Latest / The Action Catalyst / Innovating in Style, with Anya Cheng (AI, Fashion, Tech, Entrepreneurship)

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Innovating in Style, with Anya Cheng (AI, Fashion, Tech, Entrepreneurship) · The Action Catalyst

• 0:00
  Anya Cheng: This is Anya from here in Silicon Valley. I'm
• 0:04
  running AI companies, and so excited to share more. And
• 0:09
  before that, I led the E commerce team for Meta, eBay and
• 0:34
  Target.
• 0:35
  Stephanie Maas: Wow, I wish you had an impressive background.
• 0:38
  Anya Cheng: haha, just a lot of big tech companies. Facebook
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  shopping, was head of product for eBay's new business in the
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  US and new market in Latin America, Africa, Asia, helped
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  McDonald's to build a full delivery business when Uber eat
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  just started, and helped Target to move its tech office here in
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  Silicon Valley. But my personal entrepreneurship journey just
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  started less than three years ago in the AI spaces.
• 1:02
  Stephanie Maas: Absolutely. Well, I want to start with, if
• 1:05
  you don't mind, let's go back just a smidge, because you do
• 1:07
  have an interesting background. Just walk us through where did
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  this love for tech, all things e, if you will, related. Where
• 1:16
  did that begin for you?
• 1:18
  Anya Cheng: Yeah, so maybe I share a little bit. I came to
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  the US in 2007 went to Northwestern University for my
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  master degree in marketing. When I graduated, it happened to be
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  right after Lehman brothers, went bankrupt. So there was no
• 1:33
  job anywhere. I remembered I was waiting outside of other
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  departments building to, as soon as the interviewer came out of
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  building, I was, hey, this is my resume. I am not even student of
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  these departments, but people say that, you know, Anya, this
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  is dumb, job searching is about networking, you shouldn't be
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  cold calling or ambush people. So I realized that I don't have
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  much connection. But that's not true. I do know professors, no?
• 2:01
  I was a student, right? So I knock on the door of every
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  departments professor, I say, I'm a student here. This is my
• 2:08
  resume. Please connect me to someone on LinkedIn who I
• 2:11
  already researched. This guy talked to you on LinkedIn, so I
• 2:14
  want to talk to him or her. And then one day there was a
• 2:18
  professor say, I don't know you, I cannot connect you to anybody,
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  but tomorrow, I have a panel, and you are welcome to come as
• 2:25
  students and to listen to the panel. By the way, we need more
• 2:27
  students. Can you bring 10 more people? And so I went. I my
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  English was so bad I didn't understand anything in the in
• 2:34
  the speech. But after that, I went out and talked to the
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  speaker. Hi, I'm Anya great job. Really good on the speech. I
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  have no clue what she was talking about, and this is my
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  resume. Can I talk to someone in your company running department
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  on digital? And she said, Yes. So I went on job interview. I
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  thought it was perfect, everything they were looking
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  for. A few weeks went by. Nobody contact me. I follow up with a
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  recruiter. The recruiter pick up phone. Asked me, please do not
• 3:02
  call me anymore, because I was layed off. So the recruiter was
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  layed off from the company. So I said, Okay, you have nothing to
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  do? Do you want to come out for coffee? She said, Okay, why not?
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  So we had a coffee. She told me a lot going on about the
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  company, who is a decision maker, what's the challenge of
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  the company? And she also gave me an idea. Anya, Chicago is the
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  third largest city in the US. Do you want to go to New York? And
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  LA, they are bigger city there for probably more jobs. So I
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  went and I printed out 2,000 alumni from Northwestern
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  University. I started cold calling each of them. I said,
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  I'm coming to New York. I'm a student. Can I meet you for
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  coffee. And with that, I met with a lot of people, but
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  everyone say that I am not hiring. So I call a company in
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  Taiwan, a magazine. I say, Hey, do you want to cover these
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  amazing conferences for stories in New York? They say, yes. I
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  say, I can be a reporter for free. And I call the conference
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  say, Hey, I'm a reporter from Taiwan. Can you give me a press
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  ticket? And I got into a conference, and end up I met
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  with a lot of people, so I called the companies, the
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  magazine company CEO again, I said, I learned a lot from your
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  competitor, and do you want to know what they are working on?
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  She said, Yes. Before I go, I put together a business plan,
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  because I remember I met with a recruiter who was layed off. So
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  I went on interview there. You need someone who knows a little
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  bit marketing, a little bit digital, ideally, not very
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  expensive, just out of college? And I know someone: me! So she
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  asked me, Do you want to be a contractor? Anyway, that's how I
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  got my first job.
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  Stephanie Maas: Absolutely, incredible. What an incredible
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  story. And I've just got to go back and pick out a couple of
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  nuggets of things that I think really speak to your creativity,
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  your insatiable work efforts and desire for the outcome. I mean,
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  you're a masters student at Northwestern, that should be
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  enough to get you a job, but to your point where, you know, we
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  just launched the financial crisis of '07, '08, '09, you
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  take your time. You went face to face asking for researched
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  LinkedIn connection introductions. Do you know that
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  has got to put you in the like 0.01% of the population that
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  uses LinkedIn?
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  Anya Cheng: In fact, what I found most effective during the
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  search was actually one time I was rejected again. I walk out
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  the building. I was in a newsstand, so I saw there were
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  newspapers. And on the newspaper, what do you say? It
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  say publisher name, so and so, if you want advertise, call this
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  number. So I bought all the newspaper, and then I start
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  calling each of them. And somehow, for some reason, I was
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  able to actually get on and talk to New York Times, CEO senior
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  and VP and SVP, of like ESPN, all of those companies.
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  Stephanie Maas: That is incredible. Talk about
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  determination. Holy Hannah. So then, did I hear you say you
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  printed out a list of 2,000 alumni and started calling them
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  all?
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  Anya Cheng: Yeah. And then my English was so bad I didn't know
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  even how to talk to them. So I went to a senior care center
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  near campus, and I practiced my interview with those seniors,
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  because you can... no one will judge your English. You spend
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  time with them. So that's how I did my interview practice. My 93
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  years old. Her name is Connie. She's from Japan, and I still
• 6:39
  remember she will put the soy sauce into the oatmeal because
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  she said that's how she eat breakfast back in Japan.
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  Stephanie Maas: So okay, so if you learn nothing else, if you
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  want to, you know, be like a true Japanese oatmeal eater,
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  you're going to want to put soy sauce in that. Got it, check.
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  So your first job is with this magazine. Take me on your
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  journey from there.
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  Anya Cheng: Yeah, so I was there for a few years, and I was
• 7:03
  mostly focused on digital part of a business. At that time, I
• 7:07
  didn't know what that means, like product manager. Then I
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  joined Sears, and Sears was looking for someone who helped
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  on deciding where to buy on digitally. So with my magazine
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  background, they feel like, Oh, great. Then you have the media
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  side the background. Now you can be the buyer side the background
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  to see, help us to evaluate where you would you buy media.
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  And while I was doing that quickly, we discovered the most
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  effective way of buying media is using data. And after I doing
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  that for a few, for a year or two, they say, Hey, Anya, when
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  they come to my website, the homepage. It doesn't make sense.
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  Would you like to come and help us to personalize our homepage
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  and websites? And that's how I started my career in product
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  management. And from there, Target hired me. I remember that
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  they they asked me if I want to move to Minnesota. I didn't want
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  to, but I say...
• 8:00
  Stephanie Maas: No, actually, I have no desire to go to
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  Minnesota. Thank you. Yeah.
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  Anya Cheng: Yeah, thank you. But, yes, my career goal at the
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  time was coming to Silicon Valley. So I was looking for a
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  job in Silicon Valley, but Target came to me and they say,
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  Hey, Target is cooler than Sears and Kmart, so you should come
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  join Target. So I accept the offer. I went to Minnesota. They
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  call me. Anya, I remember you say you don't want to come to
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  Minnesota. I said, Yes, yes, yes. They say, You know your
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  managers role was opening. But now I found a guy, but the guy
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  should be based in San Francisco, and he doesn't want
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  to move to Minnesota. But now, since you have a manager there,
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  you can actually work there. And that's how I actually moved to
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  the Bay Area, by saying yes to something that wasn't relevant
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  to the Bay Area yet at all. And from there, I help Target to
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  build their tech office here in the Bay Area. McDonalds come to
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  me, they say, it's amazing. You launch your tech office here in
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  for Target, you launch your apps. You won 11 a word Best App
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  of the Year by Apple. Can you do the same for our E commerce
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  team? We want to launch something for food delivery
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  globally, and you will be able to do similar things and help us
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  launch office here. And that's what I did. And then eBay came
• 9:18
  to me. So I joined Ebay. I helped them to focus on product
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  for Africa. And then eventually the Meta came to me. They say,
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  Hey, you have experience in Africa. Do you want to go to
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  places in Africa that does not have internet? So, Nigeria,
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  Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda? That was my job. When I joined Meta,
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  helped bring internet to country does not have internet. But then
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  during that time, I realized that social commerce is big
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  game, live streaming and Tiktok shopping, and everyone is
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  talking about social commerce, shopping on social media. And I
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  realized that I did have a lot of E commerce experience from
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  eBay and McDonalds and Target. So they're like, Hey, why don't
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  you come and help just to build Facebook shopping. And that was
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  how I ended up my last job in big corporate was Facebook
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  shopping.
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  Stephanie Maas: Okay, so just for some of our listeners, can
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  you just share with us what were some of the ways that you
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  overcame the challenges of being female, of being Taiwanese, the
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  language barrier, the stereotype barrier, the prejudices that we
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  just know are out there, intentional or unintentional,
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  other than just incredible determination and work, how were
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  some of the ways you were able to come overcome some of those
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  challenges?
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  Anya Cheng: I actually feel a little bit less of that before I
• 10:42
  became a startup founder, but it's actually a lot more. You
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  can tell a lot more after becoming startup founder. In
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  the startup world today, in the US, there are 30% of us
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  businesses were founded by female. Where female, at least
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  one of the founding members female. In the US, 15% and in
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  the Bay Area, for tech companies, 30%. However, for VC
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  backed company, for VC money, only 1.8% goes to female founded
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  company, 1.8% it's actually down from two years ago, 2.1%. I
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  remember a month ago, I went on a startup competition, and one
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  of the finalists, she was actually really nice and she got
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  her hair up. So she was on the stage with 1000s of people, and
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  then I said, Wow, nice dress, nice hair. And I also love your
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  accessories. This is an amazing ring, like giant diamond ring.
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  And she was like, you know, I'm not married, and I wear this
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  because research shows women who are married, people trust them
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  more because someone trusts them. That's why I wear the ring
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  going on competition. I was totally in shock. And she is
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  white woman who has 15 years of career, very, very successful,
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  even she will have to put on the ring for the competition. So at
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  the beginning, I felt pretty disappointed. And then one day,
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  I thought of, you know, what, if people the world only give me
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  opportunity because I'm a minority, if only minority will
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  give me an opportunity, then I go or go find minority
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  investors. So I start talking to people who are Nigerians and
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  Kenyans and Italians and Spanish and from Mexico and from
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  different part of the world, and Paris and Singapore and Taiwans
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  and Japan. If I can combine every minority investors to be
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  my investor, I have more than enough. I am majority, right?
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  But throughout my career, in corporate, there are some tips
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  to share to people. For example, people tend to assign
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  miscellaneous work to woman, and the best way is not actually
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  saying no, because people hate you, like you're like, hey,
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  Anya, can you order lunch for us tomorrow? Can you host the
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  holiday party for the office? It's kind of hard to say no, but
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  what you can do is you say yes, but then you start putting
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  together a rotation plan, yes, yes. I will help. But then,
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  okay, week one is this person, okay, you will do this. Week two
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  is this person will do this. Week three, you're organizing,
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  but you don't do it yourself. You're organizing. So you plan
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  as project management, or, for example, people hate woman to
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  promote themselves, so always amplify each other. And this
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  when you are in the meetings and you say, okay, great, just
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  Stephanie, I really agree, and I want to echo Stephanie's point
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  of view. You help her, she will help you. And then amplify
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  people don't want to hear you promote yourself, but they will
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  listen to you when you promote others. And also, for example,
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  you can at a certain event that you know they are very few
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  women, and you can organizing it in a way that they will stay.
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  For example, you know that this is the tech competition that
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  usually less women participate. But then before that, you have a
• 13:59
  company all hands, and in the end, you say, Okay, we have this
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  tech event right after. I encourage everybody to stay so
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  create an environment that's easy for women or minority to be
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  able to participate. And also, you know, guys, they actually
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  hang out with co workers on weekend, while women tend to
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  hang out with people who are nothing to do with their work on
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  weekends, you know the loose ties will help. So next week,
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  find someone who you are not very familiar with. Ask them for
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  lunch. Just a simple step, the loose tie will be able to give
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  you insights and secrets in the office or industry that can help
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  you. So invite someone who you are not very familiar with next
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  week for lunch.
• 14:43
  Stephanie Maas: Very tactical, super practical. So now let's
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  talk about where you're at today, owning your own business,
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  working with AI, share with us a little bit about that journey.
• 14:55
  Anya Cheng: Yeah, I'm now running an AI company called
• 14:57
  Taelor, and it's a company we use AI to pick clothes for men.
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  I actually constantly feel a little bit impostor syndrome. I
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  was the only few female leader in tech that didn't come from
• 15:08
  engineering background, but lead large technology teams. So I
• 15:12
  want to look great, and I try some subscription boxes, but you
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  have to buy and I didn't want to own that much stuff. And I don't
• 15:19
  have fashion sense. I don't know which one looks good. I have to
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  decide, because it's a new item. So I have to think, can I buy
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  this in some other places that will be cheaper? And then I
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  also, if I buy it, I will have to do laundry and ironings, and
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  I don't want to do any of those things, so I try some rental
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  company, but most of them require you to browse through
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  1000s of items. It was a hard moment that I realized most of
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  fashion companies are designed for people who are into fashion.
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  They're not for people like me. I'm just a lazy person or busy
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  person who need to do good, want to be successful, but does not
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  care about fashion. I need to do good for my job, for my day, for
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  my work. I do not care if I wear red or blue. All I care is that
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  I am successful in the next meeting. I close the deal. I do
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  well in the social events. I did well in my TED Talks. So I start
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  wondering is, are there people like me? Hate shopping, hate
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  laundry, but very purposeful and need to look good? Yes, they are
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  busy men. They have no idea how to look good, but they need to
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  look good. And turns out that we are a menswear business, but to
• 16:29
  serve them, you need service. You need to pick clothes for
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  them. But before Gen AI, it wasn't feasible. You have to
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  hire someone, spend hours and 1000s of dollars and buy the
• 16:40
  clothes and someone style you, but now with AI three seconds.
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  AI can pick perfect outfits and become your personal stylist,
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  and that's how we started.
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  Stephanie Maas: That is so cool. Okay, anything that we haven't
• 16:52
  talked about that you were hoping to address in our time
• 16:56
  today?
• 16:57
  Anya Cheng: Yeah, I think it's just for people who want to try
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  something a little bit more like looking good and saving time and
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  feel confident, if you are also a business, who have something
• 17:10
  that you can partner with us, we would love to see what we can do
• 17:14
  with each other. For example, we partner with dating sites, we
• 17:18
  partner with coaches, and we also partner with fitness
• 17:21
  centers and people losing weight. And you don't need to
• 17:24
  buy large, medium, small clothes. And you can actually
• 17:28
  just rent the clothes during the journey, and eventually buy the
• 17:32
  clothes or look great after you work out and you dress up. So if
• 17:36
  you are any of those business, feel free to reach out. And I'm
• 17:40
  at anya@taelor.ai that's a, n, y, a, at, T, A, E, L, O, R, dot,
• 17:45
  a, i, and we would love to work with you and help to save the
• 17:48
  environment.
• 17:50
  Stephanie Maas: Thank you so much for being here with us.
• 17:53
  What an incredible story and journey. And I really love the
• 17:57
  way that you're not just taking this passion for business, but
• 18:00
  you're also combining it with your passion, as you said, for
• 18:02
  sustainability, doing good in the world. Just thank you so
• 18:06
  much for being here.
• 18:07
  Anya Cheng: Thank you so much.