A Founder's Year in Review: What I Got Right, and What I Didn't

As the year closes, here's an honest accounting of what I got right and what I got wrong. It was the year I sold off a cash-cow business, started hiring for the first time, and became a father.

What I got right

1. Letting go of Sseobom

I finally let go of Sseobom, the business I'd carried for years. It had reached the stage where it only needed operating, and I no longer had the appetite to keep dragging it along. As a cash cow it might have been fine, but I had the sense that holding onto it would actually get in the way of my own growth. I met a few candidates to take it over, worked alongside them, picked one, and handed it off.

On the last day, when I went around to say goodbye to the elderly folks near the warehouse, something caught in my chest. For nearly three years we'd lived like family, and I knew each household's story. I'd started with ₩600,000 (~$435) borrowed from my father and ended up distributing over a million diaper sample packs across the country. Because of Sseobom, society saved billions of won in unnecessary spending, and parents saved millions of hours otherwise lost to choosing diapers. I have no regrets at all. I was just genuinely happy to escape Paju's –20°C winters and the warehouse's pit toilet.

2. Antler

I made a big mistake here. It cost me money and time. The reason I still file it under "what I got right" is that I think it was a good vaccine for my current stage. The venture itself — Choose — was stopped, but I gained excellent peers I'll keep talking shop with about startups for years to come. Going forward, I plan to avoid co-founding wherever possible. And huge thanks to my wife for understanding it all with such grace.

3. The beginning of Potential

As someone used to running a one-man show, hiring was a genuinely terrifying mission. But thanks to a mentor's advice, I got past it, and right now I'm practicing — through plenty of hiring and firing. Remote work, fully flexible hours, a compensation system: I'm clumsy at all of it, but I keep practicing.

There were wins and losses. I didn't break the ₩100M/month ceiling, and my first overseas client fell through. But our core competency — software delivery speed — keeps climbing, and organic client inflow is growing. We're still taking baby steps, but we've taken the first one.

4. Meeting Jaeha

After living child-free for a while, five years into marriage we decided to have a child. The reasons I'd hesitated were simple: money and time. Neither was ever enough. What changed my mind was something I learned through founding companies — that nothing is more meaningless than the "I'll do B once A happens" kind of assumption.

• Once I've saved a billion won, I'll do B.
• Once I'm 50, I'll do B.
• Once I've made enough in the market, I'll do B.
• Once revenue climbs high enough, I'll do B.
• Once I sell the company for a few billion, I'll do B.

And so on. In truth, doing B usually didn't require resource A at all. What mattered more, in most cases, was my own state of mind. So despite having neither the time nor the money, I decided to have a child. In my experience, the best stories with the people around me have always come from setting out on an adventure when resources were scarce.

Story 1. During my first startup, my co-founder and I pulled all-nighters at a Tom N Toms in Jonggak, nursing a single cup of coffee between us. We got by on ₩3,000 pork cutlets in Sinchon. Much later, we had our first samgyeopsal team dinner at a two-story place in Seocho, and the taste — more dazzling than any hotel restaurant or Michelin spot — is still vivid in my memory.

Story 2. I made money with Sseobom. My bank balance had never crossed ₩1M in my life, and then for the first time a large sum — ₩5M — was sitting in my account. Wondering how to spend it well, I put ₩4M toward a ring and ₩1M toward plane tickets, and proposed to the woman who is now my wife. Back then, my wish was simply a life where we could afford an Outback dinner on each anniversary. The balance went from ₩5M back to zero, and there was plenty of worry and anxiety — but we're living very well now.

No fancy wedding package. Daiso flowers, a bow tie, Ilsan Lake Park, and an iPhone were all we needed.

The time I can spend on work has shrunk even further, and life's difficulty has gone up another notch — but I trust we'll figure out childbirth and parenting somehow.

What I got wrong

1. Not careful enough

I jumped into things without enough caution. I neglected to prepare contracts (well — I didn't do them at all), and I sent money on trust alone. Trusting people and being rigorous about the work are things you can do at the same time, and I failed to. It was a bad case where my easygoing, laid-back nature worked as poison instead. It stings all the more because the people around me warned me heavily at the time, and I went ahead on my own judgment anyway. I need to remember this year's events well so I don't repeat the mistake.

2. I'm bad at delegating

I'm still clumsy at delegating. I think I keep repeating the mistakes that owners who've only ever run solo operations tend to make. I should be reducing how much I do myself and trusting my team with it — I try, but it doesn't come easily.

The ghost of "but I could finish it faster myself…" keeps rattling around in my head, making me hesitate every time I try to delegate. I need to do better at this next year.

3. My kindness dropped a level

Kindness was always my greatest weapon. But as the number of clients grew and the projects I had to manage piled up, at some point I started noticing irritation creeping in. I need to work on staying kind — to customers, family, and friends.

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This reflection is the record of one year of building Potential (포텐셜). We help Korean and Asian founders build their journey into global markets.