G: How did Evolve Together grow so fast during 2020? We were seeing celebrities wearing your masks during a time that was maybe even politically charged. How did you navigate that momentum while staying true to your values?

C: We started evolvetogether in 2020 during a global pandemic, and the idea was always how do we build something that's more than just product? How do we build something that really brought people together during this time? That was always the idea of the company.

We came up with the name because we said, what do people want to see on someone else if someone can't see somebody speak? The mask is really how do you evolve together as people. Being Asian-American at that time was really scary—I was wearing hoodies, walking down the street. So when we came up with evolvetogether, we were like, how do we build a company that connects people?

You'll see coordinates on all of our products and masks that symbolize we're all connected no matter race, gender, or where we live. And it was really about how do we do good every day as a company? Those three things have been so important to us—they've guided the type of product we create, why we create them, how much love we pour into them, and really creating something that makes people feel good. That's our guiding light, more than all the other noise.

G: There are two camps of growth—the known knowns like your core mission, and then growth experiments you run to test virality. How have you navigated both?

C: That's a great question, and we're still continuing to navigate it today. Growth is interesting because there's always a new way to get things out there—every year, every quarter, there's something new. Whether it's activations, collaborations, or influencers, I think we always go back to: Is this on brand? And does it feel good?

I always go back to how consumers feel, so when they're consuming our brand through any of these marketing channels, do they look at it and go, "Okay, I can trust that brand. It makes me feel good. I know somebody actually cares about this product they're creating for me. There's somebody behind this product, there's a team of people." That's how we look at it. It's not just one silver bullet—it can change, but the foundation stays the same.

G: What is it about company building that you wish fellow founders understood, or what's a unique insight from your own journey?

C: I don't want to sit here and say people do it wrong or right because everybody has their own journey, and I'm sure many people look at what we build and think that's wrong too. But for us, I always want to build something that I wake up in the morning and I'm like, "Okay, I'm building something that hopefully makes my team proud, myself proud, and my son proud of me."

I have a two-year-old and he's the cutest thing on the planet. The idea of not being able to spend all the time I'd like with him is my purpose—how do I build something that's really good if I'm sacrificing time away from him? That's my why.

Every founder needs to find their why and a reason why they keep going, because it's really hard. It's a grind every day, and so many days you're like, "Oh my God, why am I doing this? Is it worth it? Am I on the right path? Does anybody even care what I'm doing?" You really got to anchor yourself to what makes you different and why you want to keep doing what you're doing.

G: How do you think about AI and its role in evolvetogether's mission?

C: We do have "evolve" as part of our company name, and that's a big part of what we do. I never look at something we launch and not go back to it—we're always looking to be better, always looking to improve. AI is just another tool to improve what we do. We keep going back to the why, and if we can continue to have new tools that expand our reason to exist, then why not?

G: What keeps you grounded?

C: My son. Before I had him, I was doing 18-hour days—and I still do—but it was always go, go, go, go, go. I was like, "When I get to this or when I get to this," and it was always that. Today, watching him grow up so fast, it's allowed me to say I don't want to go so fast and get to the next thing, because I don't want to miss his moments of growth.

It's really helped me as a person and as a business because it's given me the opportunity to be in the gap and appreciate and be grateful for the journey, which was really hard for me to do prior to having him. He's helped me in so many ways, but from a business perspective, he's given me perspective.