Female Founders: Peggy Choi of Lynk On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It’s important to maintain a growth mindset. Not everything is going to go according to plan, especially in the beginning. It’s important to keep perspective on your mission and your goals. With every setback, how can you find something positive to propel you forward? What can you learn to better yourself for next time? As founders and business leaders we need to be constantly growing and evolving for ourselves and our teams.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Peggy Choi, founder and CEO of Lynk, a global knowledge sharing platform that is disrupting the way business decisions are made. In her previous career in finance, she recognized the need for valuable insights from experts across companies of all sizes and in all geographies and was inspired to revolutionize access to knowledge. In 2015, Peggy founded Lynk with the mission of democratizing knowledge and making it more accessible.
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?
I majored in Computer Science, with a specialization in computer vision, Finance and Statistics at University of Pennsylvania, then began my career in finance working in banking and investments in the US and UK for several leading firms. I was a private equity investor in the technology space at Silver Lake Partners in London, worked in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs in New York, and most recently was an investor on the team that helped create the Special Situations strategy at TPG Capital in San Francisco.
Throughout all of my professional experiences, I recognized a common theme among businesses of all sizes and individuals in all parts of the globe: access to valuable insights, knowledge and expertise from the right advisors, mentors and experts is crucial to inform important decisions. I wanted to help make those insights accessible to all. Additionally, my parents were artists and entrepreneurs, and they often came to me with questions on how to scale their businesses; however, I didn’t feel like I could give them the best insight, and I knew there needed to be a way to enable access to that knowledge and expertise in a scalable way. In 2015, I founded Lynk with the mission of making knowledge more accessible to everyone.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Since we founded Lynk, I guess the most interesting part is realizing that many things in my past have helped me in some ways on this journey. My passion in art manifests in how I work with the team on crafting the platform vision — it requires some level of creativity since we are delivering something entirely new to the market. My background in computer science and statistics makes it easy for me to understand and work with technical considerations and requirements. My experience in finance and investment allows me to understand how some of our customers think and want. Most importantly, my own journey going through a severe spinal surgery when I was just 15 years old — which I had largely forgotten myself — has come back to inspire me as I persevere through some tough times on this journey.
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?
As a startup founder, you need to be prepared for anything and be ready to wear many hats, especially when you’re just starting. You need to be a strong public speaker, understand accounting, act as your own lawyer, and even act as an office manager. In the early days of Lynk, when we had a small team in two offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, I was constantly traveling between the two offices. Once when I was leaving the Singapore office, I noticed they were low on toilet paper. When I returned, they were completely out of supplies, so I had to run to the store to pick more up! It’s a silly story now, but it taught me that as a founder, especially in the beginning, you need to be prepared to manage every aspect of your business, even down to office supplies. Then as you scale, you will need to build a great team that will take care of respective aspects.
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?
My family was incredibly supportive when I quit my full-time job and took a leap of faith into entrepreneurship. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, so they were happy for me and excited to see that I was building something on my own.
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?
Founding a company is challenging and can be incredibly intimidating. It requires you to constantly pitch yourself and your business idea to investors, customers, and future employees. There is definitely a high degree of subjectivity for early stages as investors are always evaluating founders. I think this has some impact on the likelihood of women founders receiving funding. It takes a certain level of confidence and conviction to get started and go through the startup phase. In many cases, this time period would overlap with family planning. I have had many meetings where investors asked formally or informally about family plans and marital status — to which I would politely call out and explain that it doesn’t impact my commitment to the business. Family planning could indeed be the reason for women (and men!) to pursue the “startup” path, but for those who have committed to it, I believe the current openness in discussing gender considerations would help ensure a more conducive funding environment in the future.
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?
Providing women with access to resources — or being resources ourselves — can help empower women to take on more leadership roles, start new careers and become female founders. There is also great value in making connections, networking and talking with people to share experiences, ideas and to help you grow and learn from others.
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?
In today’s age, with more opportunities to start your own company, women should not be excluded from this narrative. There are so many women with intelligent, creative and important ideas. It is crucial that we encourage them to chase big ideas and support them as they take on the challenges of founding a company. As more women become founders, we are showing the next generation of girls and young women that they can become business leaders and founders. While we encourage entrepreneurship, it is also worth noting that between starting a business and having a great career at a corporation — there isn’t a “better” option. These are simply career choices and we should just all find the path that is the most suitable for ourselves.
At Lynk, we are committed to amplifying the voices of female experts and are working to help more girls around the world have access to knowledge. For the past two years, in celebration of Women’s History Month, we’ve launched Lynk Elite Expert Women, an initiative that encourages women who are experts in their fields to sign up for our platform. With each new female expert that signs up, we donate to the Malala Fund to support equal education for girls. This is an important initiative to me and our company as we aim to provide tools for women to excel in their careers. We are also sourcing more female experts and giving them access to a platform to share and monetize their expertise.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There is often an idea that all founders will be the same. When people think of the most successful entrepreneurs, they think of Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos, but I don’t believe every founder fits into that stereotype of a “celebrity founder.” There are so many diverse people with different ideas and ways of creating a business. Some of the most successful companies in the world don’t have that kind of celebrity founder.
Going into my founder journey, I knew that I wasn’t going to fit into that stereotype. I simply believe in our vision and know that we will make it happen. Through that, we have attracted individuals who share that belief to join us on our journey to turn it into reality. We are so grateful for having great people on board on this journey.
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?
Resilience is key to being a successful founder. In the beginning, you will have people telling you that you can’t do it, that it’s too difficult to start a company and you’ll likely face many obstacles and probably rejection more than once. You have to anticipate failure, prepare for it and learn from it. Successful founders can learn from their missteps and find something positive in each experience that they can use to pivot and try again.
When I was starting out, investors told us that our idea was too big. Each time someone doubted our ability, we used that as fuel to work harder and improve further. As a founder, I couldn’t give up because my decisions didn’t just affect me; they affected my company, my employees, my investors and my customers. At the core, I have a strong belief in our vision — making knowledge easily accessible. I simply think it makes so much sense. Throughout my life, there have been many times where I set sight on something and felt the goal was not within reach. I would continue to find ways and steer to get to the goal — and I would get there every single time. It’s about the spirit of not taking no for an answer. I truly believe in persevering with a balance in knowing how to steer towards your goal, and I derive conviction and confidence from that.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- The process is subjective and not always based on factual data. As a female founder, you will be stereotyped. When I first started out, I was asked questions about my personal life, marital status and family planning. Things that did not affect my business or my ability to run my company were questioned and examined. I have found that the key to success is focusing on your business and what you know best and not letting things affect you emotionally.
- Investors evaluate you as the founder along with your company. As a founder, you have to understand that people are not just investing in your company or your idea; they are investing in you. When you pitch your idea you are also pitching yourself, which can feel like a lot of pressure. It’s important to know that you have what it takes. Be confident in your business and in your convictions and be resilient enough to get back up in the face of rejection.
- Seek advice from others, but be discerning with what advice you take. Investor advice sometimes contradicts itself and not every suggestion will be useful. People often have good intentions with the suggestions and opinions offered, but it’s crucial to understand that everything is based on individual perspective and experience. As a founder, you need to know your business better than anyone else and use that knowledge to sort through the feedback, only implementing what supports your company’s vision.
- You’re not in the business of pleasing people; you’re in the business of building something meaningful. That was an important lesson for me to learn and a turning point in my founder’s journey. It’s about attracting investors, customers and employees that share the same beliefs.
- It’s important to maintain a growth mindset. Not everything is going to go according to plan, especially in the beginning. It’s important to keep perspective on your mission and your goals. With every setback, how can you find something positive to propel you forward? What can you learn to better yourself for next time? As founders and business leaders we need to be constantly growing and evolving for ourselves and our teams.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’m passionate about making the tech and startup space more inclusive by providing opportunities for women and people of color who are often underrepresented in this industry. Diversity is in our company’s DNA. We’ve grown to over 200 employees spanning eight countries and representing 20 nationalities. We’re continuing to expand our team, and I’m proud to say that we have a board with equal representation of women and men. This is important to our company as it gives us a diversity of thought and perspective.
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.
My goal is to democratize access to knowledge, and I would love to see that grow beyond what we’re doing at Lynk. My vision of the future to be enabled by Lynk is a world where credentials such as school or company don’t matter, and all of us are valued based on what we know and what we are skilled at. We are working on ways to measure that and it’s a big problem to solve. As we achieve that, I believe we will see diversity and inclusion much more naturally.
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 with Ray Dalio. He has said in his book “Principles,” “Before too long, you will be able to tap the highest-quality thinking on nearly every issue you face and get the guidance of a computerized system that weighs different points of view. For example, you will be able to ask what lifestyle or career you should choose given what you’re like, or how to best interact with specific people based on what they’re like. These innovations will help people get out of their own heads and unlock an incredibly powerful form of collective thinking.” This aligns well with what Lynk’s platform can do. I’d love to discuss his vision and learn more about what he has seen in his work to apply in Lynk’s journey and growth.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Peggy Choi of Lynk On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.