What Running a Tour Company in North Korea Taught This Founder About Customer Service Travel can spark unexpected businesses, and Andrea Lee started hers after a pleasant trip to… North Korea? Her story, as told to Ashlea Halpern.
By Ashlea Halpern •
This story appears in the September 2016 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Travel can spark unexpected businesses, and Andrea Lee started hers after a pleasant trip to… North Korea? Her story, as told to Ashlea Halpern:
My parents are from Korea, but I was born in Chile, grew up in the U.S. and became a private equity lawyer in New York. It was a 9-to-5 job -- and I don't mean 5 p.m. I wasn't necessarily "unsatisfied," but I wanted to set my own schedule and build something lasting.
My dad started traveling to North Korea in the '90s as part of a Korean-American business delegation. I went for the first time in 2003 with my mom. People there were not that different from my own family. Despite growing up under entirely different political systems, I instantly felt at home with them. The landscapes were beautiful, raw and inspiring, and being there beckoned me to search harder for truths about people and places. I was convinced more people should have experiences like mine, and so I bootstrapped Uri Tours, which brings people to North Korea, with $20,000 in savings.
