Harvard in Tech AI Edition: Amy Sun, founder and CEO of Briefly and former partner at Sequoia
Amy Sun is the founder and CEO of Briefly, a platform designed to enhance productivity during and after meetings by automating note-taking, summarizing discussions, and generating action items. Before founding Briefly, Amy’s career spanned roles in product management, marketing, and venture capital at companies like Meta, Uber, Microsoft, and Sequoia Capital.
From Economics to Tech: Amy’s Journey
At Harvard, Amy studied economics but found herself drawn to the burgeoning tech scene. During her time there, The Social Network was filmed and released, reflecting the meteoric rise of tech innovation from 2008 to 2012. After graduating in 2012, Amy began her career in tech as a product marketer at Microsoft, joining during its transition from Windows 7 to the bold, modern vision of Windows 8. It was also a time of leadership change, with Steve Ballmer leaving the company. Although formative, her experience at Microsoft convinced her to seek a more agile environment.
Relocating to the Bay Area amid a startup boom, Amy joined Uber through a cold email. She became the first performance marketing hire on the growth team, helping launch its peer-to-peer ridesharing platform (then transitioning from black cars) during a period of hypergrowth. Her time at Uber exposed her to startup culture, product development, and the challenges of scaling tech companies as Uber expanded into food delivery and international markets.
Amy’s next move was to Meta, where she worked on consumer-facing products like Stories, incorporating AR and camera features. This marked a shift from her driver-focused work at Uber, broadening her perspective on product development and user needs.
Her transition to venture capital at Sequoia Capital, though unexpected, equipped Amy with insights into the investor side of startups. She contributed to Sequoia’s consumer investing team, focusing on growth-stage consumer and marketplace startups. However, the desire to create her own company remained strong.
Founding Briefly: From Frustration to Innovation
The idea for Briefly arose from Amy’s frustration with inefficiencies in note-taking during meetings. She recognized an opportunity for AI to address this challenge, enabling people to stay present during conversations. Briefly has since gained traction, offering a clear product-market fit for AI-driven productivity tools.
Embracing Challenges and Learning Through Change
Amy attributes her success across diverse roles — marketing, product management, venture capital, and now founder — to a willingness to learn on the go. “Even experts had to learn at some point,” she explains, emphasizing the importance of confidence and adaptability in new roles. She encourages embracing environments that view mistakes as learning opportunities.
Her varied experiences give her an edge as a founder. Her background in product marketing enables her to craft compelling narratives and effectively launch products, while her venture capital experience provides insights into what investors seek.
Amy values environments of rapid growth and change, where new challenges and opportunities emerge. “Change brings opportunities,” she notes, contrasting this dynamic with stagnant environments that often lead to politicking and limited growth.
Lessons in Founding: Focus on the Fundamentals
Reflecting on her transition to founder, Amy notes that nothing fully prepares someone for the role. At Uber, she witnessed hypergrowth fueled by an already-established product-market fit. With Briefly, she faced the challenge of finding that fit from scratch.
Her advice for aspiring founders is to start as soon as they feel ready rather than waiting for a “perfect” moment. “The core of being a founder is about selling a product people want and will pay for,” she explains, warning against being distracted by advice that diverges from this fundamental goal.
Leveraging AI: A Customer-Centric Approach
Amy remains grounded in a customer-first mentality when navigating AI developments. She prioritizes customer feedback to guide product decisions, ensuring that new features align with real-world workflows. “If people aren’t willing to incorporate it, then it doesn’t matter,” she says. This pragmatic approach keeps Briefly focused on solving genuine problems rather than chasing AI trends.
Advice for Young Professionals: Take Risks and Follow Your Intuition
Looking back on her time at Harvard, Amy offers advice she wishes she had embraced sooner: stop seeking external validation. “In the real world, there’s no universal marker for success,” she notes, encouraging young professionals to focus on their passions rather than prestige.
Amy underscores the importance of taking risks, urging others to question whether traditional career paths align with their true interests. Her parting wisdom: “Be true to yourself and take the risks that excite you.”
