Our company (ausoshare.com), which I co-founded, does software development with all kinds of clients, but mostly in the area of business-to-business services. Our clients are in the legal field, education, trading, as well as in local businesses. We started last year with two full-time employees and now have 19.
In 2008 when I was 18, I studied computer science for four years at Huanghuai University in Henan province, China. After that I came to Canada, and Toronto was my first stop. I spent eight months at York University‘s English Language Institute and took the graduate study preparation program. Before I went to York I scored 4.5 on the test administered by the International English Language Testing System, but after I scored a 6.5.
I did my masters at Concordia University in Montreal in cloud computing, which is really technical but also involved several business elements.
I left China because I didn’t want to be stuck in a situation where I don’t really get to see the world. I wanted to travel. At that point it didn’t matter if it was Canada, the U.S. or Europe, but I chose Canada because I thought there was less competition in the tech sector than in China. I also heard the people are nice, which is true.
The York program taught me English but also about Canadian culture. The program helped me quickly adapt to the studying and working environment.
I never thought to join a student club because my English was pretty bad, but my tutor encouraged me to participate. So I joined the York University Rover Team. The goal of the club is to design and manufacture a land rover that can take part in a NASA competition. We placed seventh – not bad.
At first it was really tough. At the first team meeting, when we introduced ourselves, it took me five minutes because I had a really hard time communicating. The other team members were very supportive – they weren’t laughing at me – and took the time to listen. They encouraged me to do a design proposal, and everyone was trying their best to understand me. That understanding was the best thing I experienced at school.
I always wanted to start my own business when I came to Canada, but I never thought I would start one this quickly. When I was in China I studied e-commerce business during a summer break, and during my college years my attempts to start a business weren’t successful, but it gave me the experience I needed.
The best part of my job comes when clients recognize our efforts. A client who owns an insurance firm initially rejected our project proposal. When I talked to him, he simply said our firm was not very professional in our approach. Given that circumstance, I thought it would be impossible to gain his trust. However, we revised the proposal right after that meeting, knowing he would probably reject us a second time. But I thought, why not give it a shot?
After several days work, we did a very formal presentation to his management that impressed everyone, and we closed that deal. When I signed that contract, it was the best moment of the whole year.
Where to study: Continuing Education
