Ventures & Visions: Heesun Lho on Empowering Businesswomen, Mentorship, & the Gift of Our Student Years
Heesun Lho has spent over 15 years in the entrepreneurship world as a founder, investor, and connector. She is now empowering women entrepreneurs as the Vice President of Programs at the Tory Burch Foundation. Prior to joining, Heesun was a Venture Partner with Republic, an equity crowdfunding platform with a mission of democratizing access to investing, and also with 500 Global, an early-stage fund and seed accelerator with a global portfolio of over 2600 companies. She is the Founding member of Dreamers and Doers, an award-winning community that amplifies businesswomen. She has also mentored and coached hundreds of early-stage startups over the years.
Transcript:
Lauren Stenger: Thank you so much for meeting with me here today. It's really an honor to be able to talk to you all about you your career, your successes and just your journey in life. Before we dive into your career I'd love to go back a little bit and hear a about your time at Deerfield Academy. Deerfield is really special place and I know I grew so much from going there. So I'd love to hear your about your time there, maybe a fond memory or how Deerfield affected you?
Do you mind sharing about your time at Deerfield Academy?
Heesun Lho: Thanks so much for this opportunity. It's always great to reminisce and share my experiences as well. I feel like I'm going way back about thinking about Deerfield. I have really wonderful memories of my experience there. I don't think that this was something that I had always dreamed of or knew was going to be a part of my educational journey by any means, but the opportunity presented itself. One of my cousins had gone to boarding school which really kind of clued my parents into this whole thing. At the time, I had recently moved to Korea and knew in the back of my head, and my parents as well, that I wanted to go to college in the United States. And so thinking about, you know, what's the best way to prepare for that, boarding school came up into the conversation. Deerfield was only one of two schools that I applied to and I think it was the best choice for me personally. It was such a great way to experience independence in a safe and warm environment. I was always an independent person. But again, it's so different when you have to really manage your own time and make your own decisions away from home. You know, everything from when are you going to do your laundry to how are you going to prepare for any of the things that Deerfield is throwing your way and then also really learning about who you are as a person and what you're drawn to in your extracurricular activities or some of the leadership opportunities that are presented. I am so grateful for that community experience. I loved being in the dorm and having a roommate and being a proctor and really exploring my own areas of comfort and also my areas of discomfort and really kind of figuring out who I was outside of the realm, you know, my very cozy umbrella of my family. Because I was an international student, it really also kind of pushed me to create strong relationships with other students. For Thanksgiving, I couldn't fly all the way back home, so I really relied on that second family, and I think that's something that really has stuck with me throughout my life. Being able to kind of have a chosen family and then really creating that strong sense of relationships outside of blood relation has been something that has really given me a lot of strength and support throughout my adult life.
“Being able to kind of have a chosen family and then really creating that strong sense of relationships outside of blood relation has been something that has really given me a lot of strength and support throughout my adult life.”
Lauren Stenger: Did you watch the movie The Holdovers?
Heesun Lho: The Holdovers?
Lauren Stenger: Yeah, so they just made a movie called The Holdovers with some relatively famous actors and they filmed it at Deerfield. The main character was in my grade at Deerfield, and I think it was nominated for some Golden Globe Award.
Heesun Lho: Like honestly, I'm so behind with movies and TV. I'm always joking that in a couple years when my kids are a little older, I’ll catch up and spend like a week catching up.
Lauren Stenger: I actually still need to watch it myself. Yeah, it was filmed at Deerfield which is really cool, and it's about a student who can't go home for winter break so that made me think of what you're saying. I had a great time at Deerfield myself, and it's great to hear people's journeys through Deerfield. So yeah, after Deerfield, you went to Stanford, and you got an undergraduate degree in biology and then your master's in education. Now you're really working in the world of business and entrepreneurship. So, is entrepreneurship something you've always kind of had a passion for or did that develop over time?
Is entrepreneurship something you've always kind of had a passion for or did that develop over time?
Heesun Lho: I had no idea. I always go back to that Steve Jobs quote where he was saying, “You can really only connect the dots backwards”, and that very much is what my experience was like. When I got to Stanford, I was not alone in this but like, Stanford or like a good college had been the goal, and I hadn't really thought that much about what I wanted to do afterwards. I got there and I think what Stanford did so well was really allow me to explore a lot of different areas. I had a hunch that I was interested in human biology, and I wanted to be a doctor, so that was where I ended up continuing my major in, but it actually wasn't a pre-med track. I got very interested in women and children's health and that again led me to my master's in education because it's all so correlated in so many different contexts. But a long, kind of like parallel processing from what I was studying from a coursework standpoint, I ended up meeting someone who was getting her PhD at Stanford at the time. Basically, my dad's friend, it was a very like roundabout connection, we decided to grab coffee one day. We were sitting in front of the library, and she was asking me, “So what are you studying? What do you like?”. I was just explaining to her why I was interested in becoming a doctor and ultimately it was just because I wanted to help people. I thought being a doctor was the greatest way one could help others, which I soon found out was not the only way. She told me, “I think you're really actually going to love social entrepreneurship”. I'd never heard of social entrepreneurship before and I almost kind of early on, passed off entrepreneurship as not for me because I wasn't an engineer. In my head, I associated them. If I'm not going to be the next, you know, founder of Google then entrepreneurship really isn't for me, which was a very kind of superficial understanding of what entrepreneurship was. But she pulled me kind of back into the fold. I went to several events and my mind was blown because what I was seeing was problem solving at scale and helping all different kinds of communities with access, resources, being able to connect one another, solving real human problems through business, and that really changed my worldview significantly. I don't think I'll be where I am today, had I not met this person and kind of learned the core of entrepreneurship. I probably would have come to it eventually, but a lot later in life, I think. All to say, parallel processing with my coursework, I ended up getting very involved in an organization called BASES and ended up leading the organization by the end of my time at Stanford.
“My mind was blown because what I was seeing was problem solving at scale and helping all different kinds of communities with access, resources, being able to connect one another, solving real human problems through business, and that really changed my worldview significantly.”
Lauren Stenger: What were some of your favorite memories with running BASES?
What were some of your favorite memories from running BASES at Stanford?
Heesun Lho: Honestly, I think it was meeting really smart, passionate people. Whether it was the student body where you know, we were connecting not only the undergraduate community, but also all of the grad schools as well and so I got to interface with so many different groups of people on campus. It wasn't just people who are in my age group, or in my experience or my major, you know, I was getting to meet all of these very, very intelligent people and experts from all different sectors. And on top of that, being in Silicon Valley, I think it allowed us to really get a lot of interest and reach into that professional community as well. We were talking to VC, innovators, CEOs, and I couldn't get enough of that access, and being able to pick peoples brains, even for five minutes, not unlike what you’re doing, and asking them questions. People were so kind and willing to offer that insight and so I really, really enjoyed that and benefited from that experience.
Lauren Stenger: It's really cool to see how kind people are to share their experiences and how beneficial it is for people who are in my boat.
Heesun Lho: It a gift of these college years and so for you, for anyone, you know, within in your network or audience, I highly recommend taking advantage of this time when you're in college to reach out to people, whether they're alums or not, you know, it never hurts to ask. The worst thing that they can say is no.
Lauren Stenger: Yeah, exactly. You're already not talking to someone. So if you email them and they don't reply, you're still not talking to them, but your probability of them replying increases. Yeah, so there's really nothing to lose here.
Heesun Lho: Totally.
Lauren Stenger: So earlier, you kind of touched on how being in the world of entrepreneurship is a really great way for you to give back. So I guess more specifically, what inspired you to really devote your time and career to helping female entrepreneurs in specific?
What inspired you to really devote your time and career to helping female entrepreneurs?
Heesun Lho: I always say, about Tory Burch foundation and my time here, it's been four and a half years now, that it's been so therapeutic to be honest, having been on the investor side, having been a former founder myself. And also just how times have changed where we're just a lot more aware, for lack of a better word, than we all used to be about the systems that were in place, the power dynamics that are in place, and us just being able to talk about this in everyday conversation, I think it really was enlightening for me having been in the tech world for as long as I have and not realizing how not normal some of those situations were. Designing for the community that I serve now, it being kind of women owned businesses and women founders, offered me the challenge of putting everything that I had learned on its head, and at the same time doing it better. Doing it more effectively and efficiently for women who face so many more barriers still today when it comes to access to capital and network and all of these things that I also personally faced myself. So to be able to be in this position to redesign how a networking event works, redesign how we teach fundraising, redesign how we think about building and growing a great business, has been so rewarding, inspiring, and I love that I get to do this every day.
“To be able to be in this position, to redesign how a networking event works, redesign how we teach fundraising, redesign how we think about building and growing a great business, has been so rewarding and inspiring, and I love that I get to do this every day. ”
Lauren Stenger: That's awesome. You have been a mentor to so many people, you know, hundreds of early-stage startups. Along those lines, who has been a mentor in your own career, and how has that relationship shaped you?
Who has been a mentor in your own career, and how has that relationship shaped you?
Heesun Lho: I think the woman that I mentioned before who was a PhD student, she was definitely one of the first that really kind of sparked this fire for me to pursue and you know, recognize. I think I've also been really lucky to meet great leaders, you know, wherever I was working, and they were very great at teaching, which is not a given by any means. I was really grateful for that. I don't know if I would call anyone else a mentor. But I again really credit the strong support network around me, whether it’s my parents, or my sister, or my husband, or my friends like, I think we do a really great job of offering that advice, and I don't know if I would call it mentorship, but that insight to one another and I again, kind of go back to Deerfield and really being able to recognize the strength of community and that strength of support and what that looks and feels like and being able to replicate it regardless of whether you're in a school situation or you're out in the world and kind of doing your own thing. Having good people around you is something that I prioritize all the time.
Lauren Stenger: Having a community is so powerful. It doesn't need to be hundreds of people, just some really important and close people.
Heesun Lho: That's how I build a lot of the resources at the foundation too, it's at the core of what we do. It would be a false assumption to think that you only can learn from people who are a couple steps ahead of you or have fully succeeded. If that were the case, oh, good luck to all of us. I think that pure knowledge and knowledge share is incredibly valuable, like people who are either doing it alongside you are really like one or two steps ahead. That learning is incredibly valuable, and often kind of undervalued in the way that we think about things.
Lauren Stenger: I'm kind of just curious, I love my routines, my morning routine, my night routine, all of that. Are there some daily routines that you have found are essential for having a great quality of life and great work life balance?
Are there some daily routines that you have found are essential for having a great quality of life and great work life balance?
Heesun Lho: I myself love routine. What I've learned in the past, you know, five, six years, both being a parent as well as going through a pandemic, I think what I like to do is routine with a heavy dose of flexibility. Really not beating myself up for not having done the routine to a tee. I think in my younger years, I would have been like, “Oh, I didn't work out today like what am I what am I going to do? I've messed it up”. “I've failed my routine”, would have been kind of the sentiment that I was feeling. But I think today a lot of my resiliency and productivity comes from that flexible element that I've incorporated into my life. Yesterday was a snow day, but is that going to derail everything? No, we still get all of the components in, whether it's your morning coffee, your 10 minutes of “me time”, whether that's going for a walk or just having a conversation with a friend about silly things, watching a funny clip, whether it's on Instagram or YouTube, whatever your pick of poison is. And what I like to do is I keep a running list of all of the things, and I just organize it so that it's not floating everywhere. I just make sure it gets done by the end of the day by the end of the week, whatever the timeframe is.
Lauren Stenger: So I guess this is kind of a more vulnerable question. But I like to ask people if they have a favorite failure. I guess just a time in your career where maybe something didn't go right but it's a really great lesson at the end of the day, does something come to mind for you?
What is your “favorite failure”?
Heesun Lho: Yes. And I don't know I can't categorize it as my favorite, but it definitely was probably one of the larger failures in my career. It was when I had to shut down my company. I'd worked on it for two years, and I was coming out of an accelerator program really to raise my seed round and was feeling really good about a lot of things, but I had missed a lot of red flags. Ironically enough, I think in my urgency and excitement of wanting to move the company forward, I really thought that I could handle those red flags later. I was like, “I'll deal with that after X, after Y”, and it ended up being detrimental because this was a person problem. I think the hardest part about building businesses or at least in my case was finding the right people and being able to recognize when that person wasn't the right person. They had wanted more equity in the business, hadcritical moments, and some outrageous asks when it comes to how one builds a company. Ultimately he tried to like personally blackmail me for my own money and it got very messy very quickly. I think I was able to keep calm and involve our accelerator investors in a timely fashion to make sure that this didn't get out of hand but you know, we all decided ultimately that we hadn't gotten far enough with the business that it couldn't be redone separately from what this person was trying to entangle all of it within, and that shutting down the business would shut down this before it got too crazy. And so that's what we ended up doing. But it was it was very difficult, for lack of a better word to kind of have all of these external signals saying you're going down the right path for an internal issue to really kind of shut it all down quite quickly. It happened within a matter of a couple of months. It was both detrimental just to have to shut down something that you've worked so hard on, but also just dealing with your own like sense of personal failure like “Oh my god what have I done, I let so many people down, how embarrassing”, you know, all of these things that I hadn't really dealt with at least on this scale and having things not gone by plan. You know what I mean? Where you plan to go to college or you plan to go to a job, I'd never been fired before. Like all of these things were very much a first for me. I think looking back there was obviously more that I could have done as a leader to recognize this person's sense of insecurity at the end of the day, they didn't feel like they saw a future for them at the company. They really saw this kind of slipping, which was really heightening some of their behavior. There were cultural cues that I just missed completely because while I look Korean, I had spent most of my time growing up in the United States and you know, some of those things didn't translate. And so I missed a lot of those things. There was a lot of learning from a human standpoint. I think I learned a lot about myself and what I had from like a weakness standpoint and also like my capacity standpoint. I could deal with this level of stress really well, but it took me a long time to kind of build back the confidence to do something again, the self-value, that what I do is not what I'm worth, and separating those two out. But again, it made me so much stronger, made me so much more empathetic and patient, not just in life but with myself. So, I don't think I'll ever call it my favorite failure, but it was a failure that was so distinct in my life that taught me a lot and was something that I really did need to go through and get out of. And so yeah, I don't know if things would be different had gone another way but I do appreciate it for what it taught me.
“It took me a long time to build back the confidence to do something again, the self-value, that what I do is not what I’m worth, and separating those two out. ”
Lauren Stenger: That’s a really good, well its not a good story, but some really good takeways.
Heesun Lho: Its never as clean and pretty as we hope it to be, but it’s actually for the better.
Lauren Stenger: We have one more question for today, kind of just tying it all back. What would be a piece of advice you would give someone who is currently at Deerfield?
What would be a piece of advice you would give someone who is currently at Deerfield?
Heesun Lho: I always go back to people. Make great connections with the people that you’re there with, and meet someone that you might not normally have been drawn to. I feel like some of the greatest opportunities were with people who were very different from me and I am so glad that we were able to meet at Deerfield. That’s wherever you go, but I feel like high school is such an opportunity because you’re so young and there’s so much to learn. I don’t know, I’m speaking from a later point in life, but the opportunities to meet people who are from different backgrounds just takes so much more effort, but Deerfield does a wonderful job of bringing everyone on that campus together in a shared experience and to be able to connect in that way does get more and more rare. So, take full advantage of those things. I would say the same thing for anyone in college too. And again what I said about taking advantage of being a student and getting nuggets of people’s insights in different points in peoples life or career, there’s no better time to experience failure than in school. And I dont mean get an F, I mean try something and learn from it. If you want to start a company, lets start writing that business plan. If you’re interested in any area or any industry, get that internship, even if its doing something like photocopies, just being able to be in the room with people and listening to the conversation that are happening, the insights that are being shared. All of that can really spark something that you may or may not already know. Being a student is truly magical.
