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"I was able to quickly recognize the gap between ideals and reality. When I actually applied what I had only conceived in my head, I discovered many loopholes in my business model. Small and fast failures became a great force in building today's solid business model." – Kwon Ki-hyo, CEO of Mentory\n\n"You helped me find the social problems I wanted to solve and went through a long journey of finding solutions. I also met team members here. Starting is always difficult, and I highly recommend it to entrepreneurs who want a strong and healthy launch." – Moon Mi-sung, CEO of Noldam\n\n'Noldam,' which provides part-time visiting play care services, and 'Mentory,' which seeks to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas through education, had different social problems to solve, but they had one thing in common. Both went through intensive entrepreneurship education from Underdogs.\n\nUnderdogs, which opened in 2015, is a social enterprise that develops entrepreneurship education content and provides training to institutions in need. It started with the hope of producing more social innovators and creating greater social impact.\n\n"Let weak people join forces and change the world"\nThe name 'Underdogs' comes from the 'Underdog Effect.' The underdog effect refers to the psychological phenomenon of supporting and rooting for the underdog to win in a competition where an absolute dominant force exists.\n\nUnderdogs rolled up their sleeves for the weak who struggle to survive in the startup ecosystem. We asked CEO Cho Sang-rae, who has been leading Underdogs since the beginning but is not a founder, about the meaning of Underdogs' existence.\n\n"There are many talented people in the social innovation startup field, but since they are just starting out, they are weak. That's why Underdogs (the weak) come together to change the world together."\n\nUnderdogs is located on the 3rd floor of Sangsang Cheong within Bulgwang-dong Innovation Park. Large posters surround the office walls, which also serve as a training venue. The dogs featured on the posters speak to visitors.\n\n'Dream Big, Start Small' - Think big and act small and fast\n'Sharing' - Create a bigger business to share more with colleagues\n\nCEO Cho explained that the messages on the posters are the stories that Underdogs wants to tell entrepreneurs.\n\nPractical education based on experience\nThe startup program is divided into two main tracks: the Military Academy run by Underdogs itself, and the Partners Program operated with public institutions, universities, and companies that want to develop youth startup teams.\n\nThe Underdogs Military Academy runs for 6 weeks, 300 hours full-time, with a dedicated 1-on-1 coach for each participant, progressing through 7 stages. Recently, they launched 'Underwomen,' a program for developing women social innovation entrepreneurs. The Partners Program is conducted in various forms including full-time, 1 night 2 days, hackathons, and weekly education sessions tailored to the characteristics of the trainees.\n\nThe characteristic of Underdogs' education is its practice-oriented approach. All lectures and coaching are conducted by former and current entrepreneurs or instructors with years of experience coaching startup teams.\n\nUnderdogs CEO Cho Sang-rae himself has experience founding a social venture to solve problems in water-scarce countries.\n\n"The most common mistake aspiring entrepreneurs make is thinking 'my idea is really great.' We have trainees verify even their existing business items from scratch. Through this process, they either gain more confidence or realize 'hmm, I think I need to change this.'"\n\nOver the past 4 years, 5,694 young people have gone through Underdogs' education programs. The cumulative number of graduated teams is 431. Of these, 18 teams were selected for the Social Entrepreneur Development Project hosted by the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, which is considered the gateway for social entrepreneurs. Thanks to these achievements, Underdogs has grown 100% annually. Last year, it posted 3.1 billion won in sales and is dreaming of doubling that this year.\n\nStartups need muscles too\n\nMoon Mi-sung, CEO of Noldam, which grew to the point of employing 20 career-interrupted women just over 3 years after starting, was a 1st generation student of the Underdogs Military Academy. She said, "It was great to be able to experience the stages encountered in the startup cycle such as item discovery, solution finding, team building, and customer testing in depth and quickly."\n\n"All I had was the passion to start a social venture and solve social problems. I was told that it's good if business items start from problems felt as a stakeholder, so three team members who were working moms each threw out their own problems. At that time, the common concern was the need for part-time childcare services. Working mothers were sending their children to hagwons back and forth to fill the gap between when children return from daycare and when they get off work. Children were being robbed of free time to play. We came up with a service idea to educate college students who needed part-time jobs as play teachers and connect them with working mothers, and that became today's Noldam." - CEO Moon Mi-sung\n\nRepresentative companies produced through Underdogs' social innovation startup program.\n\nOver the past 4 years, 114 students graduated from the Military Academy, including 'Noldam,' and they formed 34 teams. With 8 batches completed, an average startup rate of 73% was recorded by batch. Currently, 10 startup teams are maintained.\n\nRecently, various public institutions have launched education programs for social innovators, but few, like Underdogs, provide educational opportunities for those who want to start with only passion and no items.\n\n"Startups rarely succeed on the first try. When someone has thoroughly learned the previous steps and wants to challenge again after experiencing failure, they can challenge different items more quickly. Our goal is to produce more social innovators who have built the muscles and basic stamina for entrepreneurship."\n\nExpectation for social ventures to serve as a social safety net\nCEO Cho Sang-rae himself has experience co-founding a social venture called 'WaterFarm' in 2013. Having graduated from a teachers' college, he has been very interested in building a social safety net.