Portrait No. 001
Kathy Wang
Co-founder
Press Club
At 14, I was so shy I'd leave a grocery store empty-handed just to avoid talking to a store associate. Fast forward to three years ago: I wanted to attend TechCrunch Disrupt, but didn't want to spend $300 on a ticket. So I pulled the sponsor list and cold-messaged all 100 companies. One replied…and gave me four free tickets. I repeated this playbook for a $1,900 TED AI ticket. I messaged all 50 speakers the night before the conference. I was sitting front row the morning after. My co-founder used the same system to land Forbes and The Wall Street Journal with zero PR budget, achieving 20x the industry response rate. AI doesn't feel imposter syndrome. It doesn't hesitate. It doesn't talk itself out of speaking with a store associate. I’m building Press Club so every underestimated founder can break into rooms they were never supposed to be in.
In her words
“If you knew you were 100 rejections away from your dream, how excited would you be for every no?”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
According to Harvard Business Review, \"Asian Americans are the least likely racial group to be promoted into Silicon Valley's management and executive levels, even though they are the most likely to be hired into high-tech jobs.\" Reading that doesn't surprise me. It just articulates what I've felt my whole life. Growing up, I hated when classmates said, \"You're so quiet.\" Not because being quiet was bad, but because I feared becoming the stereotype: the quiet, smart Asian girl who doesn't speak up. When I walk into rooms today, people still underestimate me. Little do they know… I was the first in my family to attend an Ivy League. I broke into tech and design with zero connections (my entire family is in healthcare). I was making six figures straight out of college. Over $200k by 25. I quit that safety to chase something bigger. Since then, I've hosted some of SF's largest founder events: 800+ registrations, officially sponsored by a16z. I built a 10k-person audience before I built the product. I've been named one of FounderSquare's Top 25 Founders. People see a quiet Asian girl. I see someone with dreams bigger than the realm of their comprehension.
Chapter II
Your vision.
I could tell you exactly how I got a $1,900 TED AI ticket for free. But I know damn well you're not gonna do it. Because it's not about knowing what to do. It's about believing you're allowed to try. That's the real problem I'm obsessed with solving. Most founders think access requires pedigree. Connections. Waiting your turn. So they never send the bold email. They never ask for the meeting. They count themselves out before anyone else can. Press Club isn't just about the mechanics of cold outreach. It's about the emotional unlock. I have a hunch that if I can help one founder break into one impossible room, their mindset about what's possible permanently shifts. They stop asking for permission. They start expecting to belong. One day, a founder will use Press Club, see their name all over the news, and go \"Holy shit, I didn't even know that was possible.\" That moment when a founder realizes the door was never locked? That’s what I’m chasing.
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
Thirty years from now, a quiet Asian-American girl will cold-email a CEO, land the meeting, and think nothing of it. Not because she's unusually brave. But because that's just what women like her DO. I want the next generation of founders to never know what it feels like to wait for permission. To assume rooms are open until proven otherwise. To leverage audacity as their birthright, not their rebellion. I'm not just building Press Club for the founders who need it today. I'm building it so my future daughter never questions whether she belongs.