Operations

Background

Hey! I’m Sabrina and I was born and raised in NYC, in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown. I went to Harvard College where I studied East Asian Studies and Economics and spent summers working and living in Seoul, Tokyo, and Berlin (fun fact: I speak five languages!).

At Harvard, I discovered that I learned the most and had the most fun when building companies, so after college, I returned to NYC where I spent 2.5 years building Oliver Space, a furniture rental startup. I joined as the 15th employee and managed all things delivery ops as we scaled across the US. I recently took a year off to fulfill a lifelong dream of traveling the world! My one year stint featured solo travels across 25 countries in 3 continents - it was the adventure of a lifetime and I document some of it in my substack: https://sabsgap.substack.com/p/welcome-to-sabs-gap.

I’m now back in NYC full-time but often try to find reasons to snowbird out of the city, whether to ski or get time in nature. When I’m here, I can usually be found exploring the NYC culinary scene, doing yoga, trying new coffee shops, catching the sunset ferry, or searching on Google flights for my next adventure.

My favorite meals

• Korean BBQ - A near perfect bite for me is some grilled pork belly in a perilla leaf, topped with lots of spicy, pickly, and savory things.
  • I’m also big fan of anything the Han Hospitality group does in NYC, so adding shoutouts for CDG’s spicy raw marinated crab and Jua’s caviar kim.
• Sushi - I’ve been to Japan four times and am a certified sushi fanatic. Two of my favorites are Oaxaca’s CRUDO, a Mexican-Japanese omakase, and a no-frills standing sushi bar named Uogashi Nihon-Ichi Shibuya in Tokyo. Pressed edo-style mackerel sushi also has a special place in my heart.
• Middle Eastern - I love mezze spreads and shakshuka; warm pita dipped in hummus, baba ganoush, muhammara, labneh. I also think often about the knafeh I had in Jordan.
• Malaysian-Chinese home cooking - I have yet to have anything more comforting than my dad’s silky steamed egg and longan pork bone broth.
• Matcha-anything - I have a (slight) matcha obsession - lattes, ice cream, parfaits, shaved ice, warabi mochi, even just as is.

What I’ve been learning about lately

• Currently reading: We Came, We Saw, We Left by Charles Wheelan. I’ve been into travel memoirs recently after my world trip, and this is a hilarious one about a family that embarks on a 9-month gap year.
• Mahjong: I grew up watching my mom play recreationally and only recently learned to play with points with my friends. So much fun!
• Skiing: Trying my absolute best to graduate from blues and finally do a black diamond run.
• US National Parks! I’ve been to two and hope to hit all 63 in the US (as a non-driver..)

Get to know me a little better

Some of my favorite moments from my year of travel :)