Say My Name: Fang Cheng Leading As Successful, Authentic Tech Innovator
Fang Cheng, (second from right) at a recent Consumer Electronics Show panel.
Fang Cheng would not change her name. Not to make it sound less “Asian,” not to make it what investors told her would make her job as a tech innovator and entrepreneur easier.
One advisor told her to change her first name to Fiona. And when she married, another advisor told her to take her husband’s last name, because it was Jewish and not Chinese.
“But I love my name,” Cheng says she responded. “I am comfortable with who I am.”
The founder of Linc, the award-winning consumer retail shopping solution for some of the world’s biggest retail brands, and the co-founder of the product she sold to Amazon that later became Kindle, makes no apologies for who she is or the name she has had since birth.
“Fang Chen, founder @LincVIP and co-founder of the product she sold to Amazon that later became @AmazonKindle, makes no apologies for who she is or the name she has had since birth. #womenleaders #powerfulwomen”
Growing up in China, Cheng attended college in Shanghai, then came to New York University in 2002 for the Institute of Mathematics to earn her PhD in bioinformatics, which she did in 2007.
“In my college days there was not even an entrepreneurship program, but I was part of a group who liked to do things beyond school,” says Cheng.
Together they launched a digital job-seeking platform that grew to the point where they could decide to leave school and run it, or stay in school. They stayed in school and ran the job listing project for NYU.
“When you don’t see other people doing this, it is just a curiosity, something you are passionate about,” says Cheng.
Another side project in school was research with Harvard Medical School, sharing cancer research with NYU labs, which had Cheng traveling back and forth from New York to Boston, and ultimately publishing a research paper in Nature.
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“We were able to suggest a hypothesis and design an experiment. That was truly meaningful and we were validated,” Cheng says.
After graduating from NYU, Cheng went to work in the hedge fund industry doing high frequency trading, managing a $300 million fund where the motto was, “You eat what you kill.”
But she was eager to make an impact and create products, “championing a trend for the world to use,” she says.
So Cheng and four fellow NYU alums co-founded Touchco in 2009, where she served as COO. It was her first entrepreneurial venture. Six months after launch, the group sold the company in 2010 to Amazon for $30 million, and it became what the world knows as Kindle.
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“We are genuinely passionate about getting people to buy into the future we envision,” she says.
Cheng also co-founded Proximant, the first touch and go digital receipt platform that helps retailers beam a digital receipt into shoppers’ phones.
As for the unnecessary and microaggressive advice to change her name, Cheng says that does not make her angry.
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“They were not trying to be harmful, they were trying to be helpful. But there were many moments like that, small and subtle.” Still she says, “No one would give that advice to Joe Smith.”
“As for the unnecessary and microaggressive advice to change her name, Cheng says, “there were many moments like that, small and subtle. No one would give that advice to Joe Smith.” #microaggression #womenintech ”
While Cheng says as an Asian-American woman, she felt she was treated differently than male entrepreneurs were, she kept her focus on the innovation, creation and application of great ideas and new systems.
“While Cheng says as an #AsianAmerican woman, she felt she was treated differently than male #entrepreneurs were, she kept her focus on the innovation, creation and application of great ideas and new systems.”
According to NPR, A 2021 “survey commissioned by the new nonprofit Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change (LAAUNCH), found that nearly 80% of Asian Americans don't feel respected and say they are discriminated against by their fellow Americans. Additionally, a significant portion of respondents of multiple races said they were unaware of an increase in hate crimes and racism against Asian Americans over the past year.”
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Concerning that same study, NBC News reports, “When asked to name a famous Asian American, 42 percent of respondents answered ‘don’t know.’ The next most popular choices were martial arts legends Jackie Chan (11 percent), who’s from Hong Kong, and Bruce Lee (9 percent), who died nearly a half-century ago.”
“This just shows that even when we’re in the news, people are not really soaking in the presence of Asian Americans in our country,” Norman Chen, the co-founder and chief executive of LAAUNCH, told NBC Asian America.
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This is as the list of the 30 wealthiest people in the world includes global female tech entrepreneurs of Asian heritage.
With a net worth of $1.5 billion, “Wang Laichun is the chairman of Luxshare, a Chinese electronics manufacturer that supplies Apple much of its parts. When first breaking the boundary of becoming a billionaire, she was stated as one of the world’s youngest self-made female billionaires,” according to Wealthy Gorilla.
With a net worth of $1.6 billion, “Cher Wang is the co-founder of HTC, the famous mobile technology company. Cher received a degree in economics from the University of California in 1981. It was only a year after that she joined the company First International Computer and after co-founding VIA in 1987, Cher Wang went on to co-found HTC in 1997,” Wealthy Gorilla reports.
The bias against those identifying as women in tech is a long-standing problem.
“The bias against those identifying as #women in #tech is a long-standing problem. #genderbias”
According to the Trust Radius 2021 Women in Tech Report, which surveyed over 450 tech workers, “Women reported they felt the need to put in more effort than their male counterparts in order to show their worth. In the meantime, women in IT feel that gender discrimination will be a barrier towards progress in 2021,” ITP.net reports.
The Engineer reports, “According to UNESCO, women constitute 17.5% of the global workforce in technology-related fields, while around 30% choose science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields as major subjects to study. The World Economic Forum’s recent Global Gender Gap Report found that in engineering, women make up 20% of employees, and just 14% in cloud computing.”
The gender pay gap in tech is also an historic issue. As March 15 is Equal Pay Day, it is important to note that the STEM fields have a persistent record for gender pay gaps.
“The gender #paygap in #tech is also an historic issue. As March 15 is #EqualPayDay, it is important to note that the #STEM fields have a persistent record for gender pay gaps.”
The recent 2022 State of IT report shows that, ”Only 11% of women represented in our study received a raise since the COVID-19 crisis began, compared to 18% of men. Our data suggests that women don’t expect to make up the gap in the future once conditions improve, either.”
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The study continues, “In 2022, 15% of women working in IT expect to get a raise, compared to 27% of men. Perhaps related to this discrepancy: Women also reported they’re much more likely to switch to a career outside of IT (15%) than men (5%) in 2022.” Perhaps because of the gender pay gap, “One quarter of the IT workforce expects to look for a new role, change jobs, or switch careers in 2022.”
Cheng says she is of course familiar with these inequities and is working for fairness and inclusion on her teams. Working from the Linc offices in San Francisco, Cheng says the company she co-founded in 2016 has grown to having 80 employees and a subsidiary office in Taipei. She is constantly working on new ideas.
Offering advice to other entrepreneurs, Cheng says the number one tip is to be authentic. “Be yourself. Do not try to be the perfect leader, be vulnerable. You don’t always have to share solutions, you can share problems.”
“Offering advice to other #entrepreneurs, Cheng says the number one tip is to be authentic. “Be yourself. Do not try to be the perfect leader, be vulnerable.” #leadership #advice”
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Learning to work with a team is also a key takeaway, she says. “Do not be an idolized leader. Bring them into the vision. What it takes to be a success is so much more than being a single leader,” Cheng says. “Treat your team as co-founders.”
The pandemic has indeed changed the world of work from all angles, Cheng says. But it is especially critical for leaders and managers to understand how employees need and want to engage with the work.
“The #pandemic has indeed changed the world of #work from all angles, Cheng says. But it is especially critical for leaders and managers to understand how employees need and want to engage with the work. #postCOVID #workforce”
“You need to develop a great deal of empathy,” she says. “Team members have different realities and some are home with children and you have to understand your team members and be sensitive with what they are dealing with.”
What is essential as a leader and entrepreneur, Cheng says, is to have vision. “You have to get the vision right and you have to have your team turn the vision into their own.”
And Cheng’s vision includes being clear and authentic about who she is, beginning with her name.
