We were lucky to catch up with Jeddy Yuan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jeddy, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Do the work to produce self-esteem bricks. Find the evidence to support the counterfactual. When in doubt, zoom out. Never forget that it takes 7 examples of positive messaging to overcome 1 negative message. More to be found on my Substack: https://jeddy.substack.com
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Will revise closer to the event – please remind:
Hi! My name is Jeddy Yuan, and I’m looking for my next adventure after a chapter of working at a private equity backed startup and advising startups at Cornell University and Harvard Business School. It’s been a privilege to partner with world-class organizations over the past few years to help founders build strong business fundamentals and also align profit with purpose.
Most recently, I led Growth Operations at e8 Tech Investment Group as we scaled our customer base from 0 to tens of thousands. In that role, I helped scale our customer base from 0 to tens of thousands through key zero-to-one initiatives in Business Operations and Business Intelligence. I led special projects that accelerated timelines by months, made thousands of sales calls, and built data dashboards that our leadership and board used to boost conversion rates and lower customer acquisition costs.
I’ve also had the opportunity to mentor startups at Cornell University, Cleantech Open, the LaunchX Entrepreneurship Program, Startup Boston, the City of Boston, Harvard University, and more. From biotech to digital health, edtech, cleantech, and beyond, these startups sought profit and purpose – crucial elements to have in common.
Before that, I co-founded and scaled InCommon, a Public Benefit Corporation, a digital health platform that was incubated at the Harvard Innovation Labs and produced life-saving outcomes in mental health and addiction recovery. I launched innovative products like a community platform for peer support, as well as JARVIS, a patient-reported outcomes assistant for healthcare providers that was inspired by conversational AI.
Outside of work, I’ve been active as a community builder, especially in mental health and AAPI advocacy. One highlight experience was co-leading and co-hosting a 12-hour livestream during the pandemic, featuring over 50 VIP guest speakers including a US Senator friend.
As I transition from this chapter of giving back, I continue to write on my personal blog and work with startups from brilliant places like Y Combinator and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator. It’s truly paying forward a debt of gratitude for mentors who believed in me. My proudest moments of direct impact include being named the “best mentor by far” for one Harvard Business School startup, enabling first earned revenue multiple times, and helping to secure a first angel check. 🏁
Now, I’m looking to achieve liftoff and accelerate growth—particularly for early-stage startups. Getting things off the ground is a challenge I have always embraced as a professional and as a powerlifting national champion. 💪 🏋♂️
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
-Rules: SO many–most improvised, some imposed. Rules mitigate ambiguity and create lanes for focus.
-Founder: Multidisciplinary, Tactician, Strategist, Visionary, and Impact Driven, in that order 🙂
-S/W: High speed, persistent, and equally action- and analytics-oriented. Prone to anxiety, self-criticism, and perfectionism, as well as being too self-reliant.
-Success qualities: Being born poor and too dumb to listen to experts. Bias to action. Empathy.
-Three mainstays: Sleep, making time for reflection and journaling, and using the Pareto principle.
More on my blog:
https://jeddy.substack.com/p/wisdom-vs-re-experiencing-lessons
https://jeddy.substack.com/p/inversions-1n-professional-networking
https://jeddy.substack.com/p/do-the-reps-a-call-to-action
https://jeddy.substack.com/p/how-to-get-over-the-fear-of-rejection
https://jeddy.substack.com/p/on-decisiveness
https://jeddy.substack.com/p/the-power-of-being-bad-at-something
https://jeddy.substack.com/p/principles-for-life-1n
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Please see answer about introduction.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jeddy.substack.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeddy
Image Credits
N/A
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
