When I first arrived at the University of Washington, I didn’t plan to become a startup founder. Like many students, I was simply trying to figure out what kind of work would feel meaningful over the long term. Years later, after a corporate career, a difficult pivot and more than a few sleepless nights, I now lead Kiip Corp — building iipuda, a platform I like to describe as Airbnb for medical and beauty tourism. We connect international travelers with Korea’s world-class healthcare and beauty services, making experiences that were once hard to navigate seamlessly accessible to anyone in the world.
What advice would you give to UW students who are interested in becoming founders themselves?
If I could give one piece of advice to UW students just beginning their careers, it would be this: invest serious time in figuring out what you actually love. Not what sounds impressive, not what pays well, but what genuinely energizes you at 11:00 p.m. when you’re still working.
This sounds obvious, but most early-career founders and startup employees skip this step entirely. At the UW, I threw myself into as many projects as I could, not always knowing exactly where they’d lead, but trusting that the exposure mattered. Every project taught me something about how I think, what frustrates me and what excites me. I’d encourage every student to do the same: say yes broadly early on, then start narrowing deliberately.
Also, one of the most important decisions I’ve made as a founder was not making this journey alone. Data consistently show that startups with co-founders have significantly higher survival rates, and my own experience confirms it. My co-founder, Sojung Lee, comes from a pharmacy background, bringing deep domain expertise in healthcare that directly complements what we’re building at iipuda. To any aspiring entrepreneur: find your co-founder before you think you need one. Look for someone whose strengths genuinely fill your gaps, not just someone you’re comfortable with.
Can you describe a challenging moment in your journey and how you approached it?
The hardest part of my journey at Kiip Corp wasn’t fundraising, or building a team, or finding customers. It was figuring out whether I was working on the right thing.
Our first product was more domestically focused — a solid idea that attracted early investment. But something felt off. The work was fine, but I wasn’t waking up every morning excited about the problem. I kept asking myself: is this really what I want to spend the next decade on? That tension between the obligation of having taken investment and the quiet but persistent feeling that I wasn’t fully aligned was the hardest thing I’ve navigated as a founder.
Eventually, I made the decision to pivot. It wasn’t easy, and it required difficult conversations. But we moved toward something I genuinely believe in: iipuda. The cross-cultural dimension, shaped by my years living and studying in Korea, China and the United States, is at the heart of everything we do. Since the pivot, the work has been just as hard — maybe harder — but it feels completely different. I find myself energized by the problems instead of drained by them.
That shift taught me something I now believe deeply: passion isn’t a luxury in startups, it’s a survival mechanism. You will face so many moments where quitting seems rational. Caring deeply about the problem is often the only thing that gets you through.
How did your experience at the UW contribute to the person you are today?
My time studying Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the UW shaped how I approach building companies. HCDE teaches you to begin with people — understanding real needs before jumping to solutions. That mindset became the foundation of how I think about product development, and it’s something I carry into every decision we make at iipuda.
My Political Science minor gave me something equally valuable: a framework for understanding systems. How societies are organized, how institutions shape behavior, how power and culture intersect — these things matter enormously when you’re operating across borders and serving customers from different parts of the world. As someone who has lived and studied across Korea, China and the United States, that lens has proven indispensable.
And honestly, the sheer volume of projects I worked on at the UW built a kind of resilience I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. Shipping things, getting feedback, iterating, sometimes failing — that cycle repeated over and over in school is the same cycle that defines startup life. The UW prepared me for that more than I realized.
Why did you choose to sign the Innovators’ Pledge?
Taking the Innovators’ Pledge felt natural to me. The UW community gave me the intellectual foundation and the network to take the leap I took. If the journey I’m on — from UW projects, to SK Inc. AX, an SK Group company, to building iipuda — can inspire even one student to pursue something meaningful, or help one founder recognize that a difficult pivot might be exactly the right move, then sharing it is worth it.
Programs like the Innovators’ Pledge remind founders that success is not only about building companies, but also about creating opportunities for the next generation. That’s a responsibility I take seriously.
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