Jen Loong, 30: The Loop HK 30 Under 30 Class of 2019

Managing director, HYPE

Hongkonger Jen Loong is responsible for bringing some of the world’s biggest brands — Groupon, Lululemon and TOMS — to the Hong Kong and China markets.

She also founded WanderSnap, a a service that connects photographers and videographers with travellers who want to capture selfie-free images of their adventures, IN 2016. Called the “AirBnB of photography,” that business became available in more than 50 cities in Asia.

Having “learned a lot” from the journey, Loong exited the business in 2018 and today is a managing director at HYPE, a company that helps high-growth companies expand into the Asia region.

“What I realized was my strengths lied in building things from ground-up on a tight timeline,” she explains. “I decided to focus using more of my strength and to be able to share it with other founders eager to hyper growth in a new market in Asia.”

“I am proud of every team I got to be a part of, and the lasting work that they have done in many times even I have long left the company.”

With her expertise in entrepreneurship and consumer lifestyle movements, Loong says she is most proud of being part of every team she’s been a part of — whether that’s “spotting a red Lululemon manifesto bag being carried on the streets of Shanghai, or a pair of TOMS worn by a fellow flyer in an airport in inner China.”

“I hope to encourage more women to embark on venture capital or entrepreneurship in Hong Kong as a way of building world-class innovations that create substantial social change,” she says.

Her first job? Working as a retail associate at a clothing chain in Vancouver.

What inspires her? “The sheer desire to equal the gap, whatever the gap maybe.”

See the full list of The Loop HK’s 30 Under 30 Class of 2019.

Check out the highlights from the awards ceremony held on Feb 19, 2019.