Carrot Market and Cheongso Research Institute
Achieve Startup Success Based on Experience
Changing the Venture Mythology Lineage
Raising Kim Beom-su and Lee Hae-jin's Kids
[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] The commonality among the founders of the secondhand trading platform 'Danggeun Market,' which has grown to a valuation of 2 trillion won, the housekeeping helper market platform 'Cheongso Yeonguso,' and the AI consulting startup 'Upstage' is that all their CEOs come from Kakao or Naver. As many Kakao and Naver alumni actively participate in the startup ecosystem, the lineage of 'venture success stories' is also changing.
Kakao and Naver Alumni Are the Trend
According to the IT industry on the 21st, Kakao and Naver alumni have been thriving recently in the startup ecosystem. Kakao internally identified as many as 17 startups founded by Kakao alumni. At least 10 confirmed startup founders also come from Naver.
Danggeun Market is considered a representative successful startup founded by Kakao alumni. Co-CEOs Kim Yonghyun and Kim Jaehyun were inspired by the internal secondhand trading bulletin board during their time at Kakao and jumped into entrepreneurship. Danggeun Market recently relocated its company to Kyobo Tower near Gangnam Station in Seoul and announced large-scale hiring, with its scale growing day by day. Life Research Institute, which operates the housekeeping helper brokerage platform Cheongso Yeonguso app, recently succeeded in raising 22 billion won in investment and has settled in the market. The company was established when CEO Yeon Hyunju, after a service developed internally at Kakao in 2017 was discontinued, took the business forward with five employees and united their efforts. CEO Kim Seongyong of Namui Jip also gained experience in shared economy and O2O (online-to-offline) while handling taxi and mobility tasks at Kakao, which led to his startup.
Naver alumni's activities also stand out. Upstage recently gained global attention by winning the world AI competition hosted by Kaggle, a Google subsidiary. Upstage CEO Kim Seonghun led the AI research organization at Naver. Song Changhyun, former CEO of Naver Labs, also founded the mobility startup '42dot.' Moon Seongwook, CEO of Team Blind, an anonymous community for office workers, is also a Naver alumnus.
Independent New Business DNA Leads to Startups
The way of working like a startup organization at Kakao naturally led to entrepreneurship. In the early stages when Kakao had no revenue model, each organization was given independence to develop new businesses. CEO Yeon explained, "Kakao provided many opportunities and authority to create new businesses," adding, "You can gain experience by independently launching services."
Kakao's DNA is also implanted into startups. At Namui Jip, employees call each other by nicknames that reflect their roles. This idea was inspired by the use of English name calls at Kakao. CEO Kim said, "Chairman Kim Beom-su of Kakao often told employees to apply what they learned when meeting them," adding, "We actually utilize the way of working inside Kakao." CEO Kim shares all information, good or bad, with employees and the company, a method learned while working at Kakao.
The network of developers, planners, and designers from Naver and Kakao is also a great asset for startups. In Upstage's case, besides CEO Kim, they formed a dream team including CTO Lee Hwalseok, who led Visual AI at Naver, and CSO Park Eunjeong, who was the leader of Naver's translation team Papago.
Raising the ‘Kim Beom-su and Lee Hae-jin Kids’
Venture first-generation leaders Chairman Kim and Lee Hae-jin, Naver's Global Investment Officer (GIO), are also leading support for junior founders. Chairman Kim said at a meeting with employees in February, "It would be good if a structure emerges where Kakao or Kakao's 'children' can quickly manage startups." In fact, Kakao has invested in over 250 companies through its affiliates Kakao Ventures and Kakao Investment. Naver also launched the startup nurturing organization 'D2SF' in 2015 and continues steady support for startups, having invested in 69 technology startups to date.
Experts evaluate that as Naver and Kakao grow into IT giants, the number of 'Kakao and Naver kids' is naturally increasing. Professor Yoo Hyosang of Soongsil University said, "In the past, it was said that venture entrepreneurs from Samsung were rising, but recently, as Kakao has grown, the base has increased, and since more people have entrepreneurial tendencies than in general large companies, it is natural that there are many startup CEOs from Kakao and Naver."
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