Alumni CEO Talk
Instead of following a trend, he preferred to see people react to something he created. Small miracles happen when you put your honesty into what you really want to do. Here's the story of Lim's entrepreneurial journey at Simplistic.
Nonghwal, assistant master craftsman, cosmetics let's go
Alumnus Lim Junbeom originally majored in newspaper broadcasting. He studied abroad in China for a year. It was a far cry from his studies. After completing his military service, he transferred to the Department of Biofermentation and Convergence at Kookmin University. He was curious about the phenomenon of 'fermentation'.
"In my 20s, I had a lot of acne and rashes, and my skin didn't improve even after using medicines prescribed by dermatologists or using cosmetics on the market. I was most curious about fermented cosmetics, which I thought were effective. I was attracted to the department's introduction that various materials can be made using fermentation technology, so I decided to try a new field."
For alumnus Lim, who had been a liberal arts student, the major was not easy, and he wanted to spend his youth with less academic stress despite the difficult undergraduate life.
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Simplistic Office
"I was a student who was more interested in non-major activities than major studies. I went to farms, played sports, and earned a certificate as a cocktail mixologist. I earned the certificate because I wanted to start a cocktail mixology club at my undergraduate school, but it was not easy to gather like-minded members."
As he neared graduation, Lim curiously mentioned in a career counseling session that he wanted to start a business. To avoid embarrassing himself, he had to take responsibility for what he said. He looked for a program to support his startup and applied to the Seoul Youth Entrepreneurship Project and was selected. Alumnus Lim's business idea was cosmetics, something he had been thinking about and exploring for a long time.
A one-man cosmetics company, all by himself
"When I had the worst skin problems, I was in the army, and I couldn't wash my face when I went out for training, so I was naturally interested in face wash. I made my own face wash by mixing water soap, essential oils, and tea bags, and I gave it to my fellow soldiers. The feedback was 'good,' and I felt really good."
Alumnus Lim was known among his friends as someone who knew a lot about cosmetics. He used the money he earned from his part-time job to buy cosmetics and share reviews on the cosmetics information community. When he decided to start his own business, he decided to create a cosmetic product that would solve the curiosity and inconvenience he felt while using numerous cosmetics. Simplistic, which means "extremely simplified," reflects his desire for consumers to approach cosmetics easily and without worry.
A postcard photo taken by alumnus Junbum Lim
"Cosmetics are not medicines, so why are there expensive and cheap cosmetics? Many cosmetics companies tell you to cleanse your face and apply it to your skin, then essence, then lotion, then cream. Why buy so many products when the only difference is the viscosity of the ingredients? I decided to create one product that would skip all these steps. I thought that if I could apply it to my skin, I would be confident to recommend it to others."
The Department of Biofermentation and Convergence at Kookmin University supported the lab after hearing that alumnus Lim Jun-beom had been selected for the Seoul Youth Entrepreneurship Project. He spent about a year on his own, from inspecting cosmetics ingredients to selecting a manufacturer, planning the product and developing the package. After graduating from Kookmin University and receiving a cosmetics responsible sales business license (a license that allows you to manufacture, distribute, and sell cosmetics yourself, distribute and sell cosmetics manufactured by entrusting a cosmetics manufacturer, distribute and sell imported cosmetics, and arrange and receive cosmetics for the purpose of import agency transactions), he launched Simplistic's first product, Essence, in June 2015.
Simplistic BI designed by alumnus Joonbeom Lim
"I show the development process of the essence on Instagram. Once the package's lid, bottle, label design, testing, ingredients, etc. are decided, I carefully take a single photo of it and upload it. The day after the product was launched, one of my followers bought one of the products. I gave the first customer an extra product and wrote a handwritten thank you note."
The first customer, who was active on Instagram and blogging about cosmetics, posted a review on her social media, and the product went viral. The first batch of 500 units sold out within three months. It was a great start.
The future of Simplistic: staying true to its roots
Simplistic has five skincare products and one air freshener. Even with two discontinued products, the number of products is modest for a nine-year-old cosmetics company.
"Rather than increasing the number of products, we update the ingredient information based on consumer feedback on our new products, which means that the old products and customer reviews disappear from beauty apps that look up cosmetic ingredient information and are listed as new products. Customer reviews are really important to us because we don't do any marketing, but we insist on renewing them because that's what we started this business for, to fulfill the promise we made to our customers."
Skincare (above) and air fresheners (below) from Simplistic
Alumnus Junbeom Lim says, "Cosmetics are not medicines, but products that will stay with you for a long time. It is not a miracle that happens in a short period of time, but a slow improvement of the skin based on accurate information. This is the philosophy of cosmetics that Lim set out to fulfill when he started his career.
"When I started my business, I thought, 'If I make a good product, the world will recognize it,' which was very naive in hindsight."
However, the world slowly moved toward the cosmetics that alumnus Lim Junbeom created. In 2017, Essence ranked first in the skincare category on a cosmetics distribution platform and a department store shopping mall, and in 2019, it exceeded its funding goal by 1,700% on a crowdfunding platform. In 2018, the face wash was selected as a product with excellent ingredients and cleansing power on a TV beauty program, and in 2021, the sunscreen was featured in a YouTube content by a Chinese medicine doctor with 1 million subscribers. The company has also expanded into international markets. Today, Simplistic is sold in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and China. All of this was accomplished slowly over time, with no advertising or sponsorships for the past nine years.
"I ran Simplistic as a one-person cosmetics company for eight years, but since last year, I've been changing the organization and company size. I hired a manager, and recently, I was invested by a company specializing in acceleration and turned into a corporation. Recently, I've been selling goods and books that match Simplistic. I'm planning to run a stay where more people can experience Simplistic, and I'm also planning to connect with skincare by running a grain drink cafe and developing a grain pack."
Someone says Direction is more important than speed in life. It seems to be a sentence that can be applied to the world of entrepreneurship, where alumnus Lim Jun-beom poured his youth into. In the cosmetics industry, where sweet words and flashy visuals are often used to deceive people, he is determined to walk his own path with honesty and sincerity. It's going according to plan, OK, the protagonist will never die! The face of alumnus Lim Joon-beom is superimposed on the figure of Ko Soo, who stood tall in the world of entrepreneurship.
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