Sophia Sunwoo is the founder of Ascent Strategy, a consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs move beyond DIY startup building and creating a more grown-up, polished version of their startup that’s poised for success. Ascent helps entrepreneurs build startups that see 6-figure launch years, a 50% growth in sales within 3 months, and a business that feels easy and simple to build. Sophia is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and has been recognized for her entrepreneurial endeavors in Forbes, ELLE Magazine, and on the TEDx stage. She co-founded and built her first company (a clothing company) at 19 years old and sold the company before her 23rd birthday. In 2011, Sophia co-founded Water Collective, a non-profit that has helped over 80,000 people in Cameroon and India fix and prevent broken water projects in their communities.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome were two things. The first thing was I didn’t have any capital to start the business so I really had to start from scratch. So, starting from zero dollars definitely a lot of struggles and challenges with building a business in such a way, there’s definitely more time investment, things take a lot longer of a time to develop and gain traction… The second challenge was the fact that two of my previous businesses always had a co-founder, this was the first time with my third business that I was building a business by myself and there were a lot of mental challenges”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Profit First: A Simple System to Transform Any Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Book by Mike MichalowiczFavourite Quote:
“You can always make more money, but you can never make more time”
Recommended Online Resources:
Medium – where words matter. Medium deliver’s the best stories and ideas on the topics you care about most straight to your homepage, app, or inbox.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“stop DIY start-up building, stop wasting your time doing these small administrative tasks that basically just treading water for your business. Really be honest with yourself and think about how your time is being spent and if it’s being spent in the most optimal way. When you are seeing gaps such as all I spend this time to do social media, I spend this time to do emails et cetera et cetera, all these tasks that someone else can do figure out a way to give them to someone else. There is so many resources like I mentioned before where you can hire people internationally, remote workers, there is so many AI solutions, robot solutions that can help you really consolidate the time you spend on these little little tiny tasks ”…[Listen for More]
More About Sophia Sunwoo:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
Other Quotes From the Chat with Sophia Sunwoo:
- “what I enjoy most is giving people the gift of entrepreneurship”
- “having a co-founder is definitely a marriage and it’s really difficult because there is just so many social and psychological aspects that you have to think about with every single decision. And being in a place where you are by yourself and you don’t have that added layer, that is actually not stressful”
- “patience and persistence is as important as getting things done”
- “I think that with a lot of entrepreneurs one of our biggest strengths is the fact that we are able execute and actually move on things immediately. But at the same time to our detriment we actually like a lot of patience and a lot of time don’t realise that persistence is part of the journey and having that patience even when things aren’t going quickly as we like we have to stick to it”
- “ego gets in the way of a lot of important decisions where you really have to take a slice of that humble pie and do what’s right for your business long-term in weighing up those options”
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