Leaning into uncertainty — Why I joined Antler
A conversation with Joann Jeong, one of the youngest founders in the program
Could you tell us a little bit about your background?
I’m from New York, born and raised. I moved to Berlin two years ago and it’s been my home ever since. I studied business administration back in the states. Post graduation, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I went into management consulting at a German consultancy. When the consultancy exited the US market, I had to make a decision on my next steps. I knew that I wanted to live abroad and after evaluating multiple locations, I decided to move to Berlin. I have been in Berlin since.
How was your experience in consulting?
The experience was quite special. I was living and working in New York. I was introduced to a boutique consultancy that was based in Munich but had newly opened up an office in New York. Because of the size and stage of the team, we operated as a hybrid between a consultancy and a startup. On top of your full-time role as a consultant, everyone wore additional hats (e.g. HR, finance, marketing) to cover the needs of being in a new market. The team was a mix of locals and expats and we had a lot of people traveling in and out.
During my time there, it was also my first exposure to working abroad and working closely in an international team. I loved the diversity in setup, how much more wholesome the work-life setup felt, and how days never felt dull. Additionally, I realised that it is possible to have a good culture, and work-hard play-hard, all while harbouring closeness.
You then shifted to Berlin?
Before moving to Berlin, I had no idea how it would be. I actually had never even been to Berlin before. But I knew that I wanted to live abroad.
Given a lot of variables in my life at that time, including the fact that I was still quite young (23 at that time), if I were to make an “impulsive” decision, there would never be a better time for it.
A mantra I live quite closely by is “today is the youngest version of yourself that you will ever be” — and so, why not just try?
Why did you decide to build a startup?
It’s September 2021, and I’ve already quit my job twice in a single year.
After moving to Berlin, I was working at a fintech company for 1.5 years, after which I decided to work for an early stage start-up. Both of which I left in 2021. During this journey, I recognized the importance of culture-fit, product market fit, and founder fit. I spent a lot of time reflecting on the energy spent, the types of human-interactions I had, and the ROI of using my energy for another’s venture. After I quit my job for the second time this year, it was quite a scary thought going back to another full-time job. I needed more agency, more liberty to create and execute. I come from a family of small business owners, and I grew up very close to them, so the meaning of ownership, agency, and commitment has always been an integral part of me.
I have always had the entrepreneurial urge and building my own venture has been on the cards. The blocker was a matter of “when” rather than “how”, “what” or “where”. Perhaps it was the fear of not being ready, or the fear of failure. But 2021 was a big year for myself and for a lot of my peers. Somehow the decisions we were making had much higher stakes, were a lot riskier, but these decisions oddly enough felt more comfortable to make.
There was a point when six of us in my core friend group quit our jobs and were unemployed around the same time. We would casually go for brunch on a Tuesday, and instead of feeling anxiety or panic, we were at ease. There was a huge sense of relief and comfort around not being in a place that didn’t feel right — and although what the next step should be was still uncertain, it didn’t really matter.
I was at an inflection point and there were two paths I could have taken. Something linear — meaning, taking another job. Or something quadratic/unknown — meaning, you deep dive into something and the outcome is absolutely unknown, but the reward is exponential. And for me I decided on the latter, which was to finally start working toward my own venture.
How did you come across Antler?
There has been quite a buzz in the founder community around Antler. When I started more openly speaking to people about my plans to found, I was recommended to look into it. Given that I was a first time founder, Antler seemed like a great opportunity to meet a co-founder and be part of an ecosystem with other highly motivated people. Timing and chance — it all came together quite well.
What are some of the sectors that interest you?
It’s less about a specific sector, but rather about honing in on “people” problems. I wanted to stay close to making a difference in the day to day of people. I truly believe that you don’t need to go so far, or solve a complex problem in order to make a difference. And a natural segway into this was in the Future of Work, HR-Tech and Community-Tech space.
We spend 80% of our time working which means our job and the workplace are huge parts of our identity and of course, major pain points. When you meet up for dinner or meet a friend for coffee, the primary topic of conversation is always related to your job or your career, and quite often just complaining about it. If everyone is complaining about it, then there must be problems to be solved.
Have you already identified people in the cohort that resonate with your ideas?
Everyone has been heavily “dating around” the last couple weeks. The entire concept of co-founder dating is quite funnily similar to romantic dating (also hence why we use dating terminology to explain everything). The key things you need to figure out: Do we have the same values? Are we complementary? Can I tolerate this person and their flaws? Can I see a long term future with them? Can I see myself having a baby with them (aka the company)?. And very gratefully, I have been able to identify co-founders to build a venture with through the program.
We are now in week 9. How has the program been so far?
Beyond the product and the company to be built, by far my biggest learning is actually on the human-level. Two things (1) understanding and getting comfortable with your flaws (personal & professional) (2) figuring out the 80/20 with your potential cofounders.
From the very beginning of the program, I was forming deep connections with people in the cohort. From the first conversations with people, you are talking about your insecurities, your weakness, your intrinsic drivers etc. Especially given that you are time constraint, you kind of skip the bullshit conversations and get into deep topics very quickly. It really forces you to reflect about yourself, your identity, and your motivation for founding and to be real with those answers.
The second part is about the other person. Just as you share your flaws, you are also learning about the flaws of other people. Of course it’s easy to be compatible with someone when things are going well (the 80%). But during the difficult moments (the 20%), are you able to tolerate that person? Can you manage to find workarounds or resolve the issues? Or are they deal breakers?
I’m super grateful for the past weeks. We’ve built a community and support system for each other and it’s incredibly motivating and inspiring to be at the same stage in the founding journey with 49 other people.
What are the things that you look most forward to?
I truly believe in going with the flow and letting the universe do its thing. I am aware that pivoting is normal and I am also looking forward to that too. I think we found quite a strong niche in the product that we’re building and I’m excited to see how it evolves. I’m excited to see how all the other founders develop their products and watch as they hustle to build and their products go live.
Want to join Joann and other exceptional founders?
Applications for the Antler Berlin cohort starting April, 2022, have just opened a few weeks ago. Apply here.
So far, founders in this cohort come with 9+ years of professional experience on average. >50% are repeat founders with very diverse skill sets and backgrounds from various industries — such as gaming, entertainment, medtech, or fintech, and have helped build some of the regions’ most successful tech companies — such as GetYourGuide, Zalando, Penta, Asana Rebel, Tourlane, N26, Rocket Internet, HERE, and many more.
