By Bretton L - November 9, 2024
Previously, we posted an article discussing the GenAI in the Valley event, hosted by Valley 101. Following the event, we had the opportunity of interviewing Qian Chen, one of the co-founders of Valley 101. We learned about her perspective of hosting the event and her successful entrepreneurial journey from being a television anchor to becoming a co-founder!
First, we asked Ms. Chen questions pertaining to hosting the GenAI conference which drew such large interest.
Q: What were your main goals you wanted to accomplish at the event?
A: “Previously, I generated a large audience of listeners through Youtube and my podcast, but I had no opportunity to have a face to face event to inform people about Valley 101. My first goal was to bring people together and have my Youtubes’ and podcasts’ audiences gather together at the GenAI conference. With there being so many events about AI in Silicon Valley, I wanted to do something different aside from generic events interviewing people about coding. My second goal was to have a media perspective about AI, inviting multimedia elements to the event, and understanding how storytelling would add a new perspective to GenAI. You could see this in how we had diverse conversations about AI in different topics including jewelry, music, and education.”
Q: How did you market out the event to ensure high attendance?
A: “With our platforms already having 3 million subscribers, we mainly promoted the event through our Youtube channel as well as the podcasts. Across 10 different channels, we told our viewers and listeners about the event and encouraged them to attend the GenAI conference on October 19th. In addition, we have third party collaborations and partnerships with different organizations and businesses. We offered discounts to partners to promote the event.”
Q: How did you reach out to the different speakers? Were they people you already knew?
A: “Most of the speakers we invited were already close with us or we already knew through mutual connections. This is one of the advantages of being a media company as many of our speakers we previously interviewed were easy to reach out to. Some speakers also helped introduce us to other guests for speakers depending on the different topics.”
Q: What was the most challenging part about the whole process of setting up the event?
A: “Since this was the first time we ever hosted a big event, managing the process was the most difficult part of the process. The details were extremely important throughout the entire planning, preparing things including what venue to book and how to broadcast the event and record it. Simultaneously having to manage so many different aspects of hosting the event made it challenging. We thought we had everything ready but there are always last minute changes which affect the original plans. One of our key speakers canceled the day before, causing us to have to adjust our events’ agenda, redesign the questions, and replace the speaker with another one.”
Q: Would you consider the GenAI conference a success?
A: “Yes I would give the conference’s success a 9/10 since although this was the first time we hosted an event, it went really smoothly.”
Excited to learn more about Ms. Chen’s background and her successful career path, we shifted over to questions about Ms. Chen’s career from working in broadcast journalism to becoming an entrepreneur.
Q: What is your background prior to founding Valley 101?
A: “Prior to founding Valley 101, I had a career in television. I studied broadcast journalism at Syracuse. After graduating from college, I worked in Wall Street for 2 years in the New York Stock Exchange as a reporter for public markets. After 2 years, I became a bilingual reporter in Singapore for CNBC, where I reported 2-3 minute time segments on air. However, I wanted to broaden my professional career from cable news to the more modern internet media. I quit my job as a reporter and went to Stanford for my master in data journalism where I met my co-founder. Together we joined forces in 2022 and built Valley 101 from there.”
Q: What is Valley 101’s mission?
A: “There has always been a cultural gap in Mandarin content and we wanted to create shorter videos around 30 minutes or shorter with different types of content. Nobody was making well-designed content about tech and finance so we wanted to reach the Asian American audience who wanted to learn more about certain topics and have more segments. We wanted to produce content to fill the language gap while still entertaining our followers.”
Q: What inspired you to co-found Valley 101?
A: “I always wanted to produce good content, and being an anchor limited my creativity. I also hosted another segment called “Asia Market Minute” where we had 1 minute segments talking about Asian markets, which didn’t let us talk about much in detail. I wanted more in depth investigative journalism, getting into the details about core parts of businesses. Once I moved to Silicon Valley, I learned more about research and development of tech and wanted to build a bridge between cutting edge technology and the public. Co-founding Valley 101, we were able to find a fun, easy, and understandable way for the general public to know more about advancements in technology and industrial developments while having our own unique creative approach.”
Q: What is the most valuable piece of information you have learned throughout your career?
A: “Do something you like and are good at. For a long time I knew I wanted to do videos and decided to focus on visualization and data-driven storytelling. Stay consistent with what you want to focus on. Valley 101 was able to grow fast because of our good team but also because we understood our advantages compared to other competitors and media creators.”
Q: What advice do you have to students aspiring to become future entrepreneurs or business leaders?
A: “Specifically to students in Silicon Valley, the youth are often encouraged to try to start their own companies. There is a large failure rate in entrepreneurship, but the strongest who survive are those who are most talented in their field. Make sure to use your special strengths and insights on the future of an industry because it will give you a significant advantage over others. Have a passion for what you do because if you don’t enjoy the business you run or its mission, you won’t have the motivation.”
The interview with Ms. Chen offered our team valuable insights into the entrepreneurial mindset required for hosting events and navigating career challenges. Her advice to others was very inspiring, showing how entrepreneurs need to be ahead of their competitors and enjoy what they are doing to find success. Additionally, her unique journey from broadcast journalism to entrepreneurship demonstrates that anyone can successfully pivot careers, leveraging their existing skills to create new opportunities and achieve their goals.
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