Rachel K. Zhang is a serial entrepreneur and community builder with a marketing background and expertise. As a creator, she helps people and brands tell their most authentic stories and is director of her own marketing/branding company RKZ Creative and cofounder of equestrian athleisure brand Hart Outfitters. As a connector, her goals are to use her experiences to help create opportunities for those interested in marketing and entrepreneurship — particularly women and students. She is the cofounder of China-based female entrepreneurship community SheUp and is the director of the SheUp Magazine and SheUp Youth Accelerator.

Why did you wait before, and why are you not waiting anymore?

I always thought I needed to be a certain person to be an entrepreneur: Someone smarter with a big investment on hand and a college degree (when I hadn’t even graduated high school yet). But being surrounded by so many entrepreneurs, each with their different stories, I realized that I could create my own. So I became a high school entrepreneur and changed my course away from college and towards full-time entrepreneurship. It’s not so much about myself, but it’s about what I can bring to the world.