Aye Moah is a cofounder and Chief of Product at Boomerang, the most popular productivity app for Gmail and Outlook, enabling millions of people to email more effectively with artificial intelligence.
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Name: Aye Moah
Origin: Yangon, Myanmar
Job: Chief of Product at Boomerang
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Humble beginnings
Moah first came to the United States in 2001 to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was quite a feat for a middle-class girl from Myanmar to be given the opportunity to study abroad under the military regime. She was working towards a medical degree before discovering a workshop on how to apply for universities in the US. It ended up changing the course of her life.
When Moah was admitted to MIT to study Computer Science, she wasn’t sure if she could actually afford to attend. Thanks to an anonymous donor from Saudi Arabia who funds exceptional students from developing countries, Moah was able begin her pursuit of the American dream. She still sends him updates on her goals and accomplishments to show her appreciation for the impact he has had on her life.
The birth of Boomerang
At MIT, Moah met one of her co-founders Alex Moore who ultimately became her husband and CEO of Boomerang. He had the initial idea for the app after spending countless hours in Outlook trying to keep track of deadlines and managing processes. Since Alex was more of a hardware guy, it led Moah to build the actual product. They decided he would own the business side of things and Moah take the lead on product-related matters. Having a life partner in a business partner has been a successful arrangement for the two.
The move to Silicon Valley
Moah and her team struggled to secure funding for Boomerang back in the East Coast. Investors were having a difficult time believing in a business model that hadn’t been proven yet. After three to four months with no luck, they decided to make the move out west. Within a month of relocating to California, they secured funding from ten different investors. Moah believes that investors in the Silicon Valley were more open to the idea of young, fresh grads with little to no business experience possibly creating a successful product and company.
Comes to HanaHaus…
Before HanaHaus came to fruition, Moah came across the Varsity Theater as a bookstore shortly after her move to the Silicon Valley. She was pleasantly surprised to discover it had converted to a coworking space years later. The business model of a low-commital coworking space really appealed to her. Although Boomerang already has its own office space, Moah uses HanaHaus when holding larger meetings as well as hosting external guests that may distract her team.
Remembering her roots
Through her success, Moah has made it a point to give back. She partnered with Build a School in Burma, a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of education in Myanmar, by donating a portion of Boomerang's profits towards building schools in remote areas.
Boomerang also supports the Myanmar Mobile Education Project (myME). The project educates children who work in tea shops in Yangon, Moah’s hometown, by repurposing old school buses into mobile classrooms.
Want to learn more about Boomerang? Check it out here.
In our blog series, People of HanaHaus, we present the folks that fill our workspace cafe with life: Start-Uppers, entrepreneurs, artists, founders, innovation managers, students, unicorns, venture capital investors and the people who make HanaHaus unique. We want to learn about their journeys and what brought them to Silicon Valley. We ask them to speak about their current projects and how they leverage HanaHaus for their business.