About
I host a top VC podcast called Smart Venture Podcast (SVPpro.com); past guests, including…
Services
Articles by Grace
Contributions
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What are some common causes of feedback resistance and how can you avoid them?
I totally agree that it’s really important to fully understand the mentee’s goal and aspirations. It’s important to listen to people’s concerns and fully put yourself in their shoes before offering general advice. Make sure it's tailored to that specific individual.
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How do you deal with feedback and criticism from VCs who doubt your founder-market fit?
As someone who worked in venture, had conversations with many successful investors and founders on my podcast, and eventually founded my own company. I couldn’t highlight more about leveraging your unfair advantage and hiring your weakness. So many successful investors are looking for people that are AMAZING at one specific skill and partner with someone who are experts at whatever they are not so good at. Instead of being OK at everything, try to be the 1% at ONE thing is more important.
Activity
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🛬 Miami for Adobe MAX - our annual product release and celebration of all things creativity… Lots to be excited about, but I’m especially eager for…
🛬 Miami for Adobe MAX - our annual product release and celebration of all things creativity… Lots to be excited about, but I’m especially eager for…
Liked by Grace Gong
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Had a phenomenal time this week at our Flybridge Founders Week 2024! 120+ founders came in from all over the world to join us for a ton of learning…
Had a phenomenal time this week at our Flybridge Founders Week 2024! 120+ founders came in from all over the world to join us for a ton of learning…
Liked by Grace Gong
Experience
Education
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Activities and Societies: JAMS Illini Media Daily Illini 50+ different organizations
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Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Volunteer
Alternative Spring Break at the University of Illinois
- Present 14 years 8 months
Social Services
The Sanctuary (Independent media center) Trip in Troy, New York (9 days)
• Raised funds by selling various snacks in university dormitories, facilities, and libraries to support the Independent Media Center
• Created a blog for the media organization and wrote articles for their website as an organization representative
• Posted articles and summited photos to record the organization’s trip for ASB and the media center
• Set up for the media center’s benefit concert…The Sanctuary (Independent media center) Trip in Troy, New York (9 days)
• Raised funds by selling various snacks in university dormitories, facilities, and libraries to support the Independent Media Center
• Created a blog for the media organization and wrote articles for their website as an organization representative
• Posted articles and summited photos to record the organization’s trip for ASB and the media center
• Set up for the media center’s benefit concert that featured a Grammy-winning singing group
• Participated in such activities as painting houses and stairs, rearranging videos, organizing books in the library, and rebuilding the yard by relocating giant stones
• Received the “Screaming/ Laughing Award” due to exhibiting a dedicated work ethic, well-rounded personality, and the ability to make friends with team members from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds -
Volunteer
Students Today Leaders Forever
- Present 11 years 8 months
Social Services
Volunteered for local organizations in six different cities
• In Indianapolis, IN: folded laundry, wiped the floor and window, cleaned up the trash for men’s homeless shelter
• In Canton, OH: stuffed Easter eggs, painted and cleaned the church
• In Pittsburgh, PA: read the story and talked to disabled children at a school for the blind
• In Hershey, PA: cut roses in the snow, used giant iron trimmers to fix the roses
• In Baltimore, Maryland: sorted dangerous shrapnel…Volunteered for local organizations in six different cities
• In Indianapolis, IN: folded laundry, wiped the floor and window, cleaned up the trash for men’s homeless shelter
• In Canton, OH: stuffed Easter eggs, painted and cleaned the church
• In Pittsburgh, PA: read the story and talked to disabled children at a school for the blind
• In Hershey, PA: cut roses in the snow, used giant iron trimmers to fix the roses
• In Baltimore, Maryland: sorted dangerous shrapnel from floor tiles in a warehouse
• In Washington, DC: picked up trash in the Anacostia River with 200 + students from 6 other schools (Minitosta Twin City, etc)
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Volunteer
Alternative Spring Break at the University of Illinois
- Present 13 years 8 months
Social Services
Minnesota LGBT Volunteer Trip (9 days)
• Created posters and bulletins to help local LGBT organization promote their meetings
• Made and answered phone calls and contacted each LGBT family to come to the meeting
• Wrote small supporting language on paper clips and put them around the community to give moral support to high school LGBT students
• Traveled to the University of Minnesota to listen to multiple LGBT lectures to support the community
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Volunteer
Alternative Spring Break at the University of Illinois
- Present 12 years 8 months
Children
South Dakota Trip Preparation
• Watched South Dakota related videos with other team members, while learning about the local culture and what these people are going through
• Assisted in finding a driver for our trip
• Raised funds for the organization by selling various snacks in the Champaign-Urbana community
• Made a private monetary contribution into the organization, while continuing to raise funds
Publications
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How To Be A VC
Interviewed 22 successful Venture Capitalists on the Forbes Midas List
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The Last Key To Success
Interviewed 21 founders on the Forbes “30 under 30” on how to start companies
Projects
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NO SHOPPING THIS WEEKEND challenge
This is a research project I did with Dr. Grace Giorgio. I created a Facebook event to encourage people to not shop for a weekend to experience an environmental weekend with family and friends. 230 people participated on Facebook, and a lot of my friends shared their thoughts and their way to protect the environments. It successfully made people learned the lesson in an active way.
Other creators
Honors & Awards
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The "Chun Lei" Cup Chinese National Writing Competition
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Awarded first place in the "Chun Lei" Cup writing competition. It has the highest reputation among Chinese high school and middle school.
Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Chinese
Native or bilingual proficiency
Organizations
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i-Invent
Member
-• Participated in group discussions about inventing websites, apps, organizations, and energy saving tools • Presented ideas about thing that could be invented and shared it with a group of people, receiving feedback to improve the original idea • Provided feedback to other group members and brainstormed about different strategies that could be used to improve one another’s projects • Shared entrepreneurial opportunities and creative, inspirational ideas with one another • Formed small teams…
• Participated in group discussions about inventing websites, apps, organizations, and energy saving tools • Presented ideas about thing that could be invented and shared it with a group of people, receiving feedback to improve the original idea • Provided feedback to other group members and brainstormed about different strategies that could be used to improve one another’s projects • Shared entrepreneurial opportunities and creative, inspirational ideas with one another • Formed small teams and cooperated with members from different majors and cultural backgrounds to improve group project
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Illini Body Building Club
Member
-• Participated in Facebook discussions with other club members and shared work out schedules to pair up working out in the gym • Developed personal training plans and shared inspirational videos, photos, and workout routines • Learned work out strategies and exchanged experiences with other club members about lifting and dieting • Associated with other members by watching the Arnold Classic at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to learn more about professional bodybuilding
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JAMS Media (Journalism, Advertising, Media Study Student Organization)
Media Study Head
-• Writer & Photographer for Spread Digital Magazine; facilitated a photo shoot for the cover page of the first Spread Issue among other Spread Issues • Designed events, planned meetings, created bulletins to promote the events, organization and magazine • Recruited new members by creating posters, marketed a Facebook group and created Facebook events • Used strategies from other organizations to conceptualize an SNL style series of campus comedy videos
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American Advertising Federation
Active Member
-• Designed marketing and advertising strategies for Illini Fencing club, designed recruiting strategies, designed the logo for the club, designed an avenue to advertise (i.e., a paper fan with logo) • Designed different marketing strategies for different organizations on campus, collaborated with 5-20 persons on a team, used Adobe Photoshop to create posters and brain storm slogans, watched different advertisements for inspiration, worked in a 3 persons team to retouch advertisement
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American Marketing Association
Member
-• Participated in talks hosted by respected companies such as Yahoo, Macy’s, Jimmy John’s, Red Frogs • Engaged in club member discussions to organize volunteer events and other activities that would benefit the club and career fairs • Collaborated in recruiting talks held by famous and well-respected businesses • Attended different social events hosted by the club and got to know the attendees on a personal level
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Web Monkey
Member
-• Engaged in club meeting • Discussed personal web designing plans with other club members • Gathered resources to self-educate for web designing
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IRenergy
Social Chair
-• Planned social events to make club members more involved with the group • Organized the email list of club members • Assisted checking out the projectors and renting classrooms for club meetings • Attended various speeches given by professors and watched educational documentaries about energy crises around the globe • Collaborated in club discussions about the latest global energy issues • Planned trips to different local high schools to promote energy and environmental friendly…
• Planned social events to make club members more involved with the group • Organized the email list of club members • Assisted checking out the projectors and renting classrooms for club meetings • Attended various speeches given by professors and watched educational documentaries about energy crises around the globe • Collaborated in club discussions about the latest global energy issues • Planned trips to different local high schools to promote energy and environmental friendly knowledge • Participated in debates and discussions about global energy use • Promoted the club by going to different classrooms and university facilities to write on chalkboards about upcoming events
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Daily Illini
Web Poster
-• Used different posting systems such as Drupal and Gryphon to post articles, photos and videos, insync with The Daily Illini newspaper • Designed the layout of the website, tagged relevant sources, created name links for each individual, events and objects; Set up time stamps and recreated headlines for the official DI pages on Facebook and Twitter • Communicated with 3 different departments to obtain layout designs, wrote report letters to the DI chief editor,reported on work progress…
• Used different posting systems such as Drupal and Gryphon to post articles, photos and videos, insync with The Daily Illini newspaper • Designed the layout of the website, tagged relevant sources, created name links for each individual, events and objects; Set up time stamps and recreated headlines for the official DI pages on Facebook and Twitter • Communicated with 3 different departments to obtain layout designs, wrote report letters to the DI chief editor,reported on work progress, number of people and technology issues; created on a Google document contact with other producers’ progress
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University of Illinois Main Library
Librarian
-• Assessed 70+ individuals with checking in and checking out books on a weekly basis at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign main library, the second-largest university library in the United States and the fifth-largest in the country overall • Managed phone calls by determining the person’s need and redirecting the caller to the right contact person • Organized and rearranged books in the library basement • Created paperback covers for the books • Arranged books and placed them…
• Assessed 70+ individuals with checking in and checking out books on a weekly basis at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign main library, the second-largest university library in the United States and the fifth-largest in the country overall • Managed phone calls by determining the person’s need and redirecting the caller to the right contact person • Organized and rearranged books in the library basement • Created paperback covers for the books • Arranged books and placed them in alphabetical and chronological order
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UIUC VAMP Photography Club
Photographer
-• Participated in a gallery concert involving four bands and gallery of photos taken by club members • Recorded the concert and gallery show with video and photography • Recruited to be a professional model by club member
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Green Observer Magazine
Member
-• Designed poster for “Green Observer Canopy Benefit Concert” to promote the organization • Assisted in organizing benefit concert for publishing the Green Observer Magazine • Brainstormed and organized magazine content, such as articles, pictures, and organization events • Assisted the president in preventing the discontinuation of the magazine by recruiting new members and gathering interest from students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Coordinated with other…
• Designed poster for “Green Observer Canopy Benefit Concert” to promote the organization • Assisted in organizing benefit concert for publishing the Green Observer Magazine • Brainstormed and organized magazine content, such as articles, pictures, and organization events • Assisted the president in preventing the discontinuation of the magazine by recruiting new members and gathering interest from students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Coordinated with other environmental organizations to clean up the organizations’ YMCA office
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Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Lighting Assistant
-• Handled professional stage lighting and determined the correct stage area to place the lights onstage • Worked in potentially dangerous areas on a weekly basis, such as the theatre ceiling and roof, to change the lights and tie the lighting core • Rearranged different color lighting papers into different folders • Set the angle of the lighting, putting different color lighting glass plastic papers on the lighting machine • Tested the lighting and took down the stage lights • Used…
• Handled professional stage lighting and determined the correct stage area to place the lights onstage • Worked in potentially dangerous areas on a weekly basis, such as the theatre ceiling and roof, to change the lights and tie the lighting core • Rearranged different color lighting papers into different folders • Set the angle of the lighting, putting different color lighting glass plastic papers on the lighting machine • Tested the lighting and took down the stage lights • Used different iron lighting chips to change the shape and shade of the light • Painted props and set up stage background, at times independently
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The Toxic Dance Group
Performer, Dancer
-• Performed in the production of “For Your Entertainment” with a 7 person-team at the Canopy Club in Champaign, Illinois • Provided choreography suggestions for the production • Communicated effectively with team members from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds
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Illini Union Board
Marketing Committee event coordinator
-• Created and coordinated IUB talent show with 7 other students, worked in the department and coordinated with other departments in the club, found programs, contacted performers, made programs, led auditions • Rehearsed and publicized the show by making flyers, posted posters around campus, made advertisements and created events to promote the show on Facebook, analyzed the budget, attracted investments • Fundraised money through advertising on IUB bulletin and sold cupcakes on campus •…
• Created and coordinated IUB talent show with 7 other students, worked in the department and coordinated with other departments in the club, found programs, contacted performers, made programs, led auditions • Rehearsed and publicized the show by making flyers, posted posters around campus, made advertisements and created events to promote the show on Facebook, analyzed the budget, attracted investments • Fundraised money through advertising on IUB bulletin and sold cupcakes on campus • Created and planned different art shows in IUB gallery to fundraise money and help local artists sell art work
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Concrete Canoe Club
Member
-• Gathered canoe building materials with teammates at the local material shop • Participated in club meetings to discuss future club plans • Designed canoe patterns for upcoming competition in the Spring of 2010
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