Jiwon Cho

In South Korea where I grew up, military service is compulsory for men. I was accepted into a program called Korean Augmentation To United States Army, which meant I was stationed on a local US army base.

And I was awestruck by the professionalism and bravery of the American forces. Since then, whenever I develop a new skill, I try to find new ways to apply it and level it up.

I started out doing cargo trading for a shipping company, then got promoted to commercial vessel sale and purchase. That was a wild ride. It’s a global market with only about 3,000 players and the transactions are in the tens of billions of dollars. I had to learn how to quickly assess the value of a major investment, how to follow the ups and downs of a niche market, and when to pounce on an opportunity.

Asia is an export market, and ImportGenius data is as valuable for foreign exporters as it is for American importers. We have a strong presence in China and Korea, and are planning expansions into Australia, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore.

Bill of lading information is not made public in Korea or in most other Asian countries, so this data still has a novelty factor here.

When I show business leaders that I have tracked their shipments, the first thing they say is, “I didn’t give you this information, so how did you get it?” They thought I’d stolen it somehow. It’s a revelation to learn that it’s all publicly available. Business leaders here like to keep an eye on their competitors, and we plan to help them do so.