Chapter 39: There’s a Time for Everything
Near Oksu Station, at a local pork belly restaurant.
Sizzle, sizzle.
Thick slices of pork belly were sizzling deliciously on the cast-iron grill.
“More pork belly again! Aren’t you sick of it by now?”
“Hmph. If pork belly ever tires me out, I might as well leave this world, kid. Unlike beef, which you can get old quickly, pork belly is something you crave again after just a few hours.”
Though he said it with a laugh, I knew.
I knew why Sang-cheol Hyung was so obsessed with pork belly.
The meals at the nursery back in the day weren’t lacking, but it wasn’t like we had meat dishes every day either.
Sang-cheol Hyung, who had always been crazy about meat, even went on hunger strikes, desperate for it, but the nursery’s tight budget made it impossible to have meat regularly.
When he finally aged out from the nursery and stepped into society, the first place he got a job was at a barbecue restaurant, that fact alone shows just how deep his love for pork belly runs.
“How’s university life treating you?”
“It’s amazing. Feels like a dream come true.”
“I knew you were a tough one, but I never imagined a guy who barely studied would cram so hard and get into university. And not just any school—you’re at Hanyeong University. You know how it is. How many kids from the nursery can make it to the university? Most are too busy just trying to make a living.”
I could only nod in agreement, having once given up my own education to make a living.
“By the way, why are the people you ask me to always look into such a mess?”
“Why? Did you get anything?”
“Of course I did. There’s plenty of dirt. But I have to admit, this guy is definitely smart. He’s done a good job cleaning up his trail. Then again, nothing escapes me once I’m on the case.”
“Tell me what you found. Who is this guy?”
“DUK Ventures’ Jang Seok-hyeon. His former name was Jang Goo-bong. Before that, it was Jang Kyung-yeong. How shady must he be to have changed his name three times? Damn, just thinking about how much trouble I went through in the beginning without knowing that makes me furious.”
Sang-cheol Hyung downed his soju roughly.
“He looks all polished on the outside, but inside, he’s rotten to the core. He brags about being a talented investor, but honestly, he’s nothing more than a swindler.”
“Even if he’s a swindler, still… how could he manage to do that without anything like assets, connections, or capital to back him up?”
“Well, there’s one thing. He kept failing until he got lucky and hit it big once. He’s been riding on that one success ever since.”
I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh as I thought back to Jang Seok-hyeon, acting like he knew the formula for success in the industry.
“Up to that point, it’s whatever, but this guy made a huge mess at his previous company. That’s actually why he changed his name.”
“What kind of mess?”
“This was really hard to dig up, so you better appreciate it. His last company was an investment firm in Silicon Valley and he got caught embezzling from it—quite a hefty amount too. Now, in Silicon Valley, people call him ‘Potential Criminal’.”
“So, he’s just a straight-up criminal. Didn’t he go to prison?”
“Of course he did. This is the U.S. we’re talking about. He served his time, but old habits die hard. As soon as he got out, he cleaned up his identity and came back to Korea, doing the same shady stuff. That guy is a real vicious bastard. I even heard that someone committed suicide after taking his bad investment.”
Sang-cheol Hyung shoved a fistful of lettuce wrap into his mouth, which made me chuckle involuntarily.
“There’s a suspiciously high number of promising companies that went bankrupt after getting investments from Jang Seok-hyeon. At first, I thought they were failing for obvious reasons, but after looking into it more, I realized something else was going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ugh, damn… This pepper is so spicy.”
Sang-cheol Hyung grimaced and gulped down some water after biting into a particularly spicy pepper.
“Burp. Where was I again?”
“Many companies went bankrupt, you say.”
“Yeah. As soon as this guy started investing, he began meddling in company management. And it wasn’t even his own money.”
“What kind of meddling?”
“He recently invested in a game company and the initial response wasn’t bad. But then Jang Seok-hyeon started meddling in the game’s operations. Suddenly, there were all these new cash items popping up out of nowhere. He made the game blatantly push players to spend money, which drove them away, cursing as they left.”
“Wouldn’t that investment company go down too?”
“Hold on, let’s take a drink first. Talking this much has left my mouth dry.”
I downed a shot of soju in one go and pressed for more answers.
“So, what happened next?”
“He’s a slippery snake. Even though he pushed for aggressive spending, the company’s financial statements must have been inflated like crazy, right? Somehow, he managed to sell off his shares at the peak, raking in more than 30 times his investment. In a way, he’s a sneaky one.”
“Hmm… I see.”
Suddenly, Jang Seok-hyeon’s obsession with the business model of ‘Thumbs Up’ flashed through my mind.
“As expected, he’s a shady guy.”
“Ahjumma! Two more servings of pork belly over here!”
Sang-cheol Hyung shouted his order and then looked at me with a serious expression.
“But let me tell you, that sneaky bastard holds grudges. Be careful.”
“What do you mean?”
“Naturally, there must have been companies that rejected his investment offers. When that happened, he started spreading nasty rumors about them. Pure spite.”
“That guy’s a real piece of work.”
“If he can’t have it, he destroys it, huh? This jerk is as nasty as his looks.”
“But will it really make a difference if a guy like him says something?”
“That’s how well he knows the physiology of the industry. He picks and chooses the rumours that are fatal to investment. And you know what? His reputation within the same industry isn’t that bad. He has a surprisingly wide network. The thing is, he only pulls these dirty tricks on powerless, vulnerable startups.”
“Hmm… okay. Thanks, Hyung. You’ve been really helpful.”
The moment I faced that guy, I could see why the dark aura had surrounded Lee Jang-won.
It was a sign that getting involved with him meant the future we were working so hard for would come crashing down.
No matter what, I had to avoid getting entangled with him.
A few days later.
I got an urgent call from Lee Jang-won and went to Beslo’s office.
“Why are you calling me so urgently? Did you call me because you’re craving some meat?”
“H-Hyung, what are we going to do?”
Seeing the deep worry on Lee Jang-won’s face, I instantly knew something had gone wrong.
“What happened?”
“There’s this event called ‘Network Day’ where CEOs of companies and people in the industry gather to network. I heard some strange things there.”
“What kind of things?”
“VCs and accelerators are saying terrible things about us.”
Though I had somewhat anticipated this, I still listened.
“Keep going.”
“They’re saying that ‘Thumbs Up’ is going to follow in the footsteps of ‘Clubstage’, that anyone who shows interest in us is stepping into a mess they should avoid at all costs.”
‘Clubstage’ was a voice-based social networking service that had experienced explosive growth, once reaching a company valuation of 1 trillion won, but as new user growth stagnated and the business model became too aggressive, the service began its downfall.
“Do you have any idea where these rumors started?”
“Haah. I can’t say for sure. But the gossip is spreading way too fast. Even the atmosphere among the other VCs seems to have changed a bit…”
“Hmmm, it’s probably Jang Seok-hyeon’s doing.”
“DUK?”
“I had a bad feeling about this from the start. Guess the saying’s true—old habits die hard.”
After learning the truth about Jang Seok-hyeon, we had politely declined DUK Ventures’ investment offer.
Even though he contacted us several times after that, I made sure to warn Lee Jang-won not to respond under any circumstances.
I knew he might try something, but I didn’t expect him to go this far and spread such blatant lies.
“How are the DAU and revenue looking?”
“It’s been steadily climbing, but honestly, we’ve hit a bit of a plateau. We did grow so rapidly in a short amount of time… but I’m confident that if we pull off this next update successfully, we can take another leap again. The problem is…”
“We’re short on funds.”
At this point, ‘Thumbs Up’ had reached a critical juncture.
If we managed to push through this, we could move on to the next phase, but if we stalled here, we risked falling into what the startup world calls the ‘Death Valley’.
‘Death Valley’ is a period when startups, having moved past their initial growth phase and starting to expand their business in earnest, struggle with sluggish sales and cash flow difficulty, often leading to a sharp increase in failure rates.
It was then—
Knock, knock, knock.
Creaaaaak.
At the sound of knocking, both of us turned our heads toward the door.
“Oh, looks like everyone’s here.”
Jang Seok-hyeon strolled in, his large nose leading the way, as usual.
Lee Jang-won’s expression instantly stiffened.
“What brought you here today? We didn’t have any appointments with you.”
Despite my pointed tone, Jang Seok-hyeon responded with a broad smile.
“Hahaha. Well, it’s hard to make an appointment when you don’t pick up the phone. Anyway, I’ve been walking a lot and my legs are killing me. Mind if I sit?”
Without waiting for a reply, he plopped himself down in front of us, patting his legs as if they were aching.
“For someone destined to do big things, your office is a bit cramped, don’t you think? You should really consider moving to a fancy office in Gangnam.”
“This space works fine for now. Anyway, what brings you here?”
“Oh, I just finished a meeting with one of the companies in this building about an investment. Thought I’d stop by while I was at it. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed. I thought things went well in our meeting, but you turned us down so coldly.”
“We appreciate your offer, but after reviewing the provisional agreement you sent, we realized it wasn’t a good fit for us. The valuation you proposed, the equity terms, and especially that ‘refixing clause’ you never even mentioned during the meeting—it just didn’t sit right with us.”
The contract DUK Ventures had sent over sneaked in a refixing clause that would raise their equity from 40% to 50% if ‘Thumbs Up’ didn’t reach 20 billion won in revenue by next year.
On top of that, the contract was filled with sneaky toxic clauses that would have trapped us—thankfully, I had a lawyer review it.
“I’m pretty sure I mentioned it but you must not have heard me. And since this is your first time investing, you probably don’t know, but these kinds of things are negotiated and agreed upon.”
Jang Seok-hyeon said, nonchalantly chugging from a water bottle he pulled from his bag.
“Investment inquiries have been dropping lately, haven’t they? There’s a lot of chatter in the industry about ‘Thumbs Up’. Your growth has been stagnating, and let’s be honest, your founders’ age and academic backgrounds aren’t exactly standout qualities. I’ve seen so many promising startups that were supposed to soar but ended up going bankrupt because they couldn’t secure funding and eventually, they crash and burn. I’d hate to see our Beslo end up like them.”
He was as cunning as a snake.
This is probably how he cornered inexperienced founders and pressured them into signing absurd contracts like the one he’d sent us.
“Yeah, well. I’m not sure what kind of filthy-mouthed bastard is spouting such nonsense, but I don’t really care. In the end, our company’s success is proven by its results. Anyway, thanks for your concern, but we’ll handle our business on our own.”
The friendly smile that had once adorned Jang Seok-hyeon’s face disappeared, leaving behind a cold, expressionless stare.
I met his gaze, unflinchingly.
His dull brown eyes gleamed insidiously like a night sky consumed by shadows.
“That’s fine. If things get more difficult, feel free to give me a call.”
Standing up from his seat, he gave our office a quick once-over, flashed a nasty smile that oozed condescension and left.
It was as if he was thinking, ‘Let’s see how long you can last’.
Watching his retreating figure, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“The moment we take money from scum like him, ‘Thumbs Up’ is finished.”
Lee Jang-won nodded in agreement as I said with absolute certainty.
“You’re probably right. I guess we’ll just hang on for now until a better investment comes along. And over time the rumors will die down eventually.”
“No. We can’t afford to waste any more time. There’s a time for everything.”
Jang-won tilted his head, confused at my comment.
“What do you mean, Hyung?”
“If the sea won’t come to me, then I’ll just have to go to the sea.”
“Huh?”
Leaving Lee Jang-won bewildered, I pulled out my phone and made a call.
“Chairman-nim, it’s been a while, how about we have a fun chat over some drinks and a friendly game of Janggi? 1(Korean chess) “
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