Wellesley in Tech/Art: Edlyn Yuen ‘09 (@edlynyuen) at HelloPrompt.com
WU: Thanks for taking the time to chat, Edlyn! Tell us a little bit about your site, HelloPrompt.com, and how it helps people jumpstart their creativity.
Sure! HelloPrompt sends out one prompt - usually a word or a phrase - every single day. You have 12 hours to reply with anything you can think of: stories, photos, haikus, links, videos. The next day, you get a new prompt, but you also get to see what everybody else wrote back, without names or emails attached to it.
WU: This is a really cool concept! What was the inspiration for this project?
Working in venture capital really made me curious about how people talk to each other, both online and offline. I would go to a lot of networking events, and a lot of people would find the most important person in the room, or look for certain people they wanted to talk to. And I think you miss out on a lot of really interesting conversations and ideas when you do that.
At the same time, I’ve seen how many people were using new social networks for broadcasting their own opinions. I love this idea, but it’s difficult to start, especially when you’re trying to find your voice, and you feel like you’re writing to no one. It can be very lonely. And then people also get caught up with the idea of building an online brand, which sometimes takes away from being able to express yourself fully on the Internet.
So I wondered if there were people who’d be interested in joining one online conversation a day by actually being asked to participate, in the easiest way possible on the Internet, through something you already check every day. What would it be like to have your ideas and stories heard, not because of how many followers you have, or what you look like? Who would you connect with? How would others react?
WU: Can you share with us some of the poetry/photos/writing that came out of HelloPrompt?
My recent favorite was a response to the prompt poem:
Poem of my life
Strange couplets that mystify
Even this author
In another prompt troll, I recently found out that there’s a troll museum in Lower East Side, with real troll dolls. I’d been in the neighborhood for the past six years, and had never heard of it. So I think my friends and I are probably going to take a group field trip soon and check it out.
Another time, there were some fantastic responses to the prompt McDonald’s. I was on a road trip, sending out Prompt from a McDonald’s, and I was interested in what people were going to submit. The responses ranged from breakups at McDonald’s to how someone’s grandfather turned down the opportunity to franchise one of the first McDonald’s. It was fascinating to me.
WU: You hadn’t always worked in web development. What led you to leave the corporate world and do your own thing? How does freelancing compare to your previous work life?
I used to do really interesting things, but I didn’t make anything; now I want to make stuff. I think that’s a pretty good summary. I left venture capital because I was slowly losing sight of why I ended up in business in the first place. I interned at Kiva.org in college, and it was incredible to see how much impact they were making on entrepreneurs’ livelihoods in the developing world. And I talked to a lot of people about joining a startup, but during that process, I kept feeling like I was trying to fit into other people’s worlds, reacting to the things that they’d built.
It made me think: instead of constantly adapting to others, could I make something that reflected how I see the world, too? Could I create my own world and invite others to join in? So now I’m spending some time doing that, and seeing where it takes me.
It’s tough to balance time between freelancing and personal projects. It’s very rewarding to meet other entrepreneurs who see the world the way I do, who might also need help with their projects. I work out of Orbital, a space for independent creators in Lower East Side, and through that, I’ve been able to meet a lot of similar-minded people. That, along with supportive friends, have really kept me going.
WU: Were there any pivotal experiences at Wellesley or elsewhere that influence the current work you do now?
The first time I ever brought something to life was the Pan Asian Council at Wellesley. It taught me the importance of principles when it came to creating strong communities. There’s a real need for bringing people together, in a way that’s about something bigger than individual people, I think. Karen Shih, the adviser to students of Asian descent, gave me a lot of great advice during that time, as well as Jennifer Chou, one of the co-coordinators of WAA, whom I really looked up to. So it also taught me to look for people I can trust and turn to, that you don’t have to launch anything alone.
WU: After all this work in helping other people launch their own side projects, do you have any time left to do your own creative projects?
I teach and help people how to launch their own side projects out of Orbital (and if you’re in New York, you should come check out our talks next week) It’s tough to balance time between helping others and working on your own projects. It’s very rewarding to meet other entrepreneurs who see the world the way I do, who might also need help with their projects. Through Orbital, I’ve been able to meet a lot of similar-minded people. That, along with supportive friends, have really kept me going.
WU: Any advice for Wellesley alums who are looking to do their own thing?
Start small. Start now. Double down on what works.
Our awesome Wellesley alumnae magazine interviewed me about helloprompt. I shared it on Facebook. It was the first time I broadly told my social network what I’m currently working on. Isn’t that kind of weird? Wonder why it’s more comforting to tell strangers on the Internet than it is to your own friends. I actually just LOL’d. That, in a nutshell, is what I’m exploring with Prompt.
