SC Spotlight: Pocket Sun

By Judy Lee ‘17

A thunderbolt who crashed onto the USC organization scene, Pocket is one of the most driven people I’ve met – with precision and execution to actualize her ambitions.

Currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Pocket is also the founder and president of the newest female-oriented organization on campus: SoGal (previously known as GirlsUp). Her favorite snacks include a variety of Asian desserts!

What does entrepreneurship mean to you?

I think entrepreneurship is about starting something of your own. It doesn’t have to be a certain industry—as long as you’re doing something no one else is doing, and are doing it for yourself.

What is SoGal?

SoGal (formerly GirlsUp) is a platform that empowers and connects global young women to find their best self through entrepreneurship. Our mission is to close the gender gap in entrepreneurship within our generation. We provide female entrepreneurs with mentorships, startup advisory, cross-industry resources, networking opportunities, a variety of events, and peer-to-peer help. As a result, many of our members have successfully made initial steps in their ventures!

What is the SoGal Summit?

SoGal Summit is the largest millennial female entrepreneurship conference in Southern California. We attracted nearly 500 attendees, including 100+ CEOs, founders, influencers, mentors and investors. In the whole-day event, we had keynotes, fireside chats, workshops, panels, mentoring sessions, speeches and fast pitches. We wanted to celebrate success stories and work collaboratively on issues that women are facing in the entrepreneur’s world today.

My purpose was to connect students to inspirational role models out there and to have the successful women as cheerleaders for the next generation of female entrepreneurs. The Summit was a great networking opportunity for young women to meet top-notch female entrepreneurs in SoCal and to showcase their ideas and innovations in different activities throughout the day.

We selected 10 female-founded teams to pitch and two of them were from USC. Other teams were from all over the place; one team even flew in from San Francisco. They all had amazing ideas—when I first saw their pitch decks, I was blown away. They impressed everyone at the showcase, including the six judges: partners, managing directors and investors from Y Combinator, United Talent Agency, Crowdfunder, Golden Seeds (a Venture Capital firm that invests specifically in female-led startups), Yang Ventures, and March Capital Partners.

We have awarded our winners with a $5000 startup package, face time with Amplify (top accelerator in LA), legal and marketing consulting services, and so on. 

You could have pursued entrepreneurship on your own and focused all your energy on personal success. What made you decide to put your energy into also elevating other girls?

I started it because I felt the struggle myself - when I went to events, I didn’t see many girls anywhere. I feel that it’s very important to build a peer-to-peer support system. It can be very discouraging when you think it’s a man’s world.

I felt the need to build a community that’s both meaningful and fun. It’s amazing how fast we are growing in the whole SoCal region. I know that there are organizations that are focused on entrepreneurship and organizations that are focused on women, but I was seeking something that combines the two. Then, a friend and I were just talking about how we should do it and there was a moment when we said, “This is it. This could be fabulous.”

Starting SoGal has been such a rewarding experience. From emails I received from girls all over the world, I know that I have created positive changes in others’ life. And they may go out and change the world! How incredible.

What’s your relationship with failure like? How do you get back up?

Failure is more real than success. When you’re successful, it could mean that your mistakes have not caused you any consequences yet. Failures are great learning opportunities and tell you exactly what you need to improve on.

Personally, the language barrier was hard on me because even though I don’t have a Chinese accent and I can talk to people, I still feel like sometimes there could be misunderstandings via email and that I cannot express myself exactly as I want to.

When I was a junior in college, I cried all night before my first business school presentation because I was never taught how to do it and I had to memorize every word. Now I’ve spoken at numerous occasions and I feel comfortable about it.

I was not experienced in what I was about to do. When I told people I was going to host a large conference, they said, “No way. You will have to work your butt off just to make it happen at all. You need to have a really good team, and put so much energy into it” and “There’s just too little time for too much work.”

I was pretty upset when I heard that. Part of me knew that it was true, but part of me also wanted to show them “maybe you can’t, but I can”.

In the two months of planning, I couldn’t take any day off. It drove me crazy sometimes. Even when I was in Cabo for Spring Break, I was always on the phone with someone or writing tons of emails. But working is the only thing that gives me peace. If I get a disappointing response, I just have to try harder to get a “yes” from someone else.

What keeps you going?

My personality decides that I can’t settle. I can’t just be content with what I’ve done. I always feel that there’s always something more I can do. There are always extra steps I can take to make things better. That’s just how I function. Through SoGal, I’ve come across many new opportunities and it’s just really exciting. The impact we’re making in this world makes everything worthwhile.

Check out SoGal on Facebook and Twitter! The second SoGal general meeting is TONIGHT, and all are welcome to attend!