"A bend in the road is not the end of the road...unless you fail to make the turn." A very inspiring quote from Helen Keller, a woman who through her disabilities gained strength. While it seems that women in general experience more bends in whatever road they decide to take, what makes every woman special is the unimaginable courage and the perseverance to stay on that road and take that turn.
In the world of technology and finance, it is no secret that women comprise only a small fraction of the industry. Why so? Probably it has a lot to do with the perception of gender disparity -- that the industry is a male profession. Perhaps too, in retrospect, there are few female role models in the industry.
Very recently, in line with the celebration of Woman's Month, Manila Bulletin Technews was privileged to spend some time with Ms. Yang Yang Zhang, the Managing Director of Xendit, a woman of strength, power, and perseverance.
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"
With mom and grandma who taught her that there is nothing more important than education, Yang Yang Zhang has always been hungry to learn more. "I came from a family of strong-willed women", Yang Yang Zhang nobly states. Her mom was the first female math professor at Wuhan Institute of Technology. Her mom's career, however, suffered setbacks when they moved to the United States as she didn't speak English that well. But mothers have always been resilient. Mothers know that they need to grow and evolve not only for themselves but for their children as well. And so Yang Yang's mother took a long-distance learning masters in computer science and asked the very young Yang Yang to join her. Thus, at the early age of 4, the determined young Zhang was learning English, Fortran and Pascal all the same time and loved it! At the age of 5, she started to code and has been coding for most of her childhood and adolescent life.
"Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations"
The Zhang family is no stranger when it comes to determination. Yang Yang Zhang had no experience with fintech; but there were things she was definitely sure of -- that her love for coding made her desire to build something and work with emerging markets. Her experience working with UNSDG initiatives in SEA and Latin America made her realize the impact of baseline infrastructure on the nation's economy. Her previous work in waste management coincidentally gave her the opportunity to work for the infrastructure level. She took particular interest in the "complicated and dirty work that someone else didn't want to do". She added, "You are actually building the bottom layer and so I thought of start-ups searching in SEA in 2017 - the first crypto boom." Curious as to why everyone is so into that "invisible asset", she began to study its underlying technology. She became more intrigued when she learned what blockchain actually was. She then had a light-bulb moment and thought to herself that this was the infrastructure she wanted to work with. Coincidentally, some people who had ideas about it were in the PH. It was at that time too that she was thinking of a good problem to solve in the PH market. What came to mind was remittances. And so the mission was to "start a crypto exchange, build a fair market, bring global market liquidity to the Philippines and make sure that prices will allow crypto-based remittances to happen." In the Philippines, she built the product, got licensed, headed product technology and strategy and that was the beginning of her love affair with fintech.
"None of us is as smart as all of us."
It was by chance in the spring of 2019 when Yang Yang Zhang met Moses Lo, the founder of Xendit. At that time the Philippines already had financial institutions in place. Motivated by what Xendit does, Yang Yang Zhang encouraged Moses to enter the Philippine market. When asked why she replied, "Nobody talks about that dirty work, the baseline infrastructure." At the end of that casual meeting, both were convinced that the Philippines do need Xendit and the rest as they say is history.
What makes Xendit different is its unique approach for every country they give service to. Yang Yang emphasized that Xendit Philippines has its own identity. "It is not like other companies whose idea of expansion involves offering the same products and just replicating and incorporating them into other countries. And so while Xendit Philippines is part of the same larger Xendit family, we very much have our own identity as Xendit Philippines. A lot of our teams are home-grown". She added, "a lot of our teams have separate missions and that is to make sure we are addressing homegrown problems rather than trying to import technology that was built for a different market." And so as the Managing Director, Yang Yang sees to it they offer products that are personalized and well-targeted. Yang Yang further explained, "Xendit Philippines makes sure that we are listening to our customers."
According to Yang Yang, one of the many things she liked about being in the Philippines is being "matriarchal in terms of being able to see women in a position of power whether it's politics or business, you see women in position." Being a woman in a male-dominated tech world, it is not surprising to know that Yang Yang has had experienced challenges, resistance, and roadblocks in her career saying, "It has been a challenge to get past stereotypes. In my day, it was unusual to see a female coder, it was unusual to see women interested in tech. I tried as much as possible to turn it around and use that to set myself apart because I know I can stand out more than men. In the past, I felt that I should've been judged on the weight of my accomplishments rather than on the surface; but ultimately again, it comes down to whether the results speak for themselves." She further went on to say, "Another challenge is watching female colleagues not get recognized. That has inspired me to always try to be a better mentor to younger women who have an interest in tech because I think it is tough and discouraging if you see a female colleague who does a great job but doesn't get recognition for it. That could've been me."
In life, challenges are inevitable; but despite all the obstacles, for Yang Yang, the best part of being in fintech is "when you build financial structure, it sounds like the driest, boring thing in the world; but it is at the heart of every country. Without financial structure, no country can grow and develop. I think that is something quite rare feeling like the ripple effects of the things that you directly influenced have built a positive effect on the rest of the community. There are always new advancements. Tech is a super collaborative field, where people work together to make something work from end to end."
Another thing that Yang Yang loved about being in fintech is, "The partnership aspect is also exciting and the BSP gets it; actually, one reason why I decided to come to the PH in the first place with my own start-up. The BSP just have been so open to innovation and open to education. I think it so rare to see that in a regulator. It is good to know that they are at least there to make and understand rather than to block innovation and shut things down. It is exciting to be in fintech at least in this generation."
Wise and kind words can go a long way and Yang Yang has this advice for the next generation of women in technology. "Take risks, have the ability to weigh the risks and rewards, and ultimately take that leap. Have the ability to evaluate, judge, and take risks. Do not be afraid to build from the ground up and trust in your own ideas."
She then shared an inspiring story of someone from her team who absolutely had no experience in tech and joined Xendit because she wanted to explore a tech start-up. After 6 months, this colleague of hers is now a product manager. Yang Yang advices, "If you are interested in something take the leap and then do the work and just learn. Seek female mentors. They are so many other women who are willing to mentor and help. Get educated on it and take that leap. Take risks. Go to the industry that interests you."
Ms. Yang Yang Zhang, one of the few good women that have made great strides in the field of fintech who continuously uplifts the role of women in a field predominated by men. Truly, it was a great honor to meet a woman of strength and determination in a race that only a few finish.