Category
- Opinions on the bass
Written by
Karl Shin (CEO)
Date
Empty
A new full-time member has joined us at BASS. He is not an investment professional or part of the management team, but will serve as a Growth Partner. Since this title and role may be unfamiliar, I'd like to take a moment to explain in a bit more detail.
Working in VC brings with it a fundamental—almost childishly simple—question: “Why do some startups succeed, while others fail?” There are probably endless answers: the growth of their industry’s market, timing, strategy, execution, and even luck. Each situation leads to a different answer, and in fact, there may not be a single right one.
Still, while it may not be a sufficient condition, there is absolutely a necessary one: the 'excellent founding team.' No matter how good the market is, how great the business idea, or how lucky you get, without an 'excellent founding team,' real success and growth can't happen. Even if you achieve short-term results from zero to one, there’s a high chance of failing in the process from one to ten. That’s why, as BASS, we invest in early-stage companies with a clear philosophy and commitment to backing these kinds of 'excellent founding teams.' It's the so-called approach of investing in the team, not just the business. But, what exactly is an 'excellent founding team'?
To put it a bit differently, do we at BASS really know what it means for a founding team to excel as a startup? That was the beginning of this reflection. And honestly, it’s natural not to know if you haven’t experienced it. What experience am I talking about? I mean going through the process of achieving explosive growth and results as a startup. Unless you’ve actually led that kind of growth and success firsthand, it's tough to truly grasp it.
When we look at this honestly, our answer as a company was, 'We don't really know.' Of course, some members of our team have led explosive growth at startups and may know it on a personal level, but it’s not something we can say the company itself truly knows or embodies. It’s a critical piece for our mission and vision, yet it’s something we’re missing. I’m sure founders can relate—if there’s a gap, it’s the CEO’s job to go out and find the answer ^^
That introduction got a bit long, but it was through this sense of lack and urgency that I met Taeyang Lee (Luke).He co-founded Toss with CEO Seunggun Lee in 2011, building his startup experience through numerous challenges and trial and error, and was part of the very birth of Toss. He handled everything from security planning to product development and team organization in Toss’s early days, and as Toss’s very first PO (Product Owner)—a now-common concept—he was a key player driving the platform’s initial growth. Beyond his experience and skills, he instantly connected with the same issues we’d identified and showed a genuine desire to help tackle them with us.
Going forward, Taeyang Lee will be joining us at Base Investment as a full-time member and Growth Partner. This won’t just be a light, occasional meeting with portfolio companies once every month or two, but he’ll actually be working alongside them for a set period to support things like hypothesis testing, product development, team culture, and decision-making structure. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ll run the business for startups—instead, we want to actively help create a way of working and organizational DNA that truly enables startups to excel. Through this, our goal is to make startups feel that getting investment from Base was a truly special customer experience.
There’s actually one more incredibly important aspect with these efforts. That’s the 'receptiveness' of the portfolio and the startup founding teams we work with. It’s easy for anyone to say they'll fix and improve their shortcomings, but actually accepting unfamiliar things is extremely difficult. We all start startups with limited experience and capability. To turn those beginnings and this journey into results and success, we must accept anything that helps, and use it to grow further. Maybe, as we discussed above, the real starting point of a founding team that truly excels as a startup is their 'ability to accept.' Sincerely embracing feedback and making swift improvements—teams that keep repeating this are the ones we’re always drawn to.
We’ll probably face a lot of trial and error through this, and it won’t always go smoothly. But we believe that success is not just about what is attempted, but who does it and how they do it. And as long as it brings value to our customers, we won’t be discouraged by small failures—we’ll keep trying. On a side note, when inviting Taeyang Lee to be our Growth Partner, we asked one more favor: not only to help grow our portfolio companies, but also to help BASS Investment grow, too. We want to grow as well. And we hope many outstanding startups will grow with us.
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