How 500 Startups Stood By Me Through The Tough Times

The last couple of weeks have been a very heartbreaking to hear all the outcries of the very brave women who came forward to share their stories of sexual harassment by men in power, especially in Silicon Valley.

I’ve kept my silence the last few weeks because I was furious, hurt and disappointed, especially when most parties (accused, accuser, whistle blower etc) mentioned by the media were all my friends. 500 Startups led by Christine Tsai and Dave McClure were my first investors and believed in me and my company since inception six years ago. I’ve been a big proponent of 500 Startups, loyal supporter of 500 Startup up till recent events. Recent events gave me a moment of pause and I hesitated to be #500Proud.

I’m much calmer now and had a chance to digest the tumultuous events of past weeks. I’m still #500Proud, proud to be part of the #500family and no one should abandon their family when crisis hits.

500 Startups is not just one man. 500 Startups is a global village of passionate mentors, investors, founders coming together trying to change the world. By changing the world, I mean also by supporting minority founders, female founders, diversity inclusion and expanding the tech ecosystem around the world.

I started Love With Food almost six years ago with the mission of creating a platform for both consumers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies where consumers can easily discover healthier snacks and CPG companies have access to these early adopters to collect insights. I’m a solo-founder, I created the site on Ruby on Rails, built the brand myself and six years ago, no one wanted to fund me. I was rejected by more than 75 investors and a female VC even told me that I wasn’t Ivy League educated and hence I’ll never get funded. That was the most discriminating thing someone had ever said to me. Just when I was at the brink of giving up, 500 Startups wrote me the first check and accepted me (the solo-founder) into their accelerator program in late 2011.

To date, I’ve raised almost $5MM, but what I’m most proud of is taking Love With Food to more than 25 countries and having big CPG companies like Hershey, Nestle, Luna Bar and many more as our clients. I couldn’t have accomplished this without 500 Startups. 500 Startups has always encouraged me even when they kept telling me I would have a hard time raising money because I’m female, I’m a solo-founder, I’m an immigrant, I’m non-white, I wasn’t educated in the US (I’ve a Bachelor in Computer Science from Singapore), blah blah.…. I basically checked all the boxes that investors tend to avoid! Life sucks and it’s never fair. If I had to work harder than everyone else, then bring it on! To me, every obstacle is an opportunity!

500 Startups gave me a push in the beginning and stayed supportive over the years but what’s most pivotal was how they continued to be relentlessly supportive even during tough times. I’ve run into times when I hit rock bottom, I’ve run into times when I can’t raise funds, I’ve run into times when I was running out of options, 500 startups was also there listening, encouraging and even leading funding rounds because they continued to have faith in me. It’s investors like 500 Startups and Kapor Capital who are willing to roll up their selves when the going gets tough.

In conclusion, we cannot let one man’s mistakes dilute what 500 Startup stands for. If you are a founder reading this, I sincerely hope you have investors as strong as 500 Startups standing by you during the extremely tough times. If it wasn’t the constant support from 500 Startups and Christine Tsai during those tough times, Love With Food wouldn’t continue to exist today. 500 Startups stood by me when I hit rock bottom and it’s time I do the same to stand by them in these trying times.

For Silicon Valley to change, we need more courageous women to speak up and fortunately, many are starting to do so. However, Silicon Valley even more desperately needs investors like 500 Startups that invest in talented women and people with diverse background. We need investors that are not blinded by the prejudices about gender, race and education which is holding so many talented (female) entrepreneurs back and denying all of us of a world which would be richer in so many ways.

photo credit: Women 2.0–3 Ways 500 is changing both sides of the table