2022.01.05. Jeonnam Ilbo
Opinion Theme Column
Altruistic Gene · Kim Jung-tae>
[The Impact Era Has Arrived] Do opportunities go to teams that might actually fail?
In June 2019, social venture companies were included in President Moon Jae-in's economic mission for the first time. I also had the opportunity to join the economic mission with six leading Korean social ventures: Angel Swing, DOT, More Than, Testworks, UniqueGood Company, and Opatech. Since then, I have made impact investments in four companies and have had the special experience of observing how social ventures grow. One of the lessons learned is that while it's important to identify 'teams expected to succeed,' it's equally important to choose and invest in 'teams great enough that it's okay if they fail.' From that perspective, UniqueGood Company is the social venture I want to introduce in my first column of 2022.
https://www.jnilbo.com/view/media/view?code=2022010516021448899
(Excerpt)
During the selection process, the team that caused the most deliberation among internal and external judges was UniqueGood Company. The substance of their proposal was still lacking, and it was difficult for anyone other than the presenting co-CEOs to be confident whether an 'immersive game platform' would truly be an experience that would impress users. When we couldn't decide on their selection, one of the judges shared this perspective: 'Shouldn't the social ventures we're trying to support include at least one team that's not just doing proven things better, but validating truly unprecedented concepts that might actually fail?' In other words, we should include at least one team with the highest probability of failure to truly live up to being an 'innovation company growth support program.'
With this perspective, UniqueGood Company quickly tested their Realworld concept based on their first major funding of 50 million won since establishment, and continued to grow to the point of being selected for the Swedish economic mission in 2019.
After receiving seed investment from MYSC, they attracted an additional 1.2 billion won investment from The Wells Investment and others in 2020. Currently, UniqueGood Company's Realworld has over 2,000 'interactive immersive experience games' voluntarily developed and opened by creators, and UniqueGood Company is recognized as the leading company in this field, with follow-up investment discussions worth several billion won rapidly progressing.
In the new year of 2022, what questions should we live with throughout the year? To expect a new era and new fruits, the questions we ask must also change. Instead of asking 'What can succeed?' how about raising the question 'What is reckless enough to actually fail, yet innovative?' in our many decisions and discussions this year?