Today we’d like to introduce you to Eden Chen.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Eden. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Towards the end of high school, I became a Christian and decided at that point that I wanted to be a youth pastor. I went to Emory and was one of the only undergraduates taking graduate-level seminary courses. During this time, I started trading stocks in order to try and pay down my massive undergraduate debt. I took on many irrational risks and got lucky enough to start getting featured in publications like Reuters and Bloomberg which allowed me to start a career in finance. A couple years later I started a hedge fund with friends which we ran for a couple years. I had an existential crisis and realized that I didn’t want to spend my life moving around money, I wanted to produce something creatively. I spent a year learning how to code and working at a church called Reality LA where I met my current business partner Charles Hu. Charles and I became good friends and worked on our mobile app before helping others with their mobile apps. We consulted others on the side at first but over time this became a bigger and bigger business until this became Fishermen Labs.
Today, we run a product development agency which is a fancy way for saying that we help brands build complex technology products. We work with a diverse clientele that includes organizations like Walmart, Sony, the United Nations, College Humor, and CBS.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, there have been constant challenges. Those challenges have come in different forms from high-level challenges like not fully understanding the kind of business we were starting initially, to operational challenges like making sure that we can scale the business, understand where our costs are coming from, and continue to generate new business. Business always has its up and downs so you have to make a conscious effort to always stay balanced. I’m reminded of a quote from the movie Blow, “Sometimes you’re flush and sometimes you’re bust, and when you’re up, it’s never as good as it seems, and when you’re down, you never think you’ll be up again, but life goes on.”
Please tell us about Fishermen Labs.
Our company advises brands and startups on how to create complex digital products like mobile apps, website platforms, digital games, online television, virtual reality and augmented reality. We are most proud of the products our customers have launched and of the team that we assembled, as that’s our main asset. We’re set apart from others because of our immense and diverse experience across digital sectors. We’ve built as many interactive virtual and augmented reality experiences as anyone and we’ve built numerous products that have scaled to millions of users. We’re not just a marketing agency but we focus specifically on building product.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I have a lot of fond memories of my childhood but the most immediate one that comes to mind is when I was living in Hong Kong. My mom was a broadcaster at the time and I remember seeing her on TV and thinking that was the coolest thing. My dad is a musician so I also got to go see his pieces performed at major opera and concert halls. Since my parents both were in artistic fields they gave me a lot of leeways to explore and try things which fostered my curiosity.
Pricing:
- We charge $250/hour for development or design. This is an all in price that includes all support services like project management, managerial oversight, and account management.
Contact Info:
- Address: 140 Penn Street
- Website: http://www.fishermenlabs.com
- Phone: 424-262-5227
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/fishermenlabs
- Facebook: facebook.com/fishermenlabs
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fishermenlabs
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/fishermen-labs-el-segundo
- Other: http://edenchen.co
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
