Kim Tae-hyun’s eyes trembled violently.
It was because Lee Hyun-woo’s advice was 100% correct.
He felt needlessly embarrassed.
‘This guy is making me blush.’
In context, “without anyone’s help” meant Lee Hyun-woo’s help.
This was almost like pointing out the childish competition among the three siblings at breakfast.
He should have been angry, but as always, he wasn’t.
Moreover…
“I hope I didn’t make you feel bad, Hyungnim.”
He humbles himself again.
“Enough, man. That comment is more annoying.”
“I’ll keep my mouth shut next time. Actually, I received very clear advice from you, Hyungnim, and I wanted to tell you the same. Our two younger sisters are still immature. Just let anyone take the gifts and focus on real business, Hyungnim.”
Real business.
The eye for distinguishing gems at the 21st-century venture company meeting.
A future industry discovered without depending on anyone else.
Suddenly, his blood boiled.
‘Yeah, I’ve been walking too safe a path.’
There was a reason.
He grew up with the pressure that he must not fail.
As the eldest son of the Guseong Group, anyone would feel the same way.
Moreover, the fact that his father was not the eldest son made it even more concerning.
That meant it wasn’t necessary to hand over the successor role to the eldest son.
Of course, not having a younger brother was a blessing, but as time went by, the distinction between genders was becoming increasingly blurred.
If by any chance he made a massive failure, one of his sisters might take his place.
He didn’t want to think about this so far.
Instead, he just kept tapping on the same old stone bridge.
A good opportunity had arisen this time.
“Let me ask you just one thing. Will there be any worthwhile companies attending the 21st-century venture company meeting?”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
“Ah, come on, man. You must have seen all the participating companies, right?”
“Yes, I have seen them all. But what I find worthwhile might seem absurd to you, Hyungnim.”
“For example?”
“For example, 3D printers?”
“What’s that?”
“It literally prints in three dimensions.”
“Is it a kind of mold?”
“Something similar. But while a machine for mold making costs hundreds of millions of won, this early model for general use costs only a few million won.”
“……”
“Sounds absurd, right?”
“Oh… But does such a company really exist?”
“Yes, there is. They haven’t made the machine yet, just conceptualized it… They want to meet a capitalist to actually research it.”
“And you’re going to invest in that?”
“Yes, even if it fails, I think the challenge itself holds meaning. After all, isn’t it part of the process of heading towards success?”
Once again, he realized the considerable style gap between Hyun-woo and himself.
“No matter how you put it, it still sounds ridiculous to me.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
“Anyway, I got your point. Let’s forget about asking for your advice this time.”
“Indeed, you are a great man, Hyungnim. And I will come to you for advice often in the future.”
Kim Tae-hyun smirked.
Then he got up and went straight to his father, Kim Sung-moo.
“We were a bit childish.”
“Huh?”
“Fighting over Hyun-woo’s advice… Competing spur of the moment led to such a situation. Even incorporating rules. I won’t do that anymore.”
“Hohoho, seems like you’ve realized something.”
“Yes, I definitely realized something this time. Above all, I want to have some leisure.”
“So, no investment?”
“I will. Solely by my own power. I want to test if I have the eye for future food sources.”
Kim Sung-moo’s gaze towards his son suddenly warmed.
He felt that perhaps his eldest son was not just anyone.
“You’ve grown a bit. Alright, I look forward to it.”
After sending Kim Tae-hyun off, Lee Hyun-woo contacted Kim Ah-young just in time for quitting hours.
“Aren’t you coming today?”
(Ah, well…)
“You’re worried that seeing me will give your brother and sister a chance?”
(Um…)
“Just come. Hyungnim already left.”
(Really?)
“Yeah, since Hyungnim cut the tape, you come and take my advice too.”
(Alright, wait a bit. No, let’s meet at the restaurant we always go to.)
A little later, Kim Ah-young, who met Lee Hyun-woo, received the same advice he gave her brother.
She had the same reaction.
“I feel needlessly embarrassed…”
“No need to. People are often influenced by the atmosphere.”
“Right.”
“So, will you take my advice?”
“Hmm…”
After a moment of contemplation, Kim Ah-young nodded.
“I’ll take it.”
This reaction was different from her brother’s.
“After all, the decision is mine, right? I’ll just take your advice as a reference since you’re an expert in this field.”
“Good. Then let’s talk about a few places. First, you need to know what a smartphone is.”
“Smartphone? What’s that?”
“To put it simply, it’s a phone you use like a computer.”
“……”
“Sounds like SF, right?”
“Oh… It feels unrealistic. It might come out someday, but it seems too far off.”
“That’s exactly it. My advice is chasing something very ideal. So you should pursue reality.”
“That’s true…”
Kim Ah-young’s voice lost strength.
But she kept asking.
“So, do you have a company to introduce to me related to smartphones? Where is it?”
“It’s an idea from a team born out of our company’s internal startup. To be precise, they’re not researching smartphones but the operating system for a specific device.”
It was the operating system for an e-book reader that Hyun-woo had seen today.
In other words, there was a team with the idea for an e-book reader, and another team trying to create the software in collaboration with them.
Not being an engineer, he wasn’t sure, but he thought this stage might develop into the operating system for PDAs and smartphones.
Lee Hyun-woo naturally talked with Kim Ah-young about the theme of ideals and reality, which he discussed with Kim Tae-hyun earlier.
“I will give that internal startup team a choice. Stay with the company or become independent.”
“You’re thinking of letting them go as an internal startup.”
“I thought so at first.”
“But now?”
“If I let them go, there’ll be problems. Specifically, if they all start becoming independent, it’ll put holes in the structure we’ve worked hard to build in Jungle.”
“That’s true. You’d have to nurture them again from scratch.”
“After a certain period, they’ll probably want to go independent. Then the vicious cycle of skilled people leaving will continue.”
“So what will you do?”
“I’ll give them solid assurances if they stay. So today, I decided.”
“Decided what?”
“To go public.”
“……!”
The reason for this decision was simple.
Some key employees were already guaranteed stock options, but not the regular employees.
“I’ll give stock options to those who stay. And although I’m not sure how high our company’s value will be, I need to guarantee it’s worthwhile to develop internally rather than starting a new business outside.”
“Wow… I thought this might happen someday… Jungle is finally going public.”
“Yeah. I thought it might happen someday too, but today was the trigger.”
In fact, Hyun-woo was compromising with reality.
He believed this was the best way to retain employees.
“Worth 1 trillion won.”
“Huh?”
“Your company, Jungle. It’s being evaluated at 1 trillion won.”
“Oh… I heard that too. But that’s the market evaluating, not the media or experts.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, we need to face it directly. We’ll know the answer when we do the stock offering.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too. So I plan to ask Joe Murphy during his visit. How much is our company really worth?”
“Joe Murphy is coming?”
“Yes, he’s coming with his brother.”
“Oh… When are they coming?”
“The day after tomorrow.”
Kim Ah-young nodded.
And she thought to herself.
‘Finally, Father’s business is really getting started. I should ask Aunt to look after him.’
Kim Ah-young could only think of Lee Hyun-woo day and night.
At home, Lee Hyun-woo made a call to match the US time zone.
(Hello?)
“It’s me.”
(Ah, Mr…. Lee.)
The other person was Joe Murphy.
Since he was scheduled to come in two days, he contacted him with multiple purposes.
“I contacted you to ask something before you come to Korea.”
(Yes, go ahead.)
“Can I know the analysis of Jungle from Wall Street?”
This was the main point.
(Huh? Are you planning to go public?)
“Yes, I think it’s time to start preparing.”
(Good decision. Honestly, I’ve been waiting to see when Jungle will go public. I’m sure many others have been waiting too.)
Joe Murphy’s voice and content were positive, though he wasn’t sure if it was just flattery.
(And many places already evaluate it at over 1 billion dollars.)
“Oh, really?”
(Yes, and if you start preparing now, in a year or two, who knows how high it can go. Jungle always exceeds Wall Street’s expectations.)
“Our revenue or profits aren’t that high, are they?”
(That’s true, but compared to Yaho, Jungle is better. Yet, Yaho’s market cap recently exceeded 14.1 billion dollars.)
An astronomical figure.
14.1 billion dollars would be about 14 trillion won in Korean currency.
But it was still far from its peak.
At the height of the bubble, it went up to 125 billion dollars.
In other words, Yaho’s market cap once surpassed 100 trillion won.
(There’s a huge bubble. This year, they’ll barely exceed 100 million dollars in revenue. Meanwhile, Jungle shows no bubble. Profits are exponentially increasing every month.)
Stock prices reflect not only current performance but also future value.
Because of this, some companies always face bubble controversies.
One of them was Yaho.
Both Joe Murphy and Hyun-woo were certain that Jungle was at least as good as Yaho.
He felt good about making the call.
The next morning, he went to work and started drafting the stock option details.
And when everything was settled, he made the following judgment.
‘Rather than announcing this all at once, it’s better to do it face-to-face, one by one.’
Before that, he needed to throw some bait to the media.
So he picked up the phone and contacted Jang Jae-won of the Sejong Daily.
“We’re going public.”
