1415T2g1 South Korea/Participant Information/Sharon Yeo
Contents
About Sharon
SMU email | sharon.yeo.2012@smu.edu.sg
Academic Year | Year 3
School | Lee Kong Chian School of Business
1st Major | Finance
2nd Major | Operations Management
Why TSM South Korea?
What motivates you to join TSM?
I am currently working on a tech start-up currently incubated by SMU IIE called Protégé with two other SMU undergraduates. I have a strong passion in Entrepreneurship and am always hungry to meet other entrepreneurs as the story behind each of them never fails to inspire me. I strongly believe that enterprise is a very powerful tool to change the world and leave long-lasting, positive impacts on the lives of others. In even more recent years, I've seen the power of how technology enables an enterprise to scale beyond geographic boundaries with significantly lower obstacles than before, and what was previously unimaginable. Coming from a business background, I am often envious of how individuals well-skilled in tech are able to create amazing products with their bare hands and am really looking forward to learning more about technopreneurship. The final key motivation would be to really glean insights into South Korea's start-up scene and lessons from other start-ups and entrepreneurs in South Korea, to extract lessons that can be applied in my own start-up.
Why pick South Korea?
On a more personal note, I've always been attracted to Korean culture - from K-pop crazes in secondary school, to Korean dramas to fond memories of family holidays and representing SMU in business competitions in Korea. Apart from that, I find it exciting to witness first hand South Korea's nascent but growing start-up scene that may have many parallels with that of Singapore's. There is a lot of exciting buzz about the various potential upcoming South Korea tech IPOs which I believe would be really exciting to witness. Protégé also has longer-term plans (although we know there isn't much point for start-ups planning so far ahead because so many things change so fast anyway haha) to expand into other Asian countries, with our beachhead being Hong Kong or South Korea. The reason for South Korea being that they are the country witht he third largest revenue from apps, and they have a strong driven culture of education & self-improvement which ties in to our start-up concept and is what Protégé seeks to leverage on going into a new market.
Internship Opportunities
What types of internship opportunities interest you?
Start-ups or major MNCs that are famous for functioning like a start-up, such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc.
Internships that are 'uniquely Korea'
Any ideal firms (based in South Korea) that you wish to join?
SparkLabs (and maybe get accelerated by them :D)
Starting a business
What types of business interest you?
Not any one specific industry, but a business that I feel tangibly positively impacts the life of others, meets real consumer needs, has the potential to scale and inherently possesses a certain degree of novelty. Something that excites me in the gut!
What plan do you have in starting a business?
I am currently the co-founder of Protégé, that envisions to be the next generation network that drives personal & professional growth through connecting people. We take on a whole new approach towards self-empowerment, by creating Singapore’s first integrated platform with inclusive & exclusive mentoring networks. Industry professionals are connected with aspiring protégés in mutually beneficial mentoring relationships with a complete suite of collaborative tools, such as introspective Planboard, scheduling & knowledge sharing newsfeed. Would love to share more with you during the interview, or with anyone actually! We are in fact looking for a CTO and would love to speak to anyone with a strong interest in tech start-ups - drop me an email! :)
Past Experiences
Describe your past experience (entrepreneurship, or works in start ups, etc)
I have previously interned in Hong Kong, with a consultancy company CEO mindPower Ltd. It was a very refreshing and interesting experience as the founder & CEO started the company 8 years ago, after leaving her high-flying career with over 20 years of corporate experience - because she felt that the corporate world got too dirty and it could become a meaningless power struggle. Interestingly and comfortingly, she felt that she has learned so much more over the past 8 years of entrepreneurship experience than over 20 years in the corporate world, because entrepreneurship is just so unpredictable and so prone to mistakes and failure. In comparison, when you work as an employee in a corporation you try to avoid mistakes at all cost - and when you don't fail, you don't learn and you always stick with what's safe and familiar. Her vision was to make a difference in the world through her work, consultancy projects, strategic leadership training and executive coaching. This really resonated with me and I have learned a tremendous amount through my time working with her.
