Angela Quach, The Destiny Lab.

Can you please introduce yourself and your business and then talk about the date it was founded and kind of how it came to be?

My name is Angela Quach, founder and CEO of The Destiny Lab. We are a business innovation and tech consultancy specializing in change management processes. I founded the company in August 2020, during the pandemic, to meet the urgent need for efficient processes in large enterprise departments. With my marketing background, I had many marketing connections, but I noticed a lack of tech-savviness among marketers. This realization led me to establish a consultant role to make processes more efficient for marketing departments. Our streamlined approach led to a 60% increase in efficiency, demonstrating a significant need for our services in the market. Thus, we set up shop for The Destiny Lab, providing operational and innovative support for marketing departments. That’s how we got started.

What inspired you to start your own business?

What inspired me to start my own business was my experience of burnout from working in corporate, which had happened several times. I realized that if I was going to work so hard, it should be for something I’m passionate about. With an entrepreneurial spirit, I wanted to see my vision come to fruition in my lifetime. I yearned to do something I was passionate about, and take the leap to pursue it.

How has your identity as a business owner impacted your journey so far?

As an entrepreneur, my identity has been profoundly impacted because who I am as a person is magnified in my company. My leadership style influences my employees and teammates, and it resonates throughout the organization. When you build a brand or a company from scratch, you get to decide what values are important and the type of people you want in your company’s DNA. I believe that my identity has been so deeply impacted because I see my character reflected in my company – my diligence, transparency, and accountability. Whenever something goes wrong with the company, the first thing you look at is leadership. Taking radical accountability means acknowledging what part of me is impacting the growth and scalability of my brand.

Can you share any challenges that you face as a business owner, and then how you’ve overcome that?

As an entrepreneur, every day brings new challenges, and currently, one of the biggest challenges I face is stepping out of the day-to-day operations and taking ownership and oversight of the company. Personally, I need to learn to trust my team and delegate tasks. When you first start as an entrepreneur, especially when bootstrapping or being scrappy and lean, you wear all the hats, including finance, marketing, and operations, and act as the point of contact. However, as the company scales, you need to recognize your strengths and focus on overseeing the company to avoid things falling through the cracks. I had to learn to train and trust my team to succeed in their roles. The scalability of the company is a natural evolution, and one of the challenges we face. To overcome it, we implemented processes and structures, which Founders First helped with by putting guidelines in place to define roles and responsibilities. With these processes in place, I could find people who matched our company’s DNA to excel in their roles beyond what I could personally do.

Can you share an example of how a particular aspect of the Founders First accelerator program supported you in discovering new avenues for growth?

Both FastPath and Bootcamp accelerator programs offer a classroom-style environment with your peers, which holds you more accountable for the owner’s responsibilities. In FastPath, we received education on how to form KPIs, how many to form, and how to delegate responsibility and activate them. My company is relatively young and new, and we had never established goals before. We were just operating without a clear direction. Now, by having goals in place, we are shifting our focus from being solely operational to becoming future-oriented, which is getting the team excited about the company’s vision.

Can you offer any advice for other entrepreneurs who are just starting their business journey?

My advice for entrepreneurs who are just starting their business journey is to seek help and not try to do everything on their own. Building a network and community is essential. There are excellent programs available, such as Founders First, which provide structure and scalability for those who want to take their company to the next level. For me, having great partnerships and teammates and being part of a community are essential as an entrepreneur. It can feel lonely, but it doesn’t have to be that way.