How Founders Work: ROOM Co-Founder and CEO, Brian Chen

Brian Chen is the Co-founder and CEO of ROOM, a start-up focused on reimagining the modern workplace by helping companies make more room for better workplace environments. Prior to ROOM, Brian started his career as an English teacher in Ecuador, afterwards jumping into the non-profit world at Endeavor an organization focused on supporting entrepreneurs from emerging markets, and later went onto Co-found Bluesmart, a Y-Combinator backed smart luggage start-up. 

In Today's Episode We Learn:

1. About Brian's upbringing in Colorado and Taiwan and how that shaped his perspective on entrepreneurship
2. More about Brian's background charting his own path: teaching in Ecuador, working at a non-profit called Endeavor, later co-founding BlueSmart, and going through YC before founding ROOM
3. How he stumbled upon the problem of noise in the office from a friend and found early believers in the concept, including Ryan Peterson (Founder & CEO of Flexport) and Henrik Zillmer (Founder & CEO of AirHelp)
4. How today’s work environments are broken and how distracting it is to employee productivity and mental wellness in the office, with noise and privacy just the surface of the greater issue  
5. Brian’s take on entrepreneurship as not taking crazy risks but rather mitigating risk 
6. What the early days at ROOM were like to where the company is today
7. The challenges of founding an early stage start-up including how to get everyone aligned 
8. The highs and lows from his experience as a founder
9. The importance of nurturing communities, support networks, and people you spend time with 
10. Brian's advice for other founders and his framework on how to build a meaningful career

References:

1. Books: 'Hearts, Smarts, Guts, and Luck: What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur and Build a Great Business' by Anthony K. Tjan
2. Companies: Nike, IBM, Microsoft, Bluesmart
3. People: Ryan Peterson (Founder & CEO of Flexport), Henrik Zillmer (Founder & CEO of AirHelp), Morten Meisner (Co-founder of ROOM)

If you’d like to see more from Brian or the team at ROOM, you can find them on Twitter @_bchen and @roomnyc or on Instagram @roomnyc. Likewise be sure to check out other exciting early stage start-ups and founders we have in store on Instagram @foundersprocess.