My Top Insights from the Forbes Under 30 Summit

Grace Yeung
Nov 3 · 21 min read

This year, I was selected to be a Forbes Under 30 Scholar and with it, I had the honor of attending Forbes Under 30 Summit that took place from October 27th to 30th in Detroit’s historic Masonic Temple. This hugely transformative experience left me with so much inspiration, motivation, and confidence. Here are the top insights I gained from “The world’s greatest event for young leaders, founders, investors, and creators.” Read on to learn more about mental health, the rise of women founders & investors, financial wellness, and the best marketing and retail practices that have shaped billion-dollar companies.


The Worst Problem That Stymies Founders is Mental Health. It’s Time to Destigmatize and Prioritize It.

In 2018, over 53 million American adults wanted to see a mental health professional but didn’t have access to mental health care for reasons outside of their control. Currently, the biggest barriers to therapy are cost, access/convenience, and stigma. According to Roni Frank, Co-Founder and Head of Clinical Services of Talkspace, the average cost of a 50-minute therapy session is $150. That’s not financially feasible for the majority of Americans.

To make it worse, did you know that recent studies suggest that HALF of all entrepreneurs suffer from poor mental health/at least one mental health condition? And for founders, it’s not your ambition that is causing your anxiety. It’s the drive to be perfect, to always achieve and always be on; that society tells you that you’re not valuable unless you’re putting points on the board. Fortunately, this was a huge topic at the conference, exposing me and thousands of other ambitious business leaders to the harsh reality of this problem, along with best practices on how to cope with these problems.


“We are the only country in the world that is running ourselves into the ground with how much work we are doing without taking breaks.” — Tara Reed, CEO of Apps Without Code

What I heard: In 2015, Tara Reed launched her first app called Kollecto, which she built without a single line of code. The app received investment from 500 Startups & other top investors. Now, Tara is the CEO of Apps Without Code, an online school teaching entrepreneurs how to build & monetize their own apps, all without any code. Her entrepreneurial accomplishments are incredible but what is even more amazing is that she works just two days a week.

While Tara was vacationing on a cruise ship, she read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris and was inspired by its message. After reading that book, she started taking Fridays off of work. Then she started taking Mondays off. And then she eventually got to work only two days a week. From doing this, she actually found her company operated more effectively because she was forced to get better at motivating and influencing her teams to get work done, even when she was not in the office. Another one of her quotes that blew the audience away was “Structure your business how you want. Don’t give in to the hustle-every-waking-moment, grind-hard Gary Vee model. Build the company you want to build.”

What I learned: I am an avid follower of serial entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk and although I admire him and others like him for their hustle, it makes me feel an immense pressure to hustle every minute of every day. Believe it or not, Tara’s speaker session was the first time I heard of a founder who wasn’t working 24/7 and it made me realize that the number of hours put into your work, whether it's your 9 to 5 job or an entrepreneurial endeavor, does not directly link with the amount of productive output or how much you are respected by others. Being an ambitious and dedicated business leader is important but striking a balance between work and life is just as important.


“Professional can be vulnerable, leaders can be personal and empathetic. You can be deeply emotional and professional at the same time.”

Ann Yang, Co-Founder of Misfit Foods

What I heard: At one time, Ann was at a very low point in her life. In a therapy session, she was psychoanalyzing herself with her therapist, listing all the things she was going through at that time in her life.

Her therapist stops her and asks “Hey, have you ever considered whether or not you have depression?”

Ann said: “I sat there and was like “Wow, I actually hadn’t ever used the d-word to describe how I’m feeling. And it’s because my reputation in my social group is extremely extroverted, really charismatic, the person who, by the time gets her coffee, has already learned the barista’s life story. And what I really learned from that experience is that depression shows up in a variety of different ways and we have really misguided stereotypes about how depression shows up, particularly in young and ambitious people in entrepreneurial circles. So I think being able to use the word “depression” and talk about it with both my direct community and the larger community through the Internet was really powerful for me to demonstrate that when you are vulnerable, it allows other people to be vulnerable as well. As soon as I started talking about my own experiences with depression, other founders, business people, investors, and entrepreneurs are talking to me about their very personal stories about anxiety and depression. As it created really deep meaningful conversations in my life that were beyond traditional networking, business-like conversations. Having really meaningful conversations in a professional context brought me a lot of liberty and freedom and to marry the personal and professional in my life.”

What I learned: From Ann, I learned that we need to start normalizing and breaking open the topic of mental health not just in personal settings, but also in professional settings. Once we bring up these very normal experiences with our social circles, we can begin to have more meaningful relationships, express our most authentic selves, and cope better with the everyday challenges that come with mental health issues. Also, we need to stop assuming that the most outgoing, charismatic leaders don’t struggle with mental health because these problems manifest differently in everyone.


“The more you talk about it, the more you take the power away from depression and anxiety.”

Olivia Munn, Hollywood Actress + Activist

What I heard: Olivia is a rockstar actress, author and activist. She has appeared in The Rook, The Newsroom, X-Men: Apocalypse, Office Christmas Party and The Daily Show. She has also been a prominent advocate for change regarding sexual harassment in Hollywood and was recently honored by the United Nation’s Girl Hero Awards for her activism. Many know her for these accolades but very few know her on a more personal, human level. I was fortunate enough to learn more about this side of her at this Summit.

In an intimate fireside chat with Olivia, she explained how she perceives her mental health problems to feel like: “Depression and anxiety feel like you’re walking down the street and it's sunny and beautiful and bright. But then a box falls down on you and you’re stuck in a box with a sliver of light from the bottom and a door that you try to unlock and you pry at the lock and it doesn’t open. You feel so lonely, afraid, and scared but when you finally get it to open, you come back into the brightness. But you never know what that box will fall down on you again.”

What I learned: Sitting in the audience, I felt tears in my eyes when she said this. But I didn’t leave the room with pain or sadness. I left feeling inspired because the conversation shifted from the deeply painful experiences she felt to talk about how you can reclaim your strength in times like these.

She said: “Now when I think about how I make that balance, it’s a conscious effort because it’s not natural for me…I have to consciously tell myself “it’s okay. Do this. Keep going. I’ll make time for other people but I find it harder to make time for myself. So I put a phone call reminder for 30 minutes just as my meditation time. Even if my mediation is just sitting there thinking about things or being hard on myself, at least it's just myself. Someone said to me once “If you don’t have 10 minutes to yourself every day, then God help you…and from that, I decided to just take at least 10 minutes for myself every day.”

To wrap up this point on mental health, although the three speakers I quoted were all women, it is important to acknowledge that mental health is NOT just a women’s issue. Mental health issues manifest in men and women very differently but that does not mean men are not suffering, a point that Roni Frank, Co-Founder and Head of Clinical Services of Talkspace, emphasized.


Watch Out. Women are Shattering the Glass Ceiling of the Entrepreneurial + VC World.

Earlier this year, I found out that less than 3% of all venture capital funding goes to women and even less than that to women of color, a statistic that Serena Williams, World Famous Athlete & CEO of Serena Ventures, also confirmed in a speaker session at this Forbes Under 30 Summit. Despite the dreary reality that the statistics point to, we are on the brink of a new era. An era of female powerhouses who are World-Famous Actresses Turned Co-Founders, Olympic Athletes turned Venture Capitalists, and Founders Turned Female Activists.


“Being an entrepreneur is a very solutions-oriented activity. You see a problem, you want to change the world. And a unique approach to this is building an inclusive business for those whose visions and voices haven’t been represented.”

Nia Batts, Co-Founder + CEO of Detroit Blows

What I heard: In a speaker panel with Nia Batts and Sophia Bush, celebrity Co-Founders of Detroit Blows, a blow-dry bar and beauty salon in Detroit, explain how they founded their business for women, particularly those who value equitably price and safe, non-toxic beauty.

Nia expressed this while on the panel: “The voice of women has not been traditionally represented. And for us, that’s what was really important about the model of Detroit Blows. We understood that beauty is a very big industry. It’s also a very segregated industry. And there wasn’t really a reflection of our experience in a service-based business. We wanted to build an inclusive beauty business that was also non-toxic.”

To extend the incredible business model of Detroit Blows, I also learned that “Detroit Blows isn’t just a finishing salon — it also has a philanthropic arm, Detroit Grows, which is dedicated to helping other entrepreneurs invest in Detroit. As part of their goal to grow a mission-driven company, the salon donates a percentage of its retail footprint and $1 of every blowout service to support Detroit-based female entrepreneurs and other local, women-focused organizations.” Refinery29

What I learned: Women are not only starting incredible new businesses for new consumer markets with different needs and values, but they are also incorporating philanthropic aspects to their businesses that are reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape for female founders. As an aspiring female founder, this is so inspiring to me and gives me hope that women founders will finally start to gain momentum in the VC world to grow their businesses.


“This is how you you change the narrative: starting your own company and owning that. If I am the boss, I am going to give opportunities to other people who normally wouldn’t have had opportunities because I know what it’s like.”

Serena Williams, World Famous Athlete + CEO of Serena Ventures

What I heard: In her iconic talk at the Forbes Summit, Serena said “When I found out how little women and people of color were getting funded, I thought that’s what I need to do. I need to start supporting more companies like that and also raising awareness about them.” And ever since, she has kept her word and changed the lives of many founders who otherwise would not have had the chance to grow to where they are now. In 2014, Serena Williams launched Serena Ventures to empower and provide opportunities to diverse founders across a multitude of industries. “We often try to invest in companies where it isn’t about necessarily getting the biggest company in the world but it’s about helping people feel good or helping to fill a need that’s really needed in this world. So that’s also really important.” — Serena Williams

A couple of her portfolio companies that are doing this are Mayvenn and Floravere. Floravere is a women-led bridal gown company founded with a mission to upend the legacy bridal industry and give a new breed of women access to luxury, style, and personalization, otherwise unattainable. Mayvenn, founded by Diishan Imira, known as the “Black Hair King of Silicon Valley”, is an Oakland, California-based, hair extension company that partners with stylists who serve as the salesforce for the hair extensions their clients buy. Both companies are changing their respective industries and it shows.

What I learned: As a tennis player in high school, I have admired Serena Williams for a long time. I actually didn’t know much about her work off the tennis court but when I learned that she was building her own VC firm and creating her own fashion line (“S by Serena”) at the same time that she was winning games at the Wimbledon, the US Open, and beyond, I was blown away. She is a shining example of how hard work ethic, passion for your craft, and fearlessness on the court and off the court can bring monumental success and positive social impact as well. Not only is Serena having a direct impact on the issue of lack of diversity in entrepreneurship + VC through her work with Serena Ventures, but she is also very publicly speaking about this issue and encouraging others to do the same. This, along with the rise of female founders and female venture capitalists makes me hopeful that the amount of VC funding provided to female founders will increase. The world of entrepreneurship and venture capital as we know is changing and I am here for it!


Ladies, Take Ownership of Your Personal Wealth!

According to a BMO Financial Group study, by 2030, women will control 2/3 of America’s private wealth due to generational wealth transfer that occurs more because of our longer life span. That’s equivalent to almost $30 TRILLION dollars. But far too often, women have been pushed away from the talk about personal finance because generational wealth has largely been about the men of the households. This is surely been my personal experience and at this Summit, I learned how important it is to open up conversations about personal finance and why women like myself need to finally start taking real mental and physical ownership of it.


“Put on your oxygen mask first before helping others. Building independent financial stability is key to bringing that financial stability to others in your circle and your business.”

Nicole Lapin, NYT Bestselling author, CEO, TV personality

What I heard: When asked about how to prioritize your personal finances and the finances for your business, Nicole Lapin, New York Times Bestselling author of “Rich Bitch” and “Boss Bitch”, made the analogy that if you prioritize the financial needs of everyone else before yourself, you are helping everyone else put on their oxygen masks before you put on your own.

And that is never the right way to approach personal finance because let’s face it: if you are an entrepreneur, you can’t take your Series A to your landlord. Before a founder can grow a business, they better have their own finances in check. To do this, we also need to add transparency to the conversation of personal finance and ask for help when we need it. Nicole said “The difference between distress and misery is asking for help.” Whether you’re an entrepreneur, college student, and/or post-grad figuring out how to raise VC funding, pay off student loan debt, or balance paying for yourself and your family, we need to start destigmatizing conversations about finance so that we can all get closer to financial wellness.

What I learned: Like the conversation about destigmatizing mental health, I learned that we need to destigmatize the conversation around financial health. In my experience, talking about pay/salary, savings, and credit has always been deemed as taboo in my social circles but now I realize that it really shouldn't be. Asking for financial advice and guidance also should be normalized. Now, I want to be someone who helps to shift the narrative around personal finance by making small steps to become more honest, transparent, and supportive around my family and friends.


“Emergency money for life is money you shouldn’t even see.” Paula Cunningham, State Director of AARP Michigan

What I heard: When asked the question “How should college students prepare for the upcoming recession?” on a panel about Financial Wellness, Paula, the State Director for AARP Michigan, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, social welfare organization, said “Whatever you have invested, don’t touch it. Whatever goes down will eventually go back up. Also, always have a backup plan; have a part-time job and don’t touch your savings.

The conversation not only circled around what to do with money but also around how to feel about money. Another (paraphrased) quote from Paula that I loved was: “Shame, fear, and ignorance are huge emotions when it comes to money. How should you navigate this? Talk about it! You are your greatest asset and you should do what’s best for you.”

What I learned: Growing up and even now, I never had conversations about personal finance. This panel was actually one of the first times I heard this advice about emergency savings and with a recession around the corner, I am going to start taking it more seriously and talking about it shamelessly. Oh, and making sure that I don’t touch my savings account unless it’s truly an emergency.


“Don’t feel guilty for using the cookie-cutter way for personal finance. Do it your way.”

Daniela Pierre Bravo, Producer + Writer for NBCUniversal

What I heard: Prior to attending this Personal Finance panel, I didn’t know recognize the name Daniela Pierre-Bravo but given her story, I think everyone should know her! She is an NYC-based TV producer for MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” which features discussions that help drive the day’s political conversation. Daniela is also a writer for the “Know Your Value” platform, which empowers women to develop their individual growth, and co-author of “Earn It! Know Your Value and Grow Your Career, in Your 20s and Beyond”, which focuses on young women navigating the workforce. She is an inspirational female force and here is what I learned.

What I learned: The biggest takeaway I gained from Daniela is actually shaped by her identity as a DACA recipient, which largely shaped her financial life. When she was undocumented and didn’t have a bank account, she could only see the physical money she spent and worked unpaid internships. She was frustrated with the financial advice she received because she felt that it wasn’t specific to her financial situation. She said to the audience that day: “Own your financial narrative and take the advice that applies to you but make your own creative solutions.” It was such a relief to hear this because I always thought that I needed to do every little financial trick in the book that personal finance gurus are spitting out but knowing that there is not just a “one-size-fits-all” strategy to personal finance certainly takes the pressure off of tackling my finances.


Sustainability and Inclusivity in Retail is Not Just a Trend. It’s Here to Stay and You Must Commit to It.

“Retail is not dying. Bad retail is dying.”

Tim Brown, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Allbirds

What I learned: Since its inception in 2014, Allbirds has become a billion company with it's comfortable, eco-friendly shoes that have become a wardrobe staple to many. Before I dive into what spoke about in terms of sustainability, I want to take a detour to discuss how he got to where he is now because his story inspired me unlike any other.

In the late 2000s, Brown was a professional soccer career and before he was on his way to the 2010 FIFA World Cup as New Zealand’s vice-captain, he retired to set out to find a solution to a problem he discovered while he was a soccer athlete: sneakers were overdesigned, overcolored, overlogoed, and not sustainable. He started off by going to business school at the London School of Economics, where he approached one of his professors about the idea of sneakers made from wool. His professor’s response was that it was a terribly unfeasible idea but that he should start a Kickstarter campaign so that Brown could watch it fail and move on from this idea (Brown was hooked on this concept and wouldn’t let it go). That’s exactly what he did. In just FOUR days, his campaign raised $120,000 worth of shoes, proved his professor very wrong, and demonstrated that the consumer market resonated with his values of comfortable, sustainable footwear.

Flash forward to now, Allbirds, valued at $1.4 billion dollars, continues to defy expectations of the footwear industry with shoes made of sustainable materials that include wool, eucalyptus, and sugar cane. So what did Brown say about sustainability? When asked “How does Allbirds stick to its core mission of sustainability, even in times of hypergrowth demand?”, he explained that the company views their foundational value of sustainability as sacred. The way Allbirds executes this is in these 3 ways: 1) Measure their carbon impact 2) Minimize that carbon impact 3) Commit to innovations that will reduce that carbon impact

What I learned: The first takeaway I gained from Tim Brown’s speaker session was that as an entrepreneur with a vision, there will be people who will tell you that your idea is outlandish and nonsensical but the ultimate test is the market. Test your idea with the market to get an ultimate verdict and if it resonates with the market, move quickly but never forget your core values. If one of those core values is sustainability, continuously measure your products’ impact on the environment via the amount of carbon output. Do this and your retail products will survive in an environment where unsustainable retailers are suffering.


“We believe there is a different future and there is a different status quo for women that should be elevated.”

Heidi Zak, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of ThirdLove

What I heard: ThirdLove is one of the fastest-growing and most disruptive undergarment companies in America. But before it became what it is now, what was it that made Heidi leave her job as a Senior Marketing Manager at Google in 2013? Well, ThirdLove was built because Heidi resonated closely with women who didn’t resonate with traditional undergarment brands like Victoria’s Secret, which pushed impossible beauty standards and didn’t create inclusive shopping experiences for all women. Since 2013, ThirdLove has used these 3 strategies to become one of the fastest-growing and most disruptive undergarment companies in America. 1) Building better products (eg. over 80 bra sizes, including half-cup sizes) 2.) Creating a seamless online experience (online Fit Finder™ that leverages data science to recommend the best bra size) 3) Creating an inclusive brand that resonates with women of all sizes, shapes, ethnicities, and ages (marketing with diverse models)

With the rise of ThirdLove, Victoria’s Secret took notice and Heidi even spoke about their feud with the lingerie powerhouse company in her speaker session. In 2018, a Vogue article came out titled “We’re Nobody’s Third Love, We’re Their First Love”. Heidi said “In this article, this interview that the CMO [of Victoria’s Secret] said a lot of things about women that I didn’t agree with. So it was really about a moment. And if you think about it, there are many moments that present themselves in life. Sometimes, you have to make big, hard decisions and for us as a company, this was certainly one because up until this point, we had really put our heads down, built a better bra, built a better brand, built a better shopping experience, but at this moment, it was like “Are we going to respond to Victoria’s Secret?” …We debated it. Now, it seems like an easy decision but at the time, we debated it internally and finally decided we would take out this one-page ad in the NYT, wrote the letter back, and really it was a moment to say “That’s not what women think. Women don’t necessarily want to watch a 42-minute fantasy on a Sunday night. And because you tried plus-size models in the year 2000 doesn’t mean it's not relevant to try again…there is a different status quo for women that should be elevated.” Believe it or not, the CMO of VS was fired soon after that entire debacle.

What I learned: In an industry that was dominated by the retail giant that is Victoria’s Secret, Heidi and her team at ThirdLove connected with women by making inclusivity their core value while offering women fantastic undergarments with realistic and authentic marketing campaigns. To top it off, ThirdLove has even donated over $10 million worth of bras to women in need! I am always going to keep inclusivity, authenticity, and philanthropy (in both product design and product marketing) in my mind as I continue on my own journey to becoming an entrepreneur. And I will remember that no matter how scary it may be to defend your company and brand in an intensely competitive market, you should stand up to defend it when it comes under attack.


Marketing is a Powerful Tool If Used with the Right Product, Data, Message, and Audience.

What do ThirdLove, Harry’s, Allbirds, and SmileDirectClub all have in common? These companies are all valued close to or over $1 billion dollars (ThirdLove — $750+ million, Harry’s — $1.37+ billion, Allbirds — $1.4+ billion, SmileDirectClub — $3.2+ billion). So what’s their secret to success? Well, to start with, they are all direct to consumer businesses that have uncovered unmet consumer needs, created products that put the customer at the core, and leveraged brilliant data-driven marketing with the right audience at the right time.


What I heard: Having Direct-to-Consumer business models has allowed ThirdLove, Harry’s, Allbirds, and SmileDirectClub to collect a ton of data about their consumers. But the data collection is just one part of transforming your business.

Heidi Zak, CEO of ThirdLove, said that they use consumer data collected from the over 11 million women who have used their online Fit Finder™ tool to optimize their product development/design, fit testing, inventory planning, and marketing campaigns.

Jeff Raider, CEO of Harry’s, said they also use data to understand what their consumer habits are and to predict their future behavior to create effective targeted marketing. For them, effective marketing isn’t just well-timed ads. It’s also creating a brand image that is warm and approachable with relatable, realistic messages (think of the friendly, authentic men that define Harry’s commercials vs the intensely masculine, sexy men that historically defined Gilette’s commercials).

And it’s important to remember that marketing isn’t just pushing out ads, which can create a one-sided line of communication with the consumer. Allbirds has learned that small conversations on social media can also cue big ideas and big business. Co-Founder Tim Brown said that they removed gender-targeted marketing of Allbirds shoes after one customer tweeted at them that blue being associated with men and pink being associated with women was a thing of the past.

On the topic of listening to the customer, Alex Fenkell, Co-Founder of SmileDirectClub, said that he found his “why” for creating his company and everything fell into place from there. Before starting the company, he found that himself and many others around him despised the traditional process of teeth straightening. So he crafted a solution that met the consumer's need for straight teeth without the hassle of very costly visits to the orthodontist. He told a story of how he got a phone call from a father who wanted to help his daughter straighten her teeth for her wedding but he couldn’t afford traditional teeth straightening services. When Alex assured him that SmileDirectClub would provide an affordable option to him, the father of the bride-to-be got very emotional on the phone. Alex said that he always remembers to listen to his customers and make that the core of his company.

What I learned: Being a marketing major, I have been repeatedly lectured about the 4 P’s of Marketing (Price, Product, Promotion, and Place). I have been taught that “Marketing is ‘putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.’” but have only recently started connecting the dots on how this is effectively employed in the real world. Brands that aim to do this need to 1) craft a product that truly fulfills their target consumers’ needs and 2) leverage their consumer data as a two-way feedback loop to create better products, consumer experiences, or marketing campaigns. Every company now seeks to be customer-centric but it’s not just about what you say you will deliver, it’s also about how you deliver it.


To wrap up, I want to bring up one more experience that I had at this Summit and what I learned from it.

One of the highlights of this event was doing yoga with Michelle Kwan! She is the most decorated skater in U.S. Figure Skating history and now, an active figure on the political scene as well. From doing yoga with her and a small room of other attendees on Day 3 of the Summit, I learned how to be truly present, centered, and calm in the midst of the chaos of this conference. Hoping to pick up yoga now too!


Thank you for reading this article! I want to also give a special thank you to the Forbes team for holding the incredible Forbes Under 30 Summit, my family for their unwavering support, and the friends I reunited with and made while at this Summit. My Airbnb friends, hackathon organizer friends, Rewriting the Code friends, and Boston friends, till we meet again!

So many friends, from coast to coast and even outside the country, that I can’t wait to meet again!

If you are interested in learning more about my personal experience at the Summit or want to attend the next Forbes Under 30 Summit, reach out to me on LinkedIn! Always happy to connect and chat!

Grace Yeung

Written by

Product Management Co-Op @gelighting; Fellow @rewritingthecode; Ambassador @harvardwecode; Under 30 Scholar @forbes; Business & CS @northeastern

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