Press

"We will expand our entrepreneurship education business to local communities and overseas, and produce 100,000 entrepreneurship education graduates within five years." Kim Jung-heon, founder of Underdogs, and Cho Sang-rae, CEO of Underdogs, met with Business Post at Underdogs' office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 27th and revealed their aspirations. Underdogs is a company that discovers and nurtures entrepreneurs through entrepreneurship education. It was established in 2015 and received certification as a social enterprise in 2019. The company goes beyond just entrepreneurship education. It makes seed investments in those starting businesses or takes the lead in the startup process, making them subsidiaries. Earnest Mill, a pet food startup, and JustLive, which supplies micro-houses for single-person households, are subsidiaries established this way. Underdogs previously operated under a co-CEO system with Kim Jung-heon and Cho Sang-rae, but switched to a holding company structure in 2019 by establishing NewBlack as its parent company, more clearly separating the roles of investment and education. From last year, the company has been preparing for management separation between NewBlack and Underdogs, and from July this year, CEO Kim will lead NewBlack while CEO Cho will lead Underdogs. What prompted the management separation? Was there any conflict between the two CEOs, as is common in such cases? Founder Kim and CEO Cho responded with a smile, saying "Our relationship is very good," and "We have been preparing for leadership changes to strengthen the expertise of Underdogs and NewBlack respectively and maximize business synergies." Founder Kim is a former financier who handled corporate finance at Hana Bank and worked at ADL Consulting. Later, he joined Delight Hearing Aid, a social venture, as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), stepping into the startup world, and also served as CEO of Woojoo, which operates share houses. After leaving Woojoo and contemplating business ventures, Founder Kim started free entrepreneurship education in 2015 based on his own startup experience, thinking "It would be great to gather people interested in starting businesses and think together." He didn't plan to pursue education business from the beginning. Founder Kim said, "I wanted to help aspiring entrepreneurs avoid the difficulties and trial-and-errors I experienced while starting businesses," and "As demand for entrepreneurship education increased, it led to the establishment of Underdogs as a business model." In particular, Underdogs' entrepreneurship education differs from existing lecture-style methods that teach entrepreneurial spirit and other theories. Instead, it employs a so-called coaching method where 'startup coaches' work like co-founders, brainstorming business models and providing practical help. Startup coaches are current and former entrepreneurs with startup experience who have received Underdogs' coach development training. As a result, Underdogs not only accepts aspiring entrepreneurs with business ideas but also those without business items yet but with high willingness to solve social problems. It also helps form entrepreneurial teams with diverse characteristics through personality analysis. Founder Kim said, "I believe we played a game-changer role in shifting entrepreneurship education from lecture-focused to coaching-focused. Entrepreneurship education that started with just 9 people became known, and companies and public institutions requesting Underdogs' education increased, gradually expanding the business scale." CEO Cho Sang-rae's joining process is also interesting. CEO Cho graduated from the College of Education and founded WaterFarm, a social venture, with colleagues. During this process, he built a connection with Underdogs, which provides entrepreneurship education services. He said, "I originally had dreams in the education field, and when I learned about Underdogs, I became very interested. After completing WaterFarm's service development, I joined Underdogs." CEO Cho joined Underdogs as an employee in 2016, its early days, and became co-CEO in just two years in 2018. Founder Kim said, "I wanted to show that Underdogs, as a corporation, can create social value while generating profits and achieving sustainable growth. As the entrepreneurship education business expanded, I thought it was right for someone dedicated to education to lead Underdogs." Performance has also been smooth, with operating profits each year. Sales started at around 100 million won in the first year but reached 5.6 billion won in 2021, and exceeded 7 billion won in the first half of this year. Achieving the annual sales target of 10 billion won this year is expected to be achievable. CEO Cho said, "In general, startups with large founder ratios often face difficulties when leadership changes. Since Underdogs and NewBlack have prepared for management separation for a long time, we want to show continued growth afterwards." Beyond conducting its own entrepreneurship education, Underdogs operates entrepreneurship education programs in cooperation with public institutions and companies. As of March this year, 10,360 students have completed entrepreneurship education through Underdogs. The company has branches in Gunsan, Jeongeup, Sejong, and Jeju outside of Seoul, conducting entrepreneurship education in provinces. Before COVID-19, it also provided entrepreneurship education overseas at the request of government agencies and local governments in Thailand and Vietnam. This year, together with Hana Financial Group, it has planned to conduct entrepreneurship education using 10 local universities as hubs and nurture local startup teams to contribute to regional economic revitalization. Changes through a new entrepreneurship education platform are also being prepared. CEO Cho said, "We are preparing a platform that connects entrepreneurs who need education with entrepreneurs who are one step ahead of them, allowing them to exchange and learn through mutual learning. Using data from entrepreneurship education graduates and startup coaches we've produced so far, we expect to match suitable coaches and implement new forms of entrepreneurship education." Reporter Eun Ju-sung