When you look up ✨ HUSTLE ✨ in the dictionary it should say Yang Liu (@Yang9257 ). Yang has just successfully raised £2.6m for her startup after years of entrepreneurial grafting...
I got to interview her on Thursday - here are some highlights from her story:
👉 2015 - Moved to the UK from China with broken English, but managed to land a highly-competitive job in venture capital 💼
👉 2016 - learned from her VC experience and fearlessly jumped into becoming a founder with her idea JustWears (@JustWearshq ) 🩲
👉 2017 - launched the most successful @Kickstarter campaign in history at it's time 📈 and held the record for 2.5y!
👉 2018 - raised a pre-seed round, got kicked out of the country (visa issues) and hustled her way back in (Exceptional Talent Visa) 🎟️
👉 2019 - went on Dragon's Den 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲 and received offers, but opted for a better deal with additional funding outside of the den
👉 2021 - EXPANSION! Following the recent raise Yang's now hiring - do you know a good candidate for a 'Head of People' role? Get in touch with her! ✉️
This interview series is part of the @NEF.plus Programme by the #CentreForEntrepreneurs (check out apply.nef.plus if you're interested). Big thanks to @FoundersForum for providing the venue!
#hustle #hustler #hustling #entrepreneur #entrepreneurs #founder #founders #NEFPlus #FoundersForum #FoundersFactory #startup #startups #scaleup #scaleups #vc #venturecapital #raising #startupjobs
Was great to host @willread1 , Founder & CEO of @sideways6 last night on the @NEF.plus Programme by #CentreForEntrepreneurs. Venue kindly provided by @01_founders
We discussed Will's entrepreneurial journey and important lessons learned - cold outreach, networking and having intentionality when designing your business.
#NEFPlus
This month marks the start of an adventure for some of the UK’s most promising entrepreneurial leaders – and our 11th cohort to date!
NEF+ Class of 2022, let's get this going 💥
Over the last year I spent 10 months watching these entrepreneurs develop their businesses and skills on @nef.plus - it was an amazing journey to go on with you all through the lockdown 🥲 ...and so lovely to see you guys and gals again at the weekend! Thanks so much for organising the lovely BBQ @clarissaland and also congrats on your recent nuptials! 👏💍👰
More portraits from my second roll of film from the Voigtländer Vito B.
Focusing remains hard! But nice and crisp.
#vitob #voigtlander35mm #voigtlander #fomapan200 #fomapan #filmphotography #filmportait #portaitphotography @foma_cz@voigtlander_offiziell
@neffasttrack Class of 2021 starts today and what a great thing this is! A tonic to the terrors of 2020, finding effective recovery solutions for all lifes problems! With @biancarangecroft and @whering__ and many more, this cohort are changing the world for the better!! #entrepreneur #startups #missiondriven #solutions #exciting #classof2021 #neffasttrack #nef+ #cfe #startups #growingeconomy #helpingothers #helpingsociety #helpingenvironment #helping #recovery #covidrecovery
And that's a wrap on #NEFPitchDay2020! Thank you to all the NEF Fast Track founders for putting in so much effort! This also wouldn't have been possible without the support of our judges and all their continuous efforts in helping us keep the #NEF spirit alive! 🚀
Last but not least, a huge thanks to our CFE team supporting not only us but also the startups with their expertise and to @foundertribe & its founder @maxxwellfirth for providing the support for the whole community & and making the virtual set-up work so well.
First part of our fully online #NEFPitchday2020 has just finished! 🎉
We’ve heard from Tereza Pigova of @1001_stories , Ashley Staines of Volunteero, @victoriamec of @lingupplanguage , Ish Wijewardana of EEVA & @maxxwellfirth of @foundertribe 💡🧠📊 Onto the next hour of pitches now 🙌
