Portland Zebras talk with Yoonjung Lee, founder of BindlePDX.com
“Portland’s first online local marketplace”, was created by Yoonjung Lee in response to COVID-19 to support local Portland businesses with an emphasis on BIPOC sellers
On August 11, 2020, Zanda Pemba sat down with Yoonjung Lee for a Zebra-to-Zebra discussion about starting BindlePDX.com, a new online marketplace for Portland small businesses and local sellers.
Portland Zebras is the Portland, OR, USA chapter of Zebras Unite, which is a movement recently incorporated as a co-operative supporting companies and humans who seek to combine profit and purpose.
The Portland Zebras chapter has been seeking ways to “spotlight” local people and companies who are striving to build, work, and innovate according to their values, such as the July discussion with the Black Resilience Fund.
Yoonjung Lee founded BindlePDX.com earlier in the spring of 2020 as a response to COVID-19 and in support of local Portland businesses. It has a particular emphasis on supporting local BIPOC sellers and businesses via a partnership with Equitable Giving Circle.
Zanda of Portland Zebras Chapter with Yoonjung Lee of BindlePDX
The Interview
Invited to introduce herself, Yoonjung begins, “My name is Yoonjung Lee, and I am an … entrepreneur, I guess!” She continues, “I did not ever think that would be my title except when I took a Myers-Briggs test once — they told me I needed to be an executive.”
Yoonjung hadn’t considered herself the founder or CEO type. She earned her PhD in political science, had been in academia, moved into tech, and now finds herself with her own startup. At the beginning of the COVID-19 response in the USA, she wanted to contribute to a pandemic response that would support local businesses. What started as a project plan in March later became an online platform selling local products, beginning in May.
But first, …
Origin Stories
Zanda: “Before we delve too deeply into the business itself […], can you tell us about … Where are you from?”
Yoonjung: “I bounced around a lot actually. I find myself caught between two countries. I was born in the States because my father was actually studying economics in the States and then our whole family emigrated to Korea. Then I came back to the States in 2010 for graduate school, and that’s when I started learning how to use data and how to conduct research.”
At the time, Yoonjung didn’t know what to pursue for her own passions or interests and didn’t think of herself as a particularly studious person. But, during her PhD work, she ‘fell in love’ with the analytical tools used to figure out ways to answer questions about everything from ‘the human condition’ to specific questions like ‘How do people vote on specific policies?’
Yoonjung: “Even though I’d never been interested in politics itself until I came back to the States, I learned so much about the complexities of not only just day-to-day sociopolitical interactions, but the systems that are essentially built to confuse people and ... I’ve just been a political junkie ever since.
“I’ve changed so much in terms of my interests and personality and skillsets over the years, so it’s very hard for me to find one kind of straight-and-narrow path of ‘here’s who I am’. I don’t 100% identify as an American or Korean, and I feel like that kind of is also representative of how I feel about a lot of identity groups that I tend to be put into.
“I don’t 100% identify as an American or Korean, and I feel like that kind of is also representative of how I feel about a lot of identity groups that I tend to be put into.”
Reflecting on that, Zanda replies, “It’s so limiting to be put in a box.” He describes how to him, being called ‘American’ can feel limiting, as can being called ‘Zimbabwean’. He goes on, “More and more what I’m seeing is people are expanding their understanding of [the concept of] where I’m from. I’m a ‘citizen of the world’, and personally that’s a moniker that feels better in my gut than ‘you’re one thing’ or ‘you’re another thing’, so I really appreciate you painting that picture for us.”
Inspiration
Zanda continues, asking about the decision to start BindlePDX, “What are your motivations? What inspired you to get into the entrepreneurial realm? What are you trying to get out of this?”
In her move from academics to tech, Yoonjung describes realizing just how much she had to bring to the table, as she put it, “not just from an academic standpoint, but from the standpoint of a person who always starts from observations and questions, and questioning assumptions, most importantly. Because that was baked into my training in my research, I noticed that the way people think about data in tech was very limited.”
“Because [starting from observations and questions, and questioning assumptions] was baked into my training in my research, I noticed that the way people think about data in tech was very limited.”
Yoonjung: “I was at a point in my life where I knew there had to be an entirely different perspective of data that had to be injected into tech somehow, and I didn’t really know how I would do that.
“So, my initial venture into being my own boss was kind of this passive view of … well, I don’t know if I can be the executive or the entrepreneur, and so maybe I can call myself a consultant — a data consultant — and try to train leadership so that they understand what value they’re missing out on in terms of the data that they possess.
“And, with that comes a variety of considerations such as ‘what is the ethical way to treat data?’ but most importantly, what does it mean to measure success? What does success mean to stakeholders and how do we utilize that with whatever limited data we have?”
“What is the ethical way to treat data? But, most importantly, what does it mean to measure success? What does success mean to stakeholders, and how do we utilize that with whatever limited data we have?”
“That was my dream, my contribution to not only tech but to society and the economy at large: I wanted to serve not only executives in really big companies, but also everyday business owners who feel like analytics is not something that is very accessible to them.
“And then the pandemic happened, and I was already kind of in this soul-searching phase of …well, I know I want to help small businesses, and what I’m seeing right now is 2 responses to this pandemic.
“One [response] is kind of this defeatist attitude of .. well you know this is just how the economy works. Some people are going to fail and if they don’t pivot, if they don’t innovate (I hate those words because I’ve heard it so much in that context), you know, they’ll just fail, and such is life.
“And on the other hand, I’ve also heard (and this is why I love this city) I’ve heard a lot responses at least within Portland that were a lot more hopeful — that maybe this is an opportunity for us to completely rethink what it means for us to build out these requirements that help us take care of our basic needs — so again: this really interesting question of how do we define success?
“What I heard over and over again from a lot of business owners in Portland is we’re not really downtrodden because of a lack of vision; [it’s not:] ‘oh we were going to have 10x success and now we’re slowed down’, [but rather, it’s:] ‘all we want is to live harmoniously in an environment where everyone is taken care of in a sustainable way’.
“That kind of attitude has always kind of existed in me, in my personality, where I notice that wherever I turn, I’m very much looking for problem areas that create waste — and what I mean by that is not just environmental waste but also wasted opportunity — in terms of time, money, and opportunities for collaboration that went completely unnoticed, or they were noticed, but there wasn’t that one person who said “I will be the person who manages this group” — I will be the person who is tracking everyone down and saying, ‘What are your available resources? Who else is in need of those resources, and how can we manage that?’
‘What are your available resources? Who else is in need of those resources, and how can we manage that?’
“And, I’m not saying that task is an easy one by any means, and I think that technology is a necessary part of making that management process efficient. And, so that’s when I thought ok, well, my strengths are in quantifying and measuring and essentially taking stock of not only what our resources are, but also who has needs and what are those needs?
“So, I felt I was uniquely qualified to step up and say — OK, I am interested in managing this collective resource-pooling environment. When you look at what Bindle is, you might say, ‘it’s just another website’, but I think what’s unseen is the philosophy and goals that underpin the design of that system and how the technology itself is utilized.
“When you look at what Bindle is, you might say, ‘it’s just another website’, but I think what’s unseen is the philosophy and goals that underpin the design of that system and how the technology itself is utilized.”
“The technology itself is not necessarily the most impressive part of Bindle, and it wasn’t intended to be. It’s moreso: What kind of vision do we have for how technology should be used?”
About Bindle PDX
Zanda: “Describe to our viewership .. what is Bindle? What does your platform do? I’ve seen how Bindle is connecting local businesses to customers, and I’m really curious about how.. How is Bindle satisfying the needs of people within this climate that we find ourselves (for one) and secondly, do you have any ideas of how it’s going to be moving into the future? Perhaps you don’t, perhaps you do, just curious.”
Yoonjung: “If anything, I always kind of feel like, I’ve been thinking about the future state for so long and dreaming about it for so long that that I think it’s always interesting for me to talk about that, because I feel like maybe it’s ... too early to talk about that? Because, maybe I’m getting peoples’ hopes up too high when I’m not there yet, so there’s a little bit of my — I guess — vulnerability there.
“What the future state of Bindle is supposed to do, is it’s supposed to help customers be able to discover local brands and products in an efficient manner, and I have a lot of ideas of how I would use technology to do that, but the problem statement is that is not something that we can easily do.
“We have plenty of good will in Portland where people want to support local businesses. They want to find local product alternatives to what they find on Amazon. But, the problem is that it’s not as easy as just a Google search, right?
“It’s a Google search plus clicking into maybe two or three websites, probably feeling a little confused, feeling like … is this time really paying off? Maybe if you’re really patient, you do that for an entire hour to find one product, right? And then maybe you find the product that fits your needs. But, ok, so that generates one sale, but … at what cost?
“It’s not only damaging to local businesses, because there’s one product that’s being sold to one person and maybe the fulfilment and operation costs don’t really offset that, but what I think is more damaging to that is the unseen effect, which is that you’re turning off customers from that whole process, right? What you’re doing is that you’re discouraging .. and when I say ‘you’, I’m saying, ‘this is what tech has built so far’. I’m not blaming the businesses themselves.
“The system that the tech industry has built thus far is not one that makes online shopping — especially for niche or local or small businesses products — accessible at all.”
“And so, what that results in, I think, is the compounded effect of a person saying, ‘I bought this one product from this one business, but I don’t really ever want to repeat that process again.’
“So, what we have are these, I think, little blips in our recent history where you see these sudden social media movements where they say ‘let’s buy local, let’s shop local’, so maybe you see these blips, … but I think that to rely on those moments and say, ‘You know, we should be fine. We can just keep hashtagging different movements and try to sustain the local economy that way,’ .. I think is too optimistic and unrealistic. Good will runs out very easily, especially when everybody is suffering.
“And so, that was my problem statement and the problem I had observed.
“The easiest way for people to discover local products is if they have one centralized database essentially, and that’s what Amazon essentially is, right?
“And, my other theory is that I don’t think that the main value proposition of Amazon is in its one-day deliveries. I don’t think that most customers are turning to Amazon because of the quick turn-around. I think what’s actually happening is that the product discovery itself is the biggest barrier to online shopping, especially for local products.
“I think what’s actually happening is that the product discovery itself is the biggest barrier to online shopping, especially for local products.”
“So, that’s my key value proposition for why I want to build this platform, and then the other value proposition that is more pointed towards the sellers themselves is that you’re going to get an additional sales channel. Now, should that sales channel take over all the other channels available to you? I don’t think so. But, my hope is that in the future state, it does.
“And, the reason for that is that I just see so many, again, tech products out there that are not allowing small businesses to pool their resources together. In this case, the resources I’m talking about are specifically: How many dollars are you putting towards just having a web presence - period - on a monthly basis?
“What was really frustrating to me when I was initially doing a lot of research on what technology is already available that would enable a multi-vendor or multi-seller marketplace, is that there are close to none.
“The reasoning is pretty simple — and it may be a little bit of a skeptical or cynical view — but the companies that are making these platforms don’t make as much money if 100 subscribers are not individually subscribing to build their own websites, right?
“And again, I think that that system is what basically creates this lose-lose scenario for both the sellers and the customers themselves.
“One of my earliest proposition to the customers was: If I bought this one subscription that allowed me as the operator to pay $120-some dollars each month .. I could split that fee across sellers, and the more sellers are on board, the lower your monthly “online real estate” costs would be.
“That’s just another way to view how we COULD be pooling our resources, but we’re not doing it.”
“That’s just another way to view how we COULD be pooling our resources, but we’re not doing it. So in a future state, I would really love it if our sellers could see this as the ONLY web presence that they have to manage, right? Right now what we’re seeing is you get into this mentality that if you’re not on all of the platforms… what’s gonna happen?
“And, so you operate in this mentality of fear because you have to be on Instagram, you have to be on Facebook,.. thankfully at least those two platforms are talking to each other, but .. what about my Squarespace site? ...and I should also be on Amazon, and Grubhub and all these different sites, and even from my standpoint — and I’m a pretty tech-savvy person — that’s a lot to manage.
“Even within the tech space, I think that’s why we’re seeing so many integration type of services because they realize that inevitably what people are going to need is integration so that your multiple online presences are all communicating together and sharing data.
“I mean, that is another potential future state that I’m not necessarily willing to fight too hard against, because I understand that Portland is just one city and I understand that sellers might have more ambitions to where they want to grow as a national brand. But, I really think that there’s a way for us to at least essentially create a Google or an Amazon just for Portland, and really simplify that process of web presence and product discovery for both of these stakeholders.”
“I really think that there’s a way for us to at least essentially create a Google or an Amazon just for Portland.”
Zanda: “And, it seems like that model can be moved … I don’t want to say necessarily cloned .. because the way you’ve built Bindle is pretty organic… but it can be emulated in different parts of, not just the city and the states, but probably globally — any place that has internet and sellers and customers willing to meet each other on an online platform. That’s really powerful.”
Yoonjung: “That’s my hope — is that we give more power back to not only the sellers and the customers but also to the organizers.”
On Collaboration:
Yoonjung: “There’re so many people that I think are great at building connections and building communities and I think those people find technology to be very … limited. and I see that in my own search not only for a product like bindle, but in my efforts to create systems for mutual aid, for example.
“Technology is not built for communities. It’s built for individuals.”
“Technology is not built for communities. It’s built for individuals. I think that’s informed by the culture in America, and I think that’s why technology has not been able to provide as much relief as it should be or could be, or at least the way we thought it could 6 months ago.”
Zanda: “You are blowing my mind with your observation that technology has been really just been built on the individual, like your attention — your specific attention — is what’s important to monetize all these other platforms in order to blast you with as many personalized advertisements at you, instead of, you know, reclaiming technology or sort of harnessing its power to do what it was originally meant to do: connect people, not make them easy targets for advertising or something like that.”
Zanda: “Do you have an app in the works? Is that something you’re considering?”
Yoonjung: “Yeah, so right now we are just relying on off-the-shelf products, but I am working on building my own application with the aid of my partner, and we’re actually planning on spending a huge chunk of time next week just to focus in on building out the prototype, ‘cuz again, it’s all about logistics. It’s all about making sure that collaboration is as painless as possible.
“It’s all about logistics.
It’s all about making sure that collaboration is as painless as possible.”
Yoonjung explains that by ‘collaboration’, rather than referring to something like teamwork, she is considering the process of an online transaction as a collaboration between the buyers, sellers, and site operators; the process of figuring out: If I order this, when can I get this product? Where should I go? What are my options? Does that work for me? Does it work for the seller?
Yoonjung: “That’s why to me this is very clearly an information problem. It’s not something that technology in and of itself can help us solve — again going back to: Is technology really enabling communities? NO.
“Technology needs a lot of direction and management.”
“I think the answer is because technology needs a lot of direction and management. We have to gather the right information from the right people and make that process painless but also introduce automation in a way where we get into this rhythm and this flow of … all I have to do is say I’m interested in these, these, and these products; I must have these, these, and these products, and the sellers produce those products accordingly.
“And, then it’s up to my job as an operator to use technology to make all that information come together in a way that is very clearly and concisely giving the sellers and the customers directions on ‘Here’s where you show up, with what products,’ and I’m hoping to continue this trend that I’ve been seeing in my operations thus far where I’m already saving the sellers at least 50% of their delivery time and costs. And, that’s without as much automation as I would like to have.”
“I’m already saving the sellers at least 50% of their delivery time and costs. And that’s without as much automation as I would like to have.”
“This is just based on the theory of “why do we need one-off on-demand deliveries for one product at a time? I don’t think we need that. My theory is that it would actually help a lot more people if we consolidate products and organize pickups for customers. And based on that theory alone, I’m seeing this savings.
“So, what does that say about what we can achieve when we actually collect all the data and automate it in a way that it’s not just ‘expect the quickest turnaround’, but ‘expect the quickest turnaround within the boundaries of we also still want to make it as low-impact as possible on our environment, and we also want to be mindful of the cost and the time and the effort it takes for everyone who is involved — which includes the sellers and the customers .. and the operator,” Yoonjung added with a smile, referring to herself.
Assembling the Village
Zanda: You spoke a little bit earlier about your partner helping you to design the app? I’m curious around … who makes up the Bindle PDX team, for one, and two: What kind of help have you gotten to get Bindle up to this point?Perhaps you can speak about … who you bouncing the ideas off of? And, who was helping you with some of the design elements and your brainstorming confidant so to speak? And, how you keep yourself “well-watered,” because I feel like as an entrepreneur … you’re introducing something into the world that doesn’t exist and there’s always the fear of ... it will be taken the wrong way — you constantly have to be emboldening yourself and being brave, putting yourself out there — it’s a very vulnerable thing that you’re doing.
Yoonjung: “It definitely is, and I would say that I spent at least the first month and a half, kind of testing out the idea and getting peoples’ responses but also hoping that maybe someone will say, ‘Hey, I love this idea, and I would like to volunteer my services.’ And, I would say, that’s kind of been the majority of the village — is just, I put myself out there and I would just kind of test the waters to say, ‘Do you want to keep talking? Do you actually have any time to handle any concrete tasks?’ And, I’ve even just straight up asked designers, ‘Would you be willing to contribute one of your designs? Your existing designs? Or could you help me come up with a design for this logo?’
“That’s actually how I met Shiela Laufer. I was a fan of hers on Instagram for a while, and then amongst one of my cold-call messages, she was actually one of the two people who said, ‘Oh I’m interested in this project, let’s talk about it, and then after having one call with me, she was like, ‘Ok, I wanna help.’
“She’s the one who actually came up with the design for the logo, and I’ve gotten so many great responses on just the logo design itself. The majority of the positive responses I’ve gotten on the look of the website, I would attribute to just her sensibilities in choosing the color palette and things like that. I’m sure there’s some way to gauge how much of the faith in Bindle just came from the impression that people got on the website and how cool it looks in and of itself — there’s gotta be some star power that she’s injected just in that design alone.
“And then, my partner was always with me — Jesse Hammond — he’s an amazing researcher/data scientist and he’s kind of been the main person I’ve been asking to test out ideas in the form of technological prototypes.
“In a community called No Code Founders¹, I’ve met some really amazing people who offered to chat with me and bounce ideas off each other.
“And most notably, I’ve been able to talk to a programmer named Jennifer Fadimba², and she’s contributed a lot of her advice in no-coding and she’s even helped build out some prototypes in bubble.io³.
“Within the Zebras Unite community, obviously there’s like too many people that I’ve spoken to than I can even name — Hannah Levinson introduced me to her partner Ian Bone — I’ve gotten some awesome advice and encouragement from them — both from just .. how do I think about the scope of this ‘project’, as I very early on would call it — I was a little too shy, I guess, to call myself an entrepreneur — so, I just got a lot of encouragement from the both of them to have faith in the concept both from a business standpoint and also just as a tech startup in and of itself.
“And, I’ve been working with Margaret Alba² who reached out to me on Instagram and said, “I love what you’re doing, can I help you with Marketing and some design work?”
“So, those are kind of the core people who have advised me and helped me in terms of the core operations of Bindle, but also I’ve had some really great encouraging conversations with the sellers of Bindle. I have to note Gisella Barbary from the restaurant named Bergerac here in Portland — she’s been amazing and super involved in bouncing ideas off of me of: ‘How can the sellers work within the system? And, how can we build out Bindle so it’s actually sustainable for an operator, such as me?’
“That question [about who to bounce ideas off of], I’ll say, caught me off guard — I’m sure I’m missing some amazing people out there that I’ve been able to talk to! But yeah, it’s definitely been an amazing experience just getting so much encouragement from folks in Portland.”
Zanda: “Yeah! I just wanna affirm what you’re saying — the intention wasn’t to catch you off guard — I’m really personally inspired by your willingness to just name that this is not some solo expedition.
“I feel like most of what we get from the tech industry — especially the tech ‘bro’-iness is like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna start my rocket company all on my own, I didn’t have any help, I came up idea by myself, and I built this thing all on my own.’
“But to your point, it takes … a village basically. It takes several people — several relationships that you couldn’t have ever known would come out of it; like, your relationship with the sellers, your relationship with designers, your relationship to networks like Zebras and things like that …”
Yoonjung: “Yeah, and I think that’s the shame about the story that keeps getting told over and over again … in tech especially … it really does paralyze people who I think would otherwise be doing really great things because you have this … essentially imposter syndrome of, ‘Well, I couldn’t be that person, I couldn’t be that entrepreneur, because I don’t code’, and I personally haven’t coded in a couple of years.
“That was actually part of my goal: I wanted to start moving away from [coding] so I could focus on figuring out what the problem is, what the solution is, how I would design it from a data standpoint, … and that takes a lot of work in and of itself, but I think that when you constantly share and reshare these stories of self-made X, then you really are introducing long-term collective harm. Because, what you’re doing is you’re telling everybody they should work separately and not together, because how are you gonna be the face of X or the CEO of Y?
“I think that when you constantly share and reshare these stories of self-made X , then you really are introducing long-term collective harm.”
“And, I think that’s probably initially what made me want to leave tech, and I find myself back in this space, because at the end of the day, this is probably the only way we’re going to move our community forward — is to utilize the best tools that we have, within reach.
“Yes, we could imagine a new system, maybe the old system is broken and corrupt, but that shouldn’t mean that we should separate ourselves from the best tools that are out there.”
Zanda: “Yeah, and something else that occurred to me as you were speaking is, it’s such a humbling … I think you have to be humble … and brave to ask for the help of other people, to ask for advice, to ask for wisdom from people that you might consider sages (and this could look like anyone), right?”
Yoonjung: “Yeah, and I do think, you know, asking for help … it can be a very demoralizing experience. Not just because you’re not used to asking for help, but also because of what you sometimes receive which is (I’ve heard especially from people in tech) this line of questioning of:
“‘Ok, how is this any different from what I already know?’
“And, that’s not really what I set out to do — is to be questioned like, ‘How are you going to compete with … Amazon or Grubhub?’ or whatever … because that’s not what I set out to do.
“And so, I think just putting yourself out there for connections, period, is really very … scary, because you can meet people who have just completely different world views and staring points and assumptions from you. And, you still have to respect that, you know, at least they’re willing to sit with you and listen to you and then digest it and give you their opinions.
“But yeah, I honestly don’t … I can’t blame people who are like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of turned off from that whole process’ either, because I’ve been there many times myself.”
Advice (and Reality Shows)
Zanda: “We’re coming close to the end of our conversations. I have a couple of questions actually.
“Are there any books or resources or places that you’re keeping yourself well-watered? Or any of your heroes or heroines that are writing or producing material that you are like, ‘Yes, this is speaking to me’, even if it’s not necessarily about business. It could be about ... life or, you know, freedom or anything like that.
“Is there anything out there that you might want to share with our listeners and viewers?
“And also, what advice might you want to give to somebody who is at … who is you in February? Like 6 months ago? If we could get in a time machine and go see ourselves from back then, what advice would you give somebody in those shoes?”
Yoonjung: “When I’m relaxed and when I’m resting, I’m either watching really trashy reality TV or I’m immersing myself in political commentaries and just ... everyday news. And, I joke that I’ve been radicalized on Instagram and now TikTok … there’s just so much content that’s coming out that’s just blowing my mind that I didn’t know about the history of this country and what’s happening day in and day out, especially in Portland right now.
“I think it’s really important to have that micro and macro perspective, and I’ve had the luxury of only having to analyze macro problems coming from a research background. I’m bringing a lot of that into what I’m doing right now, and so I’m trying to stay grounded by not forgetting and keeping stock of what’s happening today, because the lessons are surprisingly the same across the board with any sociopolitical issue or business issue which is:
“We are all collectively doing ourselves a dis-favor when we don’t look around and try to find people who are going through the same thing.
And, if we can’t help them or ask help from them, we should at the very least be trying to find solutions together, because we’re all trying to solve the same problems.”
“We are all collectively doing ourselves a dis-favor when we don’t look around and try to find people who are going through the same thing. And, if we can’t help them or ask help from them, we should at the very least be trying to find solutions together, because we’re all trying to solve the same problems.
“And, that’s where Bindle started in the first place. I don’t understand why all businesses have to have a monthly subscription to a website. Why can’t they just have an Instagram business? I also don’t understand why businesses have to have both. Or, you know, more subscriptions.
“These assumptions can be broken, but we have to show people HOW it can be broken, and that’s why I said I want to start some kind of unifying technology.
“These assumptions can be broken, but we have to show people HOW it can be broken, and that’s why I said I want to start some kind of unifying technology.
And the motivation, again, is from wanting to reduce waste.”
“And the motivation, again, is from wanting to reduce waste. ‘Waste’ in my mind means: if I’m trying to find the same information on how to get unemployment insurance, for example, and you’re doing the same, and you’re doing the same,[…] how do we bring that network together? How do we actually utilize the power of sharing more information and expertise?
“That’s the message that I keep seeing no matter what I’m looking at. Even when I’m looking at reality TV! I’m like, guys! Come together and talk!
“That’s the message that I keep seeing no matter what I’m looking at. Even when I’m looking at reality TV! I’m like, guys! Come together and talk!”
“So yeah, I don’t do much in lieu of ‘rest’, I guess,” she said with a laugh, “Except for just really trying to see the macro and micro perspectives, and what’s underlying, what are the common problems and solutions that underlie all of them. And to me, that’s rest, because I’m like, yes yes yes, this is affirming what I’m doing in my home and in my business and what I’m trying to achieve in my political sphere and all that stuff.
“So that really nurtures my soul, … and I forget what the second question was.”
Zanda: “Well, now I’m curious about what reality TV you’re watching!
“You kind of touched on my second question which is what advice would you give to yourself — or to those people who are on the fence about ‘should I take the plunge?’ — or to yourself 5, 6 months ago .. in February when all of this was just starting to set in.”
Yoonjung: “I think, um, the biggest thing is just don’t doubt yourself so much.
“I think, um, the biggest thing is —
just don’t doubt yourself so much.
“I was in this space for a very long time of, ‘No, I’m sure someone’s doing this, right? I can’t be the first one to come up with this idea’, and a lot of this is also just… that being the constant message that I heard in graduate school which is: ‘Oh I came up with this idea for a paper! Oh wait, somebody’s already written it.’
“So maybe that speaks to what you were talking about in terms of humility or humbleness — is just that healthy awareness of: no ideas are truly new. What does it mean to have a NEW idea? What does innovation mean?
“I don’t know, but what I do know and what I should know are: What are my strengths? What can I bring to the table?
“What I do know and what I should know are:
What are my strengths?
What can I bring to the table?”
“And, just not being so impatient with yourself that you have to be great at all of the other things that, you know, a so-called “business” needs to have in its tool belt.
“I still have a lot of those same feelings today, but what’s been really encouraging to me is to hear over and over again from people, ‘Hey, I think that’s a great idea.’
“And just in those two words alone, I think I get enough of that energy to keep going, and it tells me that I don’t have to have all of the answers and equipment ready right now.
“So, in some ways I kind of feel like I’m in the same space I was and same boat I was 6 months ago, but with a little more ‘assuredy’⁴, I guess. Just a little bit.”
Zanda: “And for the people tuning in, what are your preferred social medias where people can follow your company Bindle PDX or maybe if they wanted to reach you .. on Instagram or whatever platform you prefer?”
Yoonjung: “Yeah, the website itself where you can shop for local products right now is www.bindlepdx.com — and I’m most active on Instagram @bindle_pdx, and I’m on Linkedin so people can connect with me. It’s my last name and then my first name, so it’s Lee Yoonjung. And, those are probably my main social media channels right now.
Zanda: “Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule!
“We are so so absolutely inspired by what you’re doing, humbled by the journey that you’ve had so far, and just excited for not just where Bindle PDX is gonna go, but where Yoonjung Lee is gonna go.”
Yoonjung: “Thank you! Thank you for being such an awesome interviewer, and I just wanna say that I’ve met some really amazing people through Zebras Unite and Portland as a whole has just been this amazing city that continues to inspire me and amaze me with all the different people that inhabit it, so … shout-out to those communities!”
ASK:
If you are inspired and want to help, Bindle PDX is supporting Portland BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) residents, and you can, too!
Bindle PDX is working with EGC to pass out gift cards BIPOC families and folks. The goal is to raise $25,000 in gift cards to distribute. Since many Bindle PDX sellers are also BIPOC, this will support these local businesses in getting their products to people who want them.
Visit the Bindle PDX website for instructions on how to donate a gift card: https://www.bindlepdx.com/gift_bipoc
Notes
¹ No Code Founders is a slack community and platform for nontechnical founders.
² Before this posted in early September, Yoonjung clarified that “Most recently, Jennifer and Margaret haven’t really been involved, but Rosalina Yoon has been helping with outreach to sellers, and my main developer for the new site is Mariel Vargas.
³ Bubble.io is a ‘no code’ platform that enables anyone to design, develop, and launch powerful web apps without writing code.
⁴ This word seemed to be an “innovation” on the word “assurance”.
Related Press:
Portland woman creates local online marketplace, provides ‘one-stop-shop’ (KOIN)
