About Asian Hustle Network

About
Asian
Hustle
Network

Asian Hustle Network is a global online and offline superconnector for diasporic Asians crafting creative and entrepreneurial roads to success.

Through our engaged community of 200,000+ members around the world, our storytelling, and our programming, we create an ecosystem to inspire and connect members to the people and resources who will take their pursuits to the next level.

We host online and offline events (upcoming: The Uplifted Conference in Las Vegas), support local meetups, produce weekly podcasts and stories highlighting entrepreneurs in the community, and even published a book of stories told by 21 Asian entrepreneurs titled Uplifted: Journeys of Abundance, Community, and Identity.

Since our founding in November 2019, we’ve played a part in connecting passionate founders with business partners, zany innovators with new customers, beloved brands with rising talent, mentors with mentees, and even a few people with long-lost relatives!

Our mission is to uplift creative and entrepreneurial Asians around the world whose pursuits are changing the world for the better.

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How it all started

Hi! We’re Bryan and Maggie. We created Asian Hustle Network in November 2019 so that Asian entrepreneurs could connect with one another by sharing their stories.

When we first started dreaming of Asian Hustle Network, our greatest inspiration was the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo—one of the most famous Shinto temples in Japan. There, nestled in the beautiful grounds, visitors pause to write down their deepest, heartfelt wishes on wooden wishing tablets called ema (絵馬), hang their prayers from a string, and depart. Afterward, the shrine’s priests and priestesses individually pray for each and every one of the thousands of wishes around the world to come true, and for each of the writers to feel unburdened.

When we visited the shrine in April 2019, we stood there rooted for hours in the peaceful, silent space, reading the wishes of those who had come before us. A wish for a family member to recover from illness, a wish to be accepted into a certain college, a wish to be forgiven, a wish to be a good parent. . . Each was deeply relatable, like anything that comes from the most vulnerable depths of our hearts.

At Asian Hustle Network, we aim to create a space of camaraderie and support for Asians in the diaspora to share their stories, whether about their entrepreneurial journey or about other personal journeys close to their hearts. Often, we’ll distribute, amplify, or do whatever else we can to help our members garner the connections that help them succeed.

In our own upbringings as Asian Americans, we were taught to keep our heads down and save face, especially when we were struggling. But later in life, as we went through our own entrepreneurial journeys, we learned that bringing others along for the ride certainly made the journey less lonely. And the greatest connections we made along the way all started with the same thing: honest, heartfelt, and vulnerable storytelling.

Since our founding, we’ve seen members pivot their businesses, post their new products in Asian Hustle Network for feedback, and sell out within the next few hours. Others built such loyal client bases through Asian Hustle Network that they quit their jobs to start their own practices. Many more members have used the community to raise money for personal causes and crowdfunding campaigns, find new team members or business partners, make new friends, and even locate long-lost relatives.

Asians in the diaspora not only have a rich history of creative entrepreneurship dating back for centuries, but they’re also building an explosively exciting entrepreneurial era today: rewriting our narratives, reclaiming our cultures, rousing our tastebuds, and simply rejoicing in being ourselves. Our time is now, and we are here to uplift the trailblazers. Won’t you join us?

What our members say

The founders of AHN are truly passionate about their mission of bringing Asians together to inspire and support one another. I’ve met so many amazing entrepreneurs from the US and other parts of Australia who I’ve ended up doing business with.

Linh Podetti

@linhpod

AHN is where, for the first time, I felt like I could share my story as an Asian American, someone who never felt quite Asian enough or American enough to call a place home. Thank you for this wonderful “place” you’ve created so we can see how much we are connected to one another.

Urooj A.

@uroojphoto

AHN is literally the gasoline that exploded my journey to who I am today. I met all my business partners through AHN, and with them, I am working on the Future of Restaurants and NFTs. Thank you AHN, let’s keep connecting powerful, like-minded people together.

Kevin Seo

@thekevinseo

During my senior year of college, I posted on AHN looking for an internship. The internship I found turned into a FT position in which I gained a badass boss, work partner, and empowering mentor all-in-one.

Alannah Nguyen-Dela Cruz

@alannahdelacruz

AHN helped me connect with the adoptee community which was something I never even knew existed, and didn’t know that I desperately needed. I’ve made some lifelong, genuine friends through the community and am deeply appreciative of the welcoming and encouraging space. Thank you Maggie and Bryan for fostering such a wonderful space!

Makayla Gessford

@makaylahappy

Asian Hustle Network has been an amazing community! The founders are incredibly humble and caring and want nothing but the best for their members. Everyone— from ideas, to start-ups, to successful entrepreneurs can come together as a community and share their experiences. So happy to be a part of AHN!

Stacey Kwong

@milkandt