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Startup Team Building Platform 'Beginmate' CEO Jeong Yunseop

"Turning My Challenges into Business"
About 3,000 Team Building Achievements Annually
Also Offers Support Project Curation Service

Jung Yunseop, CEO of Beginmate.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] "I am a developer who believes that technology can make the world a richer place. I am looking for colleagues who share the same mindset."

This is an introduction posted by a developer on the startup team-building platform Beginmate. The job postings on this platform have a distinctly different atmosphere compared to typical recruitment sites focused on large, medium, and small enterprises. Instead of just listing dry information such as experience, qualifications, and compensation, they prominently feature personal philosophies and values. This reflects the startup industry's characteristic belief that "people are everything."

Jung Yunseop, CEO of Beginmate (32, pictured), said, "Through multiple attempts at entrepreneurship, I deeply realized the importance of the colleagues you work with," adding, "Beginmate was born from connecting the difficulties I experienced to a business." Jung, who majored in Materials Science and Venture Business, challenged himself with startups in manufacturing and IT fields since his university days. Manufacturing required expertise, allowing him to develop products and run a company independently. However, in IT and design fields, his network was limited and industry knowledge insufficient, making it difficult to meet the right people. Feeling the need for a community for personnel exchange among prospective entrepreneurs and early-stage startups, he founded Beginmate in 2016.

Beginmate team building page image.

At Beginmate, there is no distinction based on status when looking for people. Posts like "Having lived as a developer for decades without management mindset, I am looking for someone to be the CEO of our company," or "We won a government support project worth 100 million KRW and are looking for a co-founder to join," are common. The key is finding someone who can fill the gaps in the business. The atmosphere is more like looking for band members than hiring employees. Jung said, "Anyone with an idea can participate in the early stages of a startup," adding, "While this may seem unfamiliar in Korea’s large-company-centered recruitment market, it is common in Silicon Valley where team building is active."

Currently, about 30,000 users have registered profiles on Beginmate. In the past year alone, approximately 3,000 startup team-building cases were completed through Beginmate. By industry, the most team-building cases were in bio/healthcare, mobile services, and consumer tech, in that order. Among job categories, developers?whose market value has recently surged?accounted for 45%, followed by planners (24%) and designers (19%), showing strong demand. Jung said, "Due to COVID-19 and digital transformation across industries, demand for IT developers is increasing," adding, "Recruitment of co-founders and C-level executives, which used to happen through offline channels, is now actively taking place online."

A startup that built its team through Beginmate in its early days received investment last year from a major domestic conglomerate and a well-known private equity firm, growing into a company valued at 150 billion KRW. Another startup successfully expanded globally after finding a co-founder on Beginmate. Jung said, "Seeing startups find teams and succeed through our platform gives me great satisfaction," adding, "The CEOs of those companies also actively participate as mentors in lectures we organize, fostering lively exchanges."

Besides helping find colleagues, Beginmate also offers a 'Support Project Curation Service.' As of 2020, there were about 12,000 venture and startup-related support projects announced by 1,048 public and private institutions nationwide. When users input information such as support field, region, and project name into Beginmate, the platform connects them to the projects with the highest success rates using a patented algorithm. Jung has personally secured dozens of support projects and serves as a startup mentor upon request from public and private institutions. He also has a track record of investing in companies like Junggonara, Ridibooks, and Dunamu through investment associations. Jung said, "Having experienced the perspectives of entrepreneurs, government, and investors, I know how to effectively secure support projects," adding, "When I occasionally open free lectures, hundreds of applicants flood in within a short period."

Jung plans to launch a 'Social Business Matching Platform' for buying and selling technologies owned by startups. The goal is to enter the global market in 2024 and pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025. Jung said, "Our next goal is to open a small M&A market specialized for startups within Beginmate," adding, "Development is about 70% complete, and we will enhance the platform’s completeness through follow-up investments in the first half of the year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.