The 2000 AWIB Entrepreneurial Achievement Award Winner - Isabella Chung
Founder, President and CEO
Phlair
Phlair, a New York based technology company, develops leading edge optimization solutions that help online marketplaces build profitable, sustainable businesses. To achieve this goal, Phlair delivers technologies and services that provide companies with the most comprehensive information ever generated about Internet transactional activity across multiple business partner sites. Phlair's advanced tracking and analytical services give companies unprecedented visibility into business partner and end-user activity by providing real-time access to high-value transactional data and allows companies to improve actual sell-through and conversion ratios. Phlair leverages the ASP business model to deliver a service that is easy to integrate, simple to manage and more cost effective than in-house solutions. The initial target customers for Phlair’s services are a wide range of business and consumer marketplaces, portals, ISPs, media and advertising networks, e-marketing service providers, and other e-businesses leveraging the web infrastructure to facilitate transactions. Phlair's current customers include Lycos and Snowball, the leading online media network for 13-30 year olds and ranked #26 in overall traffic by Media Metrix.
Isabella and her three partners started Phlair in November 1999. She met her future partners at CertCo, Inc (formerly Bankers Trust Electronic Commerce), which develops complex cryptographic and risk management systems to enable secure online payments, where she was Vice President and Counsel. During her three-year stint, she was a key driver in CertCo's overall product strategy and was involved in defining strategic planning for the e-commerce infrastructure company, facilitating strategic partnerships with such leading technology companies as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems.
Isabella sees us living in historic times where technology offers unprecedented opportunities to women and minorities. When she graduated from Boston University with a J.D. in 1994, she set out to work in international law and started her career as a law clerk at the ICC International Court of Arbitration, based in Paris, France. While at the ICC, she became involved with efforts in harmonizing digital signature and authentication law, which in her words "opened the path to careers in which technology and law could converge."
Isabella and her partners put their personal savings into Phlair. The partnership is one of Phair's greatest asset and they leveraged their existing networks to find talent and financing. Isabella had trepidation about starting a business in a male dominated industry, but the strength of the trust she had in her partners, overcame any doubts. With a strong belief in their technology, the team quickly attracted investors, including the CEO of her former employer, CertCo. In March of 2000, they closed on $3.3 million in Venture Capital and now have a crowed but lively office of 30 employees.
Isabella became the CEO of the firm to provide the leadership, vision and expertise needed to drive technology development and sales for the early-stage start-up. She believes that bringing groups together is a special strength of women who tend to emphasize cohesion rather than strife, and are focused on results. Isabella believes that although "the educational system is not optimized to support women going into technology and majoring in liberal arts can be a barrier," significant opportunities exist for women interested in high-tech careers. Her advice to women is "to work in companies with a technology focus. Whether your background is in business administration, marketing or engineering, you can find an entry path in technology firms". As far as her ingredients for start-up success are concerned, "you need to build a strong, cohesive team. For investors to see a group of smart, motivated people who agree on the goals, mission and values of a company is extraordinarily impressive."
Isabella was born in South Korea and immigrated with her family to the U. S. when she was three years old. Her father gave up his academic pursuits after earning a Ph.D. at New York University to support his family and opened Hallmark stores in the Bronx. Isabella spent much of her formative years working at her family business where she honed her entrepreneurial skills, which she has put to good use in her present role. Her parents have been extraordinarily supportive and her success has justified the sacrifices they made to enable her and her sister, currently a doctor completing her residency at Columbia University, to thrive.
Isabella remains active in a number of volunteer organizations. Among others, she serves on the Officers’ Committee of the East Coast Chapter of the Korean American Society of Entrepreneurs (KASE); is a member of the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association; has served as a member of a Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on American Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy; and has acted as an ICC Representative to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
When asked about the future she envisions for herself and the company, Isabella states "I can only hope that we continue to exceed our potential and create solutions that help drive the emergence of a truly networked economy."