Hyojeong, International Development

Coming from South Korea, Hyojeong has graduated from the Master in International Developement. She is the >CEO and founder of NomadHer, an app for female globetrotters to encourage solo travelling safely. 

What is your role and main responsabilities?

Currently we are incubated at StationF, the world’s largest startup incubator in Paris, France and NomadHer has grown into a community of women from 100 different nationalities. Yes I dove into the startup life journey and this is pretty much different from what many other PSIA graduates are currently working on. Everyday is so dynamic. My main role as CEO includes managing the team, working on the product and talking to our NomadHer users and gathering feedbacks, reaching out to investors and pitching, getting rejected sometimes and negotiating on investment etc. 

How did you secure this role? 

I madein responsibilities?  a company and environment which I aspired to work for. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and thought of starting a startup with more social impact. During the 3rd semester of PSIA, I applied for SciencesPo Incubator where I could work on NomadHer to test the idea and to figure out whether female travellers actually feel the problem during their solo travelling. We are in Paris, the center of the city with endless travellers so I started talking to over 1,000 female travellers from different corners of the world. 

What is the most fascinating and/or surprising aspect at your role?

Fail, Fail, Fail and Learn and Re Do it. Through doing a startup, I learned that I should fail as quickly as possible. This is the attitude that I didn’t have before. There is no definite or accurate answer and NomadHer members are from over 100 countries and this is so exciting to get feedback from all women with exciting stories to share. The team has grown from 1 (myself) to 7 within 2 years and requires a lot of responsibility and also patience.  

How did your PSIA experience help you with the role? 

PSIA is one of the most international and dynamic communities and it was such an exciting day for me to meet all those smart and open minded people from all over the world. Everyone has lived in different countries and different continents and for me it really pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and also try new things. I do not think I could have approached social impact aspects if I had studied in other management or Business schools. NomadHer believes that we are empowering women through travelling and we believe that there can be more women who freely travel all around the world which also builds so much confidence and independence. My study at PSIA really helped me to approach entrepreneurship from a social impact angle and how I can impact positively the world through creating a startup.

What advice would you give to others? 

Being an entrepreneur is a really exciting yet painful journey. It is like raising a baby and you see that day by day it grows. It needs lots of patience and also persistence yet if you are one of those people who wish to wear different hats, who wish to challenge themselves, who wish to try things by stepping out of their comfort zone then it is for you. It is not always as rosy yet I believe that I learned so much for the past 2 years by starting my own startup than any other working experience. Dare to challenge yourself and start your own business with social impact!About NomadHer

• About the Master in International Development
• About NomadHer