Press

Even world-changing founders started small. Google and Apple were born in garages, so all those who venture into entrepreneurship are underdogs in society. Based on this underdog effect, Underdogs, established in 2015, aims to nurture numerous underdogs seeking to innovate society through startups into mainstream entrepreneurs. Seven years later, Underdogs has grown into the institution that has produced the most startup education students in Korea as a single organization. As of March this year, the number of students trained through Underdogs has exceeded 10,300, and with continuous recruitment calls from various institutions for startup education, revenue has increased 100% annually, achieving 5 billion won in sales last year and expected to surpass 10 billion won this year. Cho Sang-rae, CEO of Underdogs Game Changer Overturning the Startup Education Landscape = Underdogs takes pride in its role as a game changer, establishing new standards in startup education. Following Underdogs' slogan 'The game is changed,' it has transformed the educational landscape. First, it opened the Startup Education 2.0 era, shifting from lecture-focused startup education to practice-oriented education based on original educational content that mirrors actual startup experience. Underdogs' education utilizes its own coaching system, with 70% consisting of hands-on coaching education. "Nobody fails because they don't know theory. But most aspiring entrepreneurs don't know what to do and how to do it in actual practice," said Cho Sang-rae, CEO of Underdogs. He added, "They may know it's important to meet customers and get feedback, but don't know how to approach them. We provide concrete guidance on these specific points." The reason Underdogs directly develops startup coaches is to properly provide this practice-focused support. The belief is that those with hands-on experience can do it better. Therefore, many of Underdogs' coaches are former entrepreneurs. CEO Cho himself has experience running a social venture. He received help from Underdogs in his early business stages before joining the organization and becoming co-representative. "I struggled a lot in the final stages of my business," said Cho. "I wondered what would have happened if someone had guided me to reduce trial and error. Through this experience, I recognized the importance of startup education, joined Underdogs, and have overseen the education division." Underdogs is expanding startup education to local regions, nurturing regional entrepreneurs and coaches while broadening the startup ecosystem that had been concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area. As the need for educational programs grows in local communities, Underdogs is meeting this demand with local talent. A representative program is Localize Gunsan, started in 2019 to nurture regional entrepreneurs. Following this, Underdogs also operates a coworking space in Gunsan. To date, Underdogs has operated over 160 programs in collaboration with local governments and large corporations, and currently provides startup education to 10 universities across 5 regional divisions nationwide. Coaching Programs Separately Yet Together... Creating Synergy Between Startup Education and Investment = Beyond startup education, Underdogs also operates as a company builder, directly establishing and investing in startups. Utilizing founder Kim Jung-heon's experience as CSO of social venture Delight and CEO of share house Uju, the organization has directly served the builder role. In 2019, it established a holding company called New Black, under which it has nurtured 7 social startups including Underdogs, BigWork, and PaperPop, and made equity investments in 10 companies. This year, Underdogs plans to more clearly distinguish between the company builder role and startup education role to focus each's capabilities. Until now, Underdogs has been operated by co-representatives Kim Jung-heon and Cho Sang-rae, but the plan is to transition to sole leadership under CEO Cho Sang-rae, with founder Kim Jung-heon focusing on the holding company New Black. Regarding this leadership change, Cho emphasized it is a change to strengthen expertise in Underdogs and New Black while creating synergy. New Black also plans to establish an accelerator within the year to discover more startups. The strategy is to pre-discover future entrepreneurs through startup education and provide both investment and nurturing through acceleration. Underdogs has also prioritized the importance of space in startup education and company development. Following Gunsan, it opened a second in-house coworking community space in Jongno in early 2021 for startup education and portfolio companies. The company headquarters spanning basement 1 to 5 stories includes office space, meeting rooms, restaurants, and cafes for use by Underdogs and New Black-related startups and trainees. "The Future of Startup Education is Mutual Learning" = Simultaneously with the leadership change, Underdogs is preparing for Startup Education 3.0 era. Underdogs' vision for next-generation startup education is mutual learning based on startup data. "I believe future education will be mutual learning where we learn from each other," said Cho. "We plan to introduce a partner coach system as an extension of the coach system and nurture 100 coaches by year-end," he added. Through partner coaches, Underdogs believes it can support market entry in specialized fields such as small business owners and branding. Additionally, the organization plans to launch an online startup growth platform incorporating mutual learning principles within the year. Currently under development as a startup growth platform where entrepreneurs and coaches can share know-how and interact in real-time, it targets beta test launch by year-end. "I think a time will come when anyone can consider starting a business," said Cho. "Within five years, we will nurture 10,000 coaches to contribute to revitalizing the startup ecosystem." Ju Seung-ho, Reporter