Who is Pocket Sun? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Age: 33 Years, 33 Year Old Females

Business Women Venture Capitalists

Notable Alumni: The College Of William And Mary

More Facts

education: Stanford University, The College Of William And Mary

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Chinese Entrepreneurs

Rise to Stardom

Pocket Sun began studying business with the aim of starting an entrepreneurial venture in the future. However, she was frustrated to see all-male speakers, judges and pitch teams everywhere, and realized the need of a strong female role model. She also realized that because the majority of funding decisions are made by men, most venture firms support start-ups led by men, which in turn hurts the chances of women entrepreneurs who lack access to capital. Motivated to solve the problem, she challenged herself to start something on her own, which resulted in her establishing the female global networking group SoGal in September 2014, two months into her entrepreneurship master’s course at the University of Southern California. The initiative soon began to organize events, summits and start-up competitions.

In 2015, she decided to write about venture capital and entrepreneurship because there were not many female voices in the field. She was subsequently selected as one of the youngest 'LinkedIn 2015 Top Voices in VC and Entrepreneurship'. In June 2015, she partnered with Elizabeth Galbut, her friend from a venture capital course at Stanford University, to co-found SoGal Ventures, which eventually began work in US and Asia. In 2016, she got noticed by one of the Forbes editors who wrote about start-ups, venture capital and cross-border businesses. He nominated her in the shortlist of candidates for the magazine's list of 30 influential people under 30. She earned international recognition after she was named among the top 30 people in the category by 'Forbes'.

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Career

Pocket Sun, the co-founder of SoGal Ventures, also serves as the managing partner of the company since its inception in June 2016. At the same time, she has been the founder-manager of her original SoGal initiative for the past four years. Riding on her new-found fame thanks to her 'Forbes' publicity in 2016, she co-founded She Power Organization (SPO) in Shanghai City, China in December that year. Later in April 2017, she launched SheVC, which organizes exiting events in cities across Asia including Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City. Her companies have not only invested in dozens of startups, but have also acquired a few of them. Sun, who has already established herself as one of the leading female entrepreneurs, dreams of building "a business empire with the SoGal spirit at its core". She hopes to create a fun, inspiring, and transformational global co-working space that would include "several funds, a hotel, a fashion label, a jewellery line, a collective of amazing women around the world, a media show, a school that teaches entrepreneurship and investing".

Personal Life

Pocket Sun was born on July 12, 1991, in China. She was raised like a boy and had mostly male friends, which she feels has made her adventurous. She learned English at a summer program in elementary school, which later helped her in higher studies abroad. In 2009, she traveled to the United States to earn Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from The College of William and Mary in Virginia. She then took up the venture capital course, 'Insider's Guide to Silicon Valley Investing', at Stanford University. Later, when her visa was about to expire, she went back to school to obtain a Master of Science degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. While not busy managing her several businesses or delivering speeches, she likes to refresh her body and mind by taking hot yoga, barre and zumba classes on GuavaPass.com. She loves traveling and music, and secretly dreams of being a fashion blogger and hosting her own concert.

Pocket Sun Biography