Jemimi Park Miyoung, department of advertising major at Kookmin University

 

 

 

Miyoung Park is an entrepreneur who founded a growth record-based parenting platform that records a child's growth through photos and texts. Used by 3 out of 10 couples with newborns, the app is designed to share the joy and reward of parenting with doting moms and doting dads with the vision of making parents the happiest people in the world. From a 20-something who dreamed of being an advertiser, to an entrepreneur, to an employee, to a digital nomad, to a freelancer, to an entrepreneur again. It all started with a small attempt, and we talked to Miyoung Park, who believes that "the first step is always the right one," about her challenging life.

 

 

 

 

Aspiring startup CEO     Miyoung Park was serious about advertising. As an undergraduate, she entered ad competitions, but was rejected one after another. Then one day, she took a Web 2.0 lecture in her sociology minor class. At that time, outdoor advertising and TV commercials were dominated by one-way communication. The idea of interactive online advertising intrigued her.   "I thought of creating a more active model than online banner ads and challenging the ad contest. I planned an ad service thread that expresses your interests by attaching icons and widgets called seals to your blog, mobile, website, desktop, etc. This thread connects you with people who have common interests and allows you to subscribe to related content, or if you use it in a branded way, you can use it as a banner advertising your blog. When I told Professor Ko Hanjun, he said it was more suitable for a startup contest than an ad contest."     jejemimi office     With her motivation and business plan, Park entered the 2018 Korea University Student Venture Startup Competition and won the first prize, the Microsoft Prize. After winning, Kookmin University provided her with an office in an art museum, where she was able to establish her venture, %g (Program), and a year later, she participated in the Tech Crunch 50 Conference 2009, a global startup competition, where she was ranked among the top 50 most promising new ventures, beating 20:1 competition. As a result of being recognized as an innovative startup, %g(Program) received requests for partnerships from Spain, Japan, China, Germany, and other countries, and invited VCs from overseas to invest in the company and expand overseas. However, after graduation, Miyoung Park began preparing for a job.   "Unlike other college students, I was able to enjoy a lot of things by winning the competition, but I was just a twenty-something college student who was excited and entertained by the experience, not knowing that it was an opportunity. Moreover, there was no program to support young entrepreneurs at that time, so I had no idea about management mindset or entrepreneurship. I concluded that I was not good enough as a representative, so I decided to join a company and gain various experiences."

 

 

 

 

An N-Jobber ahead of his time and a digital nomad in search of stability

 

 

 

After graduating, Miyoung Park joined SK Telecom as a planner to discover new businesses. She worked in various departments to identify and solve needs such as text messaging, pet healthcare, CSR activities, and internal venture projects. She even married the man she met at work.
"I'm a planner by background, and I planned my wedding with my husband, Jeon Je-woo. We wanted to get married in Olympic Park. Park weddings are common now, but at that time, no one was getting married in the park. We asked the city of Seoul, and they said we could have religious ceremonies, but not weddings. It's a space for citizens! I sent a tweet to the late mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon, and got a reply. In the end, we got married in Namsan Park instead of Olympic Park. I got a tattoo on my ring finger to replace my wedding ring, designed my own wedding invitations, bought my wedding dress overseas and had it altered, danced down the aisle, and performed for the guests."

 

 

A year after their marriage, they quit their jobs to travel the world and live as digital nomads. Miyoung Park founded EyoTrip, a social media service that allows travelers to share local travel information in real time, with her husband in charge of development. The reason she decided to work while traveling the world was because she wanted a "stable life.
"When we got married, we bought an old house and decorated it ourselves. I worked during the day, and after work I was an Airbnb host, meeting travelers from different countries and feeling like I was traveling the world every day. I met a couple from Germany who were traveling digital nomads. I was too achievement-oriented to just do what was passively given to me at work, and I wanted to live my life in a more synergistic way than the eight hours I spent at work. It was a satisfying workplace with talented people, but when the company spun off, I felt insecure, and I started to ask myself if a life where I was affected by my surroundings and worried about my safety, including company policies, was a stable life. 'What is stability? Is it possible to have a stable life?' I concluded that stability for me is not about belonging somewhere, but about feeling secure even when things change, so I decided to use my severance pay to travel the world with my husband and live as a digital nomad."

 

 

 

 

This time, she's a mom!     Miyoung Park realized that working while traveling the world wasn't practical. In the absence of digital collaboration tools and freelance job platforms, it wasn't practical to work, and it wasn't easy to get funding. After traveling to 25 countries in a year, she returned home to work as an essayist, Airbnb Ambassador, freelance organizer, speaker, and mother.           The Beginning is Always Right, a book of essays written by Miyoung Park and her husband, Jeewoo Jeon, after traveling the world.       "I wrote an essay about my experiences as a digital nomad traveling the world, became an Airbnb host again, and became an ambassador consulting new hosts because I was doing pretty well. When I couldn't work full-time due to parenting, I worked two days a week at the company as a planner, and at the same time, I built four or five paid apps with my husband, %g (program), and the CTOs at Ayotrip to see how the market would react. It was a time when I was wondering if I should go back to work." It was during this time that Miyoung Park came up with the idea for the service. Originally, it was called 'Ssoksokchalkak' instead of Ssoksokchalkak.           We were honored to be recognized by Google Play as one of the "BEST OF 2020 Hidden Gem App of the Year (second from left)" category on Google Play.       "Pregnancy and childbirth change your body, so we started the app as a diet app, but then we changed it to track your child's growth and entered DecampDay." The result was a win and an audience award. Although the prototype proved its marketability at DecampDay, the app has only gained 3,500 members in the seven months since it launched. Unsure if the service would be able to continue, they received funding from Kyobo Life InnoStage. "We had 20 members signing up a day, but after advertising online, the number of members increased to 500-600, but customers were not using it because they didn't know about it." The app won the top prize in the "BEST OF 2020 Hidden Gem App of the Year" category on Google Play, and received about 1.9 billion won in investment from Yoon Minchang Creative Investment Foundation, Spring Camp, and Hashd. In April this year, it was also selected for TIPS, a program in which private investment companies and the government jointly identify promising technology startups and provide investment funds for R&D and domestic and international commercialization.

 

 

 

 

Be yourself, go where no one else goes

 

 

Jejemimi is named after the nickname of CEO Miyoung Park and her husband. CEO Park Mi-young is the founder and Jeon Je-woo, a former developer, is in charge of accounting and management. They have been working together since a year after they got married, and through challenges, failures, and trials, they built the company into what it is today. Miyoung Park describes her husband as "the person who fills in the gaps, another me," and says that only together can a puzzle be completed. In the essay "The Beginning is Always Right," co-written by Park and Jeon, they discuss why it is essential to have someone in your life.

 

 

 

 

 

We feel more empowered when we have someone to share the journey with.
Human interaction radiates positive energy. It makes it easier to overcome obstacles and go further.
That person could be a friend, family member, or coworker. It doesn't matter who it is. The important thing is to find someone to go with you.

-from The First Time is Always the Right Time

 

 

 

 

 

"I want to be someone who has a lot of experience, someone who has a lot of stories to tell, like Edward Bloom in the movie Big Fish, where he tells his son about his experiences, and the son thinks it's all a bunch of bullshit, but in the end he realizes that the stories he tells are true. I want to be the kind of mom who tells my daughters about different experiences and says, 'Marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth don't define your life. You have a companion who walks in step with you, so even when the road is foggy, you can rely on each other and walk the path of your mom, Miyoung Park."

 

 

 

 

 

 

CEO Miyoung Park (left) and Director Jeewoo Jeon (right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ha Jin and Ha On are the children of CEO Park Miyoung and Director Jeon Je Woo.

 

 

 

 

 

I was even bedridden for three years.
But I knew that all of this was the beginning of my greater success.

-Edward's story to his son in the movie Big Fish

 

 

 

 

 

The starting point for her greater success may have been the confidence and courage to look at herself and walk confidently on the path that others do not go. She is not afraid to stand out from the crowd and focuses on differentiated services in the startup industry where there are many smart people. It is not a smart service, but a company that makes parents the happiest on earth. Miyoung Park calls this goal 'a vision bigger than success'. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for Miyoung Park's Big Fish, a company that turns trials into fantasy fairy tales with the boldness and cool positivity that comes from traveling the world.

 

 

 

 

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This content is translated from Korean to English using the AI translation service DeepL and may contain translation errors such as jargon/pronouns. If you find any, please send your feedback to kookminpr@kookmin.ac.kr so we can correct them.   View original article [click]