This faculty dropout bought his first firm for six figures at 21. Here is his recipe for achievement

When Kevin Kim dropped out of school at 21 to develop into an entrepreneur, it appeared like an enormous gamble. 

“My mum cried a little bit,” Kim, now 33, mentioned with amusing. 

However his confidence was not unfounded. Kim had simply bought his first firm — which he began when he was simply 18 — for “six figures.” 

That was no small feat, on condition that his beginning capital was simply $2,000, which Kim mentioned he saved up from doing part-time jobs.

His e-commerce firm imported streetwear from South Korea and bought it throughout North America, he advised CNBC Make It. 

“After I bought my first firm, it was simple to resolve,” mentioned Kim, who emigrated from South Korea to Canada when he was 11. 

“There was no imaginative and prescient or alignment … I used to be a civil engineering undergrad however I wished to create companies and merchandise for various audiences.”

Kim then spent virtually 10 years constructing digital merchandise for different startups and firms, earlier than venturing out on his personal in 2020 with Stadium Stay — a metaverse app for sports activities followers. 

The app permits customers to customise their very own avatars, purchase digital collectibles, hang around with different followers in digital rooms, participate in interactive sports activities livestreams or play mini video games. 

The startup has raised $13 million to date, together with a Collection A funding led by NBA star Kevin Durant’s 35 Ventures, World Cup champion Blaise Matuidi’s Origins Fund and Dapper Labs Ventures.

CNBC Make It finds out Kim’s three ideas for operating a profitable firm. 

It is common for entrepreneurs to attribute the success of their startups to discovering a very good product-market match. 

However for Kim, what he calls “founder-market match” is much more essential. It means a founder is admittedly obsessed with what he is constructing.

“Attaining product-market match is admittedly exhausting, it takes years. You have to ask your self, do I actually like what I am doing? Do I actually like this trade? Can I see myself construct round this for 10 years?”

Kim mentioned he knew he at all times wished to construct merchandise across the 4 areas that talk to him — sports activities, gaming, music and vogue.

“I do know founders who, for instance, [launched] a SAS startup with accounting, however they weren’t even into accounting,” Kim mentioned. 

“They’re ready to enter it and earn cash, however they burned out sooner than different founders who’ve founder-market match.”

Nonetheless, product-market match remains to be essential to a enterprise’ success, mentioned Kim. 

“With out product-market match, you would not be capable of survive as a enterprise because of there being no actual demand or provide between your product and the viewers.” 

Assembly the wants of shoppers has enabled the success of his corporations. In reality, Kim began his first e-commerce enterprise as a result of he wished to search out garments that match his “model and sizing.” 

“I might by no means do this with manufacturers within the U.S. and Canada on the time,” he mentioned. 

“It actually began as a private pastime and want … I rapidly noticed that different individuals had the identical want.”

That additionally utilized to Stadium Stay — Kim seen that the sports activities trade was targeted on constructing merchandise for a restricted demographic of “millennial or older followers.”

“I might see they had been all specializing in one-dimensional content material and constructing in the direction of betting. This was an attention-grabbing alternative for me to check out the subsequent era of followers and suppose ‘who’s constructing for these followers?'” he advised CNBC Make It. 

“They did not have cash but, they consumed sports activities in a very totally different means, they wished to work together with others inside a group they usually wished one thing new.”

Kim’s thought appears to have paid off — Stadium Stay amassed over 750,000 customers who “spend over an hour a day on the platform,” mentioned the corporate.

Stadium Stay can also be valued at around $32 million, Kim advised CNBC Make It. 

Based on Kim, setting a robust imaginative and prescient and set of values on your crew is “completely important.”

“Why ought to proficient individuals be a part of your organization and develop with you? This query can’t be answered by simply the product that you’re constructing, but in addition the corporate and tradition you are constructing,” he added.

The significance of firm tradition can’t be underestimated, Kim confused, if one desires to construct an “iconic long-term firm.”