7th Anniversary Special | Founder's Story: My Seven Years with HYP Global

7th Anniversary Special | Founder's Story: My Seven Years with HYP Global

Harry Gong, Founder & CEO

Seven years ago, I founded HYP Global. Looking back, I'd like to tell this story in my own words — how this company started from nothing.

Before HYP Global

I grew up in an ordinary Chinese family and studied Civil Engineering in college. During my studies, I completed a one-year internship in technical work for steel structure buildings. Honestly, I never had much passion for that field — what I really wanted was to work in the internet industry and build something of my own.

After graduation, I moved to Shanghai, determined to break into tech. I joined 51Job, then the country's largest online recruitment platform. Over three years, I worked my way up from a sales trainee to senior sales representative, eventually becoming the top performer in my entire department.

That was the era when China's entrepreneurial wave was taking off. I left 51Job to take on key roles at several startups. One experience in particular left a lasting mark: I helped a U.S. education company enter the Chinese market, building its team and operations from the ground up and helping it secure funding. Looking back, that experience laid the groundwork for me to eventually start my own company.

Founding HYP Global

In 2019, through a friend's introduction, I secured seed-round investment from a well-known Chinese international education group, and founded HYP Global.

From the very beginning, I had a clear idea: to build products and services that merged internet technology with education, breaking through some of the limitations of traditional education models. In our first year, we tried several online education products — honestly, none of them really worked, until we launched our Pre-Master program.

How Pre-Master Was Born

In the latter half of 2019, I was fortunate to meet Dr. Oliver Yao, then Associate Dean of the Lehigh University College of Business. At the time, Lehigh's business school wanted to expand its graduate recruitment in China, and we explored many possible approaches together.

For instance, Lehigh initially hoped to bring students to campus for a summer pre-master program, giving interested students early exposure to the school and boosting recruitment. It was a great experience, but limited by time, location, and cost.

So we proposed a different direction: move the Pre-Master program online. It wasn't as immersive as the on-campus version, but it dramatically lowered the barriers of time, location, and cost. To make sure students could genuinely earn a path to a master's degree through this program, we built a lot of innovation into the process. And to help students succeed once they reached graduate-level coursework, we invested heavily in curriculum design and instructor selection, continuously refining the program to truly meet the needs of international students.

The Pre-Master program was born. Within just three months of launch, we received applications from dozens of students. Ultimately, more than ten students enrolled and went on to pursue their master's degrees at Lehigh University.

Without Lehigh University and Dr. Oliver Yao's trust and support for our innovative approach, none of what we've achieved would have been possible. The success of this program also forged a close partnership between us and Lehigh, and both sides achieved outstanding results. At the same time, HYP Global's reputation grew across the industry, launching us into a phase of rapid growth.

Dr. Oliver Yao, Dean of Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics, and previously, Deputy Provost & Associate Dean for Graduate Education of College of Business at Lehigh University.

On Our Mission, Vision, and Values

To be honest, our mission, vision, and values weren't fully defined when we started. Some of it was there from day one; more of it became clear as the company grew. Let me illustrate what these principles mean to us with a few examples.

Mission — We want every person who loves learning to have access to international education. That may sound abstract, but we work hard to put it into practice: we extend our recruitment channels to reach more regions, including smaller cities, delivering accurate, honest information so students can find the university that's truly right for them. For example, a student with an undergraduate degree in biology who wants to move into computer science can use our Pre-Master program to complete the prerequisite coursework and transition smoothly into a master's program in the new field.

Vision — We want to become the university partner of choice. That means every conversation we have about a partnership is grounded in honesty and integrity. We assess feasibility realistically and never overstate the value we can bring to a partner institution — that's the only way to build long-term trust. We also don't rush into partnerships lightly, because we're focused on the long-term interests of every partner. What we're after is steady, sustainable growth, not speed for its own sake.

Values — In building our products, we prioritize efficiency, value, and innovation. The Pre-Master program is the best example of this. We can't try to be everything to everyone — instead, we find where our real strengths lie and push them to their fullest.

As We Mark Seven Years

Seven years later, what started as one person's idea has grown into a team, a flagship program, and a network of partnerships with more than a dozen universities — a journey we built one step at a time. Looking ahead, we'll keep serving as that bridge, connecting students' dreams with university resources.

This is the first article in HYP Global's 7th Anniversary series. Stay tuned for the story of the PMBC program, student spotlights, voices from our team, and a look back at our key milestones.