Expanding your cybersecurity business into Korea, with Philip
Networking with people from all around the world is one of the joys of being a digital nomad. But sometimes, collaboration isn’t possible because of legal issues. In Korea, you can expand or create your business locally with an entrepreneur visa called OASIS.
Philip came to the very first Digital Nomads Korea meetup back in November 2022. Korea’s culture has been a perfect fit for him because he embodies it in many ways. He can be very discreet yet talkative, and has a strong presence in the community yet is often abroad.
Now, after so many years of back and forth, he wants to build stronger ties in Seoul. As an independent security researcher in the web3 industry, he’s been working on expanding his business into Korea by aiming to apply for OASIS, the Korean startup visa.
How did your Digital Nomad journey start?
I got started in 2018. There was a really good flight deal from Canada to Singapore through the Philippines and I wanted to remain abroad for 6 months. I didn’t try to find people in the Philippines, but I tried in Singapore. I stayed at hacker hostel and discovered the local startup scene. Pretty quickly though, I found it hard to deal with the time zones for work and I went back to Canada.
Did you go back to your previous town and settle again?
No. I became a nomad in my own country! But then Covid happened and by 2022, I was done with it (laugh). I quit my job, packed everything, and went to Asia to begin nomading again. Nowadays, I’m most often found in Korea and Japan.
How did you end up in Korea, the first time?
I’ve been listening to K-Pop for more than ten years. It’s my work music. I also watched the Korean thriller classics: Old Boy, Chaser, I Saw the Devil, etc. I knew about the country for a long time and I was curious about actually experiencing it. I also met some Koreans at an industry conference in the US just after I gave my last employer my notice, which gave me even more of a reason to go. I had a soft landing when I arrived which made things a lot easier.
Did you want to settle here from the beginning?
No, I’d say it kind of snowballed. I went to the first Digital Nomads Korea meetup in November 2022 - at the time it was only a posting on NomadList. Then I went to Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan again. But every time I came back to Korea, I just met more and more people. I find it easy to socialize with Korean people in general. And working in the crypto industry in Korea is particularly easy.
Do you find the crypto space in Korea any different from other countries?
I sometimes don’t tell people I work in crypto because they think I just trade tokens (cryptocurrencies) all day (laugh). But it’s a lot broader than that and it’s very visible here. K-pop groups, like TripleS, are using blockchain and NFTs. In general, crypto also found a space outside of speculation in Korea. It’s hard to find that in other countries.
What about the people working in the crypto space?
I mostly hang around with Korean entrepreneurs and builders here, so it can feel like a bubble. But there’s a vibrant community in Seoul and they’re pretty good at helping foreigners hit the ground running here. I couldn’t find a support system as easily in other Asian countries. For me, it’s especially convenient because Korea is close to Japan, and much of my work happens there too. It’s good for collaborations.
Why did you feel the need to expand your business to Korea? Couldn’t you collaborate remotely?
I do security research which can be done remotely very easily. But I can’t work with my local network of people in Korea without a proper business visa. Also, life in Korea on a tourist visa can be inconvenient if you come back often. I want to access everything I can to make my personal and professional life easier here.
Is the visa hard to obtain?
It depends on your experience. I think you need the drive to go through the process and actually want to run your own business. In my case, I already had two businesses, so it was easier to approach it with the right mindset. There are some things in the OASIS process that are a bit opaque, but then I ask people about it, and figure things out from there. It seems easy, but you need to be aware of the requirements. For example, you need at least a bachelor’s degree, otherwise you need a recommendation letter. Things like that.
Would you recommend it?
It depends a lot on your background: you need to have the drive to start and run your own business. It’s very different from working in a company as an employee. Then do you want to set up an offshore company in Korea or create one in Korea? Are you ready for entrepreneurship?
What’s your favorite thing in Korea?
Hands down: people. I find Korea very welcoming, which makes it very hard to leave (laugh). You know how in Canada, we’re known to be hospitable? But here’s a fake politeness to it. There’s a routine: ‘Hey how are you’ ‘Good, and you’... But Koreans don’t fake it, I believe. It feels more genuine.
Another one of our members, Chris, said the same thing (laugh). What about the thing you like the least?
Stuff that’s not designed well drives me crazy. It’s the details: within some trains only one side has displays showing the stops, the other just has advertisements, so you have to look on the other side to see the stops. There’s no platform numbers except for some stations, so you need to know which specific stations you need to go to, not just the general direction. I was arguing with people in Hoppin House Coworking about this a few weeks ago… (laugh). Most found it much easier to get their bearings in the Korean subway than in Japan, but for me it’s the opposite!
Did you find Digital Nomads Korea meetups useful for networking?
I don’t go to Digital Nomads Korea meetups to network, per se, but it does happen naturally as we talk about where we come from, and what we do for work. These days in the community, there are both nomads coming for a short time to Korea and nomads who want to stay longer than a few months. It’s changed a lot since that very first meetup I went to back in 2022, it’s pretty cool. I went on a workation to Jeju island last year in November. I’d been to Jeju before on my own, but it was a very different experience with people who knew what they were doing. This year, also, a group of us went to Bansko in Bulgaria, for the Digital Nomad Festival. We did many networking events there, but also events with other communities we know from Japan like Colive Fukuoka. It was fun and interesting.
Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs going to Korea?
Get your MBTI! (laughs) Answer the questions, get your personality type and do some research on how your personality fits with your style of working and networking with others. Figure out if you’re more of an introvert or extrovert person. It’s very useful in Korea, they’re crazy about this test - especially at work.
Philip’s recommendations
🍜 A place to eat at
Pyeongyang Myeonok is both a great restaurant and a cultural experience. The specialty is cold noodles (naengmyeon) North Korean style! Crypto events are usually close to Dongdaemun, so I end up going there most of the time. If you need proof it’s a good place: the clients are all ajumma (middle-aged women) and ajusshi (middle-aged men)! (laugh)
🎤 An artist to listen to
I’ve been listening a lot to Ash-B recently. I like extremes and I got a bit tired of K-pop recently. I like the contrast between Ash-B’s music and what I usually listen to. I’m trying to find more music like hers that I can do my work with but is not too pop-ish.
📺 A show to watch
My Mister is a K-drama that hits all the story beats for me. It has emotion, suspense, and subtle action... It made me feel for the characters. It really pulled me in. And I finally discovered IU thanks to it!
Expanding your cybersecurity business into Korea, with Philip
Networking with people from all around the world is one of the joys of being a digital nomad. But sometimes, collaboration isn’t possible because of legal issues. In Korea, you can expand or create your business locally with an entrepreneur visa called OASIS.
Philip came to the very first Digital Nomads Korea meetup back in November 2022. Korea’s culture has been a perfect fit for him because he embodies it in many ways. He can be very discreet yet talkative, and has a strong presence in the community yet is often abroad.
Now, after so many years of back and forth, he wants to build stronger ties in Seoul. As an independent security researcher in the web3 industry, he’s been working on expanding his business into Korea by aiming to apply for OASIS, the Korean startup visa.
How did your Digital Nomad journey start?
I got started in 2018. There was a really good flight deal from Canada to Singapore through the Philippines and I wanted to remain abroad for 6 months. I didn’t try to find people in the Philippines, but I tried in Singapore. I stayed at hacker hostel and discovered the local startup scene. Pretty quickly though, I found it hard to deal with the time zones for work and I went back to Canada.
Did you go back to your previous town and settle again?
No. I became a nomad in my own country! But then Covid happened and by 2022, I was done with it (laugh). I quit my job, packed everything, and went to Asia to begin nomading again. Nowadays, I’m most often found in Korea and Japan.
How did you end up in Korea, the first time?
I’ve been listening to K-Pop for more than ten years. It’s my work music. I also watched the Korean thriller classics: Old Boy, Chaser, I Saw the Devil, etc. I knew about the country for a long time and I was curious about actually experiencing it. I also met some Koreans at an industry conference in the US just after I gave my last employer my notice, which gave me even more of a reason to go. I had a soft landing when I arrived which made things a lot easier.
Did you want to settle here from the beginning?
No, I’d say it kind of snowballed. I went to the first Digital Nomads Korea meetup in November 2022 - at the time it was only a posting on NomadList. Then I went to Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan again. But every time I came back to Korea, I just met more and more people. I find it easy to socialize with Korean people in general. And working in the crypto industry in Korea is particularly easy.
Do you find the crypto space in Korea any different from other countries?
I sometimes don’t tell people I work in crypto because they think I just trade tokens (cryptocurrencies) all day (laugh). But it’s a lot broader than that and it’s very visible here. K-pop groups, like TripleS, are using blockchain and NFTs. In general, crypto also found a space outside of speculation in Korea. It’s hard to find that in other countries.
What about the people working in the crypto space?
I mostly hang around with Korean entrepreneurs and builders here, so it can feel like a bubble. But there’s a vibrant community in Seoul and they’re pretty good at helping foreigners hit the ground running here. I couldn’t find a support system as easily in other Asian countries. For me, it’s especially convenient because Korea is close to Japan, and much of my work happens there too. It’s good for collaborations.
Why did you feel the need to expand your business to Korea? Couldn’t you collaborate remotely?
I do security research which can be done remotely very easily. But I can’t work with my local network of people in Korea without a proper business visa. Also, life in Korea on a tourist visa can be inconvenient if you come back often. I want to access everything I can to make my personal and professional life easier here.
Is the visa hard to obtain?
It depends on your experience. I think you need the drive to go through the process and actually want to run your own business. In my case, I already had two businesses, so it was easier to approach it with the right mindset. There are some things in the OASIS process that are a bit opaque, but then I ask people about it, and figure things out from there. It seems easy, but you need to be aware of the requirements. For example, you need at least a bachelor’s degree, otherwise you need a recommendation letter. Things like that.
Would you recommend it?
It depends a lot on your background: you need to have the drive to start and run your own business. It’s very different from working in a company as an employee. Then do you want to set up an offshore company in Korea or create one in Korea? Are you ready for entrepreneurship?
What’s your favorite thing in Korea?
Hands down: people. I find Korea very welcoming, which makes it very hard to leave (laugh). You know how in Canada, we’re known to be hospitable? But here’s a fake politeness to it. There’s a routine: ‘Hey how are you’ ‘Good, and you’... But Koreans don’t fake it, I believe. It feels more genuine.
Another one of our members, Chris, said the same thing (laugh). What about the thing you like the least?
Stuff that’s not designed well drives me crazy. It’s the details: within some trains only one side has displays showing the stops, the other just has advertisements, so you have to look on the other side to see the stops. There’s no platform numbers except for some stations, so you need to know which specific stations you need to go to, not just the general direction. I was arguing with people in Hoppin House Coworking about this a few weeks ago… (laugh). Most found it much easier to get their bearings in the Korean subway than in Japan, but for me it’s the opposite!
Did you find Digital Nomads Korea meetups useful for networking?
I don’t go to Digital Nomads Korea meetups to network, per se, but it does happen naturally as we talk about where we come from, and what we do for work. These days in the community, there are both nomads coming for a short time to Korea and nomads who want to stay longer than a few months. It’s changed a lot since that very first meetup I went to back in 2022, it’s pretty cool. I went on a workation to Jeju island last year in November. I’d been to Jeju before on my own, but it was a very different experience with people who knew what they were doing. This year, also, a group of us went to Bansko in Bulgaria, for the Digital Nomad Festival. We did many networking events there, but also events with other communities we know from Japan like Colive Fukuoka. It was fun and interesting.
Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs going to Korea?
Get your MBTI! (laughs) Answer the questions, get your personality type and do some research on how your personality fits with your style of working and networking with others. Figure out if you’re more of an introvert or extrovert person. It’s very useful in Korea, they’re crazy about this test - especially at work.
Philip’s recommendations
🍜 A place to eat at
Pyeongyang Myeonok is both a great restaurant and a cultural experience. The specialty is cold noodles (naengmyeon) North Korean style! Crypto events are usually close to Dongdaemun, so I end up going there most of the time. If you need proof it’s a good place: the clients are all ajumma (middle-aged women) and ajusshi (middle-aged men)! (laugh)
🎤 An artist to listen to
I’ve been listening a lot to Ash-B recently. I like extremes and I got a bit tired of K-pop recently. I like the contrast between Ash-B’s music and what I usually listen to. I’m trying to find more music like hers that I can do my work with but is not too pop-ish.
📺 A show to watch
My Mister is a K-drama that hits all the story beats for me. It has emotion, suspense, and subtle action... It made me feel for the characters. It really pulled me in. And I finally discovered IU thanks to it!
Expanding your cybersecurity business into Korea, with Philip
Networking with people from all around the world is one of the joys of being a digital nomad. But sometimes, collaboration isn’t possible because of legal issues. In Korea, you can expand or create your business locally with an entrepreneur visa called OASIS.
Philip came to the very first Digital Nomads Korea meetup back in November 2022. Korea’s culture has been a perfect fit for him because he embodies it in many ways. He can be very discreet yet talkative, and has a strong presence in the community yet is often abroad.
Now, after so many years of back and forth, he wants to build stronger ties in Seoul. As an independent security researcher in the web3 industry, he’s been working on expanding his business into Korea by aiming to apply for OASIS, the Korean startup visa.
How did your Digital Nomad journey start?
I got started in 2018. There was a really good flight deal from Canada to Singapore through the Philippines and I wanted to remain abroad for 6 months. I didn’t try to find people in the Philippines, but I tried in Singapore. I stayed at hacker hostel and discovered the local startup scene. Pretty quickly though, I found it hard to deal with the time zones for work and I went back to Canada.
Did you go back to your previous town and settle again?
No. I became a nomad in my own country! But then Covid happened and by 2022, I was done with it (laugh). I quit my job, packed everything, and went to Asia to begin nomading again. Nowadays, I’m most often found in Korea and Japan.
How did you end up in Korea, the first time?
I’ve been listening to K-Pop for more than ten years. It’s my work music. I also watched the Korean thriller classics: Old Boy, Chaser, I Saw the Devil, etc. I knew about the country for a long time and I was curious about actually experiencing it. I also met some Koreans at an industry conference in the US just after I gave my last employer my notice, which gave me even more of a reason to go. I had a soft landing when I arrived which made things a lot easier.
Did you want to settle here from the beginning?
No, I’d say it kind of snowballed. I went to the first Digital Nomads Korea meetup in November 2022 - at the time it was only a posting on NomadList. Then I went to Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan again. But every time I came back to Korea, I just met more and more people. I find it easy to socialize with Korean people in general. And working in the crypto industry in Korea is particularly easy.
Do you find the crypto space in Korea any different from other countries?
I sometimes don’t tell people I work in crypto because they think I just trade tokens (cryptocurrencies) all day (laugh). But it’s a lot broader than that and it’s very visible here. K-pop groups, like TripleS, are using blockchain and NFTs. In general, crypto also found a space outside of speculation in Korea. It’s hard to find that in other countries.
What about the people working in the crypto space?
I mostly hang around with Korean entrepreneurs and builders here, so it can feel like a bubble. But there’s a vibrant community in Seoul and they’re pretty good at helping foreigners hit the ground running here. I couldn’t find a support system as easily in other Asian countries. For me, it’s especially convenient because Korea is close to Japan, and much of my work happens there too. It’s good for collaborations.
Why did you feel the need to expand your business to Korea? Couldn’t you collaborate remotely?
I do security research which can be done remotely very easily. But I can’t work with my local network of people in Korea without a proper business visa. Also, life in Korea on a tourist visa can be inconvenient if you come back often. I want to access everything I can to make my personal and professional life easier here.
Is the visa hard to obtain?
It depends on your experience. I think you need the drive to go through the process and actually want to run your own business. In my case, I already had two businesses, so it was easier to approach it with the right mindset. There are some things in the OASIS process that are a bit opaque, but then I ask people about it, and figure things out from there. It seems easy, but you need to be aware of the requirements. For example, you need at least a bachelor’s degree, otherwise you need a recommendation letter. Things like that.
Would you recommend it?
It depends a lot on your background: you need to have the drive to start and run your own business. It’s very different from working in a company as an employee. Then do you want to set up an offshore company in Korea or create one in Korea? Are you ready for entrepreneurship?
What’s your favorite thing in Korea?
Hands down: people. I find Korea very welcoming, which makes it very hard to leave (laugh). You know how in Canada, we’re known to be hospitable? But here’s a fake politeness to it. There’s a routine: ‘Hey how are you’ ‘Good, and you’... But Koreans don’t fake it, I believe. It feels more genuine.
Another one of our members, Chris, said the same thing (laugh). What about the thing you like the least?
Stuff that’s not designed well drives me crazy. It’s the details: within some trains only one side has displays showing the stops, the other just has advertisements, so you have to look on the other side to see the stops. There’s no platform numbers except for some stations, so you need to know which specific stations you need to go to, not just the general direction. I was arguing with people in Hoppin House Coworking about this a few weeks ago… (laugh). Most found it much easier to get their bearings in the Korean subway than in Japan, but for me it’s the opposite!
Did you find Digital Nomads Korea meetups useful for networking?
I don’t go to Digital Nomads Korea meetups to network, per se, but it does happen naturally as we talk about where we come from, and what we do for work. These days in the community, there are both nomads coming for a short time to Korea and nomads who want to stay longer than a few months. It’s changed a lot since that very first meetup I went to back in 2022, it’s pretty cool. I went on a workation to Jeju island last year in November. I’d been to Jeju before on my own, but it was a very different experience with people who knew what they were doing. This year, also, a group of us went to Bansko in Bulgaria, for the Digital Nomad Festival. We did many networking events there, but also events with other communities we know from Japan like Colive Fukuoka. It was fun and interesting.
Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs going to Korea?
Get your MBTI! (laughs) Answer the questions, get your personality type and do some research on how your personality fits with your style of working and networking with others. Figure out if you’re more of an introvert or extrovert person. It’s very useful in Korea, they’re crazy about this test - especially at work.
Philip’s recommendations
🍜 A place to eat at
Pyeongyang Myeonok is both a great restaurant and a cultural experience. The specialty is cold noodles (naengmyeon) North Korean style! Crypto events are usually close to Dongdaemun, so I end up going there most of the time. If you need proof it’s a good place: the clients are all ajumma (middle-aged women) and ajusshi (middle-aged men)! (laugh)
🎤 An artist to listen to
I’ve been listening a lot to Ash-B recently. I like extremes and I got a bit tired of K-pop recently. I like the contrast between Ash-B’s music and what I usually listen to. I’m trying to find more music like hers that I can do my work with but is not too pop-ish.
📺 A show to watch
My Mister is a K-drama that hits all the story beats for me. It has emotion, suspense, and subtle action... It made me feel for the characters. It really pulled me in. And I finally discovered IU thanks to it!
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