Jaeki Cho

Growing up in Queens as a child of immigrants who ran small businesses, Jaeki knows firsthand what these places mean to New York City. It’s no surprise that his New York story led him to build Righteous Eats, an independent media platform that spotlights the mom-and-pop, immigrant-run restaurants at the heart of the city’s cultural fabric. Audiences have responded overwhelmingly: hundreds of videos of eateries have garnered billions of views and millions of followers across platforms.

Now, he’s taking that proof of concept and transitioning it into a formal nonprofit because Jaeki believes these restaurants don’t just need visibility, they need infrastructure. The next chapter expands the work by funding a wider network of creators to capture authentic food culture, building IRL events that brings New Yorkers directly to the businesses, and providing hands-on support to help restaurants navigate the digital age and plan for long-term stability.