Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

TMR-founders is a start- up company established by SUNY Korea CS graduate student, Youngho Kim. The company was recently selected as one of the 12 start-up teams in the Jung-Ju Young Start-up Competition hosted by Asan-nanum group. Jung-Ju Young Start-up Competition started in 2012 to encourage and sponsor start-up companies within the nation. The average competition rate for this competition is about 100:1.

[Questions for Youngho, CEO of TMR-founders]

1.    Briefly introduce yourself.

     Hello, I am Youngho Kim, and I am currently building and running a company called tmr-founders.

2.    Could you explain about your start-up company “TMR-founders”? (How it was started, etc.)

    Tmr-founders began with various visions of our team members that led to the same destination (self-actualization). We all dream of a world where we can make “work” happy. We define “work that anyone wants” as a start-up. Through a start-up, we expect a better world to live in.

3.    We heard your company was recently selected for the final round of the Jung Ju-Young Start-up competition. Could you tell us about the competition and how your company was able to make it to the final round?

     Jung Ju-Young Start-up Competition is one of the biggest start-up competitions in Korea held by Asan-nanum campaign. The average competition rate is about 100:1. To be honest, we expected that we would not even pass the document screening in this competition. When we met several venture capitalists with the ppt document that we submitted for this competition, they all said this service is not attractive. We asked for tons of feedback and questions in order to not give up. At a time when our self-esteem fell to the very bottom, we passed the first document screening at the Jung Ju-Young Startup Competition. It was lucky to pass the document stage, and after that, we passed two more presentation reviews. With the passion and help of our teammates, we were selected as one of the final 12 start-up teams.

4.    Do you have any messages for SUNY Korea students who wish to start their own business?

     Do a job or work that you can always smile about before you go to bed. Never start a business from the opinions and trends of the people around you. Believe in yourself and keep going. And please act first since there will never be perfect preparation.