Julie Chung: Ophthalmologist and T3 Co-Founder

Second Life

Who What Wear

Business, Careers, Society & Culture, Arts, Fashion & Beauty, Personal Journals

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Julie Chung is an ophthalmologist and the co-founder of the hair-tool company T3. Even while in med school to become a glaucoma and cataract surgeon, Chung always put effort into her hair in the mornings. However, her go-to hair dryer was ineffective and heavy. As a gift to Chung, her now-husband Kent Yu took it upon himself to create a lighter, sleeker model with innovative technology to combat frizz. Realizing the white space in haircare, Chung then designed a marketing strategy that positioned the hair dryer as a beautiful, luxe item. Thus, T3 was born and was an immediate success. The brand sold out multiple times and eventually had retailers who’d shunned it at first calling to stock its product. In the years that followed, Chung and Yu designed flat irons, curling irons, and other products, all in T3’s signature polished style. This year, they celebrated 20 years of T3 and launched their first hot-air styler, the T3 Aire 360. Chung still practices medicine but is increasing her time with T3 as she looks to the future of her independently owned brand.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone I'm Hillary Kerr the co-founder and chief content officer of
0:10.0	who out where and this is Second Life a podcast spotlighting women who have truly
0:16.9	inspiring careers we're talking about their work journeys what they've learned from
0:21.7	the process of setting aside their doubts or fears, and what
0:25.9	happens when they embark on their second life.
0:28.7	Today on the show, I'm sitting down with Julie Chung, who's the co-founder of the groundbreaking Hair Tools Company, T3, and an
0:36.8	ophthalmologist as well as a glaucoma and cataract surgeon.
0:40.8	Yes, she does it all. As the daughter of a nurse with great personal
0:45.7	style Julie nurtured a love for both medicine and fashion and beauty from a
0:50.9	young age. Medicine went out first. Julie went to
0:55.7	UCLA and then medical school at UCSF with the goal of becoming an
1:00.4	ophthalmologist, but after meeting her now husband and co-founder, Kent Ew,
1:05.8	fashion and beauty came back around. Kent noticed that Julie's go-to hair dryer was
1:11.6	heavy and clunky and didn't do much to tame
1:14.9	Julie's daily frizz. He thought he could design a better one and Julie
1:19.6	thought that they could market the product more like the luxury Lamer cream she adored, which were beautiful
1:24.7	and well branded.
1:26.4	In 2004, T3 was born and it made a huge splash.
1:30.9	They were the first to offer a luxury and high performance hair dryer, the first to offer a luxury and high-performance hair dryer, the first to push for
1:35.3	placement in beauty magazines, and one of the first to innovate on the hair tools that women
1:40.3	used every day.
1:42.5	Within a few years, T3 was one of the most dynamic
	...

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