I had the unique opportunity to sit with Jae Lee, a seasoned entrepreneur and ask him all about him, his story, and his career.
Who is Jae Lee? Tell me about your background, both personal and professional
I am a serial entrepreneur who focuses on using software as the utility to solve problems. My definition of entrepreneurship goes beyond being a founder, or the amount of equity one has in a company. It all starts with the mindset to consistently innovate and inspire.
My professional career began with starting a web agency back in 1999, which focused on delivering interactive websites using Macromedia Flash (later acquired by Adobe) for book publishers. I went on to expand my business capabilities by teaching myself how to build mobile applications. Kia Motors was my first client in the mobile app space, which became a significant launchpad to grow my business. It also helped me build on my personal branding, while helping other entrepreneurs and budding developers along the way.
Needless to say, I have also had multiple failures throughout my entrepreneurial journey—each of which served as learning experiences in their own right. These experiences ultimately fueled my recent successes, while paving the way to the opportunities that have been provided to me.
More recently, I have served globally distributed teams to develop and launch a wide range of solutions, including a tele-medicine platform, online travel booking services, and a supply chain visibility solution for enterprise customers.
What are you building now and why?
There are various websites and apps in the market today where users share extensive feedback and reviews about topics such as the workforce experience, the vacation experience, and the restaurant experience. But how about the very fine details surrounding the university experience? Not only has the university experience dramatically shifted in the post-pandemic world—there's a lot of context that gets glossed over in quick surveys on the topic.
This is why my team and I built a trusted online community, where verified students can anonymously share their experiences with the full student body, to collectively take control of their university experience. It's like an online student union. This community is a safe and secure place to openly share meaningful feedback with context. We believe that the value chain of higher education has enormous room for improvement and disruption.
The name of this free online community for students is kempus.com.
How do you plan on going to market?
Kempus is going to market starting with university students in the U.S. The goal is to better understand today's concerns at a deeper level, and address them by potentially applying solutions into our product, to provide greater value for the student body.
What’s the monetization model?
For the time being, Kempus will strive to become the largest online campus community in the U.S. While we have identified potential business models, and multiple partnership opportunities—it would be best for us to focus on the value we provide to our users for now.
How will you know you’ve hit product market fit?
Kempus' product market fit will be recognized when the team is overwhelmed with usage and operational bottlenecks.
How is your platform different than the many others out there trying to solve the same problem?
Kempus' differentiating factors stem from our data-driven know-how, and capabilities. We are distancing ourselves from objectives such as building a better app in the app store. Instead, we are focused on building a valuable and defensible data-set that will benefit the student body across the spectrum.
How do you manage work life balance?
My personal efforts are more of a team effort. The Kempus team prides itself for emphasizing strategy and culture. We are a people first company. It might sound cliche, but the execution of it isn't as easy as it sounds. We find ways to measure as many data points as possible, and make data driven decisions in order to achieve the work life balance at Kempus. In other words—by simplifying our work, we simplify our lives.
How important is diversity for you and your team?
Diversity is of utmost importance for the Kempus team, as the diversity of people brings diversity of insights. I enjoy nurturing a company culture to allow my team members to express their opinions and differences. It ultimately allows us to arrive at better solutions.
To Conclude, What Are Your Top 3 tips for a Beginner Entrepreneur?
While there are plenty of amazing insights out there for novice entrepreneurs, some of my personal favorites include:
1. Take the bottom-up approach. 63.1 percent of the global population with internet access is not your true audience size.
2. Feedback is a gift. It's not always about right versus wrong, and should not be taken as such.
3. Decide on an idea, and find users that would buy or use the product faster than you can make it.