A Startup Drawing More Attention Than Expected
Rejune, the one who had been forbidden from saying “I’m sorry,” was surprisingly entertaining to watch.
At first it was funny because he was so awkward. Then it was funny because he himself had become genuinely humorous.
“I think I finally see why Kim Siwon hired you.”
“Haha, thank you.”
“So these days, is skipping the big companies and going straight for startups the trend among college students?”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t call it a trend. I’m just aiming high when it comes to stock options.”
“Oh? That’s the first I’ve heard of that.”
Thanks to him, what might have ended as a single meal stretched all the way to coffee at a cafe.
We spent the time laughing and chatting until the professor had to leave for a lab meeting, and then the meeting ended right on schedule.
“Next time, bring Kim Siwon himself. I’ll even help you with the product explanation and all that.”
“Thank you!”
“I’m in veterinary medicine, but I know plenty of doctors at the university hospital among my friends. Once you’re ready, I’ll introduce you one by one.”
“Wow, really? You seem to have an incredibly wide network, Professor~”
The professor seemed to be quite taken with Rejune.
He was so pleased, in fact, that he offered me the chance to meet doctors before he’d even suggested it to me.
Still, Rejune really had been excellent, so it was only natural.
“See you next time, Professor.”
“Yes, both of you get home safely~”
Smiling broadly as we saw the professor off, we both let out a sigh of relief the moment he disappeared into the building.
“Mr. Siwon. Did I do well?”
“You did great.”
“I was so nervous at the beginning. I’m sorry.”
“We agreed we’d try to avoid saying sorry as much as possible, remember?”
“Ah, yes!”
Rejune’s face was bright with the satisfaction of having accomplished something.
Mine probably was too.
After all, today had proven I’d hired very well indeed.
“I’ll get out here and take care of the rest of my work before heading in. You go home first.”
“Should I drive you back?”
“No, I ate a lot, so I thought I’d walk it off.”
“Ah. Yes, then I’ll head in first.”
“See you tomorrow~”
Wanting, at least a little, for Rejune to feel at ease as quickly as possible, I got out of his car.
Then, with the intention of taking a quiet walk, I headed toward the lab.
“I wonder what our developers, PM, and designer are up to~”
As I wandered along, the engineering building came into view.
But something else came into view too, and it was a little strange.
[Korea University Department of Computer Engineering Club “TA Medical,” Grand Prize Winner at the JH Medical Hackathon!]
It was our banner, though it had already faded quite a bit.
“Oh, so this was hanging up?”
I took a picture of the banner and sent it to our company group chat.
Anyone seen this before?
Everyone in the chat fired back at once.
More accurately, they all rushed in just to tease me.
Huh? The CEO of TA Medical is acting like TA Medical news is breaking news??
Sorry, but did you come here from the past?
Lol, this has been up for ages~~
You really do have a talent for not checking the group chat, huh, sob sob
There were so many people who said they wanted to join the club because of this, lol
I replied with an awkward laugh.
Didn’t know. My bad for being late to the party.
Only then did I remember the days not long ago when application forms had come flooding in.
So that was why.
“A banner getting more promotional effect than a TV appearance, huh?”
As I muttered in confusion, Badugi appeared on my phone screen right away.
[That’s exactly why precise targeting matters.]
“Ugh, I’m on break.”
The moment I made a disgusted face, Badugi grinned and said,
[That’s why I’m only giving you the quick version while you rest.]
I was about to grumble back, but stopped myself.
Honestly, I couldn’t deny that Badugi had been a huge help getting me this far.
But I couldn’t lean on it forever.
I needed to learn everything it knew someday too.
[Then explain it in more detail.]
The moment I typed that into my memo app, Badugi poured out another wall of text.
[First, you need to understand the difference between marketing that spreads broadly through mass media and offline marketing that reaches people in a specific area. Messages distributed through news articles and other mass media have the advantage of reaching a huge audience, which gives them tremendous reach, but if your target audience is concentrated in a specific place, then offline marketing carried out there can...]
The instant I tapped it, information spilled out long enough to fill an entire A4 page.
It was definitely more specific than the kind of help I’d asked for before.
When I wasn’t busy, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to carve out time like this and accumulate knowledge.
“Guess I don’t need to take any business school classes.”
At my muttering, Badugi’s eyes went wide, and it immediately shook its head.
[What are you talking about? You still have general education credits left. You should use one of them on a business class.]
At Badugi’s firm tone, my own eyes widened as well.
[What are you saying? I don’t have time. It’s better to take the easiest classes I can and just finish my credits.]
[Are you trying to get a job? Do grades not matter? Are you seriously going to pass up lectures by professors who have prestige not only across Korea but across Asia and even the world?]
[If I need something, I can just take a one-day class or a special lecture.]
[And when something urgent comes up, you think you’ll somehow learn properly? Do you even know the dictionary definition of a university?]
“Aaaaagh, okay, okay. Take the nagging bubble away. I couldn’t finish reading the last part.”
This is why I can’t talk to liberal arts majors.
They talk too much.
[Among the major business courses, there are some with bad lecture evaluations because they’re stingy with credits, but they don’t have group projects and they’re fine. Pick one of those and take it.]
I simply nodded obediently at the lecture.
I should wrap this conversation up quickly and go eat with the others.
＊＊＊
The Startup Competition was broadly divided into two stages.
There was the preliminary round held by each organizing body, and then the final round for the winners of those preliminaries.
The stage we were preparing to present at was the final presentation stage within the preliminary competition.
I’d expected something roughly on the scale of the previous hackathon, but the atmosphere was quite different because there were already teams of established founders who had received a certain level of investment.
The participants were older too.
“I heard a lot of startups entered, but the founders’ ages are really all over the place.”
“We just look young. I don’t think the proportion of college students among actual startup founders is that high.”
“I know that team. I saw them in the news. They started as an in-house venture at Fourseong Electronics.”
Unfortunately, the division we’d entered wasn’t a youth category or a college category.
That competition had already ended earlier in the year. What we’d entered was a venue for people who could show off real technical capability.
Maybe that was why teams spun out of major corporations and teams with their third or fourth startup were especially noticeable.
“I’m feeling a little intimidated.”
“Mm. Me too.”
Sure enough, some of the team members were starting to feel that pressure.
But Rejune and Seonghun hyung thought of it the opposite way.
“But if you go by buzz, we’re probably the biggest draw here. Everyone in this room keeps looking at us and whispering about something.”
“Right. Can’t you see how the other teams are watching us warily?”
Their confidence carried an ease that enjoyed being watched.
They scanned the room, took in the situation, and kept their confidence intact, and I could only smile at the sight of them.
“Mr. Siwon, you’re not scared, are you?”
“Of course not. We prepared way too well for that.”
Thanks to them, it was easy for me to keep my own attitude confident too.
I wasn’t trying to dominate the room, but there was no reason to keep glancing around and shrinking back.
“Anyway, companies that have already received investment above a certain amount can’t even enter here. Everyone here is basically around the same scale as us.”
At my words, they all looked at one another and straightened their shoulders a little.
Much better.
“Hello. Are you Kim Siwon, the CEO of TA Medical?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
We had just taken our seats when the CEO of the team sitting next to us approached and handed me a business card.
“Hello. I’m Cha Yowhan, CEO of QF Technology, a company that helps with device assembly and maintenance through 3D imaging technology.”
“Hello. I’m Kim Siwon, CEO of TA Medical, a company that helps diagnose lesions by analyzing X-ray images with AI.”
“Ah, of course. How could I not know you? You’re far too famous.”
These startup-related competitions and events quickly became networking grounds.
Even companies that seemed to have no connection at all could end up tangled together someday, so this was exactly the kind of place where people naturally introduced themselves.
“As it happens, our company signed an agreement with an X-ray equipment company two days ago. Their CEO mentioned TA Medical too.”
“Ah, really?”
Even companies that seemed unrelated at first glance often turned out like this.
“If the chance comes up later, I’d like it if we all had a proper conversation together.”
“Thank you for extending the invitation first.”
“Not at all. Have you heard of the View4 X-ray product? It looks like our technology will be applied there first.”
“Ah, yes. I know it. Their market share is pretty high.”
As we talked, our team members all watched the conversation with obvious curiosity.
Looking around, I saw a few more people fiddling with their business cards while watching our way.
It really hit me then that we were drawing more attention in the startup world than I’d expected.
“Hello, I’m Bang Yeonggyun from DWT. We work on bone graft substitutes.”
“Hello. I’m Kim Siwon from TA Medical, which handles AI for image analysis.”
“Hello, I’m Cha Yowhan from QF Technology, which helps with the installation and maintenance of devices through 3D imaging technology.”
The number of people who gathered the courage to approach us kept growing, and as team members from different companies came over too, the networking space opened up naturally.
There were companies from fintech to medical tech and everything in between.
And among them, the youngest members by far were in our company.
That fact didn’t escape anyone.
“I’m amazed you all managed to do this so well at such a young age.”
“Haha. We worked hard. I think luck was on our side too.”
Then, right in the middle of that warm, friendly atmosphere, one remark cut through and spoiled the mood.
“That’s true. You seem to have been lucky. Being Korea University students must have gotten you a lot of good opportunities.”
At the words of the CEO of a company called DragonEye, the laughter that had been flowing among us fell silent.
This was a comment that didn’t openly attack us, but clearly carried something rotten underneath.
“Ah.”
Still, well, he was saying it because he was jealous.
“That’s true. Having the professors spread the word about the product has been a really great opportunity.”
I answered with a smile, but without allowing any disrespect toward our product.
Go ahead and be jealous.
By the time the competition is over, you’ll be even more jealous of what our product can do.
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