn’t stop us from working within the community. That’s when we helped support Racism is a Virus, and co-founded Unapologetically Asian and CollaborAzian. We used our expertise to help uplift Stop AAPI Hate. We were able to leverage our network and our skills and our desire to make change in this very crucial moment of the Asian American community.

There certainly were many surprises along the way. I pitched this movie that was supposed to come out on January 2021. We were ready! We put this beautiful deck together, we brainstormed, we strategized. And then they told me, “Hey, we’re going to make an announcement today that this movie is going to be pushed to January 2022.” I was like, “What am I going to do for a year?” It’s a lot of those things that I learned as an entrepreneur that it doesn’t necessarily go how you forecast, even though you spend so much time strategizing and pulling numbers. And that’s fine because that will push you to be more dynamic as a business and help you imagine new, creative avenues for yourself. But for me, it was a lesson in resilience, being flexible, and not beating yourself up too much for things that are outside of your control.

I had to take a step back and I realized the mission of Tremendous is not rooted in movies and entertainment, but it exists to uplift the visibility of Asian Americans as a whole.

– Jeremiah Abraham

Confinements that Pull us Back

There were many moments where that lingering voice of doubt made me wonder if this was the right path for me. Should I go back to a safe, stable job with benefits and a retirement plan? What if I end up losing all my money in this venture? Is it okay that I decided not to work today?

Even now, I can make my own schedule. I can wake up at noon if I wanted to and keep working until 2:00 am or just take a random afternoon off. And that’s my choice to make. But because I’ve been so conditioned to think that the limits of my brain power need to be confined between nine to five, having this new freedom came with a sense of guilt.

I have such a hard time realizing that you don’t need to operate within those confines to be productive and successful and fulfilled. I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s okay to permit yourself to watch Netflix for an hour at 2:00 pm for you to refocus and recenter. It’s okay that you’re sleeping in until 11:00 am or 12:00 pm today because you worked until 1:00 am last night. I have to keep reminding myself that nobody is telling you what you need to do except for yourself. That’s the life of an entrepreneur and I’m still learning how to adjust to this new level of control, even today.

Shining Leadership Skills for Better Productivity

Throughout the years, I have applied my learning lessons in leadership – especially with how I lead my team and how I conduct business. Sometimes we have many projects to work on at the same time, sometimes we have less. I’ve always told my team, as long as you get your stuff done and you are communicative and responsive, then I’m good with that.

I really encourage them to explore their interests, experience life and bring those experiences back to the company. This helps bring fresh, new ideas during our brainstorms and campaigns. One of the things that I took away from working as a Marketing Director at Condé Nast is that they encouraged you to go travel. Travel changes you, it opens up your mind. It allows you to experience new things so you can bring that experience back into your editorial piece or your marketing strategy.

I’ve never liked the idea that you need to clock in at 9:00 am every day or else you’re considered a bad employee. Just because I’m sitting there physically doesn’t mean I’m mentally there. I’ve never understood that kind of leadership where it’s more important to appease other people and make them feel better about themselves because of your presence. It’s those antiquated expectations and older ways of doing business that I’m constantly reshaping for Tremendous. As long as we get our projects done, we don’t miss meetings, and our clients are happy… who cares if you sleep in an extra hour that day?

Travel changes you, it opens up your mind. It allows you to experience new things so you can bring that experience back into your editorial piece or your marketing strategy.

– Jeremiah Abraham

People that helped along the way

I never had one specific mentor during my career. Instead, I’ve had some amazing senior executives who have taught me different aspects of my leadership skills. One of them taught me negotiation skills, another taught me how to properly communicate my ideas in a meeting, another pushed me to be more assertive with what I need to succeed in a business setting. I’ve really taken these lessons and made them my own.

One of these executives is Terra Potts, who is the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Warner Bros. Pictures. We kind of grew up at WB together back in the day. She taught me how to stand up for your worth in situations where people may not immediately see it. I take that into every negotiation that I am part of. Teal Newland, my Senior Vice President at Condé Nast Entertainment helped me hone my creative eye and incorporate different perspectives in my marketing campaigns. Diane Paragas, who is the director of Yellow Rose, mentored me in the filmmaking process. These are just some of the people who empowered me in my journey and I’m happy to give back to others who are working with me today.

Another friend of mine is Jose Antonio Vargas, who is the Founder of Define American. We had many check-ins during the pandemic and I told him straight up once that I was thinking about quitting because I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing. No studios hired me, no movies went out, the movies that were supposed to be in theaters were going out into streaming services. And it was hard for me to see what was coming down the line and the larger picture of it all. He gave me some tough love and said “Jeremiah, you’re building something that doesn’t currently exist. Obviously you’re going to run into these situations where the solution isn’t immediately there because you have to make it up for yourself.” I never thought about it that way. If the path has not always been taken, obviously you have the flexibility and the responsibility to forge a new one to create something that never existed before. That conversation inspired me to realize that I can’t hold myself to the same standard that I had before because I’m creating new standards for myself now. That helped shift my thinking and my perspective about it and, honestly, helped shape the development of Tremendous. I could have easily quit because of the pandemic, but I would have regretted it the rest of my life.

I would encourage people to pursue multiple avenues of mentorship. It was very valuable to me to learn from many very skilled individuals, not just one. And you never know where your new life lesson is going to come from or which experience you’re going to value for years to come. For me, it was the guidance of many people that helped me get to where I am today.

I can’t hold myself to the same standard that I had before because I’m creating new standards for myself now.

– Jeremiah Abraham

How to reach out

I am @jerabraham on Instagram and Twitter, and Tremendous is @tremendous_comm on all those platforms as well.

Interviewed by Tiff Soga

  • 16 min read
Image Sources: shopwithkendallyn.com, bfa.com

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Former Wacoal Marketing Executive Kristin DiCunzolo Leads Her Way For Lingerie Brand Lively As Newest CEO

Lingerie companies continue to operate in the same outmoded ways, but times have changed and the industry is ready for advancement and growth.

Despite the fact that the founder and current CEO of Lively, Michelle Cordeiro Grant is stepping down to manage the transition and assist with the company’s PR and brand partnerships.

Lively was founded in 2015 as a lingerie brand focused on comfort and style. New CEO, Kristin DiCunzolo, will be appointed to take charge of concentrating solely on the brand’s global growth.

DiCunzolo has extensive experience with the company’s structure and operations from her time as vice president of marketing and helped lead at parent company Wacoal America Inc., which Lively can leverage more.

Today, consumers desire higher-quality underwear, particularly for women. Lively’s other goal is to attract a younger demographic. The U.S. market for women’s underwear is predicted to reach $14.5 billion in 2026, up from $12.9 billion in 2021, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.

Lively understands it must abandon traditional marketing strategies to grow sales and survive in today’s competitive market. Ms. Cordeiro Grant believes Lively’s new mission is to revitalize the company’s reputation by strengthening its connection with its clients on an individual level, and that DiCunzolo’s skills as a former Marketing Executive will benefit the company.

Ms. DiCunzolo has stated that she hopes to place an emphasis on Lively’s customer interaction. While strategically adjusting to the ever-changing environment, she intends to maintain the Lively community’s centrality in decision-making, maintain the brand’s focus on its team, and preserve the brand’s vision and heart.

  • 2 min read