Meet Terry Sun | Co-Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Terry Sun and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Terry, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
PARTEA NYC opened its doors in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — a time when the world felt disconnected, uncertain, and distant. While everything was shutting down, we wanted to open up something meaningful: a space that reimagined joy, play, and human connection.

Inspired by the vibrant energy of night markets we visited abroad, we built PARTEA to be a local portal for a global experience. Almost like a passport to Asia without the 12 hour flight! From a cyberpunk interior with claw machines and a curated menu of boba & night market snacks to limited-edition collabs, we’re proud to offer a space that celebrates Asian culture through flavor, design, and aesthetic.

We also want to collaborate with local artists, creators, and small batch makers to create limited-run merchandise and events that support the creative economy. We believe in building a business that gives back, not just gains attention. As we grow, we’re committed to staying rooted in what matters most: community, creativity, and connection.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Partea NYC lives at the intersection of cyber-kawaii culture, experiential retail, and community storytelling. What sets us apart is that everything we create is centered around emotion, play, and connection. We didn’t just want to open a boba shop — we wanted to create a universe (which is something we’re working on!)

But we’ve definitely faced many challenges, which is the reality for all small business owners who build from scratch. From literal floods that wiped out our basement in New York to budgets that ran dry when construction dragged on much longer than planned, we’ve had to navigate physical and emotional burnout.

Our favorite words we always find ourselves saying is “manifest” and “everything happens for a reason.” Maybe it’s because we’ve learned to adapt quickly in spite of emergencies that every challenge became an opportunity and resulted in something better than we originally planned. Also along the way, we’ve realized that every time we had a new idea, whenever spoken, the opportunity to bring it to life would appear.

And that’s what we’re proudest of — that we never gave up.
PARTEA is a love letter to joy, nostalgia, and possibility. It’s a world built by friends who believed in the power of their own community — and we wanted to share that sense of belonging with others.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting, I’d want to give them the full Los Angeles experience. We’d definitely catch a Dodgers game and spend some time at The Broad to balance out sports and culture. For food, I’d take them for late-night tacos at Angels, meals at Shanghai Dumpling House in San Gabriel, a classic In-N-Out run, and an afternoon wandering around Little Tokyo for snacks and pics. For something a little different, Teleferic Barcelona is currently my fave spot for Spanish tapas.

To enjoy LA’s outdoors, we’d go on a scenic hike and maybe fit in a morning round of golf — the city really does have some of the best weather, trails, and courses around. Honestly, there’s so much to do in Los Angeles that every day could feel like a new adventure.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shout out to my partners and Partea’s co-founders, Pamela Lin and Lena Yang! We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Never go into business with friends or family’—but for us, it’s been one of the most rewarding decisions of our lives.

Over time, we’ve grown as individuals and learned how to better understand, support, and navigate each other’s emotions.
What makes it work is that we truly care. And because we care, we fight. But we fight knowing we’re on the same team. That trust—that we have each other’s backs no matter what—is everything.

There’s also an undeniable chemistry in how we work: all three of us have a crazy work ethic and a shared kind of bold optimism (or let’s be real—some healthy delusion) that keeps pushing us forward. We don’t always agree, but we’re always aligned on the vision.

Website: https://www.partea-nyc.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partea.nyc