Ying Gong is the President and Co-Founder of TickTalk Tech LLC (www.myticktalk.com), one of the most advanced 4G/LTE children’s smartwatches combining video and voice calling, text messaging, location tracking, 911 emergency response, SOS contacts, reminders, and more in one device. Complete with a custom-designed parental controlled app, TickTalk helps families all over the world connect safely.

Can you tell our readers about your background? 

At the beginning of my career, I was a junior high teacher at a private school in Shanghai, China. The parents of our students were highly educated and successful, but I saw the issues myself and other working parents faced with time management, connecting with their children, and balancing their careers. With my background as a teacher and a mother, I developed an understanding of children’s preferences, their psychology, and the expectations of parents. 

After marrying my husband, we started a consumer electronics company where I served as the Vice President of Marketing and Sales. In three years, I quadrupled the business serving large Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, QVC, Bacardi, Ford, Chanel, and Walmart in over 50 countries. My husband and I subsequently launched a consumer electronics company, XDREAM, in 2009 before starting TickTalk in 2016.  

What inspired you to start your business? 

My husband and I were searching for a safe way to communicate with our young daughter as we balanced family and our careers but weren’t ready to get her a cellphone. We quickly found most kid’s products offered limited features, had a ton of distractions, or were missing elements any smartphone would have. With nothing meeting our needs, we decided to develop our own responsible wearable product focusing on connection, safety, and developing good habits. We wanted to create a product that not only helped our family but families around the world who were searching for a way to connect with their children. 

Where is your business based?

TickTalk is based in Orange County, California. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

Before I started TickTalk, I was in the consumer electronics industry for 15 years focusing on R&D, supply chains, marketing, and sales. My focus at the time was expanding the product offering and finding new products to be sold to the U.S. market. In China, children’s watch phones are a popular product, but only a few companies were selling to the American market.  

When I was exploring starting the business, I noticed the majority of American importers did not have internal R&D or production capability. They also relied heavily on manufacturers for tech and back end support. I decided we would have our own internal team to offer 360-degree development of our products: our R&D, backend, server, hardware, and software are all internally developed to differentiate our product from our competitors. It was important to me that we design every aspect for our customers to have the best data protection without sacrificing their user experience.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Our customers. We listen to our community, improve our products based on their feedback, and offer the best customer service possible. Our community appreciates that and our word of mouth referrals have been incredibly helpful in raising our brand awareness.  

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

As a start-up, we don’t have the large corporate teams or budgets that companies like Fitbit or LG have. We are always searching for ways to increase brand awareness, appeal to new customers, and improve our customer experience. 

Our support team works with our customers collecting feedback. We relay to our technical team, who regularly update the software to give customers the best user experience. Our third-generation watch, the TickTalk 3, launched at the end of 2018. We have since accumulated over 2,000 reviews with an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars. Our customers had loved having a direct line to us, knowing there is a team of dedicated individuals who prioritize their needs and reflect their feedback in our products.  

How do you stay focused?

You have to love your career. If you treat it as just a job or a way of earning money, it's hard to maintain enthusiasm. For me, the best way to focus is to strive for progress in being the leading brand of children's smartwatches. You need to set high goals and values for yourself, your employees, and your company. Seeing how we help solve communication and safety problems every family faces along with our customer's appreciation for our products gives me the motivation to stay focused.  

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

I wanted to handle our entire operation internally to give our customers the best possible product. The majority of our competitors offer a turnkey backend and app where the developers control the backend, making it easier for hackers and viruses. We have an internal R&D team for the 360-degree development of our products and our backend is protected 24/7 to ensure customer data is secure and encrypted to protect from data leaks. We work diligently to ensure the customer experience doesn't end after their purchase, creating a community of families worldwide, whereas our competitors offer limited customer service. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Overall, our word of mouth referrals has been the most effective marketing strategy. We’ve recently started exploring partnerships and co-branding relationships. For our new generation TickTalk 4, we integrated with iHeartRadio Family for unlimited free streaming of thousands of kid-friendly songs, podcasts, and bedtime stories. We're excited to partner with other brands in the future to increase our brand awareness and improve our customer experience overall.  

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

If you see a void in the market, create the solution. If you are looking for a product that doesn't exist, other people are as well. Never let anyone tell you something isn't possible and always believe in yourself. Know you are capable of anything you set your mind to.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app right now is Headspace. It’s user friendly, simple, and the overall aesthetic makes you calmer. 

My favorite book is “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson. So many people fear change instead of the status quo. I love the message that change isn’t terrible and that improving yourself makes your “cheese” more delicious. It encourages you to decide what type of change will maximize your pursuit. The book is short, it only takes about an hour to read, and I’ve read it at least three times. Every time I read it, I gain new insights and heal when I’m facing any setbacks in life.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Zoom. With the epidemic, everyone is working remotely, and communicating effectively as a team has been crucial. Zoom’s online conference system has been a lifesaver.

Who is your business role model? Why? 

Steve Jobs because he made the impossible possible. Apple brought together functions that people had never thought to combine to solve the real needs of customers. Steve Jobs is a talented designer who perfectly combines cutting-edge technology and humanized design, making Apple as unique and successful as they are. 

How do you balance work and life? 

As a start-up working with overseas teams, my working hours are often in flux. I used to have meetings with my overseas team between 8 AM-10 AM or 6 PM-9 PM and then work in our U.S. office from 10 AM-6 PM, sometimes working until midnight. It was causing my anxiety and the pressure to accumulate. I finally realized the sky wasn't going to fall if there were emails unread or things on my to-do list unchecked. 

Now, I’ll spend 1-2 hours per day with my overseas team to leave myself more space and time to enjoy my life. Outside of work, I make sure to give myself time to go hike, meditate, read, listen to music, and catch up with family. I like cooking and I watch YouTube every week to learn new recipes. I think a successful entrepreneur and leader must be a person who loves and enjoys life, with a focus on work-life balance. 

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Meditation has helped alleviate stress and anxiety, especially during the epidemic. Meditating has given me a ton of inspiration, especially with the business. I’m exploring adding meditation functions to our products to help children learn these skills early on as we deal with these stressful times. 

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

We are very excited to be launching our fourth generation TickTalk smartwatch in February/March. We've kept the features our customers loved in our past generations and added new features like unlimited free streaming music powered by iHeartRadio Family, an activity step tracker, more parental controls, two 5MP cameras, and more. We're offering accessories for the first time with a charging dock, Bluetooth headphones, and removable watch charms for kids to personalize their TickTalk 4. It will be available for pre-order in February/March 2021. Find out more information at www.myticktalk.com/pages/ticktalk-4. 

How can our readers connect with you?

Readers can connect with us on social @myTickTalk or email our team at support@myticktalk.com. We look forward to hearing from you!