In Conversation: Haley Hoffman Smith & Vanessa Chan [event recap]

To kick off the new year, PCI Ventures hosted Pennovation’s first author event on January 23rd! Author Haley Hoffman Smith discussed her new book, Her Big Idea: The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs, with entrepreneur, angel investor, and Penn Engineering professor, Vanessa Chan.  Her Big Idea is about creativity, ideation, failure, and women's empowerment. Haley's favorite conversation point of the night was “when Vanessa asked [her] if she believed the world’s most successful people manifested their success.”  She responded, “we all have different spiritual beliefs, but I’d say the common thread among all successful people is that they feel they have a degree of control over their futures, or their abilities to attain success.” Throughout the conversation Haley emphasized the importance of encouraging other women to pursue BIG ideas – even if it’s a personal goal or an idea that might feel BIG to them.  Vanessa and Haley both advised guests to cultivate their support systems and to take advantage of local resources for entrepreneurs!  A few examples they shared: elevate Philly, NextGen Summit, and Pennovation (of course)!