Caught the startup bug, switched gears and joined the seed stage company. Joined soon after seed capital was raised, as the person in charge of local operations in Singapore for the Singapore company that has a distributed global team presence.
Initia Labs as a software development company supports the development and improvements for the network and the ecosystem as the core contributor of the Initia protocol and the network. Raised over $20M in venture and successfully launched Initia mainnet in April 2025.
Initia is the network of interwoven appchains. Interoperable web3 apps as L2 rollups will be coming to you, powered by Initia, the best place to build apps that want to launch its own chain with minimal friction and ease of UX/DX. Imagine the aha-moment similar to that of Apple’s iPhone/iOS for developers and end users.
Problem One. The $10M pilot fund returned an unprecedented “100X fund multiple” thanks to Dunamu seed investment. Headaches ensued. Kakao Ventures is the management company, and at the same time the GP entity of all funds. So the 100% owner, Kakao, calls the shots outside of GP control, with regards to carry distribution. Since carry payout (20%) ended up becoming too large, payout is disadvantageous to Kakao’s consolidated financials, and so the carry gets slashed down.
Problem Two. Another detrimental event was the decision to have Kakao Ventures stop raising capital from the outside world, to allow only Kakao corporate wealth to be the source of capital. Kakao at the time wanted to stop bleeding too much money from poor performing subsidiary businesses, and wanted to focus all firepower towards “helping out the GP”.
Despite Problem One, I was undeterred because Kakao Ventures was a great platform, and I grew into the role of leading globalization by way of diversifying our modus operandi, and launch non-KRW funds in Singapore or elsewhere. When Problem Two came along, I conceded that this structural problem is a flaw in design from the very beginning, and decided that the eternal gloom of having the parent company influence of what was once a performant and independent VC turning into a corporate venture arm was no longer a game I wanted to be a part of.
The management offered a part-time retainer as part-timer to help the smooth transition with existing individual/institutional LPs as well as those in the pipeline that I managed relationships of, a role which I gladly transitioned into for 2H 2023.
Front office (investment) as well as middle office (global LP relationships & fundraising).
Fortunate to have returned to the seed-focused venture capital firm, now under the ownership of Kakao Corp but with retained autonomy for early stage investments. The firm already have produced numerous unicorn companies by then, and with a more established team, it secured "founder's favorite" VC alongside with Altos Ventures.
Ended up backing interesting, unique companies with strong moats. Most proud of seed investment into Rebellions.ai, the best AI chip maker of Korea.
Also was able to capitalize on growing interest of foreign LPs into the Korean market, and, have struck a hallmark partnership with Pavilion Capital (Temasek subsidiary, now Seviora Group) whom we invited as a fund investor in 2020, and personally enjoyed as the acting relationship manager for Pavilion.
Unexpected detour into corporate and business side of platform giant business.
Immediately after joining K Cube Ventures in 2015, the management company went through major changes - a sudden, unexpected ownership change from being 100% owned by the chairperson to Kakao Corp as part of his personal consolidation; and soon thereafter, the founding CEO of K Cube Ventures became the CEO of the new parent company. I was summoned up on a special mission because of him needing direct reports as CEO Staff member.
However, due to internal demand, hands on deck were needed for the chairperson-level initiative to incorporate a DeepMind-equivalent subsidiary called Kakao Brain Corp to stay relevant in the AI race. This ended up being a special, one-off gig, to be the lone operator to handle all backend matters of launching the business (except HR/recruiting) for the nascent child company. For 5 months I was solely responsible as a Deputy of corporate matters, ranging from working with in-house counsels and finance team members to incorporate the subsidiary, and run all operational tasks needed until hiring of non-R&D members.
Afterwards, I transferred over to the business unit responsible for AI business (smart speaker & voice assistant platform) for a while.
Intentional career pivot to try deep tech investment.
During the post-Samsung self sabbatical, stumbled upon a job opportunity at the rising micro-VC founded by the esteemed chairperson of Kakao, Brian Bum-soo Kim. Wanting to gain breath of exposure into various different industries and businesses, I considered the switch a timely and choice one. And the firm saw the technical background and experience valuable for future deep tech investments.
This transition turned out to be "pivotal" jump also made at the right time, when Korean VC/startup ecosystem was going through its Cambrian explosion. Talent and energy were flowing in, as well as capital, and proper breakout companies were coming up. 2013~2014 vintage turned out to be stellar in hindsight - and watching those then-green companies grow into what they are now is truly rewarding.
Storage software stack for Galaxy smartphones.
As a Korean national the mandatory conscription is the inevitable; luckily, being at right place and time, Samsung wanted to poach anyone who could lead or aid in the crusade against Apple. I ended up switching to the dark side because of the expat offer they sugarcoated with.
Although it was truly difficult to close the American chapter of my life after spending 10 years abroad, in the end it worked out as the best scenario for taking care of the military requirement. As part of the special quota program, I had to stay employed for 3 full years at Samsung in order to have it count as alternative service.
Storage firmware for iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Apple TV.
It was the best first gig to have out of school. The company was on a breakaway path with the launch of the 1st iPhone as inflection point, boosting off of iPod momentum, and so the journey with industry top talent riding on the rocket upwards was truly something. Loved the Bay Area vibes back then.
5-year integrated Master’s and Bachelor’s program unique to the engineering school at CMU.
Graduated with Cum Laude.