Medical AI is a medtech startup that uses deep learning technology to solve medical diagnosis problems. Compared to Lunit, a well-known domestic AI medtech leader, there are differences in the data handled and target diseases. While Lunit pursues early diagnosis and conquest of cancer by analyzing imaging medical images through AI, Medical AI aims to early diagnosis and management of various heart diseases, including heart failure, based on electrocardiogram data. A bold and grand dream Before I met Medical AI, I had some skepticism about electrocardiogram-based AI diagnostic solutions. This is because domestic and foreign companies, including Anumana, have attempted to commercialize similar technologies, but have not achieved any significant results. However, as soon as I met CEO Kwon Jun-myung, this sense of skepticism turned into anticipation. When you work in startup investment, you often say that you are ultimately investing in 'people', and I felt that CEO Kwon Jun-myung was a representative example of someone I "want to invest in . " Medical AI CEO Kwon Jun-myeong (Image: Medipo News) “If 1 trillion won doesn’t work, you can create a 10 trillion won or 50 trillion won company.” When I first met CEO Kwon Jun-myeong, he explained his business in a soft and calm tone, but I could immediately tell that there was tremendous conviction and confidence underneath. He was a typical person who was soft on the outside but strong on the inside. Usually, when founders talk about their goals, they feel awkward about presenting big goals or they often use somewhat exaggerated expressions. However, CEO Kwon Jun-myeong was different. When we pointed out that the company is old and has a complex share structure, even if it becomes a unicorn in the future, it may not be able to guarantee satisfactory results for the founding team members, his expression did not change at all and he immediately replied, "Really? If it doesn't work out at 1 trillion, then you can make a company worth 10 trillion or 50 trillion." I could feel his well-founded confidence from this. What makes his story so powerful is that he doesn’t just present the direction of the company, but also implements specific goals and action plans . CEO Kwon Jun-myeong boldly and confidently conveyed his vision of making 5% of the world’s population able to experience Medical AI’s diagnostic solutions by the end of next year . Medical AI's Vision (Source: Medical AI)

“Insatiable ambition” It's a word that's displayed in large letters on the website of BASS Ventures, but it's a really difficult and ambiguous word. We have thought deeply and discussed internally about the question that founders always ask, "What kind of founders does BASS Ventures invest in?" There are so many good things and good words in the world that it was harder to decide what the absolute essential elements were, and this is the word that remained after a long conversation. “Ambition” It sounds really good, but it's an abstract word. Let me tell you what it is and how it connects with the entrepreneurs Bass is looking for. The Paradox of Diminishing Marginal Utility Created by Small Successes Just a pleasant imagination: Let's assume that the company I created is generating billions of dollars in revenue per year, and that I can sell it for hundreds of billions of won if I want to and cash it out. In such a situation, anyone can predict to some extent the economic rewards that will be given to me. In such a situation, the question, 'Can I be more destructive and persistent in wanting growth?' will be a concern for us. (If you have no worries at all even after imagining this, you should come to BASS Ventures right now!) This kind of worry is not strange or bad. Rather, it is extremely normal. Because the amount of money needed for humans to lead a rich life cannot help but converge to the law of diminishing returns . To put it simply, no matter how much money you have, you can't wear five pairs of shoes at once or go to a Michelin restaurant six times a day. The more accumulated performance, the smaller the increase in utility.

The moment when I feel the greatest joy while making an early investment is when the founder I invested in grows at an insanely fast pace . Earlier this year, Pickle, which is comprised of peers in their mid-20s and attracted investment from leading ultra-early funds such as YC and NfX in the US, is expected to have some great history or experience, but in fact, it does not. So how did they create an attractive AI service and receive investment from top US VCs? That's because CEO, Daniel Park and co-founders of Pickle have built lessons based on the highest level of ambition and very fast execution , and at least among the startup teams I've seen recently, they've grown the fastest within a unit period . It's a truly overwhelming slope. Team entry, first meeting Pickle's pre-incorporation code name was Team Entry, and I first got to know them on March 22, 2024. Heejin Kim, a senior manager at Korea Investment Partners, shared the Team Entry introduction page with me, saying , "I've found a team that hasn't even been incorporated yet, but I think you'll like it." It felt a lot like Team Runners or Unboxers, which I had invested in before. The team name, which was explained as (n * try = entry) because they constantly try, was aiming for a global business that could grow to a scale of over 1,000 trillion won , and the co-founders had an agreement between shareholders in the form of a 15-year cliff lockup. “Daniel Park, Kim Ki-hyun, Yoo Ho-jin, Jeong Sang-yeop, and Kang Ye-gang gathered together with the goal of creating a big impact (1 billion DAU, 1000 trillion won company). Based on the infinite runway based on a lifestyle that matches one’s passion and job and the confidence that one can draw a fast learning curve in all domains, we have built Lesson Run while maintaining the following perspectives on the vague keywords of AI, Consumer, and Social.” (Team introduction page shared with excitement) Team Entry's Daniel Park, whom I met for the first time, had just established a corporation a week ago. He had gone to Kyunghee University School of Medicine, but he had a greater desire to make a big impact by changing the world, so he took a leave of absence, and he was living at Seoul National University Station with co-founders born in the 2000s and creating various services. But honestly, after meeting them for the first time, my expectations were a little lower. At the time, Team Entry was developing a service that would connect doctors and mothers one-on-one because the pediatric crisis was a big social issue, but I wasn’t sure if it would do well from a market perspective, and since they had little experience in product development/hypothesis verification overall, I thought they would have a hard time going forward. But there were some memorable things. First of all, his eyes were a bit crazy, and he had a crazy yet kind feeling, and after the meeting, he created a team entry-base group chat room and asked me and Luke Lee (CEO) to frequently ask questions and get feedback . This was a typical attitude of an entrepreneur who is full of desire to succeed while leaving shyness behind , and from our point of view, there is no better way to review investments than to spend a long time and understand how the team works, so we were very excited and agreed. (Team Entry's appearance, sharing many transparent processes and concerns) Pivots and Lesson Learns I was fortunate enough to watch the early execution history of Team Entry for about 4 months. They quickly pivoted from the doctor-parenting mom service and continued to try new things in the global social/dopamine category. In fact, this is a field that I actively reviewed and invested in, but even very smart and capable teams were struggling more than expected, and I was worried because I had seen many cases where 0 to 1 product/metric success did not lead to 1 to 10 business growth. I also thought that the items they had selected were too short-term trends or had a narrow user base. They were things like walkie-talkies between close friends or plotting contests between peers. I kept talking to the team through chat and visited their office and dormitory, but it didn't seem like it would become a sustainable, large-scale business. However, what was very impressive during the process was that co-founder Jeong Sang-yeop gathered 310,000 Instagram followers in just one month, and he used that account as a basis for selecting new services or as a channel to promote new services. Account that gained over 300k followers in one month: @blick.day1

"Making crazy dreams great" This is the slogan of BASS Ventures. It embodies our philosophy of "focusing solely on helping the most brilliant and crazy founders create great companies." So how does __T15467_____ contribute to creating great companies? BASS Ventures's Growth Team BASS Ventures operates not only an Investment Team that discovers crazy entrepreneurs, but also a Growth Team that plays a direct role in the growth of startups. This is because our goal is to ' go beyond simply investing in excellent entrepreneurs and help them achieve the world they dream of more quickly.' The growth team, led by __T15470_____ Luke Lee (CEO), co-founder of Toss, is comprised of the following people: EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) program consisting of unicorn entrepreneurs from various domains such as fintech, platform, AI, and deep tech Global Growth Partner, providing assistance to startup teams wishing to expand into the global market, including the US Talent Acquisition Specialist who helps startups with recruitment and organizational management Each member of the Growth Team takes the lead and provides 1:1 coaching and support tailored to each founder's stage, as well as practical assistance in strategic judgment and important execution moments for founders through various activities such as seminars, open sessions, and networking events. BASS Ventures Open Session where band leaders share their concerns and experiences (Photo: B2B sales session hosted by Dan Shin (Partner))

Leaflyze, the future of sewing changed by a crazy entrepreneur “No, you still make dolls by hand?” When you invest, you sometimes come across scenes that are hard to believe. We live in an era where AI makes movies and robots serve customers at restaurants. In garment factories, many people still sew all day long. Seriously, by hand. Among the 'food, clothing, and shelter', 'clothes' are distributed, resold, and washed, etc. This is a field where startups and unicorns are constantly emerging. But how clothes are actually made remains the same as before. Design → Pattern making → Cutting → Sewing. These four steps are still done manually, one by one. Create a pattern with a designer's intuition, cut the fabric with scissors, and sew it with a sewing machine. The results of that creation are the clothes we wear every day, the dolls we hug, and the bags we carry around. Dolls made by Leaflyze “Can’t we automate this?” The question was simple, but the beginning was difficult. The sewing industry has been a blind spot for automation. Fabrics are crumpled, folded, stretched, and even dried. The physical properties of each material are different, and the tension is different when pulled horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. For a machine to handle this, a truly enormous amount of data is needed. Leaflyze sees that distant future and is accumulating data one by one from now on.

On the diverse rise and fall of companies The rise and fall of companies is always an interesting story, not just when it comes to startups. There are so many cases — like the once-mighty film camera company that collapsed with the advent of digital cameras; a firm started by a founder with a legendary backstory, expected to struggle after his death, only to continue thriving for over a decade; or a company that created the revolutionary GUI but failed to capitalize on it, watching as another company succeeded instead. There’s a whole world of stories out there. Source: The CDO TIMES, WallpapersOK, Xataka There are so many different cases that it’s hard to generalize about why companies rise and fall. Especially when it comes to the market, the macro environment, or, to use a less technical term, plain old “luck”—these all play a big part too. But I think things get a bit clearer if we focus on two key traits of startups we VCs usually encounter. First, we invest mainly in “compact organizations”—in other words, pretty much all the companies VCs back are likely to be small and early-stage. Second, we take a “long-term view” when investing. Since we focus on unlisted, early-stage companies, we’re pretty much bound to hold our positions for at least 4 to 5 years. Put it together, and this is really a story about the mid- to long-term rise and fall of relatively small, early-stage companies. A graph BASS Ventures believes in Given this standard of “mid- to long-term rise and fall of relatively small, early-stage companies,” To cut straight to the chase, I believe in the graph below. To explain, the red line might represent the ever-changing company valuation (which naturally goes up and down for early startups), or quantitative lagging indicators the company produces (like revenue top line, service metrics, and the like). Of course, you’d wish this was always a lovely upward—straight or even exponential—line. But having it actually play out that cleanly is like wishing a drama plot would unfold in real life. At least for me, I don’t make investments imagining such a scenario. A ton of internal and external factors play into those fluctuations.

This article was contributed to the 'That Time Investing (I Decided to Invest Then)' column by the Chosun Ilbo reporters who know a bit. [Yongjae Kim of Nori and the Logistics Startup] At the end of 2021, I joined Base Investment as an investment reviewer. After working at LINE and Google and moving into VC, the types of companies I most wanted to invest in could be summed up as B2C, global, and software. Those were the fields I had observed, learned, and thought about, and I didn’t have much interest or confidence in businesses that require high fixed costs or need economics managed and forecasted in great detail. Especially after six months into the job, the overall investment market rapidly cooled, and seeing existing logistics startups both large and small struggle, the idea that I would invest in a logistics startup never even crossed my mind. At least, not until I met CEO Yongjae Kim. In September 2022, Partner Junyeol Kang at Base posted a message on Slack with a deck. “This is a new company founded again by Yongjae Kim, who started Nori. Anyone interested?” Base, by structure, is actually the opposite of other VCs: even the CEO or a partner can’t proceed with a deal directly without a reviewer. If no one replies to that message within a week, it is considered internally dropped. I already knew the education startup Nori, and I was drawn in by the fact that the founder was a serial entrepreneur, so I opened the deck. But it turned out to be a logistics business. 'Why?' I was honestly quite surprised by Deliverus at first, because I couldn't imagine that a founder who had sold his education software company to Daekyo would, in such tough times, start again with a logistics business that requires so much capital. [Making All Parcels Fast Delivery] But the problem they set out to solve was intriguing. The Korean parcel market grows by double digits every year, reaching 8 trillion won in sales and 4.9 billion shipments—a massive market. Of this, Coupang's fast delivery only covers about 20% by volume; the remaining 80% use regular couriers. The idea was to offer rocket/same-day delivery solutions to this remaining 80%. Making all parcels as fast as Coupang? Of course that would be great. But does it make sense? If it were as easy as it sounds, why don’t the existing couriers do it? I met CEO Yongjae Kim with these questions in mind. The typical process for collecting and delivering parcels involves a combination of various agencies and terminals. There are all sorts of interests involved in this process, and since it took a very long time and a lot of money to build this system, for existing courier companies, it’s not that easy to just change things. That’s also why there’s a recurring meme about parcels getting stuck at Okcheon Hub (it’s worth a Google—lots of funny stuff comes up). But the gist was, by handling only small parcels (clothes, cosmetics, books, etc.)—which make up 80% of total volume—filling up trucks to the max, using highly efficient sorters and spaces optimized for small goods, then applying an AI-based route optimization algorithm (AI deep learning dynamic clustering) every day based on client shipping info and local data, and executing efficient last mile delivery—that would work. With this, there'd be no need for huge, complex facilities, equipment, trucks, or processes, and both fixed and variable costs would be low enough to match current courier prices but still offer same-day delivery, even with room for profit. But the CEO explained all this so clearly and gently during our first meeting that, honestly, I wasn’t that convinced. I kept thinking there had to be a flaw somewhere and it couldn’t possibly be so easy. That’s how things stood for a few days. Deliverus' Gwangju Logistics Hub

On February 7, 2022, not long after I linked the inbound investment review to Slack, we received a review request from a company called 'LLHR Co., Ltd.' Pushing aside the odd corporate name, I read on to see a very young team—including three graduates of Minjok Leadership Academy—with the ambition to revolutionize the secondary luxury goods market, starting with luxury goods repair. That is how my first connection with the Pappys team began. Despite the small scale of luxury repair, the team's near-zero experience, and sometimes clumsy communication, the CEO's big dream, audacity (or forearm muscle), and their constant growth during the review process made me think, 'I want to be with this team in five years.' After investment review, there was a bit of drama during closing, with the CEO considering funding from others besides Bass, but fortunately, believing us when we said 'We'll be the most helpful shareholders for Pappys' growth,' we've now been together for about a year and a half. But things didn’t go as smoothly as expected. We focused on branding before the product was fully developed, and with no real experience in building a product, our pace of improvement was slow, some co-founders left, and growth stalled. Honestly, in cases like this, most VCs start lowering their expectations, because with limited resources, it’s more effective to focus on portfolio companies with greater potential, both in sourcing and managing after investment. And to be frank, even if you try to care and help, it easily turns into mere nagging. That was Pappys. When I had my New Balance product repaired two weeks ago, I was genuinely delighted to see how much the product experience had improved since my initial investment. The team quickly crafted a revenue model in just a few weeks and hit break-even point, while countless competitors dropped out of the market. Little by little, the team’s sense of inferiority faded and was replaced by confidence, as they get ready to take on what lies beyond repairs. So, what changed? When the growth of our investee team stalled, what set BASS apart was its roster: including Growth Partner Lee Tae-yang, HR Manager __T82985_____, leading growth advisors from unicorn startups, and management who have run startups firsthand—in other words, bassists. In this post by Papiss CEO Kim Jeongmin, we share how these 'bassists' have been playing in harmony for our VIP 'vocalists.' Before we begin—The mysterious name 'LLHR Co., Ltd.' stands for 'Low Risk High Return.' I am sure the team will make it happen. [The story of Pappys, who turned profitable after meeting a VC who matched words with action] Everyone can talk big and sound flashy. But at the end of the day, what matters is whether your words and actions truly match. Being consistent between words and actions is even more crucial for startups and VCs. Just as startups must gradually turn their vision into reality, I believe VCs, too, need to prove their investment beliefs and vision through real decisions and post-investment management. "If startups are the vocalists, then we are the bassists. We aim to be the partner who provides vocalists with the very best rhythm and groove."

This article was written by our intern, Chanwoong Park, who has worked with us for the past six months. Chanwoong led the college student support project with genuine passion for entrepreneurship, and his thoughtful research always impressed not only us, but also the startup teams working with us. We sincerely thank Chanwoong Park for the tremendous help he gave us. Does that make sense? Can you really do it? This is what someone once said to me, when I was dreaming of starting my own business. I’ve had ambitions and goals for entrepreneurship since high school. During my military service, I formed a team with five fellow KAIST students and spent a year and a half taking on a startup challenge. I used every bit of free time—personal breaks, holidays, going out, overnight leaves—to develop a construction equipment sharing platform and technology, and even tested it in the real market. But the things people said to me during that process cut deep. As I kept wondering, 'Am I really able to do this right now?', my confidence gradually faded. But what I heard at Base was different. More important than a startup item is who does it and how. More important than your current ability is how big a dream you have, and how relentlessly you chase after it. The words of CEO Yunho Shin from Base struck a deep chord with me. Working with an organization like Base convinced me that I could really grow, so I applied for an internship. Thankfully, I joined the investment team as an intern right after completing my military service. What meant the most to me over the past six months was having the initiative and leading the <University Student Entrepreneur Support Project>. What we believe Base believes that even greater college student entrepreneurs will emerge from Korea going forward. College entrepreneurs might lack hands-on experience, organizational background, and social capital. It's an inherent disadvantage. But what they have in abundance is passion and energy. They pursue challenges outside conventional wisdom. They're instinctively attuned to new trends. Most of all, they dare to have big dreams, dreams that may seem unrealistic to others. And they can immerse themselves with persistence to achieve those ambitious goals. From the perspective of ‘who does it and how’, Base believes that college entrepreneurs have the potential for tremendous growth. Base wants to be there from the very first step with college entrepreneurs, and grow alongside them. Just as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook had Sheryl Sandberg (a working mom of two who introduced the ad business model to Facebook when it had no revenue model, and turned it into a profitable company), and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page had Eric Schmidt (the guiding adult who helped transform Google from a small startup into the world’s top mobile firm), we want to become a social asset and a strong supporter to college entrepreneurs, helping where they're lacking.

If you were to pick the hottest theme in the global stock market recently, you couldn't leave out 'robots'. As labor shortages and rising labor costs worsen worldwide, demand for robots, a representative form of automated equipment, has begun to explode. Advances in element technologies such as AI and sensors, as well as the continued decline in robot prices, are also driving solid demand. Now, we can say that 'the era has arrived where companies must use robots to survive.' Contoro Robotics (hereinafter referred to as 'Contoro'), located in Austin, Texas, USA, is an early-stage startup that is following this trend. It solves the labor shortage in labor-intensive industries such as logistics, agriculture, and service industries by utilizing artificial intelligence robot arms and teleoperation technology. So, what do you mean by why you shouldn't invest? Here are five reasons why you shouldn't invest in Contoro. And there are also reasons why you should invest in it anyway. 5 Reasons Why You Should Not Invest High difficulty domain There is a saying that 'If you want to invest well, you should invest in a field that you know well'. The first domain that Contoro chose was the US logistics industry. US (physically distant) + logistics industry (especially container/truck unloading) + robotics (plus AI and teleoperation combined) = How many people in Korea know these three things well? I can confidently say that it is a very small minority. (First of all, it wasn't me ㅠㅠ) A strong competitor As the market is large, fierce competition is expected. There are companies such as Boston Dynamics, a robotics company with a long history, and Pickle Robot, an MIT spin-off startup. They have been developing an unloading robot for 2-3 years and are finally on the verge of commercialization. Underdog Compared to its strong competitors, Contoro is a clear underdog. First of all, it is a startup led by a Korean founder. It would be difficult to say that it is 'advantageous' in the US (especially in fundraising). Today, many Korean founders are making meaningful achievements in Silicon Valley and other places, but there are still not many Korean companies listed on NASDAQ. Solutions not yet proven The team must validate the hypothesis through PoC and commercialize it. The robots will perform tasks in the irregular environment of the distribution center, and sometimes the operator will have to control multiple robots remotely. It is very likely that unexpected problems will be encountered during this user journey. It will not be an easy journey. The stock market is too hot(?)

For years, SpaceX has been the startup boasting the highest corporate value worldwide. Its standing remains firm despite fluctuations in the market. A company led by the remarkable founder and manager Musk, setting groundbreaking and rapid milestones in the cutting-edge field of rocket technology. Although SpaceX is in the lead, no one can say for sure if they'll be the ultimate winner in the space industry. Achieving stability and reasonable costs will require immense technological advancement. Real commercialization only starts from there, so right now, this is more of a preparatory phase for a major business. I think that's why even contemporary giants like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have dedicated their remaining years to the field of space—they've spotted limitless business opportunities in this very context. Here in Korea, we've decided to dip our toes into the space industry by investing in early-stage startups. At first glance, it might seem like a reckless attempt, but that's actually far from the truth. If a good investment is a combination of high probability and big impact, I'm convinced this one ticks many boxes for being a truly great investment. First, it's due to the unique historical context of manufacturing and the distinctiveness of Korea itself; second, I'm confident that CEO Jaehong Park is an exceptional founder capable of carrying this vision. From the Industrial Revolution through the era of Fordism, mass production through large-scale capital and engineering efficiency has become a mainstream paradigm across most industries. Naturally, the companies leading this paradigm topped corporate value in their day—Rockefeller's Standard Oil, Carnegie’s US Steel, Ford, Edison’s GE—but scarcely any have kept that throne a century on. Change in technology, management, and new markets has flung open the window of opportunity to latecomers, and founders overflowing with skill and determination have seized it. The rise of China since the 2000s, especially, demonstrates just how much manufacturing hegemony still matters even in the Internet age. But calling Korea and its companies just bystanders in all this really doesn’t do them justice. In most manufacturing industries, Korean firms are still among the global top tier, excelling at catching up fastest even in environments where capital and technology were nearly absent. In short, the growth of modern industry can be seen as the West’s success blossoming in the East, and Korea is now confidently center stage in this ‘economics of catching up’. Today, the space industry is one of the hottest fields in the West, and I believe the same catch-up dynamics could play out here. The reason for this is people. Above all, it’s people who turned the catch-up myth into reality—entrepreneurs of exceptional vision and outstanding talent who’ve made impossible missions come true. Stories like Chung Ju-yung winning a major shipbuilding contract with just a turtle ship-printed banknote as leverage when there wasn’t even a proper shipyard, and building and delivering the ship entirely with borrowed funds, or Lee Byung-chul who bridged a 30-year tech gap in semiconductors—an industry where the gap doubles every two years—using only talent, are all familiar to us. But to outsiders, wouldn’t these sound like hallucinations?

This article was written by Taehyun Kang, an intern who has worked with us for the past six months. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Taehyun Kang, who has been a very solid practical backup in a rapidly changing organization and has always been a great help in our growth with his progressive ideas and quick execution capabilities. Hello, I am Taehyun Kang, an investment team intern at BASS Ventures. As I wrap up my short but long six-month internship, I would like to introduce one of the projects I led and carried out during my stay at the base. It is about BASS Ventures' perspective on 'student entrepreneurs' and an attempt to make the base itself a social asset for such entrepreneurs. Is it difficult for students to start a business? Lack of practical experience and social assets are often cited as reasons why it is difficult for students to start a business. It is not easy for college students to acquire business skills that can be learned from the professional world or experiences within a significant-sized organization. In addition, they inevitably lack social assets that can be accumulated after starting their social life as adults. The social assets mentioned here refer to networks or mentors, and since a great mission can only be achieved as a team, the initial social assets of entrepreneurs are inevitably important. Nevertheless, among the places we are familiar with, there are many great founders who started their companies while they were college students and built great companies. Apple and Microsoft in the 70s, Dell and Cisco in the 80s, Google and Yahoo in the 90s, Facebook and Dropbox in the 2000s, and Stripe and Snapchat in the 2010s . Behind these great companies, there were excellent but very young founders. However, we must not forget that behind these great companies, there were people who not only provided financial support but also filled in the lack of experience and social assets. For example, Cisco had Don Valentine and John Moggridge, Google had John Doerr and Eric Schmidt, and Facebook had Peter Thiel and Sheryl Sandberg. They showed outstanding presence in the process of growing great companies from the founder’s ingenious 0 to 1 process to the 1 to 100 process. Finding PMF may be a matter of luck, but creating a great company is entirely a matter of ability. (Eric Schmidt, who had a huge influence on the early Google founders and business) Looking at these cases, BASS Ventures had been thinking , 'If it's difficult for students to start a business, can't we help young entrepreneurs?' and I was able to join the base at that time.

A variety of Generative AI services are pouring out from big tech and startups regardless of vertical. BASS Ventures has been interested in this field from the beginning, and has been monitoring various technology trends and players, and recently made its first investment in the Gen AI field in 'Team Runners' . 'Team Runners' is a startup led by CEO Jeong Seung-jin, who made an impactful appearance in the viral 'Super Dots' job posting and 'Unusual Challenge' that covered Toss's growth story last year . It is a team that is creating an AI-based content platform of an unprecedented type with a global target , and the 13 members repeat the 'hypothesis-experiment' cycle day and night, and just like the company name, it is a place where they learn and grow a lot every day. Normally, we introduce our investment thesis from the perspectives of the team, market, and product through our post-investment posts, but today, I would like to tell you in the form of a retrospective of the conversations I've had with Team Runners over the past six months. That's the only way I can explain why Team Runners is creating an AI content platform, why each person takes care of their KPI puppy doll, and why they believe there are no unsolvable problems in the world . And what kind of mindset BASS Ventures has and how it works with early-stage startups . (KPI puppy given as a gift to team members by CEO Jeong Seung-jin. (It contains the intention to take good care of KPIs like a puppy.) Runner's Company, July 8, 2022 The first time I learned about CEO Jeong Seung-jin was through an acquaintance of mine at Toss. While chatting over coffee after a long time, I asked him out of habit, “Is there anyone who recently started a business?” He told me that someone who had recently worked as a PO at Toss Vietnam had started a business after leaving the company. A few days later, I learned through LinkedIn and Facebook that CEO Seungjin Jeong was conducting various experiments under the corporation called 'Runner's Company', and after finalizing some of the items he was reviewing at the time, I contacted him for the first time through the Runner's Company open chat on August 11th. That was the beginning. (First cold talk with Runner's Company. The reply was faster than I expected, and they knew I was a bassist.) First meeting, August 17, 2022 On a hot summer day, I heard that three people were living together in an officetel in Gangnam Station, so I bought four cups of iced Americano and went to visit for the first time. When I arrived, CEO Jeong Seung-jin, Cheon Myeong-seung, and Maeng Ju-seong welcomed me, and since there was no separate space for the meeting, we gathered in the middle of the officetel room and talked. I heard that CEO Jeong Seung-jin established a corporation right after leaving Toss. He traveled around the world for six months to find an answer to the question , "Is starting a business really the most fun thing in life?" and eventually concluded that "solving problems is the most fun thing in life, and starting a business is a good way to do that for the rest of your life ." After reaching that conclusion, he started looking for an item in earnest. And luckily, I was the first evaluator that Runner's Company contacted him after his return. While telling this story, the CEO said, "I'm used to drinking in one shot, haha" while taking a shot of a grande-size iced Americano. Let me explain our company, BASS Ventures, in detail and ask what they want to do in the future. The team said they were thinking of two things. The first is 'solving the most difficult problems of mankind, such as aging and disease', and the second is 'creating a service that solves users' everyday problems by utilizing Toss's growth equation .' I thought the latter would be obvious, but when I first heard the former, I was a bit dumbfounded and couldn't react well. When I asked, "Can an early-stage startup do that?" the team responded with, "Can't we find a way to make it work?" I think I intuitively felt that listing the reasons why it wouldn't work on the spot would be completely meaningless. We talked for about an hour at our first meeting. The CEO said he didn't have any immediate funding needs, but it was a time that left a strange aftertaste. I still don't know if it was because of the team's energy, the look in their eyes, or their awareness of the problem, but before the aftertaste faded, I shared that there was a team like this inside and decided to visit again with Karl Shin (CEO) in two weeks.

Peter Lynch, who has an extraordinary appearance that exudes the aura of a genius and has become more familiar as a meme or GIF, is a fund manager who represents the boom period of the US stock market in the 1980s. While managing the largest public offering fund of the time, he expanded the horizon of the indirect investment market with overwhelming performance (annual average +30%) and contributed to putting Fidelity, which he was a part of, on the throne. (Contrary to popular opinion, he thinks he is second and Anthony Bolton of Fidelity Europe is first. If you enjoyed Peter Lynch's book, I recommend reading Bolton's book as well.) His achievements are great, but the reason he is constantly recalled across time is probably because of the books he left behind. All of his books are classics, even bibles, that explain various investment principles and theories in a fun and intuitive way based on his own experiences. (By the way, he was the first to use the expression 10 beggar, which seems to be used more in unlisted VCs, especially in the early market.) The reason I've brought Peter Lynch here out of the blue is to introduce you to a place that surprisingly fits his definition of a "perfect" (and not just good) investment company. Korea Spatial Data is a company that mainly provides building management (Facility Management; FM) services, including cleaning services (more simply, building cleaning) under the brand name Cleaner. First, Lynch's criteria for the 'perfect investment' are summarized as follows: The company name is boring and ridiculous A boring business Abominable business Spin-off Non-institutional ownership & non-coverage Conspiracy theories (related to toxic waste or the mafia) Gloomy business Stagnant growth industry Secure a niche Repeat purchase Technology based

Personally, as a VC reviewer, the words I least want to hear are 'community' and 'SNS'. This is especially the case when the answer to how this service will evolve is one of those two. Above all, it's because there are hardly any success stories. And the reasons for countless failures seem pretty clear. There are already established communities like Daum and Naver Cafes, and users still find value in those spaces. While there may be some minor inconveniences, unless a new service creates overwhelming value that changes these entrenched usage habits, users have no reason to bear the 'switching cost.' It's also extremely difficult. Even though Google isn't #1 in Korea, the SNS space is firmly held by global big tech companies like Meta. You need a value proposition that can surpass the massive network effects they've already built, and you'll need enormous capital as well. And, if the service itself offers enough value, the business model wouldn't need to depend on the community either. All things considered, saying 'community' or 'SNS' sounds like a naive excuse that comes up when the service itself isn't compelling enough. Paradigm Shift had just launched a community service called 'Heroines' themed around 'Moms' Health and Exercise,' and that's about when I learned about the service and the CEO. But when I first heard about Paradigm Shift, what intrigued me far more than thinking 'another community?' was CEO Nam Yoon-sun herself. That's because, during her time at Remember, she was a PO who clearly contributed to dramatically boosting company value by creating and activating the Remember community. Having used Remember for a long time, I saw firsthand how the community feature integrated into the existing product, and I found that both remarkable and impressive. Knowing just how hard it is to build a real community from scratch and turn it into a viable business—and how many founders and teams have been discouraged by that challenge—only made me more curious. At our first meeting, the CEO wasn’t considering investment, but just that brief conversation made it clear how seriously she and the team were committed to the business. Even the other key members were people who had worked together on the community service at Remember. They were clearly launching a sort of serial startup, leaving behind the comfort of a successful venture and relying on the know-how they'd built up during that success. Confident that we wouldn’t waste time on 'community discourse,' I suggested that we work together to fill in the current gaps, and the CEO gladly welcomed BASS as a partner. It's still at a very early stage, but I'm energized by seeing the team's ambitious efforts to test out different hypotheses and find the best way forward from a user's perspective. I believe Heroines' journey to becoming 'The Community' has only just begun. It's a tough mission, but I'm confident that this team will find the right answer, so I'll be cheering them on every step of the way!

Typically, when a song rises to number one on the Billboard charts in an instant, it's called a 'hotshot debut.' I can't think of a word that fits Web3 better than this. Web3 was the hottest topic that shook up the global startup ecosystem in 2020 and 2021—a true hotshot debut. It's the most open structure of the internet we can imagine right now, or the technology that makes it possible. Whatever definition you choose, it’s still an abstract concept. Still, there’s a huge range of opinions and debates among founders, investors, and users surrounding this topic—including fundamental questions and doubts about whether it’s truly real or tangible. Even in the macro environment of 2022, when asset prices were under intense downward pressure—especially in the virtual asset market, which faced the biggest drop—we decided to invest in the Web3 team called Hatch Labs. Hatch Labs is a blockchain infrastructure team founded by early members of Decipher, the blockchain research society at Seoul National University. The three co-founders, driven by their academic curiosity about blockchain, took a leading role in founding and stabilizing Decipher. The members who bonded over their learnings, discussions, and sharpened sense of the issues faced took their concerns beyond being just a club and turned them into a business. To say they were 'just a club' would be an understatement—their expertise made them top professionals in the field, and at the time, the blockchain scene, full of buzzwords like ICO and coin, was itself full of opportunity. They started out by offering security audits to verify the completeness of blockchain algorithms in certain mainnets or dapps, handling security for a number of domestic and international projects. The hypothesis that greater trust would broaden the base—and that this is essential for blockchain and Web3 to go mainstream—eventually led them to expand into other infrastructure businesses. They developed a wallet to help institutions and individuals store virtual assets more safely and conveniently, and launched a custody service. They also introduced on/off ramp services, enabling the OTC movement of virtual assets with limited liquidity. The business has grown every year, maintained steady profitability since its founding, and now they've launched an intuitive and convenient public wallet service called "Face Wallet" to build larger, more inclusive infrastructure for everyone. The Hatch Labs team went through a crypto winter right around their founding, from 2017 to 2018. That experience was a kind of trial by fire. They survived, the business expanded, and great new people joined. Even just this much shows they’re strong and resilient. What’s more, they managed all this growth solely through bootstrapping, without external investment. That same drive and original spirit remain, but their vision has become even bolder. While Hatch Labs 1.0 focused on solving existing market problems, Hatch Labs 2.0, revved up by this new investment, aims to expand the market itself. Their mission: when cynicism and skepticism about blockchain are at their peak, to help drive true mass adoption—turning the most mainstream wallet service into a unicorn and fulfilling what everyone in blockchain has dreamed of. This is Hatch Labs’ mission. Coming back to the original point—no one can say for certain exactly how Web3’s future will unfold, and it’ll be some time before we see the results. During that time, we intend to stay true to the fundamental values of venture capital: to be the best supporters for great teams who want to use technology to improve more lives. And that all begins by providing the capital they need to grow. One thing I can definitely say: if you're curious about the future of Web3, look at Hatch Labs. The path they’ve taken is the history of Korea’s blockchain industry and Web3 itself—and I believe it’ll be the future as well. BASS will be by their side until the day the Hatch team’s vision becomes reality.

Hello. This is Lee Taeyang. It's been about two months since I joined Base Investment as a growth partner. After meeting with 20 teams—which can feel like a lot or a little depending on how you see it—I've found that, although concerns differ based on business area, team size, or service model, one topic keeps coming up: service development methodology(?). As we strive to deliver great products for customers, issues inevitably arise around sprint schedules not being kept, defining the right MVP specs, and communication between planners, designers, and developers. There are many ways to address each issue, but for a more fundamental solution, I often use the following analogy. Startups are building solutions that haven't yet been validated in the market, and it's like feeling your way across stepping stones in pitch-black darkness, not knowing what lies ahead. Someone—the entrepreneur—who's found (or believes they've found) something across the river gathers others to cross with and sets out on that challenge. In these conditions where you can’t see even an inch in front of you, it’s an adventure: stepping carefully to the water’s edge, checking for stones to step on, and crossing the river—sometimes in a zigzag rather than a straight line. So, how do we cross this river quickly and safely? You have to step where there's the highest chance of finding stepping stones. (A good hypothesis) You need to take as many steps as possible to find the stepping stones without falling in. (Time is a limited resource, so more attempts = faster execution ) So, the way to cross the river quickly = good hypothesis * fast execution A development methodology that lets us quickly execute on good hypotheses is Scrum, one of the most common agile frameworks. Sprint cycles, repeated regularly, help us search for new stepping stones at a steady pace. Setting a cycle—usually two weeks—prevents us from overinvesting in one go (by minimizing release scope), while daily scrums encourage not just execution but meaningful communication to reach goals. Retrospectives then help us build and test even better hypotheses, creating a positive feedback loop. However, many teams get too caught up in the Scrum framework itself and run into problems like these: Focusing on churning out sprint deliverables and feeling satisfied with just that Holding daily scrum meetings that simply check off the schedule with no real meaning Retrospectives filled with complaints but no improvements (meaningless features, missed deadlines, etc.)

It has been over 10 years since the mobile era arrived. During that time, startup-led innovations have been taking place across all areas of society, from soft, everyday services like travel and food delivery to complex and difficult domains like finance and healthcare. However, there is a field that is surprisingly startup-free. It is the 'telecommunications' vertical . One of the criteria for a good area for a startup to challenge is a field where people spend a lot of time or money . From this perspective, 'communications' fits quite well. Most of the population over 10 years old across the country spends tens to hundreds of millions of won annually, but we surprisingly do not take much action even though we know that existing communication services are expensive or unreasonable. This is because there were no alternatives, and the reason there were no alternatives was because the communication industry requires a lot of capital, regulations are complex, and it is difficult for anyone to break the oligopoly structure of the three existing communication companies . It may sound like a startup doing communication business is not much different from doing electricity business. However, there has been a big wind blowing in this area recently. It is the rapid growth of cheap mobile phones . In fact, it has been more than 10 years since the first budget phone plan was introduced. Until then, people did not pay much attention to budget phones because they were vaguely perceived as cheap and low-cost phones, and they had a vague idea that the quality would not be good. However, the government began to grow budget phones in earnest as part of its price stabilization measures. It lowered the entry barrier by relaxing the registration criteria for budget phone operators from a licensing system to a registration system, and continuously lowered the wholesale prices of budget phones by the three telecommunications companies, leading to a decrease in the actual price of plans. As a result, more than 40 budget phone operators have emerged and begun to compete, and the wholesale prices have decreased by 30% compared to 2017. This has directly led to an increase in options and convenience for consumers that can capture both cost-effectiveness and quality , and it is now recognized as a natural way to escape being ripped off, rather than a cheap budget phone . Are you thinking, 'How big can budget phones be?'? SKT's solid 50% line share is on the verge of entering the 30% range for the first time since 1994. 5 million subscribers to the three major telecom companies have defected and started using postpaid budget phone plans. In fact, the number of budget phone subscribers is increasing by more than 100,000 every month , and based on overseas examples, it is expected that more than 10 million customers will be using budget phones in the near future. Young customers in their teens to 30s are quickly switching to budget phones, and many communities are posting about/inquiries about budget phones. In addition to the increased competitiveness of plan prices, the spread of terminal self-payment systems, which have made it possible to buy smartphones (especially iPhones) without contracts, has also played a big role in the growth of budget phone users. The current prepaid phone penetration rate has doubled every year for the past three years, exceeding 30%, and more than 90% of budget phone users are using prepaid phones . As a result, a family of four who currently uses a budget phone can save at least 5 million won over a two-year contract period. They can use the latest flagship smartphone they want and maintain communication quality. There is no reason not to switch. And there is no reason for subscribers who have switched once to return to the three major telecommunication companies. At this point, those of you reading this article might be thinking, "Hey, should I look into it?" But here's where the problem lies. There are over a thousand rate plans created and sold by dozens of mobile carriers. Because they compete fiercely on price/promotion, new plans are created, changed, and various guerrilla promotions are added all the time. Even at this moment. In this situation, it becomes very difficult to compare and choose all of them. To solve this problem, the government operates a website called Mobile Phone Hub, but I think you can probably guess what the quality is like. In the end, users end up having to either rack their brains to compare one by one, or go to the mobile carrier's website that appears at the top of the Naver keyword search and sign up, thinking that there might be something better somewhere. Moyo was born to lead the mega trend of low-cost phones/self-sufficient plans and solve the pain points of users. Moyo, which is innovating the low-cost phone market 'from the beginning' with product owners and engineers from Toss and Remember at the core, not only helps users considering signing up for a low-cost phone to quickly compare, select, apply for, and open plans , but also replaces the outdated systems of low-cost phone operators in the process. Information on 1,400 plans is updated 12 times a day, and hundreds of thousands of people organically visit Moyo every month to switch to more convenient and reasonable plans. However, all of this is being done by a team of less than 20 people who have been around for just over a year . I can feel that the team has become very skilled in clearly defining the tasks and priorities and clearing them at a crazy speed. Compared to the time of investment, the indicators have increased 10 times, the number of people has increased 3 times, but only 5% of the investment money has been used, which shows how much of a winning mentality is achieved when a small team repeatedly succeeds. At the center of such Moyo team is CEO Dong-Gun Ahn. CEO Dong-Gun Ahn is the embodiment of being soft on the outside but strong on the inside and a super hard worker. He is a founder who seems to be getting bigger and stronger every time I meet him. I think Moyo is one of the places where the saying that many investors 'invest by looking at the team' is most applicable . From this perspective, Base Investment led Moyo's Pre-A round. The answer to the question, 'Can a startup revolutionize the telecommunications vertical?' will be divided into those who have met the Moyo team and those who have not, but we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to see CEO Ahn Dong-geon and the team up close since the seed round, and based on what we have seen so far, we were able to have a clear conviction. We are confident that Moyo will most likely become a telecommunications super app and will grow into a platform that no user would not know.

It’s nothing new to say this, but advances in technology change our lives. If you think more deeply, though, it seems that even before changing how we live, technology may actually be changing our very organs themselves. For example, the camera on a smartphone seems to be replacing our eyes. Rather than simply taking in a memorable scene with our own eyes, it’s now just second nature to pull out the camera and snap a photo. The smartphone camera even offers better resolution than our own sight, lets us replay moments, and makes sharing those moments with others easy—so in many ways, it's already substituting for our eyes. But actually, the organ that's being replaced the most these days is the 'brain.' (Feels like ages ago now;;) There was a time when people prided themselves on being able to memorize others' phone numbers. The flow of technology—from internet browsers and search engines to mobile devices—has shifted us away from keeping knowledge in our heads to finding answers quickly by asking the right questions. In other words, we’re replacing part of our brain with internet browsing (including searching). This kind of substitution has pretty much become the norm, and most of us live our lives this way now. But has the internet browser really kept up with and reflected these changes? That’s the question that started the Mirror team. If you think about it, the browser—which serves as our gateway to the internet (aka our second brain)—hasn't really changed much since Chrome came out over a decade ago. But do you think we've stayed the same over those ten years? Definitely not. That’s why Mirror is building a browser truly optimized for how human thinking has evolved. When people ask what we do (even in news articles about fundraising), they say we're a team building a 'new browser.' But honestly, neither the Mirror team nor I feel that’s the full story. It never started with ‘let’s build a new browser.’ The real beginning came from questions that our CEO, Sanghyun Lee—after working as a developer and CTO at top startups—couldn’t help but ask: How can we use the human brain more efficiently? What kind of tools can help with that? That’s where everything began, and that’s how Bass joined Mirror at the start. Although they closed off external access, saying it wasn't polished enough yet;; the alpha version they demonstrated for us during the IR pitch was really intriguing. But what left an even deeper impression were some of the comments included in the monthly report for shareholders that they shared for the first time after our investment. Milestone: Find product market fit. These days, it feels like the meaning of PMF has become a bit watered down, What we mean by PMF is a state where enough customers want what you’ve built, and your company is forced to scale just to keep up with their growing numbers and needs. I don’t think there’s a more accurate definition of PMF than this. Wishing the Mirror team a great start as you take on the 0 to 1 journey from here!

It’s been two years already since I joined in the summer of 2020. Looking back, it was almost unheard of in Korea for a VC—focused solely on helping their portfolio teams grow—to bring on a recruiter while sourcing early-stage startups. For me, it felt like being dropped into totally uncharted territory, unfamiliar and distant. To be honest, I’m still not sure about a lot of things. Even after five years in this scene, I still sometimes wonder what a startup really is, where I am, and who I am. I keep asking myself what all my experience has meant so far, and honestly, I wander around as if my life itself is a startup, not quite sure how to pull this story together—or, more importantly, if I’ve actually been doing well at it. But thankfully, with the help of so many people along the way, what was once completely unfamiliar ground has now become at least navigable—like a trail with some signposts put up. So I'd like to start sharing a bit about the directions Base is working towards. In this post, rather than listing specific cases, I want to carefully share some of the thoughts and considerations we have in mind as we support and work through challenges with startups. We support our portfolio companies through the steps they need to recruit well. Everyone knows that to grow an organization, you need to bring in outstanding teammates. But when it comes to hiring, sometimes teams are strong from A to C but struggle after C, or they're confident after C but not strong enough on the earlier steps to get there—or sometimes they're just not sure where and how to start. When we first meet with founding teams, we usually kick off our discussions around these 6 long-term agendas: 1. Why this position is needed, and whether it's truly necessary; 2. Defining what ‘great talent’ means for us internally, and setting that bar; 3. Structuring how we determine fit, through formats and evaluation indicators; 4. Building a competitive compensation package and communication plan; 5. Onboarding and feedback culture; and 6. Talking about the off-boarding process, which is just as important as hiring itself. As we work through these, there’s a lot that needs to be synced on every point. More than simply 'replacing' a role or resource for a while, our focus is on actually going through A to Z together, and flexibly aligning to the company’s growth and philosophy. We call it 'recruiting', but it really means 'branding' Ultimately, the goal for our founding teams is to build a positive cycle where great talent comes to them thanks to strong branding. Most people think the mission is complete once the tough recruiting process ends and a position is filled, but helping new colleagues take root in the company and stay engaged—retention—is perhaps even more important than hiring itself. We work closely with each team, discussing in detail what skills and qualities they want new hires to bring, tailored to their current needs. At the same time, we define why top talent should join us, and how our company can add value and opportunity to their careers. Even after someone joins, it’s important to keep checking whether our expectations and assumptions actually match up, and to course-correct together along the way. For real, sustainable growth, we actively think about how to support each member and how to keep them motivated both internally and externally. Our approach is about building each team’s unique identity for the long term through branding—not just focusing on short-term recruitment. We're building a strong 'network' centered around Base. From C-level leaders to new grads, and across different industries and roles, we hear all kinds of stories about people figuring out their career paths. These career questions go beyond just 'moving to a team with better experience and opportunities', but also include exploring the potential to expand one's domain and responsibilities. Throughout this process, Base shares all the insight and knowledge we've gathered as a VC. Instead of simply assuming everyone wants to change jobs and only suggesting options within those boundaries, we try to match people with the best possible opportunities and experiences based on their current priorities, so they can make the right next move. When the timing and chemistry are just right, sometimes we're able to bring top talent to our portfolio teams, or we’re able to actively encourage someone to start their own business—and we'd like to keep sparking these connections going forward. Base was founded as a VC to support startup success. While we do what a VC does—invest capital, and often measure results through things like company value—my view of a startup's success is a little different. I think it's just as important, from the perspective of team members, whether these companies were 'great teams to be part of while having meaningful experiences' or 'teams that helped make people view startups more positively.' No matter how quickly a team dominates the market by solving important problems, if it's not genuinely a good place to work for its people, then to me, the outcome doesn't really mean success. That's why, if I could ask just one thing of everyone working with us—it’s this: The choice to go from zero to one will be tougher than you expect, but above all, I hope we can enjoy each moment as we grow together, and have fun building each other up along the way.