Super Mom: The SOON Journey of a Wall Street Female Trader

@0xmisaa Editor's Note: During the interview with Joanna, I saw her as a responsible and hardworking person who particularly cares about the community. As a Super Mommy, Joanna is more patient, reliable, and willing to help others. She often helps the community by creating founder appreciation posts, consistently engaging in discussions about each project. Joanna has a wealth of life and work experience, and her character has been refined over time and experiences, making her very dependable while also being extremely caring and encouraging towards the community. Her energy is unmatched; I often chat with Joanna at 1 AM. Through this interview with the founder, we have also become good friends. I was just thinking about why we resonate so well; it’s because we have both experienced setbacks in life, giving us unique insights into life. We don’t play by the rules and are willing to go all-in for things that ignite our passion. Perhaps those who are willing to do so are the wisest or the silliest, haha, only time will tell, but at least we don’t want to leave any regrets in life.

The Ethereum SVM L2 project SOON has raised a total of $22 million in funding to celebrate the launch of its mainnet and invest in blockchain infrastructure. This round of financing was led by Hack VC, with participation from ABCDE, Anagram, Hypersphere, SNZ Capital, ArkStream Capital, and others.

Today, we are interviewing the CEO & Co-founder of SOON: Joanna. Her personal web2 & web3 resume is extremely impressive: an undergraduate from CMU, an MBA from Columbia University, TMT IBD at Lehman Brothers, a currency trader at Citibank, Manager of the NFT marketplace at Coinbase, BD lead at OP Labs, VP & Head of BD at Aleo, and now the CEO of SOON. These rich work experiences allow us to witness the growth and struggles of an Asian woman.

However, Joanna's career journey is also filled with twists and complexities, having experienced ups and downs in her career.

In 2008, Joanna had just graduated from Carnegie Mellon (CMU). As an Asian woman, Joanna successfully entered one of the most prestigious investment banks at the time—Lehman Brothers—through her hard work and abilities. Young and ambitious, she wanted to make a mark in her career, but good times didn’t last long. Three months later, the shocking financial tsunami swept in, and Lehman Brothers unfortunately went bankrupt, exiting the market. Joanna lost her job, and during that time, she had to face not only the pressure of unemployment but also the dual challenges of visa issues and cultural differences. However, it was this low point that taught Joanna how to persevere in adversity. In the following eight years, she created the fastest promotion record from Associate to SVP in the Currency Trading department at Citibank, becoming a standout on Wall Street.

During her time at Citibank: Organizing colleagues on the trading floor to donate to St Jude Hospital

Despite her fame, Joanna did not become arrogant or stop moving forward. In 2015, by chance, she read the Bitcoin white paper. This seemingly insignificant discovery played a significant role in changing Joanna's career trajectory.

As a financial professional who experienced the collapse of Lehman Brothers and witnessed the European debt crisis, she understood the fragility of centralized financial systems. The decentralized concept of Bitcoin opened her eyes to another possibility in finance. After some in-depth learning, exposure, and contemplation about crypto, she bravely stepped into the world of blockchain and Web3.

At Coinbase, she initially handled institutional sales, serving large funds and asset management companies for cryptocurrency allocations. Later, due to the recognition of her potential by the higher-ups, she was promoted to lead the development of the NFT marketplace project, attempting to create a Web3 version of Instagram. However, the emerging market of Web3 exceeded Joanna's expectations: despite having 5 million users on the whitelist, the product ultimately did not receive the expected response. This unsuccessful market reaction made her deeply realize that while pursuing innovative characteristics, the product must still address the core needs of users.

During her time at Coinbase: Representing Coinbase at the music festival event on New York's Governance Island, teaching everyone how to use Coinbase NFT

In 2021, as the Web3 market cooled, the wave of layoffs at Coinbase once again brought her to a career turning point. This time, Joanna chose to join a startup, and after experiences at OP and Aleo, she decided to start her own venture, founding the SOON project. As a female founder, she faced the challenges of entrepreneurship with strength and ease, and the warmth and security of her family provided Joanna with the motivation to pursue her career.

Super Mommy Joanna: Family photo with her child

Joanna's story is one of continuously breaking through oneself and pursuing innovation. She once stood at the pinnacle of traditional finance but saw the immense potential of Web3, choosing a more challenging path—exploring the future of Web3 technology. The true value lies not in how far you have come, but in whether you are always moving in the right direction.

This is her story, and it is also the story of SOON.

During SOON: Invited to speak at Breakpoint in her first year in the Solana ecosystem

The following content is from her own narrative:

Setting Off: Stepping into Wall Street

In 2004, I was still a student at Peking University's School of Economics. At that time, like many young people, I was full of hope yet confused about the future. The School of Economics had masters like Justin Yifu Lin, Qiren Zhou, and Yingyi Qian, but the framework of political economics left me perplexed. I wanted to explore a purer form of economics, which led me to make my first important life decision: applying to Carnegie Mellon University.

During my years at Carnegie Mellon, I immersed myself in the world of economics and statistics that I loved, gradually finding my direction. In 2008, I confidently stepped onto Wall Street with dual degrees in economics and statistics, joining Lehman Brothers. At that time, I thought I was about to embark on a brilliant career, but little did I know that fate would give me a profound lesson.

Who would have thought that just three months later, I would experience the biggest blow of my life—the company's collapse? That time was really tough; as a young person just entering the American job market, I faced the pressure of a U.S. visa, cultural differences, and the blow of unemployment. Those days were particularly hard; watching the so-called "friends" around me disappear one by one, I truly felt the warmth and coldness of human relationships.

I did not remain in despair during this financial crisis but actively sought opportunities. In my subsequent career, I found my place—as a trader. My new job at Citibank in Currency Trading surprised me; I discovered that I was particularly suited for fast-paced work that required immediate decision-making. Ultimately, I created the fastest promotion record from Associate to SVP in eight years.

Turning Point: From Coinbase to Entrepreneurship

In 2015, reading the Bitcoin white paper by chance changed my career trajectory. As a financial professional who experienced the collapse of Lehman Brothers and witnessed the European debt crisis, I understood the fragility of centralized financial systems. The decentralized concept proposed by Bitcoin opened my eyes to another possibility in finance.

At Coinbase, due to my outstanding past work experience, I initially handled institutional sales, serving large funds and asset management companies for cryptocurrency allocations. Later, due to the recognition of my work potential by the company's higher-ups, I was tasked with managing the development of the NFT marketplace project. We attempted to create a Web3 version of Instagram, incorporating social features so that users could trade NFTs on one platform.

However, reality did not meet our expectations; despite having 5 million users on the waiting list, the product ultimately did not receive the anticipated response. Why? Because we overlooked the most basic market principle: a trading market needs liquidity, not social features. It’s like opening a supermarket with empty shelves; no matter how beautifully decorated, no one will come. Users ultimately chose OpenSea, which had sufficient liquidity.

In 2021, during the bear market in the Web3 industry, Coinbase laid off over 1,000 employees, and I faced another career turning point. This experience made me deeply understand that products must address the core needs of users, rather than blindly pursuing innovative features.

As a founder, I indeed work diligently and possess excellent capabilities, but there is always a voice inside me saying: this is not the end. I have spent my life pursuing my passion; I have reached a certain height in traditional finance, but if I cannot truly achieve user adoption, I will always feel something is missing.

Identifying Market Gaps and Creating SOON

After in-depth research into the EVM ecosystem, I identified an important opportunity: while others were discussing ZK technology, I saw the practical application value of the Solana ecosystem. Solana could help users easily transition from Web2 to Web3, allowing them to purchase SOL directly with credit cards and experience smooth DeFi services.

Meanwhile, Ethereum's ZK solutions had yet to be truly implemented, while Solana's high performance was driving a new wave of user adoption, including the boom of meme coins. This made me realize that the real opportunity lies in how to bring blockchain technology closer to ordinary users, which is true mass adoption.

SOON's Technical Vision

By observing Solana's development, I saw three key signals:

1. Solana's user experience is indeed better, and SVM is challenging the position of EVM.
2. The Solana team's research on modular SVM design (such as the API split of Anza SVM) shows the right direction.
3. Existing EVM Layer 2 solutions are severely homogenized, making it difficult to attract high-quality developers.

These observations prompted me to think: how can we bring Solana's advantages into a broader ecosystem? How can we achieve better scalability through modular design? This is the origin of the SOON project.

The Birth of SOON

Meeting Andrew at EthDenver was a turning point. At that time, I had just given birth to my first child and was contemplating the next step in my career. Andrew focused on ZK research and hardware acceleration at Aleo, while I brought practical experience from Ethereum, Coinbase, and PokerDAO. Our backgrounds were highly and precisely complementary: he was proficient in the technical details of the Polkadot ecosystem and Landing Protocol, while I was well-versed in the operations of the DeFi and NFT markets.

Last February, when the Solana ecosystem exploded, we saw an important trend: users would ultimately choose better experiences. Looking at the current EVM ecosystem, Layer 2 solutions are severely homogenized; where are the real developers and users? This prompted us to think: what if we could bring Solana's high-performance features to more ecosystems?

Technical Vision

SOON's vision is straightforward and effective: to make blockchain technology truly serve users.

Our technical solutions include:

• Decoupled TPU design
• Removal of limitations from the original Solana consensus mechanism
• Providing more efficient transaction processing capabilities
• Reducing system resource consumption
• Modular architecture
• Supporting multi-chain deployment
• Flexible data availability layer selection
• Optimized execution layer performance

Innovative Token Economic Model

• 51% allocated to the community
• Reasonable incentive mechanisms
• Sustainable ecological development

Challenges of Entrepreneurship

As a female founder, the warmth and security of my family have provided me with immense support, becoming my strong backing. I still remember the initial decision to start a business, the misunderstanding from my parents, and the doubts from friends. Until my partner said, "Because I love you, I believe in you." The encouragement from my partner and family filled me with motivation for my career.

Entrepreneurship is like trading; it requires a keen market sense and the courage to take risks. The difference is that entrepreneurship requires a longer-term perspective and greater patience. What we are doing is not just a technical project, but solving real problems:

How can we lower the entry barriers for developers?

How can we provide a better user experience?

How can blockchain technology truly serve the public?

Product Roadmap

Our product planning is divided into several stages:

1. Infrastructure construction
2. Perfecting the SOON Stack architecture
3. Optimizing SVM performance
4. Establishing a developer toolchain
5. Ecological development
6. Incubating core DApps
7. Building a developer community
8. Perfecting incentive mechanisms
9. User growth
10. Optimizing user experience
11. Lowering usage barriers
12. Expanding application scenarios

Words for Entrepreneurs: The Bear Market is the Best Filter

If you are also an entrepreneur and experiencing a low point, please remember: every successful person has gone through moments of doubt. What matters is not how fast you go, but whether you persist in moving in the right direction.

As an entrepreneur who has experienced multiple cycles, I want to say to my fellow travelers:

• Do not let short-term market fluctuations affect your beliefs.
• Focus on product and user value.
• Maintain a healthy mindset and life rhythm.
• Give yourself and your team enough room to grow.

The story of SOON is just beginning. We choose to steadfastly move forward at this time; the Web3 industry is still an emerging field. The future belongs to those who are patient, have faith, and take continuous action.

Our story is not over; everything is just beginning.