We recently connected with Angel Yang and have shared our conversation below.

Angel , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I used to have a 9 to 5 job where I worked as a medical animator. I grew up in a culture that valued the mindset of stability and certainty. However, I was extremely unhappy and unfulfilled with that lifestyle. Because I could feel my creative and entrepreneurial side wanting to come out, so I decided to go to graduate school for a different life, one with more creativity.

When I was in graduate school, I was able to explore my entrepreneurial side and met my co-founder Rylan Ganeko followed by the formation of our team. As a team, our goal was to create a digital online artist platform that helps artists unlock their authenticity through our startup called Spotlight Creators. -Angel

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I knew that I was not the most tech savvy person, but I enjoyed connecting people and seeing opportunities through my interest in psychology. Because of this, I decided to attend a tech school where I would not. have to worry about learning how to code or design digital platforms and focus more about connecting the people who did together and leading us to a shared vision. The problem we set out to solve was the lack of authenticity on the current social media platforms, and what better way to start with than the expressive community of artists. I am personally most proud of conducting over a hundred interviews with local artists to understand their shared struggles with social media and how my team and I could build a better platform. – Rylan

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

One of the mission that Spotlight Creators hold is authenticity. Throughout our startup journey, we have discovered that artists utilize social media a lot to promote their artwork, however, many have described social media as toxic and is slowly turning them into content creators. As an artist myself, I relate to that strongly. And personally, I have always been a firm believer for the power of authenticity. I have always liked this quote, ” The person that is the most powerful in the room is the one that stays true to themselves.”

Because of that problem, authenticity is the mission that Spotlight Creators carries. On our platform which only tailors for artists, we have a feature called the artist journey where artists get to document what’s behind the scene. You not only gets to see the final finished work but also their inspiration and their creative journeys which spreads the message of authenticity.

-Angel

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When we initially set out to build a better social media platform, we had the target audience of friend groups in mind. We wanted to create a digital platform that enhanced the bonds better friends, but after conducting 50 or so interviews, we realized that this was not a viable business. So we had to resiliently pivot our business idea into one that had more of a demand for. We found this demand in the form of artists wanting a platform tailored to help them express their work and who they are as people.

-Rylan

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.spotlight-creators.com/
• Instagram: thespotlightcreators
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotlightcreators

Image Credits

Che- Wei Hsu