[2021 Startup Institute Lecture Series #1] ‘Startup WATCHAs “I Will Somehow Make It Happen” Spirit’ – WATCHA COO Jihyun Won.

Korea University Business School (Dean=Johngseok Bae) Startup Institute (Director=Hojung Shin) hosted its first special lecture of 2021 Lecture Series last March 9 (Tuesday). Lecture Series is a part of entrepreneurship academy of Seung Myung-ho Entrepreneurship Education Center, an sub-organization for education within Startup Institute, and active startup mentors are invited to deliver lectures. The lecture, held online due to COVID-19, was delivered by co-founder of startup WATCHA, COO Jihyun Won with the title, “Startup WATCHA’s “I will somehow make it happen” Spirit’.

Since its establishment in 2011, WATCHA has presented WATCHAPEDIA, a movie review and recommendation service, and is growing with WATCHA (former WATCHAPLAY), a personalized OTT service launched in 2016, as its flagship service. Due to repeated growth of the firm after the launch of the service, WATCHA recently reached 10 million accumulated downloads, and is competing with Netflix, so called ‘dinosaur’, in domestic OTT market. Although WATCHA is doing well now, it had experienced a lot of hardships to reach its current position.

As indicated by the title, COO Jihyun Won introduced ‘I will somehow make it happen’ spirit, which is established as a culture of WATCHA. He told future startup founders that “it seems that people who keep holding out are the ones close to success” and advised them to not give up as it is “a world where you can succeed even without special experiences or good environment”.

COO Jihyun Won presented 3 important things important to founders. First, develop a habit of learning by releasing actual products in the market and checking reactions based on ‘lean startup methodology’ rather than empty talk. Second, just as WATCHA endured for [its success] after launching its OTT service, an optimistic attitude to persevere is required. Finally, for startups, people are so important that they are all of a company’s asset. COO Jihyun Won ended the lecture by emphasizing ‘people’, saying “business is about drawing and ejecting people well”.