“Within a month, I bootstrapped our first event, pulled together content and hosted the two-week boot camp,” Yao said. The first boot camp was built around effectuation, a framework developed by Darden School of Business professor Saras D. Sarasvathy that encourages entrepreneurs to build opportunities from the resources they already have available.
Her parents taught her to value education, but she also believes some of the best learning comes from doing. That same summer, she put that philosophy into action during a two-week summer fellowship at Wharton Academy, where she applied lessons from the classroom to her own ventures.
During the second semester of her third year, Yao found herself with a new block of free time and decided to try something new: social media. While nerve-wracking at first – she admits she was “terrified” to put herself out there – creating content felt like the right next step to help her grow out of her comfort zone.
“I started content creation at the beginning of this year. I had two months before going to study abroad in China, so I wanted to do something with that time,” said Yao. “Every kid always wanted to start a YouTube channel. I thought it’d be fun.” Yao now creates short-form content on Instagram and TikTok.
She started content creation as a way to grow her nonprofit, but later found her niche. “I started a series called ‘Making Myself Uncomfortable for 40 Days,’” Yao said. She posted daily videos about entrepreneurship, her nonprofit and philosophy.
By the end of the two months, she had reached her goal of gaining 10,000 followers.
Content creation also led her to be invited into The Collective, where she is a founding fellow. The Collective describes itself as “a community for the most ambitious people in the world,” bringing together founders, builders, content creators and exceptional individuals.
This summer, Yao also participated in the Darden School of Business’s i.Lab Incubator Program and attended Harvard Business School’s Summer Venture in Management program.
“When you meet someone else from a different school across the country, you don’t realize how much your network really expands,” Yao said. “It increases your network tenfold.”
These experiences have solidified Yao’s interest in the intersection of finance, entrepreneurship, media and tech. She envisions a career starting her own high-growth startup or as an investor at a venture capital firm.
Next up for Yao is San Francisco’s “Tech Week,” bringing together top founders, funds and companies.
“I believe in maintaining consistent imperfect action over inconsistent perfect action,” Yao said. “I don’t try to be perfect in all these areas, I just try to keep moving.”