Indian female business owner uses MBA to start first ABC Alphabet Biscuits in South Korea

印度女企业家凭借工商管理硕士（MBA）学位，在韩国创办了首家ABC字母饼干企业。

Nidhi Agrawal is the definition of confidence.

尼蒂·阿格拉沃尔是自信的代名词。

Even through a virtual interview, the female business owner radiates a sense of self-assurance and speaks with conviction.

即便在一场线上采访中，这位女企业家依旧散发着自信，言语间充满笃定。

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.”

《剑桥词典》将自信定义为“确信自己能把事情做好的感觉”。《韦氏词典》则将其描述为“对自身能力的认知或对自身处境的信赖感”。

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.

Agrawal认可这两种说法。“我不常自夸或谈论自己，但对所做之事充满信心，把想法大声说出来，能让我更有底气把事做好。”她如是说道。

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.

尽管这一点让我在通话中越聊越投入，但真正促使我主动联系她采访的，是她身为韩国饼干品牌“한글과자”（又名Kalphabets）的外籍女性创业者，同时兼具电视名人的多重身份。

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.

她的经历在这里极为罕见，目前鲜有关于在韩外籍创业者数量的相关数据——除非你想到米其林星级餐厅主理人、真人秀《厨艺争霸》参与者法布里齐奥·法拉利，或是IT服务咨询公司Miso创始人、美国籍维克多·程。

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.

法拉利与程是韩国为数不多的成功外籍男性创业者——重点是男性。法拉利甚至在韩国电视圈站稳脚跟，还曾与白钟元、约翰·帕克、李章宇等知名艺人合作。

It’s not to say that their journeys haven’t been difficult, but compared to Agrawal, it might as well have been a cakewalk.

并非说他们的创业之路不艰难，但若与阿格拉瓦尔相比，简直算得上轻而易举。

The never-ending challenges of being a foreign female business owner

身为外籍女性创业者所面临的无尽挑战

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.

阿格拉瓦尔与美籍合伙人泰勒·拉施（韩国创业者、知名电视人）一同参会时，有时会感觉自己被无视。

“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.

“他们甚至不跟我对视，仿佛我不存在。有时还会误以为我是合伙人的助理，只盯着我的外籍男合伙人，全程只跟他交流。”她说道。

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.

研究发现，初创企业中这类情况屡见不鲜。投资者通常会对男女创始人提出不同问题，面向男性创业者多为发展导向型问题，面向女性则侧重风险规避。

This undermines the success of female entrepreneurs in raising large amounts of funding or any funding at all.

这阻碍了女性创业者筹集大额资金，甚至难以获得任何资金支持。

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.

外籍女性创业者的处境则更为艰难。世界银行报告显示，2022年外籍女性创业者仅占创业者总数的3%，而外籍男性创业者占比达14%。

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.

这段日子并非一帆风顺，与阿格拉瓦尔成为Kalphabets联合创始人及所有者、收获成功之前的生活相去甚远。

From India to South Korea: The degrees of a successful female business owner

从印度到韩国：一位成功女性创业者的成长进阶之路

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.

阿格拉瓦尔自幼对商业感兴趣。在印度时，她就读于马拉特瓦达密特拉曼达尔商学院，获得商科学士学位，但她并未止步于此。

She wanted more.

她想要更多。

“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.”

“我想更多了解其他国家的商业运作模式，”她说，“我特意选择印度侨民较少但大企业云集的国家，只因想完全沉浸在陌生环境中，靠自己的力量从零创造一番事业。”

That’s when she stumbled upon South Korea, which attracted her because of its conglomerates, such as LG and Samsung.

就在这时，她偶然关注到韩国——LG、三星等大型企业集团的存在，深深吸引了她。

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.

阿格拉瓦尔毅然冒险前往韩国，在首尔国立大学学习韩语，随后又于延世大学攻读工商管理硕士（MBA）学位。

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.

毕业后，她在一家IT公司工作两年，随后出任热门相机应用Snow的印度区经理。彼时她意识到韩国尚未接纳年轻领导者，却仍决心迎难而上、突破困境。

“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.”

“Snow的工作机会很好，但他们还没准备好接纳年轻领导者，”她说，“所以我没做任何规划就辞了职，不过我知道，是时候开启自己的创业之路了。”

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.

自主创业初期，她最先涉足咨询领域。之后创办AsiaOEM公司，为希望定制护肤美妆产品的跨国企业提供原始设备制造（OEM）服务。

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.

2023年，阿格拉瓦尔与韩国美籍创业者、电视人泰勒·拉施共同打造英语社群项目Speakup Meetup，旨在搭建英语沉浸式学习场景。

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.

Speakup Meetup起初是一档英语沉浸式项目，旨在通过结构化、趣味化且互动性强的课程，帮助韩国受众建立自信，尤其适用于创业及商务场景。

The programme includes fun games and activities, as well as team-based interactions to create an inclusive environment.

该项目包含趣味游戏与互动活动，同时通过团队协作式交流打造包容性学习环境。

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.

这还不止，他们还创办了一家独一无二的企业，满是童年情怀，或许你也有所熟知。

How to start a one-of-a-kind snack business in South Korea: A female business owner’s PoV

《韩国特色零食创业指南：一位女性创业者的视角》

There’s a chance you’ve grown up with ABC Alphabet Biscuits, no matter which part of the world you’re in.

不论你身处世界何地，都有可能是吃着ABC字母饼干长大的。

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.

这款饼干在德国名为百乐顺字母脆饼，在马来西亚和新加坡，人们能在大叔大婶开的本地小铺里买到它，在韩国则被称作ABC巧克力饼干，是一种表面印有英文字母的巧克力涂层饼干。

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.

尽管字母造型饼干风靡全球，阿格拉瓦尔与拉施在运营Speakup Meetup时发现，市面上尚无韩语字母造型饼干——于是他们打造了Kaplabets品牌。

“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.

“Kaplabets的灵感源于我们运营Speak Up Meet Up的时候。拉施本来想用水印字母饼干设计游戏，却发现根本没有韩语字母造型的，”阿格拉瓦尔说道。

“That’s when we decided to start Kaplabets, so we can use it for games and eat it too.”

“也就是那时我们决定创办Kaplabets，这样既能用来做游戏，又能吃。”

Playing with food is a big no-no in any culture, especially in Asia.

玩食物在任何文化里都是大忌，在亚洲尤其如此。

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.

我记得小时候用土豆泥堆雪人被妈妈责骂，真想知道要是成年后玩韩语字母饼干，她会是什么反应。

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.

论趣味游戏创作，韩国确实有一套，尤其是饮酒游戏。比如BLACKPINK成员Rosé与美国流行歌手布鲁诺·马尔斯合作的歌曲《APT》，就引发全球关注，也让启发这首歌的韩国饮酒游戏文化走进大众视野。

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.

阿格拉瓦尔与拉施专注通过Kaplabets打造游戏体验，还为此设计了四款互动游戏，供消费者边吃饼干边玩乐。

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.

Kaplabets最大的亮点的是不限定于儿童群体，这正是两人想要打破的固有规则与刻板印象。他们都希望这款饼干能激发消费者的创造力。

“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.

“我们希望消费者能创意玩转Kaplabets，比如用来装饰蛋糕，拼生日快乐或名字；也能摆字母饼干求婚，把告白拼出来。”这位女创业者说道。

“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.”

“Kaplabets完美诠释了‘要抓住一个人的心，先抓住他的胃’这句话。所以想向他人表达心意，用我们的饼干就能做到。”