Global Shapers in SF
I grew up in Vancouver speaking English, French, Mandarin and Cantonese, and have always been passionate about social issues. As a result, I volunteered for UN initiatives, spending time in Yunnan (China) and Salabwek (Kenya).
As I went to UC Berkeley as an international (Canadian) student, I had to work 6–7 part-time jobs to afford tuition and learned firsthand the importance of financial literacy. With 2 other co-founders, we taught a 4-credit undergraduate course on money management, which eventually turned into a social enterprise called Cashify, to empower young adults with the knowledge and tools to manage their financial future.
We eventually turned Cashify into a non-profit to focus on our mission. I decided to join Goldman Sachs, where I represented the firm on the Board of Women in Finance. During this time, I also completed a JD part-time, where my work on financial regulation was fortunately selected to be published by Cambridge University Press.
After a number of years, I yearned to help entrepreneurs again, so along with my business partner and our investors, we started Agile VC, where we help startups globalize and expand into new markets. For instance, we have invested in and still advise Rescale, a cloud simulation platform with high performance computing (backed by Peter Thiel, Paul Graham and Jeff Bezos) serving MIT and Formula 1. Recognized for our work, I was fortunately invited by Sir Richard Branson to spend a week with him to discuss how emerging technologies can be applied to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.
Outside of work, I’ve been involved with Shinect, a non-profit community that seeks to empower entrepreneurs and engineers passionate about tech innovation and entrepreneurship, and continued to guest lecture innovation/entrepreneurship at Berkeley Engineering/Haas School of Business and Singularity University.
I’ve loved organizing ShaperTalks with Roger and the team so far, and I look forward to getting more involved with the broader SF Global Shapers community!
