Sunny Lee

I compartmentalize everything, and I had to learn to do that since I was a little kid because there was so much going on. I was the one that ran all the errands for my parents. When I'm with Go Beagle, I'm completely focused on that, that's all I think about, that's all I'm doing, and then I shut that door down, and then I have a mommy hat. When I'm software developing, I'm just focusing on what the task is at the time, and then I set that door down. If I were to think I'm doing the software and then I'm caught up thinking about I haven't gotten funding this month, it's very depressing and it kicks you off of your focus. So you can't really move on. A lot of these things are just taking one step at a time, one task at a time, without thinking about the other stuff. Because the more you think about the entire picture, oftentimes you get bogged down in the details and then you can't function because you're too stressed. But if you just do episodes, I call it episodes because it's one task at a time, it works. I do that through everything in my life, you know, like being a mom, having a job, and doing the projects.

Someone in VC told me that Airbnb was put on hold for years and years and years before it took off. That really resonated with me because when Go Beagle ran out of money, I was deflated and thought it wasn't working out and no one was helping me. But hearing that made me realize that we are dormant right now, like Airbnb was, and hopefully we'll pick up again. It gave me hope that being dormant doesn't mean the end.

I have a lot of friends that come out with really, really creative ideas that are wonderful and actually do meet market demand, but for some reason cannot get it started. You know, you gotta put gas, you gotta put oil, and all those things, and then you pull the string several times before the engine goes on. I think oftentimes what happens, for women especially, is that we have a hard time getting somebody to lend us the gas or the oil to get our engine started, even though what we build is solid. Women have amazing ideas, and it gets put or tossed to the side because it's just too early. That's why I feel like we should use our voice more and come together so we can create this change, because it's needed.

The biggest opportunity right now is AI integration into legal tech software. I've been tinkering around with OpenAI and ChatGPT, and I realized that AI does exactly what I needed to do for Go Beagle. When we were building the software in 2020, there was a lot of programming I wanted to implement that our devs were having a hard time with, and I ran out of money. But AI is the software that needs to be implemented into Go Beagle for it to function properly the way I envisioned. If I can grab this piece and just embed it into my current software, it would be beautiful and would function perfectly well. The challenge has been that I've often been a little too early as a visionary. Go Beagle was a little too early in the market. People haven't been able to really grasp the concept because it's a little more complicated than a simple explanation, and it's dedicated for people very familiar with corporate departments and corporate governance. A lot of investors said this is a little too early for us, and it was very hard to put it into words without showing them exactly what I'm meaning to do with it. But they did believe the product was great, the idea was great, the concept would work and do well in the market, as long as people understood what it's supposed to be doing.

Being present and intentional with where I place my energy is really important to me. I compartmentalize everything and focus on one task at a time, whether it's being completely focused on Go Beagle when I'm working on software development, or putting on my mommy hat when I'm with my sons. I always keep thinking that my son is gonna go to college and he's not gonna come back home, so if I don't do it now, I'm not gonna get to do it. I've approached my kids that way since they were very, very young. My hobby right now is just driving my sons around to golf tournaments and rooting for them and being a tiger mom when it comes to golf. I call that my hobby because it's something that I do outside of work that I have fun doing, that I love doing, and I spend time with my son at the same time. I also really love the software building and finding solutions to things. It's been so much fun, and I wouldn't even call it a job or a business. The entire process of having these ideas and then seeing them actually work is amazing.