“In finance my experience was that there was something to show—you’re doing deals and you’re evaluated based on that. But in entrepreneurship, especially when you’re starting out and trying to pitch, you’re really pitching yourself—and that means you need to get the investors to like you and trust that you can build this [company]. So it’s super subjective,” Choi says. “From time to time, I’d get questions asking whether I was married or had a boyfriend, whether I had kids, and asking if I lived by myself or with my parents. You know, it happens… Trying to understand my family planning… That stereotype is there, it’s in the US, Asia and Europe.”

There is sometimes an expectation that all founders pitching are going to fit into a Steve Jobs or Adam Newman stereotype, Choi explains. “And I don’t necessarily agree with that because there are so many different kinds of people and so many different ways of creating a business. Some of the most successful companies in the world don’t have that kind of celebrity founder.”

She knew she wasn’t going to fit into that ‘celebrity founder’ stereotype, and after several frustrating pitch meetings, Choi realised she was going to get a lot of contradictory advice and suggestions about the best path forward. “But you know your business the best. Usually the people giving advice have good intentions, but that’s their perspective so you have to learn to really discern what advice is good and what is bad.”

“We’re not in the business of pleasing people, we’re in the business of creating something meaningful,” Choi says. “That was a big turning point for me… how I handled this taught me to have strong conviction and I really gained a lot of confidence throughout the process.”

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“In the initial years people would often tell us that our vision was too big—that it's too tough and that we won’t get there. We’d be explaining some technology that we’re using and you can see the investors just mentally switch off… But whenever I get told it won’t work by investors, I get more energy and want to prove them wrong,” Choi laughs.

She explains that many investors were really doubtful that Choi and her team could manage to get global firms, institutions and large companies as their customers. “In a way you have to really prove them wrong and I think we have. We’ve created a global base and have some of the largest companies in the world [as clients],” she says.

The doubt surrounding her idea during Lynk’s first two financing rounds induced a lot of self-doubt at the time, Choi admits. “I didn’t doubt the vision, but I did doubt myself. It’s a risk because it affects everyone that works with you—there’s a lot of responsibility sitting on your shoulders. And that was something I had to learn to be comfortable with.”

“But now it’s very different,” she says. “We have the platform, customers and revenue to show. Investors are really excited and they are like, ‘My God, if this can happen it can change the way we consume knowledge and information!’ So I think while this is in the past now, at the time it was really frustrating because it made so much sense to me and if it makes sense, then it’s worth doing.”

See more honourees from the Technology category of the Gen.T List