shesaid.so catches up with Jocelyn Loo of GuestsNow and ICBRKR
a shesaid.so interview
sss: Where did you grow up?
JL: Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, and New York.
sss: What were your interests as a young woman?
JL: Music, figure skating, class leadership, arts, books, and tennis.
sss: Did you think you would end up working in the entertainment industry as a successful software/application creator?
JL: Nope! But I am really excited that I am doing something related to music and entertainment.
sss: Your company, GuestsNow, has been super successful — partnering with the likes of SLOTix, Red Bull, and Levi’s (to name a few). I love your “Ditch the Clipboard” tag-line. What do you see as the next step forward? Are you looking to expand further as technologies continue to advance?
JL: Thank you! I want to provide reasonably priced tickets for event organizers and event goers. As an event goer, I hate having to pay for a $20 ticket and at check out it’s suddenly $27, with nothing you can do when there’s a monopoly on the event. We should be able to select up to 2 ticket sites to buy tickets from (Output is doing a good job with that).
We are constantly improving our system, this is the difference with Guestsnow. We constantly update our technology to make it better.
sss: How many women do you work with on a daily basis? Are other female coders/ app developers easy to find? How do you think we can best grow this generally male-dominated sect of the entertainment industry?
JL: Most members in my team are women actually. Only the coders are not; everyone else is. I am really lucky to work with and be surrounded by experienced and strong women. The best way to grow is to prove how well you can do and break through. Actions speak louder than words.
sss: As well as running GuestsNow, last year you launched ICBRKR, an app connecting like-minded people via curated (and non) social events. Seems really cool! How has that been going so far? What inspired you to develop ICBRKR?
JL: We are doing great! We are starting to market ICBRKR through experiences. We don’t believe in 2 dimensional ad sales. You will be seeing more of our events and partnerships the next few months.
We wanted to create something that we want to use ourselves to stay connected with friends, meet like minded people, and have a great curated social calendar tell us what to do. Also, less and less people are using FB and we want to bring the best of other social networking platforms and improve upon them by adding features they lack to ICBRKR.
sss: As you may know, shesaid.so has recently launched our first mentoring program called she.grows. Did you have any significant mentors while you were finding your feet?
JL: Yes. I would say my mother since she is very independent and a business woman, and also Richard Rabbat who is stern but gentle with advise.
sss: Do you have any wise words to give to up and coming (or already successful) music industry professionals?
JL: Haha :) Will try my best to say this — Always do your best and push yourself. The answer is always inside of you. Just trust yourself to listen to it.
#shesaidso
