Her Story
About Tiffany
I started my career in the pharmaceutical industry where I witnessed innovation happening every day and realized how expensive and complex the patent process was for companies. This experience made me think about what I could do to make the process better and more efficient. Through a friend's recommendation, I joined the U.S. Patent Trademark Office where I learned a tremendous amount by talking to inventors from different industries every day. I got to understand their struggles, goals, and aspirations in a very short period of time. All the inventors I met were very ambitious people, otherwise they wouldn't spend so much effort and money on filing a patent, and working with them was very exciting and inspirational. This experience, combined with my EMBA at Wharton while getting my law degree at UPenn, inspired me to start Invera IP. The business classes and business people have a very different mindset from lawyers, and understanding how they think differently was really helpful and inspired me to start this company. Now as CEO and co-founder of Invera IP, we're an AI company helping inventors and small business owners file their patents. My day-to-day involves working with my technical team on product development, collaborating with advisors from Penn Law and Wharton to discuss where AI and legal AI are heading, and spending considerable time talking to our customers to understand their needs since we're still in early stage.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Tiffany
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'm a first-generation immigrant and my family came here when I was young, so there was a lot of cultural and language barriers. My family was poor growing up and I was the first one in my family to go to college. People like me tend to have imposter syndrome, and that's the lesson I learned day one in law school. I feel like confidence is such a thing that people from my background don't realize the importance of until we're years in the industry, and we realize that we are actually just as good as all the other people who come from a more privileged background. It's a lot about what you believe you can achieve, instead of just doubting yourself. That's really something that I learned over the years. I also tried to turn something I thought was negative into something positive. People from my background don't come from a privileged background, but we know something that those other kids don't know. You carry with you what your background brings with you, and that can be something positive. I just feel like you really have to believe in yourself and be assertive, and understand that you are bringing a unique set of skills that the people on the table don't possess.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say this is a very fascinating industry, and it's very service-oriented. It's really important to know your strength, know what you're good at, and just really hone in on those skills. Legal is such a male-dominated industry, and there are so many female lawyers who are just doing very good jobs and are so good at things that they don't realize. I just feel like you really need to believe in yourself and be assertive. Understand that you are bringing a unique set of skills that the people on the table don't possess, and I think that would be helpful.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, AI is really moving fast and it's completely changing the legal world. I actually don't know what this industry will look like in 5 years, but I see myself really being there and helping to promote it and drive it forward. Because this is a very new business, we're all trying to figure out what our next step is and discussing the trend of the industry.
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