Hey Bangkok, are you ready?
At some point of my life, I was very depressed. It’s hard to tell, because I am always laugh in front of people. Only Jey told me that he saw me laugh with others and when others are not paying attention, I looked sad. I started to cry for no reason. I am reluctant to wake up in the morning. I was asking my mom why do I even exist.
That was when I just graduated from my master programme in Hong Kong. With experience of doing AIESEC, Model-APEC and ICE (a social enterprise focusing on youth development), it’s not a hard thing for me to find a job.
I got myself into a company within one week as a translator/office operational officer when my peers are still struggling to secure a job.
After inspiring so many young people that we can do something to make the world better, I am “trapped” in an office that doesn’t allow me. I was not satisfied with working ONLY for money.
The reason is simple, I don’t want to rely on my parents. Doing meaningful things and be financially sustainable doesn’t always come together.
That’s when I took “drug”. I was obsessed with attending any entrepreneurship events I could find in town, making sure that I will always have something to go to after work.
Only until every evening, I felt alive in those events.Meeting those startup fellows, who are aware of problems, proactively looking for solutions, I wasn’t feeling as lonely as I was in the office.
I was so grateful to be part of Startup Weekend Hong Kong family, especially Felix who introduced me to SW and kept inviting me to be part of his new ideas. I attended every Startup Weekend during that time, giving out what I could give.
All those months, Startup Weekend is something that kept me hanging there. Then, thanks to Savinda, who offered me an stick when I am about to sink. I moved to Bangkok, working for youth entrepreneurship.
The most important thing I learned from Startup Weekend, is the spirit to #givefirst. One of the first thing I was looking for in Bangkok, is Startup Weekend. To my surprise, there wasn’t any active activity for a while.
So I met an amazing young lady who shares the same passion as me Teri.
We did some counting. In Bangkok, in any popular startup events, female speakers take up only roughly 30%. While Thailand actually have a lot of female entrepreneurs, they are mostly in traditional business, meaning that seeing women in startup, is not common.
That’s why both of us decided to put WOMEN in the name this time. We want to make sure our fellows are feeling welcome when they saw the name.
Tomorrow is the first Startup Weekend Bangkok this year, whether it’s a good thing to mainstream women entrepreneurship in Thailand or not, we don’t know.
But we are very excited to bring together people with passion, anxiety and love!
Bangkok, are you ready for the first Startup Weekend in 2017?

