Meet Eve Olynyk! This Salt Spring native isn’t your average third year business student. Eve juggles school and operating a tech start-up that she co-founded while also working part time at TD. Eve’s love for learning and knowledge is what fuels her drive.
Eve’s interest in technology grew in her second year at the University of Victoria when she joined the Web Development and Design club. Eve learned so much by finding solutions to different problems. This trial and error learning, paired with the support of the other members of the club, was part of the reason she fell in love with web development. What started off as a hobby would later open doors for Eve in the future.
Eve’s interest in Chinese language and culture led her to Shanghai. During her year off from school, Eve traveled to China and studied Mandarin at East China Normal University (ECNU). Eve was accustomed to being busy so when she was surrounded by people she didn’t know in a new environment, she created an opportunity for herself to interact with others. Eve started a tech meet-up club at ECNU which later evolved into the Shanghai Web Development and Design club. The club held weekly talks, workshops and mini hackathons. In a short two months, the group had over 200 members! It was here Eve was asked to help translate for Mai Shen (“My God”), a start-up, in China internship in China. Asked her to help translate. Learned about Chinese start up model. The Shanghai Web Development and Design club would also be where Eve would meet a young entrepreneur who would ask her to transform the club into a business.
Eve never would have imagined that her trip to Shanghai would result in her co-founding a start-up. She admits that the situation was nerve racking but that the no-risk, no-equity proposal was appealing. 1KE (meaning “one class”) was developed with the mission of providing its users with the tools to “learn anything in one day”. Eve started in the company by building the website and developing online tutorials in Mandarin and English. Later on, she would push for more business development. Her part time role transitioned into a full time role where she worked to source content. This role gave her the opportunity to travel to San Francisco. In her position, Eve looked for small start-ups and translated them in order to get them out to the Chinese market. Essentially, 1KE transformed into a “marketing engine using tech education”; she worked to market start-ups in exchange for content and later gained revenues through the translations. Eve’s position also had her organizing a number of marketing events including a mini conference between developers in China and San Francisco that had about 100 people in attendance!
Image from one of the China marketing events
Eve has learned a lot of lessons from her experiences during her time abroad and with her work with 1KE. She had to consistently and simultaneously work through cultural and entrepreneurship challenges. These bumps can only be described as “difficult…but very rewarding”. Eve stresses that having a clear and detailed plan is essential for any entrepreneur. She also notes that “knowing your co-founders really well” is an important part of the business process. Perhaps the biggest lesson Eve has learned is the quality she learned about herself. Through her many roles, Eve has discovered that her dream is to work with people. When she was in San Francisco, her work was to get to know people and build relationships with them. Her dream job is to work for a company that would allow her to build on her skills and that has a close relationship to technology. If Eve could give one piece of advice to anyone interested in business or starting up an initiative, it would be to “take advantage of every opportunity that you have”. It may sound cheesy but Eve recognizes that if she hadn’t had conversations with anyone who would talk to her or accepted opportunities presented to her, she never could have learned so much or come so far.