Marisa

“Are you the cute Asian who smiles all the time? Or are you the hard-ass tiger Asian?”

I was raising money in Silicon Valley when an advisor looked me in the eye and asked me that.

He wasn’t joking. He genuinely expected me to choose.

It stunned me. The idea that an AAPI woman has to shrink herself into one of two stereotypes — docile or dragon — is something I’ve carried for years.

And the truth is, I’m both.

I’m gentle and warm when I’m with my kids.

I light up when I talk about the software company I built.

But I’m a tiger when I’m on stage.

When I’m negotiating.

When I’m fighting for the numbers, the vision, the team.

This was just one of many moments that shaped my experience as an Asian American female founder. There are invisible barriers we navigate every single day — and for too long, I tried to overcome them alone.

That changed when I attended The Women of Color in Leadership program. The research on AAPI women in business floored me. It validated years of painful experiences I had never fully understood.

I knew I had to share those findings.

And more importantly, I knew we needed each other.

We’re building an exclusive community of Asian American female founders and executives — a space designed to dismantle these hurdles together, lead with strength, and finally feel less alone.