After immigrating to Canada from Korea with his family, Daniel Kang grew up in a small town in Manitoba, facing relative poverty.
“At an early age, I realized that people like myself who are disadvantaged don’t get access to a lot of opportunities. I felt that my career prospects were limited,” says Kang.
Fortunately, his dreams were limitless.
Attracted by McGill’s reputation for academic rigor and by Montreal’s vibrant culture, which he had experienced during a language exchange trip in high school, Kang applied for admission to the Bachelor of Commerce program at the Desautels Faculty of Management.
Being awarded a Jeremy E. Clark Best in the West Scholarship in Management was a huge honour and relief, says Kang. “I felt as though an enormous financial burden had been lifted off my shoulders. Without the generous scholarship support I received, studying at McGill would have been out of the question.”
He majored in finance, spending long hours – at times all night – working in the Bronfman Building. Eager to experience McGill to the fullest, Kang got involved in clubs and activities, including the McGill Debating Union, the Model UN and the Management Undergraduate Society Case League.
During his second year, Kang’s interest in social entrepreneurship was sparked when he worked with Solar Ear, a small NGO that sells low-cost rechargeable hearing aids, primarily in developing countries. This led to his involvement with the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) – a program for students run by the Clinton Global Initiative. As a CGIU representative, he actively encouraged social entrepreneurship among students in Canada.
In 2015 Kang was selected as one of McGill’s Li Ka Shing Scholars for a three-week exchange in Shanghai, Beijing, Shantou, and Hong Kong, where he studied Chinese business with 24 other Management students.
His early experience with financial insecurity motivated Kang’s interest in learning how people can gain access to capital. “I worked as a research assistant in micro-finance and crowdfunding and was very fortunate to have wonderful mentors, who had an immense influence on me,” he says.
This interest led Kang to undertake an ambitious project aimed at addressing the soaring poverty rate among seniors in South Korea. “I first learned about this situation in 2014, when I spent a semester abroad in South Korea. I was shocked to discover that my grandmother would carry cardboard boxes to recycling centers to get her daily allowance of money for food,” he says.
The following year, he launched the Remember the Elders Project, with a goal of influencing Korean pension reform. Kang knew that this bold undertaking required capital, so he looked for funding opportunities online, and learned about the OZY Genius Awards program, which have recognized and supported young leaders like US poet Amanda Gorman.
Kang would go on to be selected from among thousands of applicants around the world to receive one of 10 inaugural OZY Genius Awards. With the award came a grant of $10,000 that allowed him to complete his research project and launch a grassroots effort to elevate the cause of pension reform.
“When I won the OZY Genius Award I realized that access to capital is the key that unlocks the doors of opportunity,” says Kang. “Helping others unlock those doors has become my motivating force.”
After graduating from McGill in 2016, Kang worked for Oliver Wyman as a management consultant for several years before joining Softbank Vision Fund, an international venture capital firm where he focused primarily in fintech and marketplaces investments. In late 2020, he embarked on a one-year master’s program in policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, where his research focused on equitable opportunities, scaling access to capital, technology and education.
Then during the darkest months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of financial protection – especially for non-salaried workers – became evident to Kang and others around the world. In his dorm room at Oxford, Kang co-founded Flowbo, a unique funding platform for online creators. The company has been backed by Y-Combinator, whose investments include Airbnb, Coinbase and Dropbox.
“Traditional financial institutions can’t finance creators, and they are unprotected by employers or the government. Our goal is to help them access funding, quickly and fairly. In the future, we want to help musicians, artists, and anyone doing great work, but not in traditional jobs.”
Since its inception in 2008, the Best in the West awards program has given more than 330 students like Daniel Kang from Canada’s four western provinces an opportunity to study at McGill. You can lend your support to this important initiative today through your next gift to McGill, using the giving link below.