Meet a Milestone Maker featuring Grace Leung Shing
Every week we’ll feature the Spring 2017 Milestone Makers cohort. The following interview is with Grace Leung Shing, co-founder of Startwise.
1. Tell me your name and describe your business in 10 words.
My name is Grace and I am the CEO and co-founder of Startwise. We are a crowdfunding platform that enables companies and individuals to share revenue.
2. How did your business come to be?
It all comes back to my childhood, I grew in a very entrepreneurial family. My mom owns a small business in Mauritius, southeast coast of Africa, next to Madagascar. I’ve always worked during holidays and seen my mom passionate about what she’s doing. I went for undergrad and business school, and later found myself working at a venture fund. We were going through so many companies and I realized that there was not enough capital for entrepreneurs. One day at the park I was talking to my colleague, and now co-founder Kathrine, about making funding for companies much better. We stumbled upon revenue sharing and thought it was a great idea.
3. What’s the dream for your business?
My dream for my business, is to help more entrepreneurs get access to capital so that they can create opportunities for themselves, their families, communities, as well as create jobs and support the economy.
4. Where do you find inspiration when faced with challenges?
My biggest inspiration is my parents because they are very hardworking and resilient. My co-founder Cathrine, since we’ve been through so much in the last year. And I think that I’ve been really lucky to have great mentors and advisors throughout my career.
5. What is the biggest learning from the journey so far?
The biggest learning for me as a first-time founder, is to always see everything as an opportunity. Most of the time when we are faced with difficulties and challenges we don’t see it as a learning experience, but I think shifting our whole perspective on things, definitely helps us grow.
6. What does the term ‘milestone’ signify to you?
Milestones are when we have achieved significant progress and we’ve reached an inflection point for our business to reach the next level.
7. What milestone are you committed to accomplishing by the end of the Milestone Makers program?
I am committed to launching Startwise with 3 companies on board.
The Milestone Makers program is designed to help early-to-mid-stage founders set, hit, and celebrate milestones critical to company growth over 12 weeks. Each of our 14 Milestone Makers selected into the Spring 2017 cohort receive the support of a personal business coach, a team of mentors, peer cohort work sessions, as well as curated classes to help them succeed with their individual learning paths to help them reach their goals.
