Modern Entrepreneur Profile - Mississauga's Doris Wu
/In conversation with Mississauga’s Doris Wu, entrepreneur and owner of With Love Archive.
Where did you get the inspiration to start With Love Archive?
I’ve always loved the feeling of putting pen to paper. I love making lists and journaling. It’s something I picked up from my mom at a young age. I think I just liked having a place where things that felt like me could live.
In my early twenties, when I was navigating life with Borderline Personality Disorder, the simple act of documenting helped me feel like I had somewhere to sort through everything. I tried different things, explored what made me curious, and followed whatever felt like it might bring me back to myself. But I kept feeling frustrated because I was scattered across different notebooks.
That’s when I had the idea for the Personal Archive. I wanted to create one tool that could hold all the thoughts, the lists, the experiments, and the pieces in between. One singular notebook that is flexible enough to change as I was changing, and hold the mess but still feel like home.
When that idea materialized into a real, tangible product, I realized it could help others do the same. To play, to stay curious, and to become the fullest version of themselves.
Describe With Love Archive in six words or less
Personal Archive Tools for Intentional Living
What's been the biggest reward being an entrepreneur?
The biggest reward has been realizing that as I build With Love Archive, it’s also building me.
This journey as an entrepreneur has really challenged me and pushed me to grow in so many different ways. I’ve had to trust myself more, learn to celebrate being an amateur and keep showing up for what I believe in.
And by me showing what it looks like to be in progress, to live with curiosity while building this business, I am reflecting on the mission. I think that’s quite meaningful.
How will the $10,000 grant help move you forward?
This grant will help me get With Love Archive off the ground. Being self-funded until now and working as a one-woman team, I’ve had to hold off on a lot. Now, with this support, I’ll be investing in marketing. That includes paid ads, tools for video editing and email marketing to help reach the people this product was made for.
It will also support inventory and packaging, so I can keep making and fulfilling orders without delay.
Down the line, I’m planning to do pop-ups. A portion of the grant will go toward a simple setup and POS system. Just the basics I need to connect with people in person and start building a community around the product in real life.
Did you ever think you'd become an entrepreneur?
Honestly, no, I didn’t grow up thinking I’d become an entrepreneur. My parents encouraged my creativity when I was young, but I was also told to study hard and get a good job. So I did. I studied Psychology at the University of Toronto, thinking I’d become a psychologist. Looking back, I can see how much time I poured into personal projects. I started and ran a beauty studio for five years while finishing school. I also freelanced in social media and content creation. At the time, I saw those things as creative outlets or something I just loved doing. But now I am thinking maybe a part of me already knew I wanted to build something of my own.
Now, being an entrepreneur and building With Love Archive from the ground up, knowing it holds so much of my heart, is a feeling I wouldn’t trade for anything.
What's been the most impactful lesson you've learned professionally?
The most impactful lesson I’ve learned is to celebrate being an amateur. At the beginning of my journey, I felt like I had to know everything and wait until things were perfect before putting anything out into the world. But that waiting kept me stuck for a while. It wasn’t until I allowed myself to fully step into being a beginner and started treating everything as an experiment that things started to move.
I shared in a Substack last year, “If all that we create is for validation, then we truly lose sight of the essence of creation — for ourselves, for play, for finding the delight in the act of it all.”
That’s what I try to live by now. Creating for the joy of it and enjoying the process of learning as I go.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to explore entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is really just an excuse to get to know yourself better. Treat it like an experiment in figuring out what you love, what you hate, what you’re good at, and what you’re still learning. Give yourself permission to explore, and keep a notebook where you collect ideas, small wins, even mistakes. They’re all evidence that you’re showing up. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a perfect plan. What you do need is to believe in yourself just enough to start, and to keep building proof along the way that you’re capable. Let yourself be bad at it until you get better. Enjoy the journey!
What do the next 18 months look like for With Love Archive?
Lots of showing up online, sharing the product, and creating space for real dialogue. I want to keep listening to the people using our tools and continue designing with them in mind.
We already have new insert designs and product ideas in the works, and I’m excited to share them as they come to life. I’m also looking forward to exploring pop-ups and markets. It’s important to me that people get to see and feel the product for themselves, flip through the pages, ask questions. I just want to keep making connections and grow the community around what we’re building.
What's your favourite product offering currently and why?
Right now our core offering is the Personal Archive. It was the beginning of With Love Archive and the foundation of documenting a life with intentionality so it’s my favourite! If I have to pick a specific insert though, I’d pick the index and catalogue inserts. I use them for commonplacing, which is essentially a way to gather quotes, reflections and ideas. It’s like curating your own personal library of thought.
