Occupation: Entrepreneur, Former Model Based in: San Francisco Last Education: University of California, Los Angeles |
It started with a bánh mì sandwich.
Like any good entrepreneur, Misa Chien, the former co-owner of Nom Nom Truck, which specializes in those pork and picked veggie baguette sandwiches, would frequently check online reviews for her business. But when Chien couldn’t match the feedback—positive or negative—to her employees, she wondered why anyone hadn’t designed a way for patrons to leave employee-specific reviews. So with the former model’s customary pluck, she did it herself.
Forget the suggestion box. In 2013, Chien Founded Fosubo, which is an “employee-centric feedback system,” where business owners can send customers the names and pictures of their employees to leave star-ratings and personalized reviews. The app, said Chien, not only improves a business’s customer service, but it can potentially save at-risk revenue, as business owners can intervene with service glitches before these impact earnings. Despite an over-saturated Customer Experience Management Market, Fosubo, which was brought to market in August 2014, is already working with over 1000 stores, and has been steadily gaining a reputation as a business owner’s new best friend.
Chien has been featured in Inc. Magazine's “30 Under 30” and TechCo’s “50 Women in Tech Dominating Silicon Valley.” It’s no surprise, as she has been a business owner since she was a sophomore at UCLA. At 19, she started her own jewelry business, Miss Misa, out of her dorm room, racking up big profits with her own designs of one-of-a-kind vintage jewelry. It was good practice for her food truck venture, which was a participant on Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race,” known for winning several consecutive weeks. Chien and business partner, Jennifer Green, started Nom Nom Truck with an investment of $25,000, and were able to top $1MM in sales two years later.
Chien, who’s half Chinese and half Dutch, was also a model, booking campaigns for brand name companies like Target, Abercrombie, and Skechers. She gave up the 8-year modeling career in 2014 to focus on Fosubo. The entrepreneur believes her modeling career has only made her a stronger businesswoman. Her confidence is clear as Chien talks about Fosubo, predicting that her company will fill a much-needed void in the customer service market.
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