Saeju Jeong
Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Noom
Talk: A Lesson from Every Step on the Unicorn's Path
Abstract
The entrepreneur's journey from whiteboard to Unicorn status is filled with trials, twists, characters, investors, and many lessons. In this transparent and personal talk, Saeju Jeong shares the lessons learned at each step, every round of funding, and every tough conversation and decision along the winding path to success.
Biography
Saeju Jeong is the co-founder, Executive Chairman, and former CEO of Noom, the NYC-based leading digital health and wellness company founded in 2008 with a mission to help people everywhere live better lives through behavior change. Under Saeju's leadership as CEO for 17 years, Saeju secured $657MM in investment from prominent firms including Sequoia Capital and Silver Lake, grew the business to unicorn status, led thousands of employees and impacted millions of lives globally.
In July 2023, Saeju transitioned to his current role of Executive Chairman, continuing to shape Noom's vision and strategy. He was instrumental in an exhaustive process to transition the CEO role to Geoff Cook, and continues to develop the Noom business on the global stage. Saeju leads Noom’s delegation with the World Economic Forum, and serves on the Steering Committee for the Forum’s Healthy Workforces initiative. He was selected to the 2024 Class of Henry Crown Fellows, and his leadership has been recognized through multiple prestigious accolades, including EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year National Award in 2020, Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Company of the Year in 2022, Goldman Sachs' Builders and Innovators Award in 2022, Inc.'s 500 Great Entrepreneurs in 2019. Saeju is actively involved in the global entrepreneurial community as an investor with major VC firms including Sequoia Capital and as co-founder and co-chair of Founders Global and United Korean Founders.
Born in South Korea to a family of esteemed doctors, Saeju Jeong's aspiration to help people and be an innovator was inherent from a young age. He began his entrepreneurial journey by founding South Korea’s first-ever heavy metal e-commerce business. However, it was the passing of his father, a renowned doctor, that redirected the course of his life and profoundly influenced Saeju's entrepreneurial and personal direction. It was his father’s reflection on his experience in healthcare that inspired Saeju to transform sick care into preventative care and dedicate his work to giving the gift of time to people's lives through founding Noom.
Today, Noom is a central destination for holistic health, with four programs to effectively treat weight management, obesity care management, diabetes, and stress management. The Noom brand is a household name with success in publishing, with "The Noom Mindset" and "The Noom Kitchen" becoming overnight best sellers, as well as in media, with Saeju having been featured in top-tier media including “How I Built This,” “Masters of Scale,” and an eight-page brand interview in Inc.