Asian Canadian entrepreneurs share stories of failure at 10th anniversary of Vancouver Startup Week

An #AsianFail is anything less than an “A”

Across many Asian cultures, there is a fear of failure…and the weight of the shame that comes with failure. There can be far and long-reaching implications for the person who failed, but also for previous and future generations. 

From academics, to extracurricular activities, to life milestones, career, money and more, the dominant narrative is that anything less than exceptional is considered a failure. Does this resonate? 

Cold Tea Collective hosted an event as part of the 10th anniversary of Vancouver Startup Week called “#AsianFails and Fixes: Spotlight on the Asian Canadian Startup Community”. 

The purpose of our event was to bring together a panel of successful entrepreneurs across various industries in Vancouver, who have at some point failed in business, and to share how they fixed or moved past them. 

Our aim was to create an open, honest and supportive environment and a sense of community in sharing our failures openly – and that is exactly what our panelists did. 

See highlights below from our #AsianFails podcast launch event as part of Vancouver Startup Week. 

Why talk about failure?

Cold Tea Collective’s mission is to empower the next generation of the Asian diaspora to live their most authentic and fulfilled lives. Talking about failing while Asian and pushing against the model minority myth for example, is an often-overlooked, but very important part of that.

From publishing stories for and by the Asian diaspora for the last eight years, we know that personal stories are powerful – but only if we have the courage to share them. 

The more we talk about failure, the more normal it becomes, and the less fear there will be around taking risks and being vulnerable. We can start to take off our masks and connect with people as humans and not just report cards or checklists of accomplishments. 

The conversations from our event will be included in an upcoming podcast series by Cold Tea Collective, #AsianFails. Guests will share about their experiences and relationship with failure and how they manage their mindset around it. Stay tuned to coldteacollective.com and our social channels for our one-to-one podcast episodes from our event panelists and other guests in the next few months. 

An Asian founder’s biggest #AsianFail

The panel featured stories from Asian Canadian startup founders from a variety of industries and backgrounds. All accomplished, dynamic and with different experiences and relationships with failure in life and their work as startup founders. 

Mehrsa Raeiszadeh is the co-founder and COO of MintList, an online marketplace for selling your used car to thousands of dealers or trading in a new one within 30 minutes, without fees or obligation. MintList’s goal is to bridge the gap between the auto industry and technology. Her work has been recognized as a Bay St Bull Women of the Year, BIV News 40 Under 40, and is a two-time New Ventures BC Winner. 

Raeiszadeh is also a former competitive swimmer who broke national records at the age of seven. She went to Sharif, which she describes as the Stanford of Iran. She accomplished her Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in three years with over 20 publications and patents. She also accomplishes all of this through mastering her ADHD. 

While her success is clear and trajectory is fast, behind all of these accomplishments, the Iranian-born founder shared that for all of her life until a few years ago, she felt like a failure. 

“I realized that my biggest failure was always feeling like one,” shared Raeiszadeh in a LinkedIn post. “How much of that is tied to the #Asian cultural pressure to avoid failure at all costs? What can I do to change this? Can I commit to enjoying being myself?,” she reflects. 

These are the very questions that led us to exploring the perspective and experiences of failing while Asian. Further, when we as outsiders objectively see the profile of someone like Mehrsa – or even Lucy Liu for that matter – we often forget that likely much of it has not been easy. 

We often forget that things can sometimes just be ‘in progress’ before we share them; and they don’t have to be perfect or have a clear cut resolution.

Learning from failure and fixing them by leading with integrity

Fellow panelist Leon Ng took some convincing to participate in the panel. “I believe I still have more to achieve,” said the real estate technology and media entrepreneur. Ng also shared that he’s really hard on himself and that “bringing back old memories of failure is tough, but it’s important to confront them.”

Ng is the founder of LNG Studios and Proxima HQ. His two companies specialize in innovation in architectural visualization, specializing in services such as photorealistic rendering, animation, VR/AR, and 3D scanning for the real estate market. His dedication to the healthcare, media and Asian community in Vancouver have been recognized in Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and BC’s 500 Most Influential Business Leaders. He has also received a British Columbia Medal of Good Citizenship and was named one of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants in 2021, having immigrated from Hong Kong at a young age. 

“You have to learn how to fail well,” he said. Ng shared an example of how one of his startups was failing. But because of how he handled the situation with integrity, it led one of his investors to re-invest with him on a second venture – one that had exceeded expectations and turned into an eight-figure business. 

Integrity is also something that resonated with panelist Wilson Lee, serial entrepreneur in business with his wife and also takes on the role of father to two young children.

Forging our own paths and redefining what success means to us

“Working with Gen Z employees, when I do mess up, I have no problem owning up to it with my team, even though I don’t necessarily need to do this,” Lee shared. “Being the leader I want to be, coming from this place of integrity, is more important than anything else.” 

Lee started his entrepreneurial journey at age 16, bringing Asian culture to Canada. Going between Hong Kong and Vancouver as a student, Lee would pack his luggage with phone accessories you’d never seen in Canada before. He also had a tutoring business, started his own ice cream shop in Canada that had multiple locations world-wide (and had that brand fully acquired), just to name a few. 

Over the last ten years, Lee through his company Wun2Free entertainment have brought joy and engagement to the largest local fairs and events in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland as one of the largest carnival game operators and vendors. 

Lee has also done work in the web3 space to drive client revenue and member engagement for brands like Samsung. During the pandemic, the serial entrepreneur launched a digital collectibles collection called  “the littles”, inspired by his daughter and their Chinese heritage that scored a development deal with TIME Studios and is slated to be released this year. 

When asked about his relationship with failure and how his culture has impacted that, he shared that failure is not something he had ever attached to his identity, even though he may have experienced it. 

“I vividly remember having a conversation with my parents at a young age about grades; I told them that at best, I would be an all-B student and to lay off the pressure,” – which they accepted. “Because of their trust and respect, I was able to explore what I like to do and forge my own path.” 

Knowing himself, allowing himself to try new things, while knowing when to move on, have been instrumental in Lee’s success in moving through failure quickly.

Advice on how to deal with failure as a founder 

Each of our panelists shared lessons learned through their failures. 

“Being authentic is a superpower, especially as a leader,” said Wilson Lee, as he shared how this has led him to being honest with himself and others to more quickly move on from failures or redirections in business. 

“Be kind. I wish I was kinder to myself so that I could enjoy and appreciate my hard work and accomplishments rather than comparing myself to others,” said Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, who comes from a family of top Physicians and scientists who she often compared herself to.

“Find strength in community,” said Leon Ng. Having the support of other founders has been instrumental in his founder journey.

If it weren’t for failure, I wouldn’t have started Cold Tea Collective (see our founding story in this TEDx Talk). The advice I try to remind myself of now is, “it’s not that serious.” I’ve had physical pains because I take myself and things too seriously and like Leon, am incredibly hard on myself. Learning to embrace my full self and recognizing that the failure to believe in myself is far worse than failing at trying. 

See also: Amy Chan: Healing hearts through community

Succeeding together through failure: The importance of community

This event would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors and partners. 

In planning this event, three things were of the most important to us: to be an official event as part of Vancouver Startup Week, where we could expand our network and welcome others into our community in our hometown; to host the event in Chinatown at a venue that would bring folks in that haven’t spent much time in the historic neighbourhood, let alone have visited the Chinese Canadian Museum that celebrates the history, culture and contributions of Chinese Canadians; and lastly, to bring together a panel of people that weren’t afraid to be authentic, vulnerable and open to sharing their stories of failure, resilience, and how their cultural identities have shaped their relationships with failure. 

Sincere thanks to our panelists Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, Leon Ng and Wilson Lee for bravely sharing their stories and trusting in the work we do at Cold Tea Collective. 

Vancouver Startup Week celebrates 10 years of connecting Vancouver startups with the world this year. Run entirely by volunteers, it is a week-long celebration that builds momentum and fosters connections among entrepreneurs, investors, leaders, and friends. Its two co-chairs are Asian Canadian women whose commitment to programming nearly 100 events that celebrate the diversity of the startup ecosystem in Vancouver through events like ours. 

See also: Cold Tea Collective hosts gathering of Asian Canadian brands and e-commerce businesses in Vancouver

We are community-made. Thank you to our sponsors.

To our beautiful venue sponsors, the Chinese Canadian Museum, their staff and volunteers. Our sold out event was hosted on the beautiful rooftop of the historic Wing Sang Building, current home of the Chinese Canadian Museum. Originally built in 1889 by Chinese merchant Yip Sang for his business “Wing Sang Company”, the Wing Sang Building is the oldest structure in Vancouver’s Chinatown. “Wing Sang” in Chinese means “everlasting” — expressing an aspirational hope to live and thrive.

Our event sponsor, Amazon Web Services (AWS) for curating our panelists, co-hosting, and for their financial support. AWS provides the expertise and infrastructure that powers bold ideas around the world. The AWS StartUps team helps customers develop, launch, and scale their businesses using AWS cloud technology. The Canadian AWS Startups team is committed to the early stages of growth and many of the team are former founders or have been a part of an early stage startup themselves and are invested in contributing to a more diverse business and technology ecosystem with Asian Canadian founders being an integral part of that. 

Guests were fed with a vibrant and delicious array of vegan and vegetarian food from award-winning Vietnamese restaurant, Do Chay. See our short documentary on the story of this multi-generational family business, hearing from Chef Patrick Do and his mother, Yen Do.  

Thank you also to our friends at Asian Canadian woman-owned and led businesses OATME Superfood and Kristine from Werk & Wed for additional event support. 

Special thanks also to Charles Chang, whose contribution to launching our podcast, business leadership and example inspire the next generation of Asian Canadian entrepreneurs.

And thank you of course to our volunteers from Cold Tea Collective, Vancouver Startup Week, the Chinese Canadian Museum and our event guests who lent a hand and contributed to a warm and welcoming environment to connect on the universal human experience of failure. 

Our hope is that our guests and listeners of our upcoming podcast feel a sense of belonging, community and encouragement to relentlessly pursue what is important to them.

What is your biggest #AsianFail? Let’s talk about it. 

If you have a story about failure you wish to share or you have the means to support or sponsor the production of this new podcast series, please contact Natasha at natasha[at]coldteacollective[dot]com.