Start-Up is a Korean series that has been broadcast on Netflix since October 2020. This is another series that has been talked about a lot in many aspects, whether it’s about the lead actors, for example Bae Suzy (who plays the main character in this series, Seo Dal Mi) and the dreams and desires of young people in this era who want to be in a startup business, including knowledge about doing business.
Start-Up Start-Up is the dream business of people in this era.
Children or young people in this era, they grew up in the technology era. Many of them have dreams and want to be business owners, especially in startup businesses. One reason may be because they are bored or do not like the path of regular work (i.e. do not want to work for a company). Another reason is because doing startup business is a trend that is gaining popularity in this era. In addition, coupled with the fact that there are many startup companies that have grown to be examples in many countries, it is the reason why Start-Up has become a dream business for many people in this era.
The story of the Start-Up series
This series has 16 episodes in total. It’s about young people who are interested in startup businesses. Everyone wants to be successful and famous and be recognized for doing this business. Each episode has content that follows the theme of the episode’s name. In this story, there will be main characters who have different characters as follows:
Seo Dal Mi (played by Bae Suzy): A girl who struggles through life. Because she chose to live with her father (her parents separated, her older sister chose to live with her mother), Dal Mi’s childhood until adulthood was like a roller coaster. Because she had to work to earn money, she had to decide not to pursue a degree. But this decision had to be exchanged for doing many jobs (for money), and each job was a temporary contract job. But that also gave Seo Dal Mi a lot of experience from those jobs. Until one day she felt that her life could not end like this. Jeon should be able to go further. That was the reason why she chose to walk the path of being a startup.
Nam Do San (played by Nam Joo Hyuk): A young man, a former genius in mathematics (who got it by luck). Later, he did not achieve anything significant, but that does not mean that he did not have talent. He is the founder of Samsan Tech with two of his friends. Nam Do San used his parents’ money to invest in Samsan Tech. He and his friends tried to submit their work to a competition, hoping that his startup business would become a reality until they met Seo Dal Mi, who led them to enter the startup industry together.
Han Ji Pyeong (played by Kim Seon Ho): A kind older brother and a fierce nanny. His current image is a man who has achieved great success. He is a smart investor who has very cutting words that cut people’s hearts, especially those who ask for capital or the team that he has to mentor, which is Seo Dal Mi’s team. However, Han Ji Pyeong’s real personality is someone who is very compassionate towards others, has gratitude, and is selfless (he is even willing to give up the person he loves the most to someone more suitable). In this story, it can be seen that before he could reach this point, he had to go through a lot of experiences.
Won In-jae (played by Kang Han-na): An older sister who never gives up on anyone. Won In-jae is Seo Dal-mi’s real older sister who chose to live with their mother. Their mother remarried to a billionaire, so Won In-jae has everything: money, education, family background, good looks, and social status. But in reality, In-jae herself wants everyone to accept her own abilities, not the support she received from her stepfather. That’s why she wants to prove herself by becoming a startup.
Both Seo Dal Mi, Nam Do San, Won In Jae, and other young people with dreams all want to succeed with their startup businesses, and their goal is to work at “Sandbox”.
The “Sandbox” in the story is like Silicon Valley , a place where young people want to come to work. In fact, Sandbox is an accelerator , an institution or organization that opens up space and opportunities for startups that have the potential and are likely to become successful businesses to come to work, test technologies, and try doing real business. Sandbox provides initial capital, space, work, and various resources to use.
Young people who are interested in (the subject) will apply to compete in developing programs and presenting projects to solve the pain points of customers, organizations or society within a limited time. The activity used in this competition is a Hackathon , where each team will have to pitch their ideas and business plans in front of a panel of judges. Any team that makes it to the final round will go on to work in the Sandbox.
Being in the Sandbox also has a mentor to help, advise and consult. And there will be more competition. You can’t just sit around and do nothing. You have to develop your technology. And along the way, you have to find investors. The deciding point is to measure the coolness of each startup business on the Demo Day (which also requires Pitching ) to see if it will catch the eye of the judges and investors.
If any of them has tested the technology well and has a good business model, it will be easy to find investors to support them. Investors or Angel Investors are investors who provide business advice and support money for startups that have just started. They may only play an investor role or may also come in to help with business operations.
Or in some cases, it may be an exit of the startup business by selling the business, such as selling the entire company, including both people and technology, to institutional investors or large companies that want it.
What will the story be like? How will it end? How will it end? You’ll have to follow along and see for yourself.
Start-Up is a series that reveals the process of running a startup business very well.
Start-Up Series Start-Up If we cut out the drama of this story, this series reflects the story and reality of the path of doing a startup business very well. Including giving ideas about doing business in this era as well. People who dream of doing business or even people who work full-time or students can all learn from this movie. It may be easier to understand than reading or taking classes to learn about these things. Let’s say that if you finish watching, you should be able to answer the question in your mind immediately: Do we still want to do this business?
What we learned from this story
In fact, there are many interesting aspects, but in this article, the admin would like to present the ideas gained from doing business first, which are 6 points as follows:
“Start-Up is easy to get started, but it is very difficult to survive.”
Because the world of startups is not as beautiful as many people think. The success rate is only a few percent.
Citing information from Investopedia , a survey in 2019 found that:
“The failure rate of startups is about 90%.”
It was further added that 21.5% will not succeed in the first year, 30% in the second year, and around 70% in the tenth year. This means that the chance of success in this business is only 10%.
Let’s say that if we are really interested in this business, we must first accept the truth that it is not as easy as we think. But it does not mean that it is impossible. Because if we understand, learn how and follow the right path, we may become the next unicorn company. (A unicorn startup is a startup company that is valued at more than 1 billion dollars, such as Air BNB, Uber, SpaceX, Xaomi, etc.)
“Start-Up, the goal must be clear: what is it for and for whom?”
Startups are also businesses. If the initiators do not understand this point, they will only have dreams of using technology to help solve problems for disadvantaged people or people with problems in that or that group. Yes, helping disadvantaged people may seem like a good thing, but thinking only about this aspect without having the goal of turning the startup into a business will immediately become difficult. You could say that it is only a dream.
It’s like a time when Samsan Tech only had technology, but it didn’t go anywhere because it lacked a clear goal. We didn’t even know who would benefit from its technology or who it was made for, etc. Until we started a startup with Seo Dal Mi at Sandbox, we found our goal and it turned into a real business.
“Whether a start-up will survive or not also depends on its financial resources.”
Another important problem of startups not being successful is the issue of a high and prolonged burn rate. This is because many businesses are still at this point, which is the point where they still need to invest a lot of capital in technology or other things, which only has costs and expenses but no income, or has income but still cannot cover the investment or expenses.
Burn rate is like the Cost of Growth that startups need to invest in various aspects, whether it be technology, people, resources, or marketing, to attract customers. This period is a period that requires a lot of money. If they can’t turn around and start earning income, they will have a problem of financial liquidity and may have to raise new funds from investors again (every time there is a new round of investment, startup owners will have to sell their own shares in exchange for the investment).
If we look at the financial statements of startups, we will find that most of them are incurring losses. If they cannot find investors to support them or their technology has no future, they will have to fold their business. Investors will lose money in cases like this.
“Start-ups have good technology, but users are not always willing to pay.”
Another problem for startups that are not successful because they can’t make money is because they may focus too much on solving social problems and forget to look at where they can generate income or whether users are willing or able to pay.
“ People who use products are not buyers. People who buy products do not use them. ”
In the story, there is a startup business that makes a mobile application that helps the elderly or people who have blurry eyes understand what the mobile phone is capturing. For example, if you point your mobile phone camera at a person’s face, it will tell you who the person in front of you is. Or if you point your camera at an object, it will tell you what the object is. It’s a good idea, right? It solves social problems. But the problem is that the users can’t pay. So who will pay? This is another obstacle for startup businesses, which is that they focus too much on certain issues, such as technology or usage, but forget about generating income (the business model is unclear, and the revenue model is inconsistent).
“A startup with good technology, a bad leader, and a team that can’t manage its people is also doomed.”
The issue of leadership and teamwork is also important. This story shows many aspects that not everyone who is good at technology like Nam Do San can be a good leader. You don’t have to graduate from a famous place like her sister or have a degree to be a good leader. In the story, Seo Dal Mi, who didn’t graduate, was looked down upon and belittled by everyone. But she was able to prove that she was a leader who dared to make decisions (and most of her decisions were good). She respected her team members, trusted them, and always found ways to help the team.
If any organization has a good boss or leader, the problems with people will be reduced (not meaning there are no problems) or if there are, they can be easily solved. In the story, Seo Dal Mi also encountered all sorts of problems, whether it was about relationships, share division, work content, etc. In addition, a good leader must be able to fully bring out the potential of the team and be someone who creates an atmosphere that allows everyone to work together. This can be seen in the example in this story. Everyone in the team got to work on the things they were really good at and skilled at, and everyone was ready to help each other. It was a team with the right mix, which was different from her sister’s team, which was an organization where whatever the boss said, everyone followed.
“Start-Up technology is good, you get good leaders, but if you have good mentors, you will go faster and further.”
No one is born a leader or has ever held an important position before. The same goes for startups. For example, Samsan Tech has made progress in everything from entering the Hackathon competition to achieving success (what kind of success, we’ll have to see for ourselves). Many important things have come from the help and advice of mentors.
Their mentor is Head Han Ji Pyeong. Head Han advises on difficult things that the whole team has never done and has no experience in before. This is another factor that allows Samsan Tech to continue. In our real life, it is the same. Whoever has a good mentor has an advantage and is very lucky because these mentors are what can make us go faster and further than before.
Conclusion
The story of the young men and women in this story has many issues that are similar to our younger siblings or friends in our Thai society. Everyone has dreams and wants to be successful. But reality (both real stories and movies) shows that it is not easy.
“In business, success is not a matter of luck.”
In doing business, to get through each level, each problem and each obstacle, just having determination and intention may not be enough. There must be many other important elements, such as teammates who get along, understand and have the same goals, having an experienced mentor to help support, or even timing and opportunity, which if it is not the right time or timing, may not be successful as well.
Let’s say that if you have the answer that you really want to enter this field, try to use the ideas you get from this story to prepare yourself. Finally, the admin would like to wish everyone success on the path that you have chosen for yourself.
Source:
Start-Up : https://www.netflix.com/title/81290293
Thanks to Netflix for the article illustrations.อบบทความ
