[Power K-Women] Decided on Second Startup After Child's Question... "Working Mom Is the Best Service Maker"

After founding Bapul, sold to Line Plus... New challenge with Lemontree
Secured 5 billion won investment at startup... Launched allowance management app 'Puffin'
"Will create a better world for children through family financial services"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] "Mom, why can't money be bought?"

Minhee Lee, CEO of Lemontree, was at a loss for words when her 5-year-old son asked this question. When the child saw a toy commercial on TV and begged to buy it, she dodged by saying there was no money, and the child replied, "Then just buy money." Lee said, "Money is earned by working, not bought," but she wondered if she had answered properly. Wanting to raise her child to be financially savvy was the reason she decided to start her second business. Lee, who founded Lemontree last year, plans to launch an application (app) called 'Puffin' by the end of this month, which enables everything from managing children's allowances to investment education.

Launching 'Bapool' for math dropouts... Lingering attachment to entrepreneurship due to monetization failure

Lee gained fame as a star entrepreneur from her first business. After graduating from university, she started posting problem-solving processes on a personal website to teach her younger sibling living in the provinces. When she received answers from university friends for questions she didn't know, she came up with the idea of a learning app called 'Bapool' where anyone could ask and answer questions. It was a service where users could upload photos of math problems with complex formulas or graphs and get answers. The purpose was to help 'supoja' (people who gave up on math) study via smartphones and reduce private education costs.

Lee won top awards such as the Grand Prize at the Women's Startup Competition and the Chung Ju-yung Startup Competition with Bapool. She achieved this at the age of 24. In 2017, six years into her startup journey, she decided to sell Bapool to Line Plus, a Naver affiliate. Along with the exit (capital recovery), she was scouted by Line Plus and took charge of AI 'Clova' and the Japanese version of the internet broadcasting platform 'V App.'

However, not everything was as glamorous as the titles suggested. Bapool, started with only 10 million KRW in capital and a programmer friend, was full of trial and error. When funds ran out, she once went to see Sung-oh Kim, Vice Chairman of Megastudy, without any prior appointment. She handed over her business plan at a lecture venue, and when asked how much she needed, she thought that even a few million KRW would help and received 5 million KRW to put out the fire.

Although she later attracted follow-up investments and gathered traffic, monetization was disappointing. The business model kept changing. Initially, it was a B2B model supplying academies and schools, then switched to a free service, and later added partial paid services. They launched paid services like 'Bapool Study Room,' connecting verified teachers and students one-on-one, but it did not replace the existing private education market. Lee confessed, "Bapool failed to monetize, and most services I managed at Line were free," adding, "I always had a desire to make a lot of money through mobile business."

Lee Min-hee, CEO of Lemontree, posed at the office in Bundang-gu, Seongnam. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

Allowance management like US unicorn 'Greenlight'... Obtaining electronic financial business license

To achieve the goals she couldn't reach, she embarked on a second challenge. The difference from Bapool was that she had become a mother of two children. Lee got the business idea from her child's question and concretized the service with a mother's heart. She said, "Economics and finance are essential education for life, but there are no academies or tutoring for it," adding, "I thought the economic education market, which ends after just asking children to keep an allowance ledger, was a blue ocean."

Lee described herself as part of the millennial generation (ages 25-44) who are "a generation confused about money." She was taught by her parents at the dinner table to save no matter what. But after gaining economic power, she was influenced by YOLO (You Only Live Once) consumption. When she faced reality, all that remained was loan debt. She did not want to shout "save no matter what" to her children like her parents did, but she did not know how else to teach them.

From this awareness, the service was composed of two main pillars: allowance management and economic education. She referred to the model of the US unicorn (startup valued over 1 trillion KRW) 'Greenlight.' Greenlight is a company recognized with a 3 trillion KRW valuation for creating a mobile debit card for children.

Specifically, parents recharge allowances, and children are helped to spend according to their plans. Remaining allowance can be saved or used to experience small-scale stock investments. Alongside, an economic curriculum is provided through quizzes. For example, teaching the concept of scarcity by showing how sold-out Pok?mon bread is sold expensively on secondhand trading apps. Completing quizzes rewards allowance, aiming for a game-like learning effect.

As the service took shape, she gathered investors first. She did not want to repeat the experience of failing due to lack of funds or personnel. With a business plan condensed into just four PowerPoint (PPT) slides, she raised 5 billion KRW at the start of the business. She is preparing for a second round of investment by the end of this month.

She also formed a dream team. The C-level executives are from renowned IT companies such as Naver, Kakao Mobility, Coupang, and Socar. Not only were their careers impressive, but they were people she had worked with or observed for a long time and verified. The driving force for these industry veterans with over 10 years of experience was the phrase, "Even if we fail, we will fail big." Lee laughed, saying, "Many domestic financial companies and emerging wealthy want to capture the Alpha generation, but there is a lack of economic education in Southeast Asia, so we can definitely sell there. I persuaded them that this is a job that allows early retirement."

She overcame the high barrier of finance requiring licenses with persistence. To allow prepaid funds to be used as allowances, she had to obtain an electronic financial business license. To do this, she set up major IT equipment redundancy and met financial authorities one by one. Although it was a sensitive time due to the 'Merge Point' incident, she obtained the license after one year of preparation. At first, the conservative and male-dominated atmosphere was unfamiliar, but by directly lobbying, she managed to meet the necessary people.

Lee Min-hee, CEO of Lemontree, posed among the potted plants she grows in her office in Bundang-gu, Seongnam. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

"Creating a better world for children with 'Puffin'"

Looking back over the past decade, Lee said she did not face difficulties as a female entrepreneur. However, being a working mom was different. Available work hours decreased due to childcare, and she had to manage her stamina. Every moment was a fierce battle with herself. However, Lee evaluated, "Raising children gave me a unique understanding of the service target and also fostered tolerance in managing the organization."

Her real challenge starts now. Her goal is to have all her child's friends using Puffin when her child enters elementary school in three years. Just as she runs her own business, she wants to be a guide so her child can become financially independent. In the long term, she plans to provide comprehensive financial services according to family life cycles, including insurance, loans, and gifts. Lee emphasized, "Working moms are the best service makers who know customers well and can commercialize this. I want to create a better world for children with a truly necessary financial app."

▶About CEO Minhee Lee

Born in 1986 in Ulsan. Graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Consumer and Child Studies. Founded Bapool in 2011. Sold Bapool to Line Plus, a Naver affiliate, in 2017 and was scouted by Line Plus. She was in charge of Naver AI service Clova and planning new Line services for five years. She left Line Plus last year and started her second venture with Lemontree.