Inspiring Innovators: Agnes Wun
Co-founder & CEO of Neufast, on using your passion to problem solve.
At SAP.iO, we work with innovative people and new technologies that positively impact our world every day, and we think it’s time to share their stories with you! In our series, “Inspiring Innovators,” we get to hear how leaders of cutting-edge startup technologies overcame, thrived, and pursued their goals. SAP.iO’s Alexa Gorman sat down to discuss the road to success and lessons learned with some of our most inspiring startup founders.
Meet Agnes Wun
Over the last year, we’ve had an opportunity to focus on some of the inspiring innovators we work with here at SAP.iO. We’ve learned that these leaders come from various backgrounds, and the path to entrepreneurship is never quite the same. For Agnes Wun, she had 14 years of work experience before she launched Neufast. As we discussed her path to co-founder and CEO of Neufast, we discovered that she worked hard to use what she was passionate about to inform her next steps and solve problems.
“Although some school subjects might not have come naturally at first, my interests grew in Mathematics and Physics after meeting my private tutor during secondary school. My tutor made these subjects so fun that I ended up doing Math and Physics a few hours a day. Because of this, I received good scores earning a Singapore Government scholarship for Hong Kong students to read GCE A Level in “Double-Math (Mathematics and Further Mathematics) Double-Science (Physics and Chemistry)”
After graduating with an electrical engineering degree, Agnes joined ABB where she designed digital control systems for power plants. From there, she joined the Labor and Welfare Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, where she learned to hone her communication and project management skills. Although Agnes was proud to help improve mental health awareness in Hong Kong during this time, she had always dreamed of studying at Imperial College, and so she did. At Imperial College in London, she obtained a MSc degree in applied mathematics and met her Neufast co-founder Dr. Dennis Lee culminating in the launch of their new company.
Neufast is a data-driven online video interview platform where you set up, invite, and conduct online interviews. These interview videos are analyzed using AI technology for their facial, vocal, and textual information, which produces a competency report for each candidate. Neufast’s clients are achieving an 80% reduction in cost-per-hire and hiring managers can customize job requirements in 27 competencies. Some organizations that use Neufast’s HR technology include McDonald’s, Carlsberg, Crystal Group, Esquel, Tessellation, and Lensowheel to name a few.
Let’s Chat
What need did you see in the market that you wanted to address?
From the perspective of HR tech, there is always a need to improve and streamline the hiring process to find the best candidate for your company in today’s ever-changing environment. One of the motivators for launching Neufast came during COVID when traveling and meeting for an in-person interview was impossible.
“You can imagine in Asia, as many places around the world, all the sudden everyone had to stay home, work from home, observe social distancing. This made for a difficult time for hiring companies. Candidates were unable to travel and find new employment too. There was a need to continue hiring, but physical face-to-face contact was prohibited in many locations.”
Around the time of the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020 the minimal viable product (MVP) of Neufast video interview platform was ready to use by corporate users. For HR departments that usually conduct face-to-face interviews, there was now a new technology provided by Neufast that could move the processes online. It was a case of meeting the user requirements during a time of shifting organizational needs to address the requirements of a new market. Not only do they help organizations globally streamline their HR process, but this technology also helps to reduce bias in hiring. Neufast is changing the name of AI in talent assessment with the PCT patent filing for the system and methods of removing personal identifiable information from human multimedia such as videos to achieve “De-biased AI”.
What character traits do you possess that help you be a successful entrepreneur?
Agnes says it’s about using your passion and creativity to solve problems. Once you find something you love and are good at, if you use that to drive your business purpose, it goes a long way towards overcoming inevitable challenges.
“I think to be successful in this area, you need to be persistent and think of different ways to solve an issue. It’s about not giving up. Use your passion to solve the issue, whether within your own company or helping a client find a solution.”
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
When it comes to the best advice she’s been given along her path to CEO, she shared that someone advised her to always be concise in answers and truly listen to the questions asked. Agnes shared that it is imperative that you know your customer very well. Listen to their questions, once you’ve pinpointed their true need you can propose how your solution can solve the problem, help them to achieve their strategic goals, and build trust with clients.
What advice do you have for someone starting an SAP.iO program?
Agnes discussed Neufast’s participation in SAP.iO’s program and noted that it was crucial for them to achieve an international standard.
“Once you succeed in this program, you become an SAP partner. This really raised the bar for us. In this program, if you work hard and apply the right resources, you will find that you’re capable of doing something more sophisticated. I am excited for a continued partnership with SAP.”
During their program, Agnes shared that they did a lot of troubleshooting, and there was an immense amount of teamwork with the SAP experts. It requires a lot of discipline, focus on solving issues, and following the milestones set forth at the beginning so that you can finish on time.
“The Shanghai Foundry was very supportive of Neufast. We felt we had the full support of SAP experts to be successful in this program. In fact, we were one of the first few in our Future of Work cohort to be listed on the SAP Store!”
What achievement personally makes you proud?
To be able to speak up had not always felt like her strongest attribute. To make it to this point, as a CEO, you must be the advocate for your company, employees, and customers. Agnes is proud that this is a skill that she has developed in this role.
“As co-founder and CEO, I need to speak for the company all the time. Before, you would have to force me to stand in front of the crowd and talk about Neufast. That put me in an uncomfortable situation. But, I am passionate about this work, so I pushed out of my comfort zone because I believe in this, and I am proud of this fact.”
What we learned
Agnes Wun worked hard in school and got her start as an Engineer, after working various jobs, she discovered she was passionate about using math, science, and technology to problem solve for clients. Understanding her strengths and identifying a gap in the marketplace, she earned her role as co-founder and CEO of Neufast. Now her mission is to support employers hiring processes faster and cheaper without unconscious bias, allowing for a digitizes recruitment process evaluating person-job fit scientifically.
What’s next for Agnes? She shifts her focus at Neufast to expand globally by offering more languages to non-English speaking countries and support even more customers worldwide. Recently, Neufast won the ‘2022 Most Innovative Solutions Award’ under the category of excellence human resources technology AI platform of the year from Business Innovator. Congratulations on all your hard work!
Neufast is a graduate of Foundry Shanghai’s Future of Work Program in 2022. Neufast’s integrated solution with SAP SuccessFactors provides individual competency assessment reports help make smart hiring decisions with a 91% person-job fit (i.e. Cronbach’s Alpha) and 95% weighted-average of F1 score for AI/ML model accuracy of competency scoring. If you are a startup looking to impact the future of work like Neufast, check out our upcoming programs here.
