estonia opens its first ever business hub in seoul
The Estonian Business Hub recently opened in Seoul and is already hosting exhibitions and gatherings for the e-Residency community
Residency
- South Korea
Citizenship
- United States of America
Languages
English
Korean
Industry
IT
About me
I’m Ian Wagner, originally from the east coast of the US and now based in Seoul, South Korea. I’ve been enamored with all things digital since I first saw my uncle’s wristwatch. As a teenager, I started my first business building custom desktop computers, and during university I started a business with some friends developing apps for the newly-released iPhone. I’ve been building startups remotely ever since; long before “WFH” entered the vernacular!
Steeped in American startup culture, I was no stranger to innovation, but I didn’t usually expect it to come from government. When I heard about e-Residency though, I didn’t see a service or program; I saw a government trying to innovate. I signed up almost immediately, before even knowing what I would do with it. Something was happening, and I wanted to be part of it. I quickly realized that, while the primary use case was setting up a company, e-Residency was a magnet for likeminded entrepreneurs who thought on a global scale and had values that matched my own.
Many of my close friends and business partners now come from the e-Residency community. In addition to being involved with multiple businesses, I’m also a founding member of EERICA: an MTÜ (Estonian non-profit association) that helps e-Resident entrepreneurs find each other and connect with Estonia. If this message resonates with you, join us!
Outside of “work” (which is mostly really fun!), I enjoy long walks in the park, listening to deep house and techno, building new LEGO worlds with my daughter, and learning languages (both human and computer).
"E-Residency is a huge part of my identity. Since becoming an e-resident of Estonia in 2015, I've met hundreds of you, and so far, I have yet to meet an e-resident whom I couldn’t become friends with. I'm honored to be recognized as a Community Leader, and I believe highlighting e-residents who are approachable and have been 'around the block' will make our great community even better."
My journey
With e-Residency, you can easily register an EU business online without relocating and free from bureaucracy: great for remote entrepreneurs!
2015
I became an e-resident
I became an e-Resident in 2015. I heard about it from my good friend Luke. I immediately realized that Estonia was trying to flip the usual government business model on its head and would "compete" for these new "e-Residents." I was not used to seeing such progressive thinking come out of any government, so I did some more research and realized that it extended to a vibrant startup ecosystem as well. At that point, I just had to apply, even though I didn't have any immediate "practical" need for it!
2017
I registered my first company as an e-resident
I registered my first Estonian company in 2017. I had been preparing to leave the US for some time (to get married and move to Korea), and pretty quickly realized that e-Residency could have a practical value here. Of course, I could have kept on using a US company, but Estonia had my attention since they were going out of their way to make things easy for location-independent entrepreneurs. I had a consultation with the folks at 1Office during Latitude59 to answer a rather long list of questions I had given my situation. Everything checked out, and a few months later, Funktional OÜ was registered.
Service providers I have worked with throughout my journey
Please to watch this video.
how to run an effective community meetup for e-residents
EERICA’s local meetup guide provides tips and support for e-residents to organize effective community events wherever you are.