Built By: Sophia Lin of Keel
Sophia Lin’s entrepreneurial journey started with an acceptance letter to the MIT Sloan School of Management. Originally from Taiwan, she started her career in investment banking and after five years, it was time for a change. “MIT was my dream school,” she remembers. “I only applied to three programs and once I got into MIT, I withdrew the rest of my applications.”
It was there that she first encountered the whirlwind of innovative ideas typical to the Boston area. The environment at MIT had little in common with her life before that, but the intersection between the two would become the catalyst to her entrepreneurial journey. In fact, her current company — Keel — is the perfect union between finance background and innovative spirit. Voted one of Boston’s 50 Startups to Watch in 2017, Keel helps investment newbies make better decisions by following seasoned investors’ daily trades from their personal trading accounts.
“My co-founder and I approached the problem from two different perspectives,” says Sophia. “For him, it was important to put his savings to work but since he had no investment background, he had to rely on financial advisors. For me, it was about helping people make the right decisions. Usually, when you follow financial advisors, you have no way of knowing their [investment] track record, and with Keel, we’re bringing transparency to the process.”
According to Sophia, Boston was a natural home for the company. Having lived on four different continents, she never found a startup ecosystem that was as open and welcoming as the one here. “After MIT, I lived in Singapore and Australia, and I started my first company in Singapore,” she shared. “I often found myself missing the dynamics of the Boston tech community, and wanted to come back.”
“Governments around the world like to talk about creating Silicon Valley replicas in their countries, but no one has been able to do this because the ideas need to come from the people. In the US, people are very open to innovating and taking risks, and a lot of cultures lack this mentality,” she explains.
Moreover, Sophia believes that the US is much more open to female founders. “I would go to startup events in Asia, and usually, I’d be the only woman in the room,” she recalls. “In the US, there is more diversity, and while being a female founder is still difficult, at least people are aware of the problem and working to resolve it.”
For anyone looking to embark on an entrepreneurial journey of their own, Sophia warns that the road to success won’t be easy. She believes that her grit and perseverance have been cultivated through her immigrant background. “Immigrants are agile and adapt easily. This is a characteristic that could give you an edge in the startup world.”
Written By: Leia Ruseva of Ellis Project
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