From Dropping Out to Start a Business to Pre-Series A Round: Reflections and Challenges on the Entrepreneurial Journey

Hidden behind the glamour of the business world lies tumultuous waters barring entry for many innovative thinkers. Entrepreneurial efforts are praised for their ability to jumpstart economic and social progress across the world. At the same time, the beginning stages are notoriously difficult for those without proper knowledge of how to navigate each juncture of startup funding. Those unprepared for the task of seeing a startup through to fruition as a self-sufficient entity are often swept away by the chaos of securing funding and outshining competition. It takes in-depth analysis, perseverance, and entrepreneurial navigational skills to brave the waters and reach the other side. Most of all, it takes bravery to take a chance and enter the uncertain territory of startup development. With this skill set at your disposal, success is never an impossibility.

In this ESS event, we are honored to have Ms. Yipei Wei, founder of AFFiNE, a Miro/Notion alternative with over 23K stars on GitHub, as our guest speaker. Her company has reached millions of users across 195 countries and has more than 20 ambassadors. Through this lecture, she will provide valuable insight into entrepreneurial thought processes in startup operations, successful open-sourcing with global expansion, entrepreneurial pitfalls, how to avoid them, and why perseverance is key even in the darkest moments of building a startup.

We look forward to your attendance!

AFFiNE Co-Founder and Head of Operations

Ms. Yipei Wei currently serves as Head of Operations at AFFiNE. Once a Ph.D. candidate in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems at the University of Edinburgh, she left academia to pursue a start-up venture, returning to China in August of 2020. Her company, AFFiNE, aims to remove the hassle of switching between note-taking programs like Notion, Miro, and Monday, by offering workflow consolidation on a hyper-fused, open-source platform. AFFiNE is trusted by big names, such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Shopify, and TikTok, a testament to the strength of its offerings and to its superior convenience over competitors.