Soko Glam began in a New York apartment and helped introduce Korean skincare to a much wider American audience. Its story offers lessons in cultural entrepreneurship, customer education, trust and patient business growth.
Editorial Note
This article is provided for general educational and informational purposes. It is based on publicly available company materials, interviews and reporting available as of the publication date. Business operations, ownership structures, product offerings and leadership roles may change over time.
New To Education is not affiliated with, sponsored by or formally endorsed by Soko Glam, Charlotte Cho, David Cho or any brand mentioned in this article. Inclusion in this series should not be interpreted as confirmation that a company holds a particular government-issued minority-business certification. The term “minority-owned business spotlight” is used here to recognize a business publicly associated with Korean American founders and their entrepreneurial experience.
This article does not provide medical or skincare advice. Readers with questions about allergies, skin conditions or product ingredients should consult an appropriate healthcare professional before beginning a new skincare routine.
Long before Korean skincare became a familiar section in American beauty stores, many consumers had little idea what an essence was, why someone might use more than one cleansing product or how Korean beauty routines differed from conventional American skincare.
Soko Glam helped close that knowledge gap.
Founded in 2012 by Korean American entrepreneurs Charlotte Cho and David Cho, the New York-based company built an online destination for carefully selected Korean skincare products. What made the business especially influential, however, was not simply the inventory it offered. Soko Glam paired commerce with education, helping consumers understand unfamiliar ingredients, product categories and skincare practices.
That approach allowed the company to participate in a much larger cultural shift. Korean beauty moved from a specialized interest into a mainstream American category, and Soko Glam became one of the businesses most closely associated with that transition.
A Business That Began With Personal Discovery
Charlotte Cho grew up in California and later moved to South Korea after college. While living there, she became interested in Korean skincare products, ingredients and routines that differed from what she had encountered in the United States.
Rather than beginning with a plan to capitalize on a growing trend, Cho has described Soko Glam as emerging from her own effort to understand skincare and share what she was learning. She and her husband, David, eventually launched the company from their Upper West Side apartment in New York City.
That origin matters because it shaped the way Soko Glam communicated with customers. The business did not present Korean skincare as something consumers should automatically understand. It recognized that many potential customers needed context.
They wanted to know what the products did, how they should be used and why a routine developed in another country might be relevant to them.
Soko Glam turned those questions into part of the business model.
Selling Products Was Only Part of the Strategy
An online beauty retailer can compete on price, selection, shipping or exclusivity. Soko Glam added another element: explanation.
Through editorial content and skincare guidance, the company helped consumers learn about cleansing oils, essences, sheet masks, exfoliation, sunscreen and other parts of Korean beauty culture. Cho later described education through the company’s editorial platform, The Klog, and its consultation services as an important part of building the community around Soko Glam.
This educational approach reduced one of the biggest barriers facing culturally specific products in a new market: unfamiliarity.
A product can be well designed and reasonably priced, but consumers may still avoid it when they do not understand what it is. Soko Glam treated that uncertainty as an opportunity to teach rather than simply another obstacle to selling.
That distinction offers a useful lesson for other minority-owned businesses introducing products, services or traditions to audiences outside their original cultural communities.
Sometimes the customer does not need a harder sales pitch. The customer needs a clearer explanation.
How Soko Glam Helped Make K-Beauty More Accessible
Before American retailers began devoting significant shelf space to Korean beauty, consumers often had to search specialty stores, buy through international websites or rely on limited product information.
Soko Glam made Korean skincare easier to explore through an English-language online platform with a curated selection and educational guidance.
This helped remove some of the distance between Korean product innovation and American consumers. Shoppers no longer needed to travel abroad or navigate unfamiliar international purchasing systems to learn about emerging Korean skincare brands.
Major beauty publications later credited Charlotte Cho and Soko Glam with helping introduce Korean skincare technologies and practices to broader American audiences. Glamour described Cho as one of the early beauty figures who helped bring Korean products and innovations to consumers in the United States.
The company did not create Korean beauty, of course. Korean consumers, scientists, manufacturers and brands had already developed a sophisticated skincare market.
Soko Glam’s contribution was translation in the broadest sense. It translated not only language but also product purpose, routine and cultural context.
Building a Business From a New York Apartment
The early years of Soko Glam were far less polished than the finished e-commerce experience customers would later see.
Charlotte Cho has described how she and David invested their own savings, stored boxes in their apartment, packed orders themselves and carried shipments to the post office. They even sold household items while building the company during its early stages.
That hands-on experience gave the founders a direct understanding of fulfillment, customer expectations and operating costs.
Cho has said that entrepreneurs can learn valuable lessons by performing basic operational work themselves before immediately outsourcing every part of the business. Packing orders may seem far removed from branding or long-term strategy, but it reveals how much materials cost, how long each order takes and where mistakes are likely to occur.
It also creates opportunities for personal contact. Early Soko Glam customers reportedly remembered handwritten notes included with their purchases.
That type of interaction is difficult to reproduce once a company becomes larger. Yet those early relationships can become the foundation of a loyal customer community.
Growth Without Chasing Every Trend
Beauty is an intensely competitive industry. New products appear constantly, and social-media trends can shift before companies have time to adjust.
Soko Glam’s growth suggests that not every business must respond by launching as many products as possible.
Cho has discussed the importance of waiting until the company had developed sufficient knowledge, partnerships and customer understanding before expanding into its own skincare brands. Rather than immediately using Soko Glam’s audience to launch a proprietary product line, the company spent years learning from customers and working with products already in the market.
That patience runs against a common entrepreneurial narrative in which speed is treated as the highest virtue.
Speed can be useful, but moving quickly without credibility can weaken a brand. Soko Glam’s experience shows the value of allowing expertise and trust to develop before entering a new business category.
For small businesses, the lesson is not to move slowly in every situation. It is to avoid expanding simply because expansion appears to be the expected next step.
Trust Became a Competitive Advantage
Customers buying skincare products are often placing considerable trust in a retailer.
They want accurate ingredient information, realistic guidance and products that have been selected with care. They may also be trying to address acne, irritation, dryness or other concerns that affect confidence and daily life.
Soko Glam built its identity around curation rather than presenting every available Korean product as equally valuable.
This helped position the company as a guide rather than merely a marketplace.
Cho has repeatedly emphasized community and credibility in discussing the business. She has also described word-of-mouth growth as particularly meaningful because customers arrived through recommendations and shared experiences rather than only through paid advertising.
For minority-owned businesses entering crowded markets, trust can be more valuable than short-lived attention.
A viral post may introduce thousands of people to a company. Trust gives them a reason to return.
Korean Culture Was Part of the Business, Not a Decorative Theme
Soko Glam’s connection to Korea was not limited to packaging, visual design or marketing language.
The company’s core purpose involved products, practices and ideas developed within Korea’s beauty industry. Charlotte Cho also traveled regularly to South Korea to identify products and remain informed about changes in the market.
That continuing connection helped the company avoid presenting Korean beauty as a frozen cultural trend.
K-beauty changes rapidly. New ingredients, formulations, packaging systems and consumer preferences can emerge quickly. A company that stops learning may continue selling an outdated version of the culture it claims to represent.
Soko Glam’s model therefore required ongoing cultural and market engagement.
This is another useful lesson for businesses built around heritage. Authenticity is not achieved by using a country’s name or visual symbols. It requires knowledge, relationships and continued respect for the people and industries that created the product category.
The Importance of Korean American Representation
Soko Glam’s success also carries significance beyond skincare.
Korean American entrepreneurs have often built businesses that connect American consumers with Korean food, fashion, entertainment, technology and beauty. These businesses can become cultural bridges while creating jobs and expanding the visibility of Korean American leadership.
Representation in entrepreneurship matters because it affects which products are introduced, whose knowledge is treated as valuable and which cultural experiences are presented to the public.
A Korean American founder may recognize opportunities that investors or retailers unfamiliar with Korean culture overlook. The founder may also understand how to explain those opportunities to American consumers without removing their cultural origins.
Soko Glam grew during a broader expansion of global interest in Korean culture. Korean music, television, film, food and beauty increasingly reached audiences far beyond Korea.
The company’s story demonstrates how diaspora entrepreneurs can participate in that exchange without treating culture as a novelty.
Education Can Be a Form of Marketing
One of the clearest business lessons from Soko Glam is that education and marketing do not have to be separate activities.
Traditional advertising tells consumers that a product is desirable. Educational marketing helps them understand why it exists, how it works and whether it is appropriate for their needs.
For a company introducing unfamiliar products, that difference is enormous.
A detailed skincare guide can answer questions that might otherwise prevent a purchase. A thoughtful article can establish expertise before a customer ever visits a product page. A consultation can help someone feel that the company is listening rather than merely selling.
Educational content can also continue attracting readers long after a short advertising campaign ends.
This approach is especially relevant to New To Education’s own work. Businesses often gain credibility when they teach audiences something useful before asking them to buy.
What Other Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Soko Glam
Soko Glam’s story provides several lessons for founders operating far beyond the beauty industry.
The first is that cultural knowledge can be a genuine business advantage when it is paired with careful communication. Entrepreneurs should not assume that customers will immediately understand an unfamiliar product or tradition.
The second is that curation can be more powerful than overwhelming selection. Customers may value a smaller group of thoughtfully chosen products more than an enormous catalog with little guidance.
The third is that early operational work matters. Founders who understand packaging, customer service, returns and fulfillment are better prepared to evaluate future partners and costs.
The fourth is that patient brand-building can preserve trust. Soko Glam did not need to launch every possible product immediately to demonstrate growth.
Most importantly, the company showed that education can create a community around a business. Customers who understand a product are more likely to use it correctly, discuss it with others and return for additional guidance.
Why Minority-Owned Business Spotlights Matter
Minority-owned companies are often discussed only when they receive a large investment, experience rapid growth or encounter a major controversy.
That narrow focus misses much of what makes these businesses important.
Founders from minority communities may introduce products and ideas that were previously ignored by mainstream markets. They can create employment, preserve cultural knowledge and build new connections between communities.
Their experiences can also reveal barriers that are less visible in conventional business coverage, including limited access to capital, cultural stereotyping and the pressure to explain an entire community through one company.
Highlighting these businesses does not mean presenting them as perfect.
It means recognizing their contributions, studying their strategies and giving readers a broader understanding of entrepreneurship in the United States.
How New To Education Supports Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
New To Education provides educational and professional services for entrepreneurs, educators, students and organizations.
Our services include web development, educational marketing support, resume and interview preparation, tutoring, curriculum assistance and consulting for businesses and education-focused organizations.
A strong business website should do more than display products. It should explain the company’s purpose, build trust and make it easy for customers to take the next step.
Businesses interested in building or improving their online presence can learn more through New To Education:
Key Takeaways
Soko Glam was founded in New York in 2012 by Charlotte Cho and David Cho after Charlotte’s experience living in South Korea introduced her to Korean skincare practices and products.
The company helped make K-beauty more accessible to American consumers by combining a curated online marketplace with educational content and personalized guidance.
Its early growth was largely hands-on and bootstrapped, with the founders packing orders themselves and investing their own resources before accepting a relatively small outside funding round.
Soko Glam’s broader influence came from helping consumers understand Korean beauty rather than simply presenting it as a passing trend.
The company offers useful lessons about cultural authenticity, patient expansion, community trust and education-driven marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Soko Glam?
Soko Glam is a New York-based online retailer specializing in Korean skincare and beauty products. It also provides educational content and skincare guidance.
Who founded Soko Glam?
The company was founded by Charlotte Cho and David Cho in 2012.
Is Soko Glam a Korean company?
Soko Glam was founded in New York by Korean American entrepreneurs and focuses on Korean skincare products and practices. It operates as an American business with strong connections to Korea’s beauty industry.
Why is Soko Glam important to the growth of K-beauty?
Soko Glam helped make Korean products more accessible to American consumers while explaining unfamiliar ingredients, routines and product categories.
Is New To Education affiliated with Soko Glam?
No. This is an independent educational spotlight and does not represent a sponsorship, partnership or endorsement.
Final Thoughts
Soko Glam’s success cannot be explained by product selection alone.
The company entered a market in which many consumers were curious about Korean skincare but did not yet understand it. Instead of treating that lack of knowledge as a problem, Soko Glam made education part of the customer experience.
That decision helped transform an online store into a trusted source of information and cultural connection.
The founders’ willingness to begin small, handle basic operations themselves and delay expansion until the company had developed greater expertise also provides a useful counterpoint to the idea that every business must grow as quickly as possible.
Soko Glam helped bring Korean beauty into the American mainstream, but its larger lesson is about how businesses introduce something unfamiliar.
They teach.
They listen.
They build trust.
Then, over time, the market begins to understand what they saw from the beginning.
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Sources
Soko Glam
https://sokoglam.com/
Allure — Doing Entrepreneurship the Right Way With Soko Glam’s Charlotte Cho
https://www.allure.com/story/charlotte-cho-soko-glam-my-beauty-break-interview
Glamour — Soko Glam’s Charlotte Cho Shares Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Korean Beauty
https://www.glamour.com/story/need-to-know-korean-beauty-secrets-charlotte-cho-soko-glam
Vogue — How Soko Glam’s Charlotte Cho Shops for K-Beauty in Seoul
https://www.vogue.com/article/soko-glam-korean-beauty-charlotte-cho-seoul-photo-diary
