Nidhi Agrawal is the definition of confidence.
Even through a virtual interview, the female business owner radiates a sense of self-assurance and speaks with conviction.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines confidence as “a feeling of being certain of your ability to do things well.” Merriam-Webster describes it as “a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or reliance on one’s circumstances.”
Agrawal emits both definitions. “I don’t often boast or talk about myself, but I’m confident in the things I do, and saying all of them out loud gives me more confidence to work towards doing things right,” she says.
While this was what drew me deeper into our call, her career as a foreign female business owner of a biscuit business, Hangeul Kwaja (한글과자), aka Kalphabets, and TV personality in South Korea was what made me reach out to her for an interview.
Her story is far from common here and there is little information about the number of foreigners who have started companies in South Korea — unless you consider Fabrizio Ferrari, a Michelin-starred owner and participant in reality TV show “Culinary Class Wars,” or American national Victor Ching, founder of Miso, an IT services and consulting company.
Ferrari and Ching are some of the few successful male business owners in South Korea — emphasis on male. Ferrari has even cemented his place in South Korean television and has worked with well-known celebrities, such as Paik Jong Won, John Park, and Lee Jang Woo.
It’s not to say that their journeys haven’t been difficult, but compared to Agrawal, it might as well have been a cakewalk.
The never-ending challenges of being a foreign female business owner
When Agrawal attends meetings alongside her American business partner, Tyler Rasch — an entrepreneur and well-known TV personality in South Korea — she sometimes feels invisible.
“They wouldn’t even make eye contact with me or act like I don’t exist. Sometimes, they even think I’m my business partner’s manager. They’ll only look at my male foreign business partner and try to create a conversation solely around him,” she says.
Research has found that this is often the case for start-ups. Investors usually ask different questions to male and female founders, with promotion-focused questions for male entrepreneurs and prevention-focused questions for female entrepreneurs.
This undermines the success of female entrepreneurs in raising large amounts of funding or any funding at all.
It harder still for foreign female business owners. In 2022, female foreign entrepreneurs represented only 3% of all business owners; their foreign male counterparts accounted for 14%, the World Bank reports.
It’s not a life of sunshine and rainbows, and it’s far from what Agrawal had lived before becoming a successful female business co-founder and owner of Kalphabets.
From India to South Korea: The degrees of a successful female business owner
Growing up, Agrawal was always interested in business. In India, she pursued a Bachelor of Commerce from Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s College of Commerce, but that wasn’t enough.
She wanted more.
“I wanted to know more about how other countries run their businesses,” she says, “I was looking at countries with fewer Indian nationals but with big companies only because I wanted to immerse myself fully in an unfamiliar environment and wanted to create something by myself without anyone’s help.”
That’s when she stumbled upon South Korea, which attracted her because of its conglomerates, such as LG and Samsung.
Agrawal took the risk and moved to the East Asian country to learn the Korean language at Seoul National University. She then pursued an MBA at Yonsei University.
After graduating, she worked for two years in an IT company and later became the country manager for India at Snow, a popular camera app company. That was when she realised South Korea had yet to accept young leaders, but she was determined to defy the odds.
“It was a great opportunity at Snow, but they weren’t ready for young leaders,” she says. “So I decided to quit my job without any plans; however, I knew it was time to start my venture.”
Consulting was one of the first jobs she took up after venturing out on her own. Later, she started AsiaOEM, which provides Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) services to global companies looking to tailor themselves in skincare and beauty products.
In 2023, Agrawal and Tyler Rasch, an American entrepreneur and TV personality in South Korea, created Speakup Meetup, an English community programme to develop spaces for English language immersion learning.
Speakup Meetup started as an English immersion programme designed to help the Korean audience build confidence, particularly in startup or business environments, through structured, fun and interactive sessions.
The programme includes fun games and activities, as well as team-based interactions to create an inclusive environment.
That’s not all; they founded a one-of-a-kind business that seeps deep into one’s childhood, and it may be something you’re familiar with.
How to start a one-of-a-kind snack business in South Korea: A female business owner’s PoV
There’s a chance you’ve grown up with ABC Alphabet Biscuits, no matter which part of the world you’re in.
In Germany, it’s known as Bahlsen ABC Russisch Brot. For Malaysians and Singaporeans, they can be found in local stores run by aunties or uncles. In South Korea, they’re known as ABC 초코 쿠키 (ABC Choco Cookie), a chocolate-covered cookie emblazoned with the English alphabet.
While alphabet-shaped biscuits are popular globally, Agrawal and Rasch discovered while working on Speakup Meetup that there were no Korean alphabet-shaped biscuits available on the market — leading them to create Kaplabets.
“The idea for Kaplabets came about when we were working on Speak Up Meet Up. Rasch came up with a plan to create games with ABC biscuits but realised that there’s none in the shape of Korean alphabets,” shares Agrawal.
“That’s when we decided to start Kaplabets, so we can use it for games and eat it too.”
Playing with food is a big no-no in any culture, especially in Asia.
I remember my mother yelling at me for making a snowman out of mashed potatoes, but I wonder how she’d react if I were to play with Korean alphabet-shaped biscuits as an adult.
We must give it to Korea when creating fun games, especially drinking games. Take BLACKPINK’s Rose and American pop star Bruno Mars’s song “APT,” for example. It gained global attention and highlighted the Korean drinking and game culture that inspired it.
Agrawal and Rasch’s dedication to creating games through Kaplabets even led them to create four interactive games for visitors to enjoy while eating their cookies.
The best part about Kaplabets is that it is not limited to kids; a rule and stereotype that Agrawal and Rasch are trying to break. They both hope that the biscuits can spark creativity in their consumers.
“With Kaplabets we hope that our consumers will use it in creative ways. For example, they can use it to decorate cakes, such as writing happy birthday or their names. Another way could be proposing to their girlfriends by spelling out their proposal with the biscuits,” shares the female business owner.
“Kaplabets embodies the saying, ‘The way to your heart is sometimes through your stomach. So, if you want to show your appreciation towards someone, you can do it through our biscuit.”
