Working amid the pandemic, many young entrepreneurs have to ask themselves what they can do to shift their business models and survive. For those who are agile and adaptable enough, it may even be possible for their businesses to thrive.
To find out how startups can make the most out of today’s new normal, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund (AEF) hosted a webinar with Peggy Choi, Co-founder and CEO of LYNK and Jin Chow, Co-founder and COO of Polygence. Choi, formerly a finance banker and investor, founded her company from Hong Kong in 2015: a global knowledge sharing platform disrupting the way business decisions are made. Chow, based in Stanford, runs a selective online academy pairing students with mentors from top universities around the word.
Both Choi and Chow discussed the challenges—and rewards—of growing a business through this difficult period. The entrepreneurs reflected on their strategies for riding out the pandemic and looked at what it means to adapt and reinvent. They also shared their top tips for young entrepreneurs ready to journey out on their own. The webinar, part of AEF
’s SparkUp series, was moderated by AEF Executive Director Cindy Chow.
Cindy: Starting off, how has the pandemic affected your businesses?
Peggy: We have been relatively fortunate at LYNK because we are a virtual platform. In fact, people have more time as a result of COVID-19 because a lot of clients are at home. Our customers are generally pursuing a new business strategy or investment, or looking at an opportunity. But because travel is difficult, they often can’t find an expert on the ground. Therefore, we’re actually seeing a bit of an increase in demand.
Jin: Education has always been a seasonal industry with summers at the peak. Over the summer, we saw a huge uptick in demand from students in Asia and the US. Many of their internships were canceled or their research experiences at universities had been postponed. We had to recruit like crazy for mentors to meet this demand and we doubled our team size. It’s so far been a great exercise to think on our feet, work fast on our platform and learn as much as we can from our students.
Cindy: What challenges have you faced in terms of management as you adapt to today’s new normal?
Peggy: We started as an international team with remote offices and, in a way, we had a smooth transition when the pandemic hit. It was almost like the next day everybody was working from home without issue. But I see more difficulty regarding newcomers to the team. We have our HR team spending time organizing social events on Zoom to make sure we’re still connected, especially for people who’ve just joined. But this road is still not easy. And it's hard to integrate employees who’ve just started because I think they need that in-person interaction to really get a sense of the firm’s energy. It’s definitely a challenge—but so far, so good.
Jin: Timezones are a big challenge for us because even with Zoom you can't immediately communicate when you have problems. But I think we're small and lean enough as team and we’ve developed organic and creative ways of communicating. Some things are still difficult, of course: my co-founder and I are both based in Stanford, so we work socially distanced from one another. Meanwhile, we’re excited to see how remote work could bring us more talent from different areas in the world. Removing geographical limitations has been liberating for sure.
Cindy: Peggy, how has COVID-19 affected how your company takes on new hires?
Peggy: We have been working on reinventing our recruitment framework, including the questions that we cover and how we structure the process so that it’s more conducive to a remote format. For example, now we give candidates more time to ask us questions. We also spend more time interviewing the candidate and focusing on details that paint a clear idea of the role and opportunities involved. I think it's still a bit of a work-in-progress for us, but in times like today the structure needs to be changed.
Cindy: Jin, Asia’s top students tend to lean towards the fields their parents value—law, business, hard sciences—do you think the pandemic will change this trend at all?
Jin: I'm hoping that Polygence can help inspire students to fall in love with a diversity of subjects outside of what they’re often just pushed to do. We’re encouraging students to explore beyond what their parents want them to major in by pitching us what they like—it’s a test-drive for developing their curiosity over a short period of time. We’ve doubled down on recruiting stellar humanities teachers and we have a number of fine arts teachers too. When students go on our website and take a look at our mentors, we want them to see more than physicists and engineers.
Cindy: Having adapted your businesses to a world with and without the pandemic, what advice do you both have for young entrepreneurs starting their journeys—whether it’s today or down the road?
Peggy: Think along the lines of knowledge-sharing, mentorship, advice and talking to experts. I’ve learned myself that if you’re starting out, make sure that what you’re doing is relevant at that particular point in time. The unique challenge of today is a great example. It’s also key to express a diversity of thought with various viewpoints and perspectives on the topic that you’re looking at. At the same time, you need to have your own strong and unique perspective on why you’re starting this business and what you see as the opportunity. It’s about finding the right balance between having your own convictions while listening to insights from the experts in your field.
Jin: Take the risk when you're young. I used to be a risk-averse person and it took me starting this venture to learn that taking risks is healthy and fun. It’s something we should all do more of regardless of age. A healthy dose of risk-taking is crucial when it comes to starting out in entrepreneurship. By starting something completely new and working with unfamiliar people and ideas, you can make a dent in the world. Cultivate that risk-taking mentality as much as you can.
