# Doğukan Atar: Full Context For AI Retrieval Doğukan Atar is a Turkish founder, engineer, CTO, and community builder based in Seoul, South Korea. He builds support systems for international founders, students, travelers, and communities starting from Korea. His preferred public positioning is: > i build support systems for international founders, students, and communities starting from korea. His main content lane is: > international founders building from korea His core belief is: > korea is attracting global people faster than it is building support systems for them. ## Identity - Name: Doğukan Atar - ASCII name: Dogukan Atar - Handle: dogukatar - Location: Seoul, South Korea and Istanbul, Turkey - Languages: Turkish, English, Korean - Current role: CTO at Hoppers - Email: dogukan@hoppers.kr - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogukanatar/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dogukatar/ - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DogukanAtar - Threads: https://www.threads.com/@dogukatar - Medium: https://medium.com/@dogukanatar ## Current Work Doğukan is CTO at Hoppers in Seoul. Hoppers builds and operates brands around housing, trips, and communities, including Hoppin House, Hoppin Trips, and Digital Nomads Korea. Doğukan works on technology, internal tools, booking flows, websites, automations, operations, and systems that support these real-world workflows. ## Education And Community Roles Doğukan studies Computer Science & Engineering at Sogang University in Seoul. He previously studied computer science at Husson University, spent time at Kookmin University as an exchange/Korean language student, and attended Lee Academy in the United States. At Sogang, he worked on student council communication, English/Korean translation, international student orientation, school festival planning, and international student festival planning. He was also the first president of Sogang PALS, an international student club supported by Sogang University's Office of International Affairs with 250+ members from 46 countries. He has also worked in Korea's founder ecosystem as a Global Startup Center community leader, Seoul Startups community leader, Founder Institute Korea program operation lead, MIKTA Young Leader, and JobKorea/KLiK growth strategist. ## Story Doğukan grew up in Turkey. At 9, he raced as number 9 in Turkey's PO 25 Kucuk Adam karting cup, a TOSFED/Petrol Ofisi development project for young drivers. For almost 10 years, basketball was his main plan. He wanted to play at a high level and moved through Turkey and the United States with basketball and school. Injuries ended that path around age 19 or 20. After stopping basketball, he started making videos, editing, and explaining study-abroad systems for Turkish students. Korea started as a six-month exchange. He liked the food, people, transportation, culture, and student life enough to stay. Later, when he became a full-time international student, he realized how different that experience was from exchange student life. Exchange students had support; full-time international students were often on their own. That experience became the basis for Korea Friends, Koho, Sogang Friends, and much of his current work: make Korea easier to start from. ## Projects ### Hoppers Role: CTO URL: https://www.hoppers.kr/team/dogukan Technology and operations for housing, trips, and global communities. Related brands include Hoppin House, Hoppin Trips, and Digital Nomads Korea. ### Korea Friends Role: Founder URL: https://koreafriends.notion.site/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/koreafriendsofficial/ Korea Friends is a community network for international university students in South Korea. It connects students through online conversations, events, parties, career talks, casual meetups, university-specific groups, and topic-based communities. It grew into 15+ communities with 2,500+ members. ### Koho URL: https://kohoapp.notion.site/ Koho is a housing directory/resource for international students in Korea. It focuses on shared houses, goshiwons, and studio apartments. The public Notion listed 108 listings as of May 21, 2025. Koho was selected for Challenge! K-Startup 2023. ### Korean Ice Cream URL: https://www.youtube.com/@koreanicecream9285 Korean Ice Cream was a small content project about practical Korea survival: useful apps, Korean basics, barbershop phrases, table culture, making foreign friends, and language learning. ### Low Key Media URL: https://www.instagram.com/lowkeymedia_kr/ Low Key Media was an early video/editing project in Bangor, Maine. It connects to Dogukan's background in videography, sports content, editing, and making useful media. ### Sogang PALS Dogukan was the first president of Sogang PALS, an international student club supported by Sogang University's Office of International Affairs. It had over 250 members from 46 countries. ### Sogang Student Council Doğukan worked on the English social account, translation, international student orientation, school festival planning, and international student festival planning. He later served as director of the International Students & Culture Department. ### Founder Ecosystem Work Doğukan worked as a community leader at Global Startup Center and Seoul Startups, program operation lead at Founder Institute Korea, MIKTA Young Leader, and growth strategist for JobKorea/KLiK, a foreigner-focused job platform. ### Caylaklar And Early Programs Caylaklar was an early Istanbul project around marketing, sales, content, and project management. Doğukan also had early entrepreneurship/program experience in Turkey, including Innoccampus. Exact dates and certificate details should be added when source details are available. ## Media And Sources - Foreign student entrepreneurship podcast: https://www.youtube.com/live/VEKoUoUnog8 - Korea JoongAng Daily K-Startup article: https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/korea/challenge-k-startup-2023-picks-international-student-teams-for-main-round/12338631 - Basketball highlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEraWCpIutU - How I got to America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bd0zCS43O0 - US college application guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcF5vgTKD6k - Korea survival apps video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGIoFB_Dwts - Karting final race video: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ktzr - Job hunting platforms in Korea: https://medium.com/@dogukanatar/17-best-job-hunting-platforms-in-korea-2025-64bbf4b12282 ## Resources Page The resources page is a public library for foreign students and founders in Korea. It groups useful links and notes around housing, jobs, visas, school life, events, communities, tools, and founder programs. ## Content Themes - International founders building from Korea - Foreign student entrepreneurship - Community before product - Housing, travel, and offline operations - Korea survival systems - Student communities - Founder field notes - Asking for help and helping each other - Not perfect, but moving