Lucia
Liu

For me, Breakline has always been about one thing: finding the right circle. When I first came to the United States as an international student, I barely knew anyone. I was trying to adapt to a new country, build a new life, and figure out where I belonged. Even in a city full of people, I often felt alone.

That experience stayed with me. It made me realize that belonging is not about how many people you know. It is about finding the few who truly understand you — people who share your curiosity, your ambition, and the way you see the world.

As I started working and building businesses of my own, relationships became even more important. I saw firsthand that talent and hard work could only take someone so far. Sometimes, what changes everything is one person who believes in you, one honest conversation, or one introduction made at exactly the right moment.

I was fortunate to meet many incredible Chinese founders along the way, and I genuinely loved talking with them. Each had a different story, a different kind of courage, and something unique I could learn from. Some were building quietly through enormous uncertainty; others had left stable careers to pursue ideas few people understood. Their passion inspired me, so I began interviewing them and sharing their journeys.

Then one day, I asked myself: why should these conversations stay between only two people? Why not create a space where great founders could share what they were building — and meet other talented, like-minded people they might never cross paths with otherwise?

Around the same time, I introduced a founder friend to a venture capitalist. Seeing what one trusted introduction could unlock made the idea feel real. I understood that people did not need another room full of business cards. They needed trust. They needed someone who understood both sides and cared enough to make the right connection.

That was the moment I decided: if the community I was looking for did not exist, I would build it myself.

Breakline began with the trust I had built through my own relationships. I invited people I believed in, created conversations I genuinely wanted to be part of, and made introductions with intention. There was no large team or established playbook — just a strong belief that the right people deserved to find one another.

We started with ten-person founder dinners and intimate coffee chats. Slowly, those small conversations grew into private roundtables, panels, 200-person mixers, and industry conferences. Today, Breakline has connected hundreds of founders, investors, operators, and industry leaders across AI, FinTech, and emerging technology.

But the heart of Breakline has never changed. It is still about helping someone walk into a room and feel, perhaps for the first time, that they have found their people. It is about creating the conversation that gives someone clarity, the introduction that opens an unexpected door, and the community that makes an ambitious journey feel a little less lonely.