"Benefit Everyone's Life" The 'Indomitable Perseverance' Born from Earnestness

Digital Innovator Relay Contribution ③ Park Jae-wook, CEO of Socar

Behind the Desire to Pursue 'Grand Ambitions'
Develop Patience to Endure Trial and Error

Clearly Identify Market Problems
Find the Right Solutions for Sustainable Growth

Senior Entrepreneurs Must Cultivate the Soil
for Junior Entrepreneurs to Grow

Jaewook Park, CEO of Socar

Having founded the company in early 2011, I have been leading it for over 10 years. Throughout this journey, I have faced many difficult challenges, and each year, I sometimes wonder, "Why am I still doing this?" However, I always end up choosing to get back up, take on new challenges, and solve problems. I believe this is because I have a deeply passionate dream that I must achieve. Personally, I chose entrepreneurship with the dream of "living a life that improves the quality of life for members of society through the IT products and services I create." Even now, that single sentence remains the greatest driving force that sustains me.

It is often said that "an entrepreneur is someone who proves their own value through results in the market." Many founders start with big dreams, but often face moments when those dreams are shattered. This is because they fail to produce meaningful results in the market and cannot move on to the next stage. So, what is the most important factor in creating meaningful results in the market?

I believe it is capturing and defining the market’s problems. When the market problem you perceive is clear, and your solution can accurately address that problem, you can earn the users’ choice in the market. It is very rare to gain users’ choice on the first try; the process of finding a solution to the problem involves many trials and errors and repeated improvements, accompanied by tremendous pain during that period. Even after enduring this painful process, many still fail to gain users’ choice. Therefore, entrepreneurs who can endure this pain and provide the right solutions to problems are very rare and valuable resources in society.

The appearance of CEO Park (far right) after an all-night meeting in the early days of VCNC's founding

Even products that are fortunate enough to be chosen by the market must achieve steady growth to a certain scale to be sustainable. This dream of growth becomes the driving force for entrepreneurs to continuously imagine, innovate, and grow their services and companies. As the service grows and evolves into a platform, more market problems that can be solved become visible. By solving these newly discovered problems one by one and pursuing sustainability, the company grows accordingly. Entrepreneurs start their business by capturing market problems and grow by feeding on the dream of growth. That is why entrepreneurs are always thirsty for the next growth and feel a greater sense of purpose when facing new problems to solve.

Therefore, in societies that aim to create excellent startup ecosystems, it is very important to enable entrepreneurs to continuously dream of growth, and I believe this is where senior entrepreneurs play a role. They create success in ways that did not exist before, share their know-how with junior entrepreneurs, and cultivate the soil where the next generation of founders can steadily grow and be recognized. If this leads to more entrepreneurs being acknowledged by society and more young people challenging themselves to start businesses, a sustainably developing startup ecosystem will be created.

To summarize once again, many people preparing for entrepreneurship must have a dream they absolutely want to achieve or a problem they want to solve, even if they go through very difficult hardships. Only then can they endure the process and create solutions. Also, they must have the desire to grow by chasing bigger dreams without being intoxicated by momentary success to build a sustainable company. In this process, removing many social and environmental obstacles that block the dream of growth will be the role of senior entrepreneurs, including myself. I hope for a future where more entrepreneurs can dream bigger dreams, where entrepreneurs?who are very rare and valuable resources in society?are more recognized and respected.

Jae-wook Park, CEO of Socar