This school dropout offered his first firm for six figures at 21. Here is his recipe for fulfillment

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

“My mum cried a little bit,” Kim, now 33, stated with fun. 

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

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

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

“After I offered my first firm, it was straightforward to determine,” stated 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 providers and merchandise for various audiences.”

Kim then spent nearly 10 years constructing digital merchandise for different startups and firms, earlier than venturing out on his personal in 2020 with Stadium Reside — 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 thus far, together with a Sequence 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 suggestions for working a profitable firm. 

It is common for entrepreneurs to attribute the success of their startups to discovering an excellent product-market match. 

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

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

Kim stated 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 stated. 

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

Nonetheless, product-market match continues to be essential to a enterprise’ success, stated Kim. 

“With out product-market match, you would not have the ability to survive as a enterprise on account 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 actual fact, Kim began his first e-commerce enterprise as a result of he wished to seek 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 stated. 

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

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

“I might see they have been all specializing in one-dimensional content material and constructing in direction of betting. This was an fascinating alternative for me to check out the following 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 totally completely different means, they wished to work together with others inside a group they usually wished one thing new.”

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

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

In response to Kim, setting a powerful imaginative and prescient and set of values in your workforce is “completely vital.”

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

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