Female Founders: Eden Cheng of PeopleFinderFree On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
A Resilient Character — As a female founder, you need to have a strong amount of resilience and determination to succeed. After all, dealing with a lot of gender discrimination, doubt, and rejection, simply for being a female founder is sadly part of the job description and while it shouldn’t be, it doesn’t pay to hide from the reality of it. As such, it’s always best to make sure that you face these challenges with a solid amount of resilience, by telling yourself that “no matter what roadblocks come my way, I won’t stop until I get to where I need to go”. This was a mantra I used at the start of my journey and repeated to myself over and over until it eventually became imbued into my very personality.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eden Cheng.
Eden Cheng is a business leader, entrepreneur, digital marketing-specialist and most importantly, the founder of a SaaS company called PeopleFinderFree, which is effectively an accurate, true people search service. It allows users to effectively look-up any person they wish to collect information on, giving people the opportunity to learn more about the people they are curious about or in the case of business, learn more about their customers, which more often than not, helps them create more targeted and personalized marketing campaigns to boost their ROI, as a result. When she is not busy working, she often spends most of her time either at the gym, taking her dog out for long walks or rock climbing.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Everyone has their own reasons to jump into the world of entrepreneurship but in my case, I can probably say it was a culmination of a number of different reasons. For one, I got tired of working for others. I wanted the opportunity to create something of my own and lead it to success without having someone constantly breathing down my neck. In other words, I was highly driven to take charge of my own path, and so I made the commitment to quit my previous job as an executive assistant at a software company and launched my own SaaS company with a partner instead. And while the journey so far has not been an easy one, we have managed to find some solid footing having landed some high-value clients of late, as we continue to steadily work our way up the ladder.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I would probably say that the most interesting thing to happen to me was that 4 months into launching my business I actually ended up in hospital. This happened because it can often be difficult to manage all the responsibilities that come with launching and managing a startup. In my case, I was overly stressed out because I was constantly chasing an upward career trajectory, having to constantly be available to my employees 24/7 to help them manage their workloads, as well as to stay in touch with potential investors, clients, etc. This constant need to always be on “go mode”, left me even working on my off days and even sleeping fewer hours most nights, even when I didn’t have to. Inevitably, I ended up in hospital because of compounding overwork that led to high blood pressure. It dawned on me that entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart and that looking after oneself in this line of work is just as important as looking after the growth of your business. Since then I have managed to reevaluate how I balanced my work life and after a suggestion from a friend, I started spending more time on improving my physical health by going to the gym, which has significantly helped me to find an outlet for all the stress and workplace frustrations my position brings with it.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the biggest and silliest mistakes that I made at the start of my business was taking on too much responsibility because I was carrying that “if you want something done right, do it yourself mentality”, and in the midst of juggling so much at once, this actually once led to the misclassification of my employees on their payroll. This happened because since our business usually outsources some of our projects to third-parties, it made it very difficult to stay abreast of all the people we hired and had to pay each month, which included our own full-time employees. So, at the time, I actually misclassified a number of our newly-hired full-time employees as independent contractors, which meant that on paper they didn’t qualify for certain company benefits in that period, like bonuses and overtime. It was a serious issue that affected a lot of parties and while correctable, it was at that moment I realized that I wasn’t so well-suited to keep handling the company’s bookkeeping and accounting, especially as we continued to expand our workforce and grow in size. From that moment, I took the lesson in stride and decided it was time to relinquish some control, and in this specific case, I opted to outsource our bookkeeping duties to a qualified provider who could better manage our accounting and tax responsibilities, in order to avoid any more mixups in the future.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
If there’s ever someone I can thank for helping get my business to where it is it is my partner. At the time, when I was thinking about quitting my job I was dealing with a lot of doubt as to whether I would be able to actually make a business thrive on my own. However, my partner, who also happened to be my ex-coworker, said that she was willing to help me because she saw potential in my business plan and was willing to give me the moral and financial support I needed to at least get the business up and running. And while some of my family and friends were concerned that making such a leap would be detrimental to my financial stability, I believe that if she hadn’t given me that encouragement to follow my own path and also provided the support I needed at the start, I don’t think I would have actually been able to make that drastic leap on my own to begin with. It was definitely the catalyst that started everything for me and all I can say is that sometimes all it takes is one person to place a little bit of faith and trust in you, and you can move mountains.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I believe that what is really holding us back, as women, from founding companies is the fact that there are still a huge number of overlapping systemic barriers to getting through. For instance, in the business market, females still get paid less than men, which makes it very difficult to save enough money to branch off on their own to begin with. Moreover, most women, especially mothers, still have to handle domestic labor, which can often make it almost impossible to find time to work on their enterprise and take care of their families. Besides that, it’s no secret that entrepreneurship has always been represented as a male occupation. Naturally, it can be difficult for women to be encouraged to branch out and stand on their own when the industry itself doesn’t seem modeled for us. And finally, speaking from personal experience, trying to get funding from financial institutions as a female business owner is very difficult, with most VC funding often being awarded to more men than women, especially when it comes to male-dominated industries like tech.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
I think that one of the first things that we need to do is to officially legalize gender equality in business. This means making bias and workplace gender discrimination officially illegal, in order to solve a lot of the issues many women may be facing in the workplace. It’s not a secret that most women tend to be passed up for promotion by most company leaders, not to mention paid less. However, if governments would actually take the initiative and formally mandate equal pay, as well as representation in leadership and investment dollars, then women would be in a better position to fully participate in the business market and succeed.
I also think that governments should create and provide mothers with childcare programs. As I mentioned before, dealing with domestic duties can often take up a lot of time that women could be spending on developing their business. However, not all of them can afford to pay for their kid’s child-care expenses. As such, it would be ideal if governments would create child-care programs that would help alleviate some of this work from women’s shoulders, which would allow them to then focus those efforts on their businesses, which ultimately benefits the economy in the long run.
And finally, I think change needs to start with us, as individuals and this primarily means that there needs to be a major cultural shift in men’s opinion on women. It’s no secret that a huge number of women have experienced assault, discrimination, and harassment from the male gender for decades, if not centuries. Considering the fact that it’s 2021 and we are no longer living like barbarians, it’s time that men take action to educate not just themselves but their own children on what it means to value, protect and treat women respectfully, be it in the workplace or while out in the world. This means asking oneself, “What are my biases?” and “How am I holding myself back by not overcoming them?” If we can do this as a collective people, then slowly but surely that inequality will begin to evaporate eventually.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
For one, most female founders tend to lead companies that show the highest rates of employee retention, engagement, and satisfaction, above all others and the main reason I believe for that comes down to the level of empathy that the female aspect brings to the business. Unlike male-dominated firms, female-led businesses tend to take a more empathetic approach to leadership, prioritizing workers’ health and mental well-being first above the bottom line for the sake of long-term success. Naturally, with more fame-led businesses, we can expect the economy to flourish better, job security to be more stable, not to mention general work/life balance for most people to be much better handled, which ultimately benefits the economy significantly. In addition, by giving women the opportunity to become founders you empower them to be stronger, as they will be able to achieve financial independence, ensuring that they can not only better protect themselves from violence and poverty, but also better look after their families, especially with the many single-parent homes that many women have to deal with on their own.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
If there is one myth, in particular, I think should be completely dispelled is a common idea that women lack the necessary skills to make effective leaders. The reality is that women and men while having different leadership styles, both have something to offer that the other needs. For instance, women are often seen as the caretakers in business that tend to support others and reward subordinates, while male leaders are seen as being more effective at delegating and problem-solving. It is this gender stereotype that leads most to believe that men are the better leaders, but in reality, without the empathy that women offer in the workplace, it’s no wonder most male-led businesses boast higher employee churn rates, in comparison to women-led businesses. The fact of the matter is contrary to what many may think, both have natural skills to offer that the other can learn from.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
There is no doubt that anyone can become a successful entrepreneur and company founder, as this is not something you are born into but rather grow into. And to succeed I believe that the first thing one needs is passion, which is not something that can be taught in business schools or online courses. It is a true hallmark of a successful entrepreneur because those that succeed are those that do what they love the most and this deep passion is what will push them to launch a business, push through the barriers, and also keeps them going beyond just the financial rewards that they may get from their endeavors.
Besides that, they also need a significant amount of self-awareness, because being a founder requires the ability to take stock of one’s strengths and weaknesses as by understanding themselves well, they will be able to know which areas or tasks they need to focus on to improve themselves and their businesses.
You need to be naturally resourceful, which is a serious quality that is needed in new startups with a small staff and minimal funding. This is the ability to achieve one’s objectives and solve problems, even if they are facing some challenges without adequate resources at hand. And even without immediate know-how, they need to be able to let their creativity shine and somehow find a way to manage their businesses effectively.
But most importantly, you need to be a person of strong resilience because in this line of work you will face a lot of rejections from investors or clients at some point in time. Or even perhaps your business idea may not take off as well as you hope it will. Either way, you need to be someone that doesn’t see failure as a sign to give up, but rather a lesson that you can learn from. This also means being optimistic amidst challenges and setbacks by recognizing that your first business idea may not be sustainable, but you can still use this information and apply it to something new.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
#1. A Resilient Character — As a female founder, you need to have a strong amount of resilience and determination to succeed. After all, dealing with a lot of gender discrimination, doubt, and rejection, simply for being a female founder is sadly part of the job description and while it shouldn’t be, it doesn’t pay to hide from the reality of it. As such, it’s always best to make sure that you face these challenges with a solid amount of resilience, by telling yourself that “no matter what roadblocks come my way, I won’t stop until I get to where I need to go”. This was a mantra I used at the start of my journey and repeated to myself over and over until it eventually became imbued into my very personality.
#2. A Positive Mindset — As a business founder, especially as a female founder, it is commonplace to have to deal with a lot of negativity when trying to launch your business. And sometimes it can even come from those around you, telling you to “be more realistic” for example, especially when trying to make your mark on a male-dominated industry, and because of that, you need to be able to cultivate a positive mindset. In my case, I managed to do this by practicing a lot of meditation and also reading a lot of books by successful entrepreneurs, which slowly gave me the confidence and assurance in myself that I needed to face not only my doubters but also my inner demons as well.
#3. A Strong Support Network — If there’s one thing I have to come to learn, it’s that one of the best ways to ensure that you have a stable enough foundation in order to thrive is to first build a support system and community before anything else. Without the right support system, it can often be easy to fall under pressure and feel overwhelmed, and if it wasn’t for the people closest to me, there are times when I may have just given up on my journey. This support system could be your partners, friends, coworkers, and even family, but the idea is to make sure that you have people beside you that will stick by you through thick and thin until your goals are fulfilled, no matter how rough or slow the journey may be. And one of the best ways to do that is to always be selective about the people you depend on and bring into your life because a founder’s strength doesn’t start in the workplace, it starts at home, with your personal life. And, on the professional side of things, this also involves making sure that you always hire the right people for your business, not just based on skills and qualifications, but on personality and character, as well.
#4. Proper Self-Care — Self-care is another important aspect of being a successful woman founder that should not be overlooked because in this line of work I can speak to the fact that it can often be difficult to manage all the responsibilities that come with balancing work and personal life. For instance, in my case, I used to be overly stressed out because I was constantly chasing an upward career trajectory. This meant that since I was starting a business I had to constantly be available to my employees 24/7 to help them manage their workloads, as well as to stay in touch with potential investors, clients, etc. As I mentioned earlier, this constant need to always be on “go mode”, left me even working on my off days and even sleeping fewer hours most nights, even when I didn’t have to. The consequence of that was a trip to the hospital and that is something you want to avoid, trust me!
#5. Flexibility & Adaptability — Entrepreneurship is very rarely a straight path to success and with it comes many bumps and in the worst case, even failures. As such you need to be someone who is adamant to fight against failure but isn’t afraid to face it should it happen. In other words, you need to be flexible and adaptable to change, be it good or bad, because for you to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to take failure as a lesson and no defeat, then use it as energy to fuel your next idea. You have to always be able to find a way to get that entrepreneurial energy flowing at all times, because looking at the most successful leaders of today, most of them are where they are because they didn’t stop, no matter the roadblocks that came their way. So, try to be less stubborn and be more open to change, because you never know when that one failure ends up being the catalyst for your next big idea that becomes the money maker.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I believe that being successful means that you have a responsibility to give back and while there are many ways to do this, I spend most of my efforts in trying to better the environment and contribute to the fight against climate change. This is because the earth will not be sustainable at the rate that we are going and if something isn’t done soon to curb plastic waste, global warming, co2 emissions, etc… then we will all pay a heavy price. It is for this reason that within my company, my staff and I take part in local green initiatives every couple of months, such as assisting local environmental groups in research and conservation, tree planting, plastic curbing, etc. We also try to play our part in making our oceans a much cleaner place by making small contributions each month to sustainability programs like “Ocean Conservancy”, for example.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If I was to inspire a movement of massive change in the world, it would be one that helps provide more women, especially those within developing countries with opportunities to independently support themselves and their families. Having come from a single-parent home, I can speak on how difficult it can be for many mothers out there who are struggling to take care of their families while also striving for a better future for themselves as well. In fact, this is a major problem that has never been evident during this COVID crisis, with many women having been forced to make the decision between taking care of their families or prioritizing their careers. And with the cost of child care continuing to rise, while wages still remaining mostly stagnant, I would encourage more governments and business leaders to pay more attention to this demographic by implementing policies and laws that help to not only alleviate the burden of paying for child care but also do well to promote female participation in the labor force, and more specifically, in leadership roles.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to sit down, even for just an hour or two with Jessica Alba to pick her brain on business and what it takes to make it to the top as a woman, seeing as her success in building Honest Co. is a hugely inspiring business story for me.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Eden Cheng of PeopleFinderFree On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.