As a child, Nanxi Liu (now cofounder and CEO at Enplug), was very dedicated to playing the piano. She didn’t have a professional coach or even the best piano when compared to some of her friends, but Liu was always able to get into the finals. Her mother was the motivation behind her success. Liu remembers being told, “You’re not any less talented than the other piano players. You could have won. The reason you didn’t was because of the amount of time you put into practicing.”

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That childhood advice stuck with Liu and she’s been practicing that advice in her entrepreneurial pursuits. She learned that she could control the outcomes of certain things if she put in the time to make them happen; that she could control her own luck. And that’s exactly what she’s doing.

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“I knew what to say, what not to say and who to talk to. That’s why it’s so good to start companies as soon as possible. People are also much more forgiving when you are young. I never revealed my age to investors until they gave me money.”

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Liu, aged 25, runs Enplug, a company she cofounded that creates software to transform all public displays into intelligent displays. The goal being to get every public display running on their software and then networking them all together to enhance the experience for users.

The backing behind Liu’s accelerated success has been present in every stage of her life. Liu’s parents were immigrants; professors in China. They came to the U.S. and worked as waiters until they received successful career options.

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“My parents encouraged me to do whatever I wanted,” Liu said. “My friends had famous piano coaches and it seemed like I was at a disadvantage, but I always got into the top 3, so I feel that the underdog stands a chance.”

 

Fast forward to college and Liu figured out that by winning scholarships through piano competitions and beauty pageants, she was able to pay her way through UC Berkeley.

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During her senior year, Liu meets “a cute guy at a dive bar” and ends up co-founding a successful startup that develops polymers to enable vaccines to survive without refrigeration. They named their new venture Nanoly. Liu stayed up night after night applying for every grant she could find. By the time she was finished, sources estimate that she had raised more than $3 million.

 

“We got our work published in a bio trade journal and that was reviewed by other scientists,” Liu says. “It soon turned into a company and I became the CEO.”

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She went on to win the 2014 Young Innovators Award sponsored by Microsoft and Nokia, during which time, she also joined the youth advisory board of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation – all before the age of 25.

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With all that Liu accomplished during her time at college, her experience level was far beyond the normal amount for a college senior. Her ambition and strive for success are what Liu truly makes a part of her entrepreneurial endeavors that pull her to the top.

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“I always just did ten percent more than everyone else and I stood out,” Liu said. “I helped me prepare for the rigor of leadership roles.”

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The fast-paced startup lifestyle Liu upholds is also very real when choosing partners or cofounders for her projects.

 

“All major decisions about cofounders I have made within 30 minutes of talking to them,” she says. “There is mutual admiration for each other. It means we are respected and on the same page. A lot of times, people question whether a person is good enough. There has to be mutual respect and that’s rare to find. Once you see an opportunity you have to grasp it. If you let it go, then you’ll lose that momentum.”

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Liu packed her books and piano, and took her seemingly innate entrepreneurial skills to work in Los Angeles where she’s currently building a team of talented people and investors for Enplug.

 

“My goal is to build a company worth a billion dollars by the time I am 30,” she says. “It was very difficult to do in biotechnology with Nanoly, so I wanted to give it a go with a software company.”

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The Enplug startup team she put together was a diverse group with a lot of experience, passion and ambition. For the first several months, all five co-founders (four guys and Liu) shared a one-bedroom, one bath apartment, but not because they had to. In fact, one of Liu’s roommates drove an Aston Martin at the time.

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“I believe you have the most growth when you’re uncomfortable when you’re in scrap mode,” Liu said. “If there is one way to get to know your cofounders, it’s for all five of you to live together in a tiny apartment.”

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Enplug has become the premier software for businesses to use to show interactive content like social media on digital display. As for Nanxi Liu, she is focused on achieving the milestones she has set for herself and plans to follow any and every opportunity gets her closer to her billion-dollar company.

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“When you’re worth a billion dollars, it means that a lot of people are using your product and a lot of people care about what you’ve built. That’s why a billion dollars is cool.”