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This idea’s been on my mind for months now.
Even before moving to Korea, I wondered, “Is there a digital community that connects The Korean Diaspora?” (If one existed, I thought it might be helpful to my new life in Seoul.)
I was surprised I couldn’t find anything.
The Korean Diaspora numbers over 7 million. Among them are founders, investors, creatives, and working professionals around the world. All of whom share a common heritage. And yet, interconnectivity within the diaspora feels weak.
This idea - of seeking out a digital community - would never have crossed my mind until now. In my early twenties, I was focused on my finance career. I had no social media presence. I had zero interest in “community building”.
But when I left banking in 2021 to join Frontier Networks, a startup whose goal was to digitally bridge investment professionals around the world, it became obvious to me that the internet would unlock new communities.
In recent years, I’ve discovered and engaged with several: Latticework (for multi-disciplinary learners), Next Chapter (for Australian founders), NessLabs (for productivity & mindfulness), The Leading Edge (for personal evolution), DesignBuddies (for designers), and more.
Through them, I’ve made friends, found intellectual sparring partners, and built a diverse professional network.
It’s clear to me this is only the beginning.
I recently finished reading futurist Balaji Srinivasan’s The Network State (2022). In it, he suggests digital communities will one day amass power that rivals that of large nation states. A wild proposition.
Srinivasan writes: “When we think of a nation state, we immediately think of the lands, but when we think of a network state, we should instantly think of the minds. That is, if the nation state system starts with the map of the globe and assigns each patch of land to a single state, the network state system starts with the 7+ billion humans of the world and attracts each mind to one or more networks.”
From my own learnings hosting a podcast, publishing a newsletter, and expanding my social media presence, Srinivasan’s conclusions don’t sound crazy. (In fact, they sound quite probable.)
There’s still a lot of experimentation to be done in the space and I hope to play a part in the discovery process.
This past month, I decided to launch K-Bridge (link) and built a basic website for it. It’s incomplete and very much under development but if you’re interested in following along: (1) subscribe to the K-Bridge newsletter and (2) submit an application to be a “fellow”. (Note: K-Bridge will be open to non-Koreans.)
In the months ahead, I plan to build out the website and onboard ~50 early fellows who share K-Bridge’s values.
Some people have told me this won’t work.
Some reasons being: (1) The cultural gaps are too big to bridge. (2) Moderating free speech on a global platform is too hard. (3) Regional and professional Korean organizations already exist and there’s no need for another. And many more…
I don’t find these convincing.
For one, there are already a few diaspora organizations that have unlocked value. I recently interviewed Quang Do (link), the founder of Overseas Vietnamese (link) who has scaled his community to 35,000+ and now hosts a conference in Saigon where he convenes Vietnamese professionals from around the world. I later got connected to Aly Fahd (link) who’s building a similar network for the Pakistani diaspora.
This hasn’t been tried (or at least not executed well) for The Korean Diaspora.
My thinking is that even if K-Bridge appeals to just 1% of the 7 million people in the Korean Diaspora that’s still 70,000 people that would find it useful (and this figure doesn’t account for English-speaking Korean natives that might be interested.)
With the right execution, the right early members, and a shared set of values, I’m convinced a network like this could bring to life many new possibilities.
Stay tuned :)
