My Unlikely Journey to Entrepreneurship and to Building FLIK
I come from a very traditional Asian immigrant family. Yes, the type that tells you there are 4 options for a successful career: doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant. Up until I went to university, I genuinely thought there were only these four coveted jobs, and to get them, I would need to start preparing from Day 1 — there was no time to waste and no point in looking at other opportunities. So it was highly unlikely for me to turn into what I am today: an entrepreneur building FLIK, a platform & community hub connecting female founders/leaders and students via meaningful apprenticeships globally.
I narrowed myself into the medical career path early on, like I had blinders on. I spent my summers performing research in infectious diseases at Imperial College London, neuroimaging at UBC, or paediatric gastroenterology at BC Children’s Hospital. Then I went to Western University, a few thousand kilometers away from my hometown family and friends. For the first time, I had space and freedom to question what my passions were, what my intrinsic motivations could be. Since I had taken so many AP courses, first year classes weren’t that difficult, and I stopped going to most of them *sh don’t tell my parents*. (Don’t worry I still did well, I learned how to cram early on in school).
From there, my extracurricular interests expanded from videography to branding to entrepreneurship. With my skills in videography, I figured I could break into content marketing. I cold-emailed brands and cool startups, asking to volunteer my time as a ‘content creator’ since I taught myself how to create videos and edit. I used this ‘marketing’ skill to get my foot in the door, then pushed the envelope in each position I received to get hired into wider scope positions. Between rigorous study sessions, I helped launch a digital marketing agency, worked for Bumble, developed sport business partnerships, created events challenging GenZ strategists to take on the world’s biggest issues. All because of these “apprenticeships” I made for myself in university, I was able to translate my experiential learning into real world situations and work in everything from content marketing to events and partnerships to product development. Even though I was a medical science student, I probably had more experience in business than BUSINESS STUDENTS. I started posting my story on LinkedIn, honing my one-liner as the ‘medical science student breaking into entrepreneurship’ and began to build a personal brand that opened up many non-medical opportunities. I started to think my social impact could expand beyond medicine.
I took the plunge to finish my degree early, applied and was accepted to Next 36, one of the top entrepreneurship programs for young founders in Canada, and eventually launched my own company.
I informed my parents with a single text: “I’m not taking the MCAT. I got into Next 36. I’m not going back to school next year so I can start a company.” The text was not particularly well received.
Nevertheless, I pushed forward — this was my first independent major life decision, and I had never been so sure of anything. I entered Next 36 intending to launch a marketing company, but after struggling to connect with female founders and mentors throughout the program, my roommate (and future Co-Founder) Ravina and I created FLIK. The original plan was to get to know prominent female visionaries and share their inspiring stories on our platform — we incorporated FLIK and created a website within 48 hours, and soon had the opportunity to interview distinguished women like Samantha Barry, Editor-in-Chief of Glamour Magazine and Genevieve Jurvetson, Co-Founder of Fetcher. We were even invited to cover a talk by Michelle Obama!
Their stories posted on FLIK received responses from young women in 20+ countries across the world, all asking one common question: how could they connect with amazing female leaders themselves. FLIK morphed — we relaunched as a global portal allowing ambitious young women to apprentice under top female leaders. Applications poured in from beyond North America; women from Rwanda, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Estonia, Germany, and the Netherlands, among others, have come to FLIK to boost their careers and companies. The community has now grown to over 4500 game changers from over 45 countries around the world, and we are starting to see the impact we are creating by connecting diverse, talented women with mentorship opportunities that we had struggled to find not even a year ago.
Looking back, I can see the seemingly unrelated pieces of my puzzle coming together to form a purposeful image. Going through pre-med helped me improve my analytical thinking; learning to overcome external pressures to follow genuine passions gave me the self-confidence to pursue social entrepreneurship; being a leader at an all-girls school during my formative years showed me the global importance of female mentorship and empowerment; and my work during college allowed me to develop the community-building talents that are so key to FLIK’s success.
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, here are some of my greatest tips:
- You have a personal platform, so get your personal brand out there. People want to hear from you and help you. Hone your story and start building your network today — you never know who will take you where.
- Find a side hustle skill like I did with videography. Develop it and find ways to apply it in real-world settings. Once you get your foot in the door, keep pushing for new opportunities.
- GET EXPERIENCE. Whether that’s through apprenticeships ,internships, freelancing, volunteering, etc. you need to get experience in your field or discover the inner workings of entrepreneurship to take the next big step.
- Look back on your life to see what you’ve been passionate about, where your puzzle pieces fit. Entrepreneurship only works if you’re building a solution to a problem that you’re intrinsically motivated to fix.
- Lastly, develop blazing confidence in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, why will others? If you think you can do it, you WILL do it.
Ravina and I were never meant to be here. We followed our path, discovered a gap that we knew we could bridge, and that we were passionate about, and pursued it with an unexplainable, blazing self-confidence. We are extremely lucky and grateful that we have been able to show that young, diverse founders are able to create an impact.
Stay open-minded. Believe in yourself. Take your blinders off.
Connect with me on LinkedIn here + check out our work at FLIK!
