Chapter 35
Chapter 35
After the dot-com bubble, the startup ecosystem completely collapsed.
Companies avoided risk, and investors only invested their money in stable places. It was after the financial crisis that the situation began to change.
Startups were born around Silicon Valley, and they ventured into new markets at risk.
We usually think that people will be excited when a new industry emerges, but in reality, the opposite is much more the case.
If you compare a car with a wagon, the car is far superior in every way. But that wasn’t the case when the first car was built.
Early cars were slower than wagons, prone to breakdowns, and expensive. In addition, unlike the carriage, which only feeds the horses with hay, the car has to be filled with gasoline, and it was difficult to find a gas station.
People left the comfortable and good wagon and laughed at whoever rode this.
The same goes for digital cameras.
Early digital cameras were no better than film cameras. The batteries were short, the picture quality was poor, and the price was high.
The first digital camera was created by none other than Kodak, the most powerful film camera. Kodak decided that it would be unreasonable for digital cameras to replace the film camera market, and focused only on the existing industry.
However, over time, digital cameras gradually improved and eventually completely replaced the film camera market. And Kodak went bankrupt.
That is harsh for the price of lagging behind in change.
The enthusiasm for start-up startups is not unique to developed countries. A number of startups have also emerged in emerging countries such as China and India.
In these countries, as one of the measures to overcome the lagging infrastructure, the related industries were nurtured as a policy.
For example, the lack of internal combustion engine technology makes it an electric vehicle, and the lack of credit card payment infrastructure means moving directly to mobile pay.
In industries such as electric vehicles, simple payment, drones and the sharing economy, China has already surpassed Korea.
Nine out of ten startups fail. Nevertheless, the reason that the state is stepping forward to create an ecosystem and provide support is that one surviving startup can make up for the other losses.
Failure is also a valuable asset. Failure means that you have gained various experiences in the process. There are many examples of entrepreneurs who have failed several times and succeed by trying again.
In the case of Israel, the government lends money to startups, and if they succeed, they get three times back, but if they fail, they don’t take any responsibility.
But if you fail in Korea, that’s the end of it. Those who fail will be branded as losers, will never be able to receive start-up support again, and in extreme cases may become credit-deficient by carrying joint debt.
In addition, existing industries are monopolized by large corporations, and various regulations are holding back.
It is said that Korea is the graveyard of startups.
Nevertheless, several founders jumped into the market armed with ideas and passion.
Although the Korean startup ecosystem is a shambles, now is the beginning of the 4th industrial revolution. To use an analogy, even if the soil is barren, the weather is good.
If you look for Korean startups, you will find good companies. Since we are in Korea, it will be easy to contact founders.
Unfortunately, none of the materials we have received are from the Korean side. This is in contrast to the abundance of proposals from Chinese startups.
The reason is that there is no Korean branch of Golden Gate. There are only small branches in Korea dealing with securities and banking, and the main business is handled by the Asian branch in Hong Kong.
However, Golden Gate, a global IB, is connected to domestic investment companies like a spider’s web, and if it is through that network, wouldn’t it be possible to obtain data?
Tiling!
Another e-mail has arrived.
[How are you doing?]I sent a reply to Hyunjoo noona.
[I also need domestic data. Please send me what you find.]* * *
Taek-gyu picked out the plans and first classified them by industry.
Sharing economy, O2O service, SNS service, e-commerce, big data, artificial intelligence, IOT, simple payment, robot technology, etc.
I read the plans one by one and divided them into three categories.
to be, not to be, to be ambiguous.
Taek-gyu asked, fetching the coffee he requested.
“What is the classification criteria?”
“It’s just my feeling. There are things that come to mind.”
Unlike Yeji, who clearly comes to mind, this sense is a little subtle. It is distinct from the five senses, but I don’t know how to explain it.
I put the material down for a moment and thought over a cup of coffee.
At first, foreknowledge randomly appeared in front of me repeatedly. The other thing I felt was when the L6 was discontinued. Concentrating with all my might, I was able to figure out the timing.
Can we see more by gathering information and focusing?
Taek-gyu heard my story and said.
“It’s a possibility. Basically, the more you use it, the more it grows. Why is there even a rumor that it is useless?”
“·················ogue.”
Wasn’t that a false theory?
What is acquired through acquired efforts is not passed on to future generations. Therefore, there is no significance to the evolution of the species.
However, from the point of view of the object, it has great significance. Anyway, it’s true that studying makes your brain better, and exercising makes your body better.
If so, wouldn’t we be able to control our foresight someday as we wish?
* * *
Ten days have passed since the start of the new year.
During that time, I didn’t even step out of the house. Ignoring all the incoming calls, I devoted my time to reading the plan.
It was almost a waste of time to eat, wash, and even sleep.
Taek-gyu was responsible for everything else. He made coffee from time to time, and when the time came, he prepared the meal himself (although he had it all delivered).
I scratched my head and muttered.
“I think I’ll see you in a little bit more.”
Why is it that not one of these many companies has foresight?
Taehyung said to me.
“It’s been a few days since I did that little. It’s not urgent right now, so why are you in such a hurry?”
“It is, but…”
I’m worried that if I let it go, even the feeling I have now will disappear.
“Take a break. Sometimes you need a break.”
“·················ogue.”
It’s true, but it’s less convincing when someone who takes a break every day says it.
Either way, working hard doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get something.
“I need to wash up first.”
I put down the material I was holding and got up.
I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and saw an old man who looked like a homeless person. His eyes were wide open, his hair was messy, and his beard was a mess.
Who would think of a 20-year-old looking at this?
I turned on the water in the shower.
shoot ah!
As I was bathed in the hot water, my tension was relieved and I was drowsy. I can’t sleep here…
That moment.
A hologram appeared in front of me.
“uh?”
Surprisingly, it didn’t end there. Another hologram popped up one after another.
.
.
I saw dozens of holograms in front of me as I was splashed with water from the shower.
Finally found the horned horses.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the sun was still up.
I thought you slept quite a while, but how many hours did you miss?
“Ugh.”
My mouth was dry.
I went out to the living room to drink water. Taek-gyu was sitting in the living room.
“I need some water.”
“Here it is.”
Taek-gyu brought a bottle of water. I gulped it down.
“OK?”
I drank the 500 milliliter bottle of water and then asked.
“How long have I slept? two or three hours?”
“I must have slept for 20 hours.”
“What?”
Taek-gyu pointed his finger at the watch. The clock hands were pointing to 10 in the morning.
You haven’t been awake for 20 hours. It looks like he was pretty tired.
I thought about the situation before going to sleep.
In the shower, I saw Yeji…. After that, I immediately ran out of the shower and shouted the name of the company at random.
This isn’t Archimedes (aka Grandpa Eureka).
I tried to think of the names of the companies, but I couldn’t remember anything. My head is as white as a white paper.
“Uh, huh?”
Could it be that all the foreknowledge flew away?
When I was in contemplation and didn’t know what to do, Taek-gyu asked, surprised.
“Hey, why all of a sudden?”
“It’s a big deal. I can’t even remember what I remembered.”
At an age in bewilderment, Taek-gyu held up the paper.
“What are you talking about? I wrote it all down.”
“Oh, did you?”
I sighed in relief when I saw the dozens of company names scrawled on A4 paper.
I don’t even remember taking it. I guess I wasn’t really sane.
“The things you said have been sorted out.”
The cluttered surroundings with piles of papers were cleaned and there was only a single sheet of papers on the table.
“Bring me some coffee.”
“Okay.”
I looked over the plans again.
Are you saying these are things that I picked out of my foresight?
Foreknowledge is not the end of the work. Conversely, since you have foresight, you have to start working from now on.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)
Unlike a publicly traded company, where you can buy stock on an exchange, buying a stake in an unlisted company is not straightforward.
You have to go through the process of contacting the founders and negotiating.
The problem is that we don’t have that kind of organization right now. However, I am not a negotiating genius.
“Isn’t it okay to create an organization first and then start investing?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t have time for that.”
It will take at least several months to set up an investment company and raise the necessary talent.
“lets think. We picked these companies out of proposals rejected by Golden Gate. Could it be that they are so depressed that they have been rejected and are locked up in the room?”
“then?”
“Perhaps they are looking for other investors by spamming the proposals here and there. If you take it easy and start investing in other places first, you’ll get out.”
It is not necessary to move in a hurry, but it is better to hurry as much as possible.
“Then how?”
If we can’t do it on our own, we need help.
I said to Taek-gyu.
“I need to contact Hyun-joo noona again.”
* * *
Golden Gate, the world’s largest investment bank, has branches all over the world like a global IB.
There are a total of three branches in Asia.
It has offices in Asia, one each in China and Japan, the world’s second and third largest economies, and one in Hong Kong.
At one time, there was talk of establishing a branch in Korea, but it was canceled after the 2008 financial crisis. Therefore, Korea was still under the jurisdiction of the Asian branch along with the ASEAN region.
Financial people of various nationalities and races were working at the Golden Gate Building in Central Hong Kong.
Oh Hyun-joo was one of them. As soon as she finished her MBA, she joined Golden Gate, where she worked at her New York headquarters, then three years ago she was assigned to the Asia office.
As she is Korean, she mainly worked on the Korean market. Because of her, she often travels to Korea.
Instead of returning to her apartment, Hyun-joo turned on her laptop, sitting on a coffee shop terrace overlooking Victoria Harbour, after she had left work late.
A PDF file attached to her email from her brother’s friend included a list of dozens of startups.
After hours of meticulously reviewing her plans, she closed her laptop. She and she smoked, immersed in her thoughts.
Investing in startups, if successful, can yield huge returns that cannot be compared to investments in publicly traded companies, but the possibility of failure is too great.
In my opinion, I want to encourage people to invest in a safe place.
However.
It earned 670 billion won from its first investment of 13 billion won. Can this really be called luck?
‘Maybe he has great talent…’
After thinking about it, Hyeon-joo called Korea.
“I checked the mail. What’s your plan?”
She said as if the other party had been waiting for her question.
[I will formally request investment brokerage and personnel dispatch to Golden Gate. Sister, please come to Korea.]
