The Best Defense He Could Make Right Now
“I’d like to report on TA Medical’s medical-diagnosis assistance AI, which won the grand prize at this year’s hackathon.”
Kang Sangyoon had hastily arranged an emergency briefing for the very next day after the hackathon.
He meant to persuade everyone at JH Medical that they had to secure TA Medical as quickly as possible.
And everyone who listened to his report was convinced by his argument.
This was, truly, the kind of technology they had to snatch up before a rival company monopolized it.
“How accurate is it?”
“Internally, they’re claiming 99 percent. I think we should move quickly on a review contract, if only to verify the performance.”
“Even if it clears 90 percent, that’s still a technology with serious demand.”
“Yes. Since JH Medical’s market share in X-ray equipment has been trending downward for the past two years, we need to be the first to adopt any new technology.”
“If we can get an exclusive contract, even better.”
JH Medical was Korea’s number one healthcare company.
It was also a company that ranked near the top in the X-ray equipment sector.
But because X-ray machines themselves were hard to differentiate in any major way, even JH Medical was beginning to feel the strain of simply holding onto sales.
Under those circumstances, a novel technology had appeared on the horizon, and naturally it was impossible not to want a bite.
“They say it can even be installed on a regular laptop. Then why didn’t you bring it over on the computer yesterday?”
“Because Kim Siwon insisted on installation only after the contract was drawn up.”
“Hah. Damn cheeky. What do they take us for?”
They had taken them exactly for what they were.
Even the president of JH Medical, clicking his tongue, was only thinking about one thing in his head: How do we strip that technology out of them and make it ours?
“Get Legal and draft the contract fast. You know what I mean, right? Smarter than they are.”
“Yes, sir.”
Smarter.
Meaning they should maximize their own gain as much as possible.
Kang Sangyoon was busy in his own head, calculating how to sweet-talk that wily college student, Kim Siwon, into compliance.
Of course, Kim Siwon had no intention of sitting still and letting Kang Sangyoon and JH Medical push him around.
“Guys. None of you have any problem being photographed or going on air, right?”
Media exposure.
Kim Siwon planned to make aggressive use of it.
＊＊＊
My plan was simple.
The moment the patent was filed, we would put ourselves in front of every kind of media available.
Preferably before we ever signed anything with JH Medical.
“Why do we need to go on air before we contract with JH Medical?”
“Yeah. We’re signing with a huge company. We should just feel secure and do it.”
Obviously, the club members couldn’t easily relate to my urgent timeline.
We bring you good news and this is how skeptical you all are?
They were looking at me with exactly that expression.
I answered firmly.
“Because they’re a big company, we need to stay even sharper. They’re an opponent we’d have a hard time beating.”
A conglomerate is a conglomerate for a reason.
It means a company with assets on the order of ten trillion won.
That meant they could assemble the best legal team for any dispute, and pour astronomical sums into article placement, public-opinion shaping, and comment manipulation.
Which meant my past self being crushed by JH Medical hadn’t been some bizarre accident.
“We need to leave behind as much record of ourselves as possible.”
The only way to win a legal battle against a conglomerate was to secure as much evidence as possible.
Filing patents was a given, but it would also be wise to make our faces and our product memorable through as many outlets as possible.
If it became a hot issue, that would be best, but even if it didn’t, it could still leave a line of evidence online.
“Yeah, well. If there’s any risk, it’s better to prepare for it however we can.”
As expected, Seonghun-hyung, who had studied all kinds of business cases, was the first to agree with me.
“Hmm. Yeah. If it helps, then it’s better to do something than nothing.”
“And our faces will be worth something later anyway, once we’re executives at a big company.”
“Okay. Guess I’d better start dieting.”
That was enough to win over the rest of the club members as well.
But one question still seemed to remain.
“But how are we supposed to suddenly get on some broadcast or in a newspaper?”
“Right? We’re not celebrities, just college students who’ve barely started a business.”
How would we appear in the media?
The answer was very clear.
“Are we just college students? We’re scholarship students at Korea University, the top university in Korea.”
Korea University.
The university with the highest admissions cutoff in the country.
Computer science wasn’t yet as popular as it would be in the future, but the school’s name alone was enough to draw attention.
“You mean we’ll pitch ourselves as something like ‘a startup club made up of Korea University scholarship students’?”
“Exactly.”
“Isn’t that a little obnoxious?”
“But it’ll definitely catch people’s attention.”
At my words, all the club members broke into awkward laughter.
They were probably laughing because it was too embarrassing to fully agree or disagree.
“Then you’re going to contact reporters right away?”
“Yeah. I think it’ll be hard to find someone willing to write a PR piece immediately, so I’m going to focus on broadcast appearances first.”
“Hmm. You mean we might appear on some variety show or something?”
“Yep.”
Everyone still seemed confused about whether I was serious.
Yeah, they probably won’t really believe it until the broadcast appearance is actually set.
“Then I’ll send out the appearance request emails. Everyone’s really okay with this, right?”
“Go ahead.”
“Fighting.”
Then I’d better make it happen as fast as possible.
＊＊＊
> Using AI to dig up personal information is actually pretty questionable.
> I asked you to collect publicly listed email addresses, not hidden personal data~
> So I’m helping, but be careful next time.
> You know our conversations don’t get exposed anywhere else anyway lol
> Form good habits. Never break the law.
> I’m not planning to do anything illegal either.
Searching for the email addresses of broadcast writers.
Under normal circumstances, that would have taken a fairly measurable amount of time, but Kim Siwon finished it in one minute.
He had asked Badugi to collect every publicly available email address for appearance applications on the web.
You’re starting to let me do all the dirty work.
Dirty work? Do you have any idea how much brainpower I’m using here?
The introduction dossier for Kim Siwon’s club and its members had already been completed.
It was a profile that carefully gathered every big and small detail a broadcaster would find appealing.
In fact, it was so thorough that it practically doubled as a program proposal, laying out in exacting detail what kinds of shows could be built from those elements.
That file was now being sent out all at once to employees at broadcast stations large and small.
“Hmm? A startup club formed by the first through sixth-ranked students in Korea University’s computer engineering department?”
And fortunately, many writers and producers responded to Kim Siwon’s appeal.
“Producer, we got an email from students on scholarship at Korea University asking to appear on the show.”
“Their background’s solid. They even secured investment from a professor in Korea University’s veterinary department as soon as they started the business.”
“Ooh, the guy they call the representative sounds like he’d do well on camera.”
“Sounds like the rep actually knows something about broadcasting.”
“Should we at least set up a meeting with these kids?”
Thanks to that, Kim Siwon’s inbox quickly filled with meeting request emails from writers.
Faster than even he had expected.
“Guys. I sent the list of broadcast meetings requested by noon today to the group chat.”
“Huh? Meetings? With broadcasters?”
“Yeah. Let me know if there are any shows you’d rather avoid, and mark the ones you definitely want us to appear on too.”
And just like that, appearance meetings were set up in rapid succession.
Even broadcasts with decent name recognition were viewing Kim Siwon’s club positively.
As Kim Siwon had said, the position of ‘a club made up of Korea University scholarship students’ was enough to do the job.
“Hey, Producer Kim. Did you get an email from that guy who’s top of some engineering department at Korea University?”
“Top of Korea University engineering? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“No, there’s some engineering student who’s been flooding broadcast stations with emails lately. He wants to go on air.”
“What a strange kid. Does he want to be an entertainer?”
“No, apparently he’s trying to start a business and get on TV that way. But he’s clean-cut, and all his friends are Korea University scholarship students, so I guess he’s got some appeal.”
“Really? Could you send me that email too?”
There was even an unexpected butterfly effect Kim Siwon hadn’t anticipated.
By aggressively promoting himself in the narrow world of broadcasting, even people who hadn’t received Kim Siwon’s email came to know his name.
As a result, his inbox became a nonstop stream of requests for broadcast meetings.
It was the kind of attention that could have kept him in meetings all day long.
“Hey. Were there really this many broadcasts in our country?”
“Damn, this is insane. How about we cut the radio and online article interviews?”
“We’ll give the newspaper interviews aimed at medical professionals a very positive review. And for radio, we should probably go on the ones with DJs who already have a solid fan base.”
From appearance requests starting the very next day to program-planning offers six months down the line.
For a club with no marketing budget whatsoever, it was the best possible situation.
“Siwon. Don’t overdo it. You really look like a zombie lately.”
Of course, behind all that luck was a worn-down Kim Siwon being ground to the bone.
Exams, assignments, meetings with professors, and back-to-back appointments.
There was no such thing as free time in Kim Siwon’s schedule anymore.
And yet even after being dragged around like that all week, the corners of his mouth never once dropped.
“Guys. Now JH will have no choice but to watch our every move, whether before or after the contract.”
Every time the club members heard that, they just shook their heads.
They couldn’t understand at all why he was keeping such a close watch on JH Medical.
“For now, tomorrow a reporter and a camera crew will come by. We’re recording a news segment, so meet at 2 p.m. so we can get shots of everyone working together. Seonghun-hyung will draft a rough script and send it out.”
“TV news? About what?”
“The rise in startup activity among college students these days. We’ll only be the focus for about a minute.”
“Pretty standard. Okay.”
Even so, all the club members dutifully followed Kim Siwon’s lead.
They could do that because they trusted his direction wouldn’t be wrong.
“The patent filings are done, right?”
“Yeah. We finished filing everything we could, including as much as possible to support similar operation to our AI.”
“You all worked way too hard. Then let’s make sure the news footage includes our AI running too.”
“Sounds good.”
By then, Kim Siwon had finished every preparation necessary to make JH Medical choke on its own arrogance.
All that was left was to execute the plan exactly as intended.
“Good. Send that over to Representative Kim Siwon just like that.”
“Understood.”
JH Medical, completely unaware of all this, had also prepared a contract perfectly suited to its own interests.
It was packed with toxic clauses that most people would never notice at a glance.
Another masterpiece from JH Medical’s legal team, a contract that had already made countless startup founders weep tears of blood.
“If this goes well, I might get a promotion for nothing.”
Kang Sangyoon wore a broad grin as he emailed the contract.
“Oh? So you finally sent the contract, did you?”
And Kim Siwon, who received that email, was every bit as bright-faced as Kang Sangyoon.
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