I like to get my hands wet. I enjoy playing at the intersections of Web3/crypto, AI, and community to empower the masses.

Since 2023, I’ve been serving as the co-founder and CEO of SQRT, a personalized investment platform for digital assets. It’s designed to provide entrée to crypto for ordinary people by using quant trading tools normally deployed only at hedge funds. Our goal is to make crypto investing easier, safer, and more enjoyable for retail investors.

2022. I co-founded fashionxDAO, a collective of fashion creatives and Web3 believers, collaborating to incubate brands together. (OpenSea & Litepaper.) fashionxDAO was founded on a thesis that there should be a space for everyone to make a conscious choice on what they want to wear, how it gets produced, and what it represents.

I also served as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) at Madrona Venture Labs (MVL), a prominent venture studio based in Seattle. During my time at MVL, I explored a matching platform for DAO discovery and engagement. Think pitchbook meets glassdoor for DAOs.

2021. Following my bestselling NFT book publication in the fall of 2021 (a shameless plug: the book was subsequently published across Asia in multiple languages!), I worked with various startups and corporations as an advisor to their NFT/Web3 endeavors.

2018-2021. I was a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Foster School of Business, where I taught strategic management and entrepreneurship. My research program included semantic strategies in nascent markets, the interpretive dynamics of categories and identities, and creativity. 

I have a passion for delving into emerging concepts that defy conventional wisdom. I enjoy coming up with new theories that can explain and predict better in today's massively distributed and decentralized market/business environment.

For instance, as a management researcher with sociological training, I study how new things come about in organizational and market settings without a fixed point of change or coordination. Here’s my theory work on decentralized forms of emergence (paper).

Using a mixed method based on AI/ML to uncover evolving semantic structures of social- and news media conversations surrounding a new technology, I look at:

• How a new market comes to be categorized and consensually validated from uncoordinated social interactions, and

• How entrepreneurial firms maneuver in that crowd landscape to become the most attractive reference point within an exciting market category.

Overall Research Identity

Emergence | Crowds and communities | Innovation and creativity | Symbolic management | Categories and identities | Entrepreneurship

Google Scholar

Select Honors & Awards

• Poets & Quants, World's Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professor, 2020 (LINK) (Interview)

• Outstanding Author, Emerald Literati Awards, 2018 (LINK)

• Rudolf & Valeria Maag Scholarship in Entrepreneurship, 2017-2018

• Finalist, Best Conference Paper Prize, Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference, Berlin, Germany, 2016

• Strategy Research Foundation (SRF) Dissertation Scholar, SMS, 2015-2016 (LINK)

Academic Footprints  

I earned a PhD in Management with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and Organizational Theory from INSEAD. I hold a joint MSc in International Relations and History from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA in Sociology with a secondary field in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard College.

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I speak regularly on the topics of NFT/Web3, tech entrepreneurship, and creativity. My past engagements include:

➤ Invited talks & engagement

• Government: Financial Services Commission, Seoul Design Foundation

• Corporations: Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Shinsegae International, Hyundai Motors, Hyundai Card, SK, SM Entertainment, CJ, Hanwha Life, Mirae Asset Securities, NH Investment & Securities, LG, KIA, PXD

• Law firms: Kim & Chang, Yulchon

• Media: KBS, SBS, EBS, Chosun Daily, Monthly Chosun, Economy Chosun, Korea Economic Daily, JooAng, The Miilk, Korea Economy TV, T Times, Tech M, MKTV, Blockchain Today, Newsen

• Others: World Knowledge Forum, TWIN, MIT Tech Review, Digital Marketing Summit, Federation of Korean Industries, Seoul Rotary Club, Metaverse Korea, NFT Seoul

➤ Academic conferences

• Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Conferences: Chicago 2024; Boston, 2019; Atlanta, 2017; Aneheim, 2016; Vancouver, 2015

• Strategic Management Society (SMS) Conferences: Berlin, 2016; Denver, 2015; Madrid, 2014