Fun conversation with Brooke Yoakam



I met with Brooke Yoakam. She is 21 years old from Columbus, Ohio and is the founder of AvidAI. She is currently studying at Boston College. I had a lot of fun chatting with her and it was very inspiring to hear her story. I asked her some questions during our insightful conversation and summarized the discussion. 


1. What is the name of your startup? 


Her startup is called AvidAI. It was called GiftPocket which is an app to exchange, buy and donate gift cards. Now it has evolved into a Shopify app which is used to acquire customers using artificial intelligence tools with promotional gift cards.


2. Why the name AvidAI?


It was originally going to be called GiftPocketAI. But she decided to change the name and wanted it to start with the letter “A”. I asked her why. She said she is inspired by companies that started with the letter “A” such as Amazon, Apple and Alphabet. She chose AvidAI because she wants to build avid customers for brands. Avid customers are loyal and repeat customers. 


3. Do you or did you have any learnings throughout your journey? 


Brooke has been building her startup for the past 8 years. She said that the one thing she has learnt is always be talking to your customers. There are always many questions that founders have such as “should we do this, should we build that, do we think they're going to like it” and the best way to answer these questions is to talk to your customer.

4. What motivates you to keep going through struggles?


She said you have to believe in your vision and yourself. You have to be passionate about what you are doing. Brooke says that everyone goes through hard days but you have to keep going.


5. Who motivates you?


Brooke’s parents motivate her. Her dad says “you can get through it, you got to keep working and keep talking to your customers. Hard work will pay off in the end”. 


6. What skills are you good at and what skills need to be improved?


The skills that she is good at are putting in 100% effort and building personal relationships. She is working on improving taking feedback.

7. What advice would you give me if I were an entrepreneur?


Brooke says the hardest thing to do is start, keep pushing through and trust your gut.  

          

This was such an inspirational conversation I had with Brooke. I learnt a lot and hope many people are inspired by her story. I really want to thank Brooke for taking the time to talk to me.


If you would like to reach out to her, here are her links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/brookeyoakam

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brookeecomgirl


I would love to hear your feedback and comments. Please reach out to me at me@hanikachhajer.com

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