From International Student to Startup Community Building in Western Sydney ft. Quinn Do

We would like to acknowledge that today's podcast is being recorded on the country of the Batomarital people of the Darug Nation people and acknowledge their ancestors who have been traditional owners of their country for tens of thousands of years. We also acknowledge and pay respect to elders past and present. Hello and welcome back to Launchpad Radio podcast. I'm your host for today and we have a very, very special episode. One that I think will resonate a lot with many of our students here at Western Sydney University. We're chatting with someone who knows this place not just as a student but actually someone as a staff as well. Quinn was an international student who moved into a casual role here at Launchpad and is now a full member of our team. It's a journey full of entrepreneurship, curiosity and those very real moments that shape who we become, especially during our student years. so whether you're listening on the way to class maybe on a study break or a late night assignment grind this episode's for you so let's get into Quinn's story so hello Quinn hey Mabel hey everyone all right I'm going to kick off with the first question so for the people who are listening and don't know much about you tell us a little bit about what you do here at Launchpad and also what does your day look like Thanks for that first question. Hey everyone, if you don't know me already, I'm the admin and operations officer here at Launchpad. No two days are the same here at Launchpad which is why I love this job so much. So my main role is to manage the co-working space daily operations and I also support the team in running a lot of programs and events from the logistics side of things to marketing comms, getting the word out there and all the way through to... KPI reporting, data management, all of that. Very important. KPI reporting. Lots of numbers and figures. OK, so let's start from the very, very beginning. So can you tell a little bit about how you actually came to Western Sydney University from Vietnam and to where you are now? So I started my journey in Vietnam at So that's University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City. That's the top two most prestigious university for economics. And I did a program at ISB, which is a program at UAH. ISB is International School of Business. Yeah, so that's where I started my degree. I did the 1.5 plus 1.5. route which means I did half of my degree in Vietnam and half of my degree here in Australia so it's like an exchange program. I wouldn't recommend you going 1.5 plus 1.5 because Australia needs you to study at least two years here in Australia full time to be able to get the postgraduate working visa. I did that. But I did that because I was planning to study masters anyway. And I did my masters of business. So a small tip for those students in Vietnam listening, if you want to stay in Australia, that's one way to do that. You have to do masters. Excellent. And so how did you get here? You started in Vietnam. You did your 1.5 plus 1.5 plus another, I'm assuming, one here. How did you go from being a student to then coming to Launchpad? I have always been interested in the startup world. Growing up, I watched a lot of Shark Tank. all the pitches, all the pre-money, post-money evaluation talks. I was just really curious and I see how the space is moving really fast. Back in Vietnam, before I moved to Australia, I actually worked at a very high growth award-winning start-up. Can you tell us who that is? That's Shea Carpheus. They actually died now. Yeah, but I started my journey there. And I don't know if you know, but I actually co-founded another startup. What? How did I not know this? Okay. You're a co-founder. You've got to add that one to your LinkedIn, okay? Yes, it was, but it's Blackberry. And that startup got seed funding from UNICEF, $1,000 US. Wow, okay. Yeah, and we got incubated at UNICEF. Ivy Business School from Canada. Wow, I did not know that about you. I'm so glad we're having this interview right now. And then how did you come to Launchpad? Oh, yes. You're interested in entrepreneurship and startup. Yes. So I have always been interested and I was working actively on my startup even when I moved here. So we were trying to figure out how we can do a hybrid working thing because it wasn't a thing yet because it wasn't COVID yet. And then I met our old manager. I met Launchpad at a professional career conference that was organized by our school business. It was one of the things that the school organized and when I went there I saw that there's this technology business incubator and I already know what an incubator is. Not many people know. students you know and then I came up I remember coming up to Beck and I asked oh how do I get involved can my startup be here it's just me though my whole team is no and she asked I don't remember really but I think she asked me if my I think I thought that my startup has to be in technology and I wasn't sure how how much tech I need to be, to be qualified, to be involved. But I asked if there's any opportunities to get involved, and she said it will be coming up in the next few years. Years? I don't know, I don't know. And there was no student engagement program at that point yet. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I wanted to be here somehow, but I don't know how. And then... two years later jobs on campus came up for launch pad i felt like waited two years i didn't know okay yeah it was all i was waiting for it was like the right place for me to be i think and i just started my masters at that point and um yeah i just applied for the role and i put everything i have into the application Yeah, I think my story of my startup journey got me here. Wow, yeah. So if you are interested in entrepreneurship or startup, or maybe you just want to be rich, or maybe you want to invest in startups, I think those kind of students should definitely be involved in Launchpad. It's great that you had that kind of experience back in Vietnam and you brought it over to Australia. So if you look back, how many years have you been working at Launchpad now? Oh, I think it's... More than four years. I'm approaching my fifth year anniversary this July. Oh, wow. Almost five years. So in the five years that you've been here, do you remember kind of like your first project or your first kind of big challenge? And you maybe explain a little bit more about that. Yes, I do remember that moment vividly. So I think it was... I have worked here for half a year already, but as a casual student only. And that day, we were working on a project with Investment New South Wales. We were working on the launch of the Innovation and Productivity Scorecard, and that was a ministerial level. Lots of VIPs and important people in the room. Yes, there was two ministers there and our VC is going to be there and a lot of other important people. And Mabel was on leave that day. Sorry, she always brings us up. And the whole of the senior execs. my manager everyone was at a branding workshop and they won't be touching their phone that day but that's the last working day before Easter I think and Investment New South Wales needs to send out that invitation to everyone because yeah it just needs to be out and I need to set up an Eventbrite page just a registration page for the Investment New South Wales people to register and yeah I remember working with Alex Bering. I don't know if I explained that. Alex Bering, is you listening? Yes, I should have looked him up before I worked with him. But I remember him calling me saying, hey, let's just put something together. And I made him promise to just, it's just between us two because I know that I can't send things to him without our team's approval. And I made him promise. that you he would have he would be the second pair of eyes to make sure that everything looks right and i send to my team and whenever the response will send it to their team for approval and then send it to everyone but then as soon as i send him the page he sent it he sent an email cc like 20 people, I don't know, from Investment News at World, and my team as well, saying, hey, this is for approval, please review and have a look and whatever. And I remember Don calling me saying, hey, Quinn, please remember not to send anything to the Investment News at World team without approval. And I'm pretty sure he didn't see his email yet. He didn't. He hasn't touched his phone yet. And I'm like, oh, I actually did. But he promised me. Yeah, looking back, it was a very, yeah, I didn't know how. I was messaging everyone. I was like, hey, Beck, do you know if I should just send it to them? Because they promised, you know? I must admit, while I was on holidays in Tasmania, I still remember you freaking out and I think I may have gotten a message or two, but I knew, I actually knew that it was in very capable hands. For those listening, Quinn was actually, as she mentioned, she was only here for six months, a fresh student, and I did give her a very important role in taking over that. very important event while I was on leave. So you did an amazing job. Definitely. That's actually one of the things that I really love about our student casuals team. They are willing to do anything. They will take on any big project. They will try new things as well. So, you know, Quinn, I know you came into Launchpad as just a generic general, you know, student casual. What was your title back then, actually? It's media and communications, media production and communications student assistance, support assistance. There's a lot of words there. Yeah, but I don't know why I was in media. I think the marketing role was offered to someone else. I applied for the marketing role and they said, oh, this role is still open but you don't have to do media things. You can be here and do marketing stuff for startups. Actually, did you mention what you were studying? Oh, I didn't. Yeah, what were you studying? Maybe give a bit of context of your background. Yes, so my bachelor's degree was bachelor's of business, majoring in international business. yeah that got my interest in business and then I did my MBA majoring in Business Analytics. So I got to work a bit more on data in that degree. Yes, Quinn is actually now our Launchpad Data Queen. If you have come to any of our events and filled out a lot of information or filled out a survey, that is all Quinn's doing because she wants to get data. Data, data, data. That's all she's interested in because we like to report that kind of information up to the rest of the university. Excellent. you know you came into Launchpad with a little bit of interest in startup with a little bit of experience in the startup world and you know I'd be keen to hear from you as a student I guess what have you learned about entrepreneurship as a student who has kind of done it a student who is working in you know an entrepreneurship kind of area of the university and now yeah working here what what do you think entrepreneurship is? Oh, what do I think? One thing that I learned about entrepreneurship is don't get attached to your solution. I apply that every day in my life, not just in my startup world. But yeah, don't get attached to your solution. You have to get to know your customers, who you're delivering it to. And yeah, fall in love with the problem. So for example, back then when I first started, I was... I first started studying here, Mabel got me to do a lot of artwork. Design work. Design work. Yes. Design work. And I, because I was new and I didn't know what she expected and I didn't want to ask her too many questions. And I didn't, she doesn't know either. I was new too. Yes. So she doesn't know and I don't know. So I just spent a lot of time worrying that I'm not delivering the... the thing that she would want to see. So I spent a lot of time on the design work and then when I gave it to you and you said no, I was so hurt because I spent all day on this. I didn't know that. So that part was hard for me. But then I realized, MVP, I have to work faster and not spend much time and get your feedback along the way. Yeah, and have to understand the customers. And sometimes the customers don't know what they want or need. They won't tell you because they don't know. We'll tell you what we don't want once you show us. Yes, yes. So yeah, you better give them an MVP or whatever too. to get that feedback and then reiterate. Yeah, I love that you're using the things that you learned about entrepreneurship and innovation, not specifically just in your startup, but actually in your everyday life. Like you mentioned, minimal viable product, what does Mabel want to see as a minimal viable product before she approves it? So yeah, no, that's really interesting. It's always interesting to hear what students really think about entrepreneurship once they've to launch pad and experience you know a little bit of innovation entrepreneurship all right i'm gonna have a a little bit of a break a little game now um i thought we would play it's a this or that student edition all right so i'm gonna tell you i'm gonna ask you two things yeah do you prefer this or that and i want you to um tell me what's the first thing that comes to your mind or what's your what do you like more it's a student edition slash queen edition oh my god okay so lectures or tutorials Lectures. Lectures. Okay. Why? There's more things there to learn, I think. The actual content comes from there. And I like to spend time understanding it all before I go to the tutorial part. Because tutorial sometimes is very confusing and you don't know what you're doing. And I don't like waiting for instructions sometimes. yeah i want to understand it first before i feel stupid in my tutorial okay yeah all right the second one is um coffee or bubble tea but bubble tea or matcha bubble tea bubble tea wins all the time yeah because there's more variety yeah okay all right um so group work or solo work group work really yeah It's changed now. Really? Yeah, now that I found my wonderful team. Yeah, I used to prefer solo work. So solo work as a student, but group work in work? Yes, when you're working with responsible people, yes, group work all the way. Because I always see students complaining about group work, so good to know. Yeah. Okay, so 9am class or 6pm class? 6pm. I'm not a morning person. Alright, and for those Western Sydney Uni students, Piccolo Mii or Naked Duck? Naked Duck. Yeah, more food. I haven't had Piccolo Mii actually. Oh, you never went to Piccolo Mii? Yeah. I've seen it but never. Never been. Never been. Alright, so Naked Duck is the winner. Yeah. All right, now back to the serious questions. Thanks for that. So the things that we do here at Launchpad is very student focused, you know, startup focused. We do help with the community. But as a student, as someone who used to be a student, is now working in the university that they used to be a student at, I guess, what kind of impact are you hoping that your work will have on the students of Western Sydney University? Very interesting. What kind of impact? I think what I'd love to see is students being more open to experience. Because sometimes when you hear the startup word, it's very daunting. It means you have to start a business. You have to do all of this work. And sometimes you don't have to. You just have to come work at a startup, explore all the opportunities there. And sometimes it's just the mindset. of being innovative being able to change something make changes to the world and yeah and go for it yeah interesting what's one thing you want to tell um like why why should a student join any launchpad activities why you know we do we do a lot of marketing we send out a lot of emails a lot of social media a lot of process around the university. What's the one thing like why should students join? Yeah so why should a student join? I think it's all in the transferable skills so they can not have an idea but still come to us for to experience it what it's like to explore the options and it's all the skills that you need anyway it's pitching skills it's just communication skills public speaking and creative thinking design thinking and collaborative work all of it is very essential in today's futures of work yeah yeah definitely i guess for you what does it mean that you are working in the university that you actually studied at What I find when I speak to students at Welcome Week Open Day is when I tell them that I studied here and I got a full-time role here, their eyes were all lit up. They're like, how did you do it? So I think a lot of it is just to inspire them as well, just for them to see that, oh, someone else can do it as well. I can do it. Yeah, so you know, how you see someone else succeed and you would... Because you live vicariously through that experience you would have more confidence in yourself in a way because it has been done It's no secret so they can explore that option of jobs on campus because it's very good the jobs on campus are better than other part-time roles outside of the university I think because the staff on campus they know that you're studying they they they know and they have flexibility for that as well and yeah they understand your struggle and they want that student insights yeah because they're delivering a lot of the program for the students so they want to know what you're thinking as well so that's in that way you make a lot of contribution and which I really enjoy yeah yeah no definitely um you know when we hire students it's it's one we want to upskill you guys as students but we also want to um you know get insights as to what what are students thinking you know i think when i first started at launchpad and i had a you know student team of four fresh students and i had never met and also not ever worked in the university sector having the four student casuals in the room and being able to be like okay these are the two options okay we have this graphic and this graphic which one do you like and the one that i liked was always not the one that they liked or you know i'd ask about messaging like what what works for you you know does it you know come to event come to a venture makers innovation challenge or is it a you know come and win one thousand dollars and you know i was really good and insightful to have the students give me that insight straight from the students you know to be like this this works and this does it you know sometimes i would have to fight for what I want but a lot of the times it was really good to kind of hear from the students so yeah yeah I thought that was very interesting because when I first first starting I was like I'm a junior why do they want to hear from me I didn't expect to be asked questions in meetings I thought I'm just there to absorb everything and take notes and then they started asking me oh hey Queen what do you think you want to know what I think I don't know let me think I don't know I didn't expect to be asked I didn't know that my my opinion matters you know yeah I think it's just the difference in culture as well but yeah it was very open and I feel very valued being here and then let's move back to I guess as an international student What advice would you give to other international students who are looking for job opportunities, either here at the university or just general kind of job opportunities? Because, you know, we look at where you are and you succeeded. You know, you came from Vietnam, you studied in Australia, you finished not just one degree but two degrees, you got a job on campus, then you got a full-time job, you know, at the university. I guess what kind of advice would you give to international students or even just, you know, local students? in getting their first job so i think the first advice is just put yourself out there and that doesn't mean like applying for every job that you find but get out there go to the events go to the things that you are interested in and talk to the people there and you don't know what opportunities will come up i didn't get my got my job from just going to events but i did come to a professional career conference and I met the manager that inspired me and yeah just go and talk to people and you would find yourself to have that skill I guess and don't say no to opportunities because they don't always come well if you're a western university student listening right now we run a lot of events here at launchpad more than one a month so you should definitely come to them because we don't just attract students we attract a lot of startups industry government bodies organizations general public from parramatta and western sydney and that's kind of where you know we i want to give the students opportunities to network and meet other people I know a lot of students that come to our events get internships from just talking to the startups in the room so yeah you don't know you don't know who's gonna be in the room right yeah yeah yeah excellent so I have one activity for you for the people that come on to the show we always like to give them something to take back with you so I've got here um the five-year forecast okay every single year i have got um a question there so year one what are you learning or mastering year two what new opportunity are you taking year three what project or achievement might you be proud of year four what part of your personal life is growing and year five what's the biggest dream you're working towards i know A lot of big questions. I want you to, I'm going to give you a few minutes, not too long, to look at this and fill it out. So the five-year forecast, it's manifesting some good things in the future. I'll give you a few minutes, let's say three minutes for you to do that. Okay, we're back now. So Quinn had a few minutes to figure out what her five-year plan was going to be. anything can happen in five minutes right okay so your five-year forecast in year one what are you learning or mastering in year one so I was thinking year one is this year and I have been working on a lot of project management, community building. That's a new thing that I'm actually trying to work on. Data management, as always, trying to be more efficient in that, spending more time in data and building a pipeline. So it makes our work easier. and uh public speaking beyond being on camera being talking in front of people i guess yeah excellent okay well what's a year two what you what new opportunity are you taking in year two so yeah i think the the thing that scared me the most um is like being on a podcast being in front of people already achieved it yes i already achieved it but i think i'll be more comfortable in year two yeah and my theme a year theme for myself for this year and next year would be doing new taking new opportunities don't say no do the things that scare you do it for the plot so yeah i i'm i'm trying to step out outside of my comfort zone oh excellent okay so year three what project or achievement might you be proud of at year three run a global innovation hackathon global global scale i don't know how i don't know how we can do it with like i don't know 200 people in the room and and hopefully there's students and actually startups there and we want to inspire them to explore their entrepreneurship journey for students and for startups to work with students to hopefully ignite something in them refresh the startup ideas in them and hopefully they can all come and study at western I'm sure the international recruitment team would love you for that. Year four, what part of your personal life is growing at that point? I don't know if this is a little bit personal, but I think my family will be growing. Not in terms of babies, but my siblings from Vietnam would be joining me in Australia and hopefully I would have my first house by then so they can live there. Maybe you need to stop drinking and bubble tea and save up that money. Maybe every two days. Excellent. Okay. And lucky last, Year 5. What's the biggest dream you're working towards in Year 5? I think I aspire to be a... Startup Community Manager. Well, you're pretty much doing that, but okay. Yeah, but I think I'm more professional. I don't know. I think I've already built a big startup community that's actually very active. People would actually come in and use the space. conversations happening everywhere and internships happening. So it sounds like for at least five years you will be in the startup community. You're not going anywhere so that's good to know. I think I want to end on a highlight for you. What's been the highlight of working at Launchpad? There may be a few. I hope there's a few but what has been the ultimate highlight or you know feel free to mention a few but yeah what's been a highlight for you? I think the highlight was you and the team trusting me with big projects and I think the one that shocked not shocked but I was able to take the lead on the innovation challenge global rope show whatever so we were doing in 13 days we were doing I don't know four or five challenges we'll round it up to five yeah so in indonesia two in vietnam and cambodia and oh it's just happening in the short very short time and you believe me and you trust in me to do that project and take a lead on it so sometimes i feel like i don't believe in myself and i doubt myself a lot i don't say it out loud it's just in the back of my head right and then sometimes you just give it give something to me and you're like you do it quinn you can do it oh if you give it to me and because you don't want me to fail right so you must believe that I can pull it off I do believe in you yes so I think I should have more trust in myself but I'm very grateful for the team for all these growth opportunities and for trusting in us as well it's very empowering yeah I still remember it was only last week where I told you in one day's notice do you want to emcee the next event which I know was a very very hard thing for me to ask you i still gave you an opt-out i go it's okay if you don't want to do it it's okay if you want to start it and then you freak out and then you i'll take over halfway it's okay but you know give it a go and you're like yep okay i'll do it so um it's really good to see that you're you're growing in in the role as well you know there's no expectation that you'd be emceeing an event um and i'm sure you didn't think that when you started five years ago that you might be emceeing an event right so you know i gave you um a relatively easy crowd and a shortish event for you to emcee and you did an amazing job so you know I love seeing the way that you're growing as a student you know now as a full-time member of the team very valuable member of the team as well so it's been really great so yeah I think I guess it's the end of our podcast I'm very sad but maybe in five years time I'll get you back on and we can talk about if you've met your five-year goals but Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your journey, sharing the things that I didn't even know about and being so open about it. I guess from arriving as an international student to navigating part-time work and growing into your full-time position, and you're still doing that, it's such a powerful reminder for the students to understand that the student experience doesn't really end at graduation. It starts as a student and throughout the university and after graduation, but it really shapes everything that comes. out next so I guess for our listeners especially our students I hope Quinn's story reminds you that your path doesn't actually have to be perfect or linear to be meaningful because every challenge every shift every opportunity is must has to be a yes you know Quinn said yes to so many things and then this is kind of where it's ended up, right? And it sounds like even in her journey going forward, she's willing to say yes. If you want her to do anything, come say yes to her. Come and ask her. But yeah, I guess thank you so much for tuning in. Make sure you follow our podcast and make sure you put the notification button on. I feel like I'm on YouTube now saying follow me. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the subscribe button. But hit the subscribe button on YouTube as well as... on spotify and all the other channels um so yeah thank you so much for listening in i hope it was being very valuable for our listeners as well and thank you to queen once again thank you for having me no worries thank you bye

In this episode of Launch Pad Radio, we sit down with Quinn, Launch Pad’s Community and Operations Coordinator, to talk about her journey from international student to now supporting startups full time. It’s a story about curiosity, backing yourself, and saying yes to opportunities, even when they feel a little scary.