Charlotte Chen considers herself the “black sheep” of the family. In her case, that means becoming an investment banker upon graduation instead of following in the footsteps of her parents and sister, all of whom work in fashion in her native Hong Kong. Yet, sometimes, it’s hard to fight destiny. After four years, she ditched the world of finance to dive head first into start-up life, and has been exploring the frontiers of tech, lifestyle and fashion ever since.
Hot off the success of social travel app Spottly, which she co-founded in 2013, the 32-year-old is ready to become a creative matchmaker with the upcoming launch of her fourth start-up Wundrful. Part of her social media consultancy Empyr+co and launching officially in the first half of this year, the online platform was born out of her own difficulties in finding the right freelance talents to think up and produce content for Spottly. So, she did what any gutsy, go-getting millennial would do: Create a place that brings together brands and creatives to, as she puts it, “make social media magic”.
Through Instagram, referrals and friend recommendations, she identifies emerging talents – from graphic designers and photographers to writers and gif makers – and pairs them up with established names from her impressive Rolodex of fashion and design contacts (think names like The Hour Glass and Italian footwear label Hogan.)
Soon to come: a recruitment campaign. While she prefers to keep details of how each collaboration works under wraps until Wundrful’s debut, she says what she ultimately hopes to do is to up standards and push boundaries with social media content. Where do we sign up?
Like this? Singapore It Girl Linda Hao shares her next big projects after Yesah.
