This article was contributed to the 'Investment at That Time (I decided to invest at that time)' section by Chosun Ilbo's reporters who know a little bit. [Nori's Yongjae Kim and Logistics Startup] At the end of 2021, I joined BASS Ventures as an investment reviewer. After working at Line and Google, I came to VC, and the types of companies I wanted to invest in the most were summarized as B2C, global, and software. Those were the areas I saw, learned, and thought about, and I had no interest or confidence in businesses that required large fixed costs or required detailed management and forecasting of economics. In particular, after six months of joining the company, the overall investment market began to freeze rapidly, and seeing existing logistics startups, large and small, struggling, I never thought that I would invest in a logistics startup. Until I met CEO Yongjae Kim. In September 2022, our bass partner, Junyeol Kang, posted a message on Slack along with a deck. “Is anyone interested in this new company founded by CEO Yongjae Kim, who founded Nori?” Base has a structure that is the opposite of other VCs, where even a representative or partner cannot directly proceed with a deal without a reviewer. If no one responds to that message within a week, it is considered dropped internally. I was familiar with the education startup called Nori, and I was drawn to the fact that the CEO was a serial entrepreneur, so I opened the deck. However, it was a logistics business. 'Why?' I couldn't have imagined that the CEO, who had experience selling education software to Daekyo, would start a new business with such a large amount of money in such difficult times, so I was quite bewildered, and that was my first thought about Deliverus. [Fast delivery of all parcels] However, the problem they were trying to solve was interesting. The domestic courier market is a huge market with sales of 8 trillion won and 4.9 billion items in terms of cargo volume, growing at a double-digit rate every year. Of this, the scale of fast delivery covered by Coupang is 20% in terms of cargo volume, and the rest uses general courier services. The plan was to provide a fast/same-day delivery solution similar to rocket delivery for the remaining 80%. All couriers as fast as Coupang? Of course it would be great. But does that make sense? If it were as easy as it sounds, why don't existing courier companies do it? I first met CEO Yongjae Kim with these questions. The general parcel collection and transportation process is composed of a combination of various agencies and terminals. There are a wide variety of interests in this process, and a lot of time and money were invested in building this system, so it is not easy for existing parcel delivery companies to change the system easily. The reason why the meme of parcels being stuck in Okcheon Hub keeps appearing (if you search on Google, there are many interesting contents) is related to this. However, the gist was that by handling only small cargo (clothing, cosmetics, books, etc.), which account for 80% of the total cargo volume, we could fill up the cargo trucks as much as possible, create efficient sorters and spaces optimized for small cargo, and create an algorithm (AI deep learning dynamic clustering) that optimizes the route based on AI based on the customer's delivery information and regional data every day, and then efficiently deliver the last mile. If we deliver in this way, we wouldn't need large and complex spaces, equipment, trucks, or processes, and since both fixed and variable costs would be low, we could match the delivery prices used by existing customers while delivering on the same day, and we could even make a profit. The CEO, whom I met for the first time, explained this to me so easily and softly that I honestly didn't find it appealing. I thought there must be a flaw in this logic, and I thought it couldn't be that easy. A few days passed like that. Deliverus' Gwangju Logistics Hub

On February 7, 2022, shortly after I had linked the inbound investment review proposal to Slack, I received a review request from a place called 'L.L.H.R., Inc.'. Looking at the content, leaving behind the incomprehensible corporate name, I saw that the team, which looked very young, including three graduates of Minjok History High School, had the ambition to start with luxury goods repair and innovate the secondary luxury goods market. That's how my first relationship with the Papis team began. Despite the seemingly small size of the luxury repair business, the team's almost non-existent experience, and sometimes immature communication methods, the CEO's big dream, passion (or forearm muscle), and the way he grew throughout the review process led to a bet that 'I want to be with this team in 5 years'. After the investment, there were twists and turns in the closing process where the CEO said he would take money from other investors, not the base, but fortunately, he believed in his words that 'we will definitely be the most helpful shareholders for the growth of Papis', and we have been together for about a year and a half since then. However, it was not as smooth as I thought. We focused on branding while the product was not complete, and since we had no experience in making a proper product, the improvement speed was slow, some co-founders left, and growth stopped. To be honest, in cases like this, many VCs lower their expectations more and more. In a situation where we have to continuously discover new companies and manage aftercare while our resources are limited, it is realistically more effective to focus on caring for portfolio companies that seem to have more potential. And honestly, even if we care and help, it is obvious that it will only be at the level of nagging. It was Pappys, and I was really happy to see that the product experience was incomparably better than when I invested while repairing New Balance products two weeks ago. The team created a revenue model in a few weeks and achieved BEP, while countless competing services disappeared. The team's expressions, which had been filled with a sense of inferiority, are gradually becoming more confident, and they are preparing to go after something beyond repairs. What changes have there been? In a situation where the growth of the invested team is stagnant, the biggest difference in bass is the presence of HR Manager Choi Purun, including Growth Partner Lee Taeyang, Growth Advisors who have worked on leading unicorn startups, and management who have directly operated startups, that is, bassists. We will introduce how these bassists have been playing together for our VIP vocalists through a review article by CEO Kim Jeongmin of Papice. Before we get into it - The unknown corporate name 'LLHR' stands for 'Low Risk High Return'. I believe the team will definitely do it. [The story of Pappys, which succeeded in turning a profit by meeting a VC who is consistent with his words and actions] Anyone can say something flashy. In the end, what matters is whether your words and your actions match. For startups and VCs, “walking the talk” is increasingly important. Just as startups need to draw a vision for the future and realize that vision step by step, I believe that VCs also need to prove their investment methods and vision through actual decision-making and portfolio management after investment. "If startups are vocalists, we are the bassists. "We will be your partner who provides the best rhythm and beats to vocalists."

This article was written by our intern, Chanwoong Park, who has worked with us for the past six months. Mr. Chan-Woong Park led the college student support project with a sincere heart for entrepreneurship, and always impressed us and the entrepreneurship team with his sincere research. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Chan-Woong Park for his great help to us. Does that make sense? Can you do it? This is what someone said to me, who dreams of starting a business. I have had dreams and goals of starting a business since high school. In the military, I formed a team with five KAIST seniors and juniors and challenged myself to start a business for a year and a half. I used all my free time, including personal maintenance, vacations, going out, and overnight stays, to develop a construction equipment sharing platform and technology, and even verified it in the actual market. However, during the process of starting a business, the words people threw at me stabbed me like a dagger. As I thought, 'Can I do this now?', my confidence gradually faded. But what I heard from the base was different. What is more important than the startup idea is who does it and how . What is more important than your current abilities is how big your dreams are and how persistently you pursue them . The words of CEO Shin Yoon-ho of Base had a special resonance for me. I was convinced that I would be able to grow greatly if I worked with this base, so I applied to be an intern. Thankfully, I was able to join the investment team as an intern right after my military service. The most meaningful thing for me in the past six months was that I took the lead in the <University Student Entrepreneur Support Project>. What we believe Base believes that more outstanding college student entrepreneurs will emerge from Korea in the future. College entrepreneurs are relatively lacking in practical and organizational experience and social assets. It is an innate weakness. However, they have overflowing passion and energy. They try to break away from existing stereotypes. They have an instinctive understanding of new trends. Above all, they can have big dreams that others may see as unrealistic. They can be persistently immersed in order to achieve big goals. From the perspective of 'who does what', Base believes that college entrepreneurs can create great growth. Base wants to start with college student entrepreneurs and grow together with them. Just like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had Sheryl Sandberg (a working mom of two who successfully introduced the advertising 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 (Google's senior who grew Google from a young startup to the world's best mobile company). I want to be a social asset to college student entrepreneurs and a helper who can fill in what they lack.

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(?)