More about Jashin Lin
Founder and CEO of Growbie, the first career development platform focusing on networking skills and community-building for first-generation immigrants
Teaches Career Toolkit at Boston University Questrom School of Business
Graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School
Was an early employee at TikTok, ex-management consultant and investment banker at Goldman Sachs
Key takeaways and quotes that made us go ‘a-ha’
Having a clear goal, intentionality, and accountability are key when thinking of starting a business.
“I had a very clear goal coming into business school what I wanted to build for Growbie”
“Now my lifeline depends on it, and so does someone else’s [employees]”
Know your problem well enough when you start.
“As an international student myself, I understand the problem so well…it helps me understand my customers and build a solution that works…always start from a place that you know well”
Have patience in your growing your customer pool. Focus on building a winning formula first, then customer acquisition will get easier.
“First 100 paying customers took us a year, the second 100 took us 3 months”
Pay attention to your data - it tells you a LOT.
“Some marketing assets do very well, some don’t….we always analyse and check why. Every time we look at the survey results students have submitted, we look for pieces that are missing and how we can fix it”
Don’t follow the crowd, do what your business needs when it comes to funding it.
“With the demographic around me, there is an expectation to build a venture-backed business, however I realised that our product needs a human touch, so the growth will not be the hockey stick that VCs want…made me wonder if the venture route would be right for Growbie and I realised that it’s not”
Invest in building your brand and relationships with your customers
“I had a following on social media to get our first customers….social media is where ~60% of our customers come from, and ~20% come from in-person events”
In the early stages, you can explore different ways of getting others involved e.g. get volunteers in before hiring full time.
“All Growbie staff are volunteers as of 2023…[slowly testing and getting people involved can enable you to test the fit and build trust up slowly]. Start with something small and see the outcome, then give them a bit more and see the outcome”
Jashin’s advice to women who want to start businesses on their own terms
“Don’t give up everything to work on the startup until you’ve found the following: Your passion, Your skills, and Your value to the work - the fact that people will pay for it and that it will make a positive impact. When you are in the overlap of these 3 things, then it is the right time to do it”
“Always think about opportunity cost. Keep your full time job if you need/want to and use the additional time (10-15 hours a week) to test your idea. When you start to see traction, then you can make the leap full time”
Share this post