Stories

December 6, 2022

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Founding a business startup and starting a family simultaneously was proved possible by the CEO and co-founder Hanna Wu of Amplify Life Insurance, a life insurance platform focused on helping people build wealth.

Wu first realized the importance of insurance policy when her 20-year-long best friend lost his father and financial backbone at the same time after the latter’s father died of cancer.

Upon knowing more than a year ago that she was pregnant, it gave her mixed emotions as a 16-hour working woman who travels from here and there.

Trying to sort out the situation, she researched articles on early-stage founders as moms but failed to find ones that fit.

As a BIPOC member, she sought a community from the same race who are also women founders only to find out that barely 7% of the global fintech community are women and that they only receive 2.4% of the total capital invested for startups.

Finding no one, Wu felt alone and wondered how others balanced the various startup stages while starting a family.

The journey was never easy for Wu but truly, hard work, goal orientation, and perseverance make everything achievable.

Wu started to plan everything before and after her delivery and how she would be able to raise funds for her business considering the time when the market dropped so low.

While thinking about getting a nanny and how the set-up would be after her delivery, Wu engaged in lower-stakes conversations to test investor sentiments, and fortunately, she was able to secure a large reinsurer’s venture arm.

Wu also woke up early in the morning daily to study for her investment adviser exam and everything else she did with her impending delivery as motivation.

Three days before finally giving birth, they signed the term sheet for the company.

In the 9-month time of pregnancy and struggle towards establishing the business, Wu raised over $25 million in investments and thereafter hired a full leadership team, kicked off their RIA status, signed several significant partnership contracts, and grew their revenue four times: everything planned in her to-do list.

With her success, she shares in Quartz 5 work strategies to prepare for parenthood:

Sort your parental leave plan. It’s harder for early-stage founders to take leave, but preparing your care plan and naming what’s important to you.

Consider your travel schedule. Prioritize travel by business needs, and don’t be afraid to break from the way it “should be” done.

Become an expert on roles and responsibilities at home. You, your co-parents, and caregivers must become experts on the roles and responsibilities at home. Stay connected to the right people and in the right ways. 

Plan for everything and expect failure. Be easy on yourself when mistakes happen, or roadblocks pop up.

You don’t have to choose. We don’t have to choose between our careers and families. It’s not easy, it will be far from perfect, and undoubtedly you’ll need a lot of support, but you can have it all if that’s what you want.

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Slime Company Started By High School Student In His Garage Made $1.2 Million Sales After Joining “Shark Tank”

Mark Lin was only 17 when he started selling food-scented slime out of his Burbank, California garage in 2020. 

He then won over venture capitalists on an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” with his zeal for pitching and the amazing yield his company was generating, where $300,000 was a net profit out of the $540,000 in sales he obtained at the time.

With the assistance of a couple of his buddies, whom he employed for packaging and shipping, Lin, a high school freshman and novice in the industry, developed the slime successfully, enabling him to make $50,000 in sales in his first year of operation.

CNBC reports that Lin’s sales increased to $580,000 the following year.

Sliimeyhoney now sells edible and food-scented slimes with flavors like banana milk, hot cocoa, and birthday cake batter for between $10 and $16 per six-ounce jar utilizing Tiktok as his marketing platform.

The company consistently achieves sold-out sales for its weekly introduction of new products to its almost one million followers.

After a thorough negotiation with Kevin O’Leary and Daymond John, Lin secured $150,000 for 20% share from the two.

This, according to Lin, will be beneficial in moving his company from his garage into a warehouse and gaining mentorship while he still pursues his studies.

John was quoted saying “I believe in you, and we’re going to make sure you go to school, and I will help you with this business.”

Lin is now a first-year college student at UCLA with his company continuously rising.

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Capitalizing On Her Advocacy For Women’s Protection, Young CEO Now Leading Safety Device Company Invisawear

Taking it from her unforgettable and scary experience involving safety and security, Rajia Abdelaziz realized the importance of women’s self-protection which made her put up Invisawear, now a leading safety device manufacturer.

Together with her best friend and now business partner Ray Hamilton, they designed a piece of wearable tech that allows the user to call for help and alert emergency contacts at a double-press.

InvisaWear is jewelry that can save lives. Although their components resemble ordinary accessories, they are actually safety devices supported by America’s top security supplier (ADT).

The devices have a secret panic button that can be set to dial 911, send a pre-programmed text message to five emergency contacts, and send a GPS location to the emergency services. They are worn on the body so they are nearly always available.

The co-owner was quoted saying “InvisaWear also partnered with ADT to provide access to video streaming, voice activation, and self-defense classes as a way of “equipping people to protect themselves,” 

Compared to a cellular phone, it is a more accessible safety device which comes in the form of a charm necklace.

Considering women’s safety as a very important issue, Abdelaziz rejected high-paying job offerings related to her electrical engineering training just to prioritize her advocacy even if she struggled with many challenges in starting it up.

Though laborious, Invisawear was able to raise millions of funds for the safety device.

Five years after its founding, the business has grown to produce more than just gold and rhodium-plated jewelry. It now makes fitness bands, hair accessories, and keychains, all of which have timeless appeal and fashionable, practical designs.

According to Abdelaziz in Forbes, several of their items are now also available in unisex versions since they discovered that safety wasn’t just important for women but also for some guys.

The business intends to grow in Europe and the Middle East and just announced a new cooperation with a Canadian security company.

Invisawear is a technical advancement that has significantly improved people’s lives.

Abdelaziz emphasized “One of the best moments of my life was the first time one of our devices saved someone’s life,” she says, “a young woman had been badly injured in a car accident and her keychain saved her life. Her dad was able to get to her and be with her while they waited for an ambulance, who knows how long it would have taken to find her otherwise.”

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Christmas is Merrier at Mall of America With 6 Diverse St. Nicholas Including the First Asian Santa

After three long years of not celebrating Christmas the ‘usual’ way, children at the Mall of America (MOA) were finally sitting again in amusement and happiness on Santa’s lap. 

What makes the experience even happier and better is to have six different Santas whom children and parents can choose from in making The Santa Experience happen.

In 2016, Larry Jefferson became the first African American Santa Claus in MOA. 

Now, Jefferson will not be alone in completing the Christmas vibe as a diverse group of Santas will be working together to do the task. Among them are two African Americans and the first-ever Asian Santa Allan Siu, named “Santa Allan” in MOA’s record.

All of them are ready to listen to the Christmas wishes from young and young-at-heart people.

With two of the Santas able to speak both Spanish and Cantonese, it adds color in telling the children if they were naughty or nice.

“To run across someone who speaks your language, there’s kind of a bond there. Not only is the language a bond but there is also some sort of psychological bond,” Allan told Fox.

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First Indonesian Vegan Cosmetic Startup Obtains $6 Million Funding From Unilever Ventures

The first and top vegan cosmetics company in Indonesia, ESQA Cosmetics, raised $6 million in a series A round led by Unilever Ventures marking the latter’s first investment in the Southeast Asian beauty market.

In the said round, East Ventures also participated, the venture arm of the global consumer goods giant.

After spending over ten years living and working in Los Angeles, Cindy Angelina and Kezia Trihatmanto created ESQA in 2016, shortly after their return to Indonesia.

The two intended to redefine luxury cosmetic products and make them more widely available and reasonably priced.

With the acquired funds, the company plans to use the money to reach more cities and markets while also extending its omni-channel distribution.

Additionally, they want to expand their product offerings, foster talent development, and amplify their marketing initiatives.

Prior to this, the company reportedly increased its sales to Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia. 

TECHINASIA mentioned that one of the company’s expansion initiatives was to sell its goods through Sociolla’s physical storefronts, another East Ventures-backed startup.

Accordingly, the business stated that despite the pandemic, it had managed to turn a profit with its 120 vegan and Halal-certified products.

Avina Sugiarto, a partner at East Ventures, stated in Deal Street Asia that by having consistent profitability, they weren’t looking for high-quality, hyperlocal, and affordable beauty products.

She continued saying “We were certain that ESQA’s innovative, natural ingredients and wide-product offerings will propel ESQA to be a leader in the beauty market in Southeast Asia.”