Originally, the capital of OTK Company was 672 billion KRW. After investing 70 billion KRW to establish a subsidiary company, K Company, in Korea, the remaining capital was 602 billion KRW.
When I first ventured into startup investments, I was worried about whether I could invest such a large amount of money. However, that concern was just a passing fear. With each investment contract signed, the balance in my account rapidly decreased. Money, though hard to earn, is easy to spend.
Investing tens of billions at once dulled my sense of money. If someone asked for 5 million dollars, I would think, ‘Isn’t that too little? To run a proper business, you need at least 10 million dollars.’
When did my scale grow so large?
At the point when a meeting was scheduled, the investment was almost a certainty. The reason for still going ahead with the meeting was not to decide whether to invest but to meet in person, have discussions, and fine-tune the details.
The two most important details at these meetings are ownership and management. Finance, no matter how well packaged with fancy words, essentially revolves around playing with money to make more money. Therefore, calling this field a gathering place for swindlers would not be an exaggeration.
Some set up plausible companies to attract investors and siphon off the investment funds, while others approach seemingly healthy companies, strip away the technology and patents, or even take over the entire company.
Hence, the aspect that startup founders seeking investment are most worried about is ownership rights. Most of the founders I met possessed an entrepreneurial mindset rather than a mere business mindset. They wanted to succeed their products or services in the market beyond just making a lot of money.
So, while they were willing to take investments, they preferred not to meddle in the management. I gladly gave them the answer they wanted to hear: “I will invest, but I will not interfere in the management.”
Having yielded management rights, only deciding on how much stake to secure led to the rapid determination of other details.
We signed the investment agreement with each other, and those who found investors in distant lands of Korea returned to their homeland joyfully.
The entrepreneurs I met this time were a young East Asian man and a Black woman.
Peter Katsuyo, a Japanese-British man, and Janelle Jackson, a Jamaican-British woman. Peter was originally an architect, and Janelle was a computer scientist.
“ArcIt aims to use artificial intelligence for architectural design.”
The following explanation went on:
Architecture is both an art and an engineering discipline. Buildings are not only a piece of art that makes up a city but also spaces where people live their lives.
Therefore, architecture falls within the domain of professionally educated architects. However, we aim to challenge this field by incorporating IT skills.
Janelle projected designs and drawings directly created by Arc (an AI for architecture).
“Currently, we are at the level of designing simple 1- to 2-story buildings. But Arc is continually evolving through machine learning.”
Taekgyu asked me in amazement, “What is machine learning?”
“Exactly what it sounds like – machines learning.”
“Does artificial intelligence learn as well?”
Artificial intelligence is a machine that substitutes for human thinking.
It may sound grand, but computers represent that best.
While computers can handle complex calculations effortlessly, they struggle to differentiate a dog from a cat.
The reason is the lack of an algorithm to classify them.
What criteria separate dogs from cats? Dogs look like dogs, and cats look like cats?
Yet, dogs and cats come in various shapes and sizes. How can one determine which is a dog and which is a cat?
Humans find it very easy. Even if you put a cat that looks like a dog in front of them, they can quickly distinguish between them.
It is the result of learned experience in life. We have seen thousands of dogs and thousands of cats directly or through various media. Accumulated information forms a rule in our minds, and we automatically distinguish between dogs and cats according to that rule.
So, can machines be taught to learn like humans? If we pre-train them to recognize thousands of pictures of dogs, they could form rules to distinguish whether an animal shown is a dog or not.
“Still in the early stages, but by continually exposing ARK to blueprints and designs, we aim to make it capable of handling more complex architectural designs in the future.”
The introduction of machines into production sites marked the beginning of the industrial revolution. Through the second and third industrial revolutions, machines evolved.
However, they did not just replace human manual labor. Creative and proactive tasks remained distinctly human.
“That’s an old story now.”
Now, artificial intelligence is even surpassing humans in the field of design. Is this the trend of industries?
Taekgyu asked Hyunjoo noona.
“In your opinion?”
“It’s more than fine. Great items, great vision,”
Having met several companies envisioning unprecedented ventures (notably Faceit), the idea of AI doing architectural design seems quite rational.
As I skimmed through the proposal, I pondered.
South Korea’s construction capabilities are world-class. Iconic landmarks like Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers or Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands were constructed by Korean companies.
However, there is still a gap in the design aspect.
Not long ago, even the completed super-tall building LiTeta Tower had its construction done by LiT Construction, but design and supervision were all handled by American, Japanese, German firms, etc.
This was because there were no domestic firms with such design capabilities.
I asked Peter.
“Is it possible for AI to design super-tall buildings?”
Peter confidently replied.
“Of course. Technology advancement has no end, after all.”
I nodded and said to Hyunjoo-noona.
“Let’s invest.”
Hyunjoo-noona said to both of them.
“We will invest in ArcIt.”
***
The next meeting is at 7 p.m.
Hyunjoo-noona stepped outside the hotel for a moment to smoke a cigarette.
Ellie asked me, “I’m going to play squash, want to come along?”
I quickly shook my head. “Oh, no. I have a bit of a sore throat from not sleeping well last night.”
Ellie looked concerned. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I just need to rest a bit, I think.”
In reality, my body was fine. However, I used this excuse because a few days ago, I almost vomited after following along for only 30 minutes.
I never felt the limits of my stamina even during military training, but I was about to experience them at the hotel squash court.
“Let’s go together next time then.”
“…Yes.”
Squash doesn’t seem to suit me very well.
Ellie went to exercise, leaving only me and Taekgyu.
Despite struggling to understand English, he faithfully attended the meeting. He wanted to know where his money was going.
This guy surprisingly had a strong sense of responsibility.
“But can you really make a lot of money like this?”
Instead of answering, I threw a question back.
“Do you know Masayoshi Son?”
“Who’s that?”
“He’s a Korean-Japanese, the chairman of SoftBank in Japan.”
Taekgyu nodded his head.
“Ah! Is that the balding gentleman?”
“That’s right.”
Son Masayoshi is a genius in investments and business. His managerial skills are remarkable, but his foresight into the future is even more exceptional.
“There’s a famous story about that gentleman. Do you know Alibaba?”
“The Chinese online shopping mall?”
Alibaba is currently the top IT company in China. However, like most companies, it was just an ordinary company in its early days.
During that time, the Chinese e-commerce market was largely dominated by the American company eBay, with small companies proliferating. Alibaba was just one of them.
When Ma Yun, the founder of Alibaba, heard that SoftBank’s Chairman Son Masayoshi was visiting Beijing, he immediately rushed to request a meeting.
They had a meal and talked for about two hours.
“Son Masayoshi invested $20 million right there.”
Everyone was skeptical about the investment. Competing with eBay seemed like hitting a rock with an egg.
Son Masayoshi even faced severe criticism at a SoftBank board meeting.
Nevertheless, he did not waver in his decision.
What were the results?
Twenty years later, Alibaba dominated the Chinese e-commerce market and grew into a global corporation. Meanwhile, eBay could not handle the losses and withdrew from the Chinese market.
Afterward, Alibaba was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Its current market capitalization is $330 billion, roughly around 360 trillion Korean won.
Taekgyu’s eyes widened.
“It’s even bigger than Samsung Electronics.”
“That’s the scale of a continent.”
Alibaba occupies a significant portion of the Chinese e-commerce market. It is currently the top IT company in China and ranks among the top ten in the world by market capitalization. Considering that China’s internet users make up about half of the population, the potential for future growth is limitless.
“The important thing is that SoftBox received a 30% stake from investing $20 million in Alibaba. In terms of return on investment, it’s 500,000%.”
Taekgyu was amazed, his mouth hanging open.
“Wow! That’s incredible.”
“That’s right.”
Truly a jackpot beyond imagination, the myth of startup investment.
Well, it’s a hindsight story. If Alibaba had failed due to competition from AbeY, they wouldn’t have made a penny.
Let’s think rationally.
Among the numerous startups, only one out of ten companies survives after five years. And among those, only one out of ten grows exponentially.
In short, the probability of success is less than 1%.
But these companies are the ones I discovered with foresight. If the hologram in front of me is correct, they all belong within that 1%.
Son Masayoshi earned 220 billion out of 110 trillion. Can we make any with our 670 billion?
Thinking like that, Hyunjoo walked into the hotel while making a call.
After a while, she finished the call and said to me,
“I just got a call from Caros.”
“Caros?”
“The company Jinhoo really wanted to meet.”
“Oh!”
I selected dozens of startups, but among them, one company stood out especially.
That was Caros.
“What is it?”
“I just spoke with the COO and set up a meeting. He’s coming to Korea tomorrow.”
Taekgyu asked.
“What kind of company is it?”
I muttered while recalling the proposal.
“It’s a bit of a complicated place, dealing with various things.”
Lets go