A New Connection, Many New Experiences
A New Connection, Many New Experiences
  • Son Dong-hyeon
  • 승인 2019.02.11 22:50
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Son Dong-hyeon(Mueunjae 18)
Son Dong-hyeon(Mueunjae 18)

As a Postechian, I am proud to have matriculated into POSTECH, a university consisting of a small number of Science and Engineering specialized elites. POSTECH provides various opportunities for the potential scientists and engineers to communicate with each other and indulge in the rich exchange of knowledge. However, since POSTECH is limited to Science and Engineering, it is nearly impossible to study other fields of knowledge. Yearning for a new experience, I heard of POSTECH X YONSEI <Startup: Start-up Boot Camp> and applied to the 10-day-long program straight away; I believed that it would be a thrilling experience to the meet new people and to study the original theme: Start-up. 
Professor Kim Do-yoon, School of Business, Yonsei University, and Professor Seong Sang-hyeon, POSTECH Entrepreneurship Center, prepared and supervised the entrepreneurship education program. The program proceeded in teams, and I formed a team with two Postechians (CSE, Mueunjae) and two students majoring in ‘Business Administration’ and one majoring in ‘Human Environment and Design’ from Yonsei University. 
Together, we devised various business models, developed them every day, and eventually produced a prototype and a business plan. In order to come up with an innovative business idea, we shared our various experiences through ‘brainstorming’; through this process, I was able to interact with a wide range of students from different fields and it was a valuable experience to view the world through new perspectives. At first, we came up with a business of collecting data through mobile game advertisements and selling it to companies that needed Big Data. However, we had to withdraw this idea since companies that require big data were already major companies with their own data collecting system and it would be nearly impossible to handle all the processes of collecting and processing the data into demanded forms. After a long discussion and exchange of ideas, we came up with a more realistic business item – a gamified home-training application. I believe that the advantages of the joint program of POSTECH and Yonsei University were highlighted at this point, since the collaboration of our team members eventually led to a solution to problem that would have been hard to overcome otherwise.
To further develop this business item, we planned various business models, such as BMC and LEAN, and repeatedly improved the UX and UI, conducting several surveys and constantly placing ourselves in the customers’ shoes. Throughout the 10-day-long program, we presented our business models every day to the professors and other teams, and, based on their feedbacks, were able to develop our business to a high level in a short span of time. It was a challenging but pleasant experience to restlessly work on something that was not related to science. 
The most encouraging session throughout the program were the lectures given by real-life entrepreneurs; five entrepreneurs gave different speeches on their experiences, and the words of Oh Sang-hoon, CEO of LUXROBO, touched my heart. The CEO’s beliefs and my belief of “If I can help others with what I have, I could not be happier” were similar, and it was a great motivation to listen to a person with similar beliefs as mine and to what he did to practice his values. I was also impressed by his persistence as he continued to challenge himself to achieve his goals even in the seemingly endless midst of difficulties.
Through the entrepreneurship education program, I became interested in entrepreneurship and learned that one must consider a lot of factors when planning a start-up. However, more importantly, I was able to communicate with new people and broaden my perspective. I hope that many joint classes and projects will be held in the future, so that many Postechians will have the opportunity to interact with people unlike them and to develop a wider perception