Empowering women and aspiring builders in Asian Wander Women’s first buildathon
When we got together in May to plan a buildathon, no one knew what to expect. It was our first time organizing such a large-scale event for Asian Wander Women (AWW), but our goal was clear: we wanted to empower women to build their dreams and connect like-minded individuals together.
Fast forward to August, we launched our inaugural business buildathon! Through the three day buildathon, our attendees from all over the world tuned in to learn from 10 industry specialists, attended our physical meetups in four different locations, and submitted their business proposals.
Words of wisdom from our speakers
To help our attendees kick start their journey in building the path they want, we invited industry specialists to share their knowledge and journey with us. The workshops were catered to different groups of audience — aspiring entrepreneurs, digital nomads, business owners, and more.
Are you an aspiring digital nomad?
Lise Slimane, Head of Partnerships at SafetyWings, shared her story of how she started out her career as an entrepreneur targeted towards the freelance community, before writing a book about her experience in the industry.
Her advice for aspiring digital nomads is simple:
“Having a strong “why”and being persistent is really important in the path to becoming a digital nomad or an entrepreneur.”
One interesting idea she shared was one doesn’t necessarily have to be a digital nomad in order to be “free.” It is more about finding the right opportunity with a company that aligns with your needs and values, just as how she found SafetyWings.
Thinking of building a business?
For aspiring entrepreneurs, Maaike Doyer’s workshop is a must listen! As the founder of Epic Angels, Maaike introduced the idea of design thinking into creating business models. Building a business is never as straightforward as having one idea and executing it to the end; it is about making experiments to align your business goals to the needs of the market and the target audience.
“The best thing to do is always to just get started — Launch your product/social media site/website, and figure it out along the way.”
Maaike’s business model canvas workshop was easy to follow for aspiring entrepreneurs
One big takeaway from the workshop is three questions every aspiring entrepreneur should ask themselves as they set out to work on their business model:
Is this problem indeed a problem?
Is my solution indeed solving this problem?
Is the customer willing to pay for my solution?
Learning to grow your business?
If you’re already building something, but are facing struggles on how to grow it into an impactful and sustainable business, Yunzhe Zhou’s workshop on our relationship with money might shed some light.
“Making money feels hard, not because you aren’t good at your craft or that your business can’t help people. Making money is hard because it goes deep within ourselves — how we grow up with money, our culture, and our environment can play a part in this.”
A deep dive into how our relationship with money affects our business with Yunzhe Zhou’s Money Making 101 workshop
As a six-figure business coach, Yunzhe was vulnerable in sharing her experiences in starting her own business. She also shared three tips about deciding how to price:
Pick a number that you feel good about that is ethical and aligned to your needs
Think of it as an experiment—the first price is just a starting point
Take into consideration your time, skill, service, as well as because you want to, that is a good enough reason to do so
Damn Funny Women: A Stand-up Comedy Experience
As part of the closing ceremony of the buildathon, we collaborated with AWW member Amy Yu, a standup comedian based in Toronto, for a two day comedy special. Check out her inspiration and thoughts for this comedy event on Medium.
Amy Yu, an AWW member and stand up comedian, partnered with us to host an all star cast on Zoom
Thanks to the rise of virtual comedy during the pandemic, Amy began doing standup on zoom—this led her to connect with some of the most talented Asian female comedians around the world. She’s performed standup in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu.
Some major headliners included nonbinary Malaysian comedian Juliana Heng, who shared her own experiences about being neurodivergence in comedy bits and San Francisco-based comedian Cathy Zhao, who has done opening acts for legendary Margaret Cho at San Jose Improv. Two shows were organized to accommodate different time zones, aiming to celebrate Asian female and nonbinary comedy talent from around the world.
Connecting the community globally
Other than online workshops, our attendees also connected and met new friends during our in-person events which were located in four different locations across the globe: Singapore, Taipei, San Francisco, and Toronto.
Our participants and members met up in different parts of the world.
Our Singapore meetup attendees even had a chance to try a gluten-free, home-brewed alcohol sparkling drink from Ollie, an amazing Singapore brand. I have to say that it tastes really good, and you won’t believe me unless you’ve tried it yourself. Special thanks to Ollie for sponsoring our drinks for the meetup and Draper Startup House for the location!
The journey continues
A huge thank you to our buildathon sponsors, SafetyWing and Draper Startup House, for supporting us in the Buildathon. We were also thrilled to have those who spoke and attended the buildathon—this would not have been successful without all of you who attended.
As AWW continues to explore possibilities, we welcome everyone to join us in playing a part in uplifting women to take unconventional paths in life. We hope to see you at our next event!