Quarterly Reports

2025 Q4

Joining Mashup Ventures!

As most people who already know would know, I've always wanted to become a venture investor. My interest was especially towards early stage investing, because the notion of seeing potential in the founders and their ambition from the earliest stage is astonishing. Mashup Ventures is without a doubt the best AC in South Korea, so I was amazingly thrilled when the partners knew of me and called me for a coffee chat!

Why do I want to be a VC? KOSPI is a market led by a few conglomerates, and I believe that it limits the growth potential of our nation. I like how NASDAQ's top rankings change quite often. Back in 2010, ExxonMobil and Walmart were in the top 5 rankings. Currently, the two companies are out and it's NVIDIA leading the market with Alphabet and Amazon growing rapidly. The only two overlaps are Apple and Microsoft. Companies have the assumption of continuous growth (and I guess it's somewhat correct), which means new companies in the leaderboard lead to rapid growth of the market as a whole. I believe that the secret sauce behind USA's GDP of $80,000 is the dynamic changes in the leaderboard.

My dream is to contribute as much as I can to KOSPI while also seeing that much competition in the coming years. It may not be persuasive that just a few hundred thousand dollars in an early stage startup can impact the market to that extent, but I believe my contribution will be larger the more I focus on the longer game. Mashup Ventures has its legacy of finding ambitious founders and backing them with the best of its abilities. Therefore, I wish to be a strong support in the journey as well.

Creating the Yonsei startup ecosystem

Yonsei University has many alumni who have built unicorn companies. Also, the most VC heads in South Korea are Yonsei graduates as well. The school has so much potential in backing emerging hyper-growth companies. It's just that we did not have the right infrastructure to bridge the gap between the newcomers and the alumni.

On November 22nd, Y-Ventures hosted the largest startup networking event Yonsei has ever had. (Check out the event sketch here!) 10 unicorn founders, 10 VC CEOs, 30 more founders, 20 more VCs, and tons of students interested in the startup field, all in one place. The venue was full of energy and curiosity. Some may view Y-Ventures as just a party planner. However, I believe this is how all networks start. You need to know who's in and what kind of conversations break out from the connections.

I already graduated. Now I need to take a break from student activities. It means my time in Y-Ventures is coming to an end. However, I do believe that what I do for the community in the last few months here can impact everything for the better. Let me do my best, and see how it turns out 10-20 years later!

I need a hobby

Maybe this is what it feels like to become an adult. But my gosh I don't have any hobby I do consistently. Sometimes I chat and drink with current and potential. Sometimes I work on my website. Most of the time I'm just listening to podcasts and reading a16z newsletter. None of them are not-work-related hobbies. It's like I don't have any time detached from work.

I used to play games and go to karaoke. I also used to jog and go bouldering. At one point in my life I wanted to try out dancing. None of them have stayed with me anymore (maybe going to PC bangs with my friends sometimes). I need to get a life!

Something active, something healthy is what I'm looking for. Sticking to bouldering is the best idea I have so far. But I'm open to any and all suggestions!

Bye bye 2025

I led Y-Ventures to grow 3x (a vague number, I know), passed all CFA exams, graduated, and started working full-time. What a year! It was fruitful but also very exhausting. Since 2025 was the beginning of many things, let me spend the next year grounding what I've started and enjoying life a bit more. I'm coming for you, 2026!

Best,
Bosung

2025 Q3

Finally, graduating!

Since March 2018, Yonsei was my home. I used to be a serious alcoholic during my freshman and sophomore years, a sincere debater till I went to serve in the army in early 2021, and a typical lost student seeking for a fascinating career without any real knowledge in my junior year. It was a long ride, but I managed to finish it in just about the right time.

I'm not sure if I enjoyed my life to the fullest in college. Should I have been in a more playful student club, not just going to debate and business case sessions? Should I have jumped between more internships to figure out what field of occupation fits me the best? Maybe double majoring in science would have been more spectacle. If I went back to the first day of college, what would I do differently?

All in all, I know that I want to become a venture capitalist. College serves a different role for everyone. For some, it may be a time of studying to become an expert at some field. For others, it may be a ground for gaining as much experience as possible, testing out different roles and responsibilities. I used my college time to figure out what I enjoy the most. I like good businesses. I also like aiding those businesses with the necessary capital. How did I find out? I can't quite explain, but the combination of all the different trials during my college life probably provided me with the answer. Isn't that a good enough outcome to get from it?

How do people do stuff after work?

Just a quick comment: I've heard stories of people studying or working on a side project after their working hours. I thought I could be one of them. Like how? How do people pull it off?

Wrapping up my ZUZU journey

For some time after starting to work full-time at Kodebox, I realized that the company is not the best place for my growth. I do a lot of work. I have many tasks under my responsibility. But it doesn't quite feel like where I belong. I reckon it's because the company is not aiming to draw a hockey stick.

A company acquired by another company is already at a safe zone. Kodebox was acquired by Dunamu in late 2021, and got its last Series B funding in 2022. Since the last funding round, the company had a long-lasting runway left and a backing parent company that would provide for lacking resources. The company was working to expand the base, not crave for hyper-growth. That's where our interest was misaligned.

Therefore, without any plan, I decided to leave Kodebox. It's only been six months. Wasn't it too short to decide on anything? But I was in my mid-twenties. During my most crucial time for growth, I couldn't let myself be stuck at an unwanted position.

A new chapter

For now, my passion for young founders is huge. I wish to find the outliers of the age, figure out what projects they are working at, and prepare for all kinds of different ways to aid them build what they imagine. I'm not sure in what form I'll pursue these goals, but keep an eye on me!

Best,
Bosung

2025 Q2

Passed CFA Level III

On April 22, an email arrived. I passed CFA Level III. Of course, because I barely have any work experience in the finance sector, I'm far away from actually putting CFA on my business card.

I started Level I on February 2023. Didn't put much thought into it, but I wanted to catch up to the fancy finance senpais that I had admired back then. Maybe because I'm used to studying for tests with the KSAT memories, It was an easy pass - was at the top 1%.

By mid 2024, which is when I passed Level II, my passion for startups was getting hotter than ever. So I pondered whether I should finish Level III or not. It was pretty obvious that I wouldn't be working in asset management or banks. But oh well, Not going for it felt like not finishing up a master's degree. Maybe it's stupid to spend almost 10,000 dollars on a charter that I may never gain. However, I was sure that the knowledge (or its name-value) will help me out at some point. It was actually not such a hard study, because I had an easy semester planned out anyways.

So anyways, passing Level III has absolutely no impact on my life right now. Maybe I could've been bragging around a bit more if I was working as an analyst. However, what was waiting for me the next day was how to better ZUZU Investor Matching Service to increase its WAU. Maybe I should make it into some impact. What if I studied businesses in my own time, so that my knowledge of finance meets the area of application?

Becoming the head of Y-Ventures

Yonsei has so much potential. There are plenty of brilliant young minds that can make amazing products, service, and change in the way in which people live. There are already so many amazing early-stage teams that will become even more spectacular with just the right support. I believe so deep inside my heart, so I really wish to create an amazing institution that has the knowledge accumulated from inter-generational interactions.

Not only that, but I also believe that the time in university is the best period for anyone to become an outlier. With enough experience to at least begin with something, but still having some originality within them, whatever they want to accomplish could actually be carried out according to the methods that they feel is right.

Everybody knows Korean students are some of the smartest kids in the globe, right? If they were suddenly dropped amongst SF based founders, they would compete as hard as they can and become winners. We're in the wrong environment. We live according to how the older generation wants us to. That's not how we catch up with the modern world. I have a dream where universities could actually become a hub with overflowing new challenges and experiments.

That's the goal I have with Y-Ventures. We don't want to just make a cliche alumni fund. We are going to accelerate the school. Accelerate the bright minds to be able to use new technology like toys.

BTW, I didn't overthrow Sunwoo. He's just too busy right now, but he'll come back once he finds his place.

Joining ZUZU (Kodebox) as full-time

I'm an economics major with a business minor. How in the world would I be able to work with SaaS products and brainstorm specs? That was my initial thought when I was looking for my first job. I love the fact that I'm not just able to run the product and speak with customers, but also grind on how to improve user flow, find appropriate query for data analysis, and decide on priorities of specs to be worked on.

My JD is CEO Staff, but I work like a product owner. More like, my CEO makes me work like one. That's what I liked the most about working in ZUZU. So it was an easy decision to start full-time, let this place be my first official career. I joked around to my colleagues that I would learn to do product design, possibly commit to git, and then leave for another job. Of course, my decision to leave would only come when there is a better place for me to be, but I genuinely believe the fact that I can confidently say that I would learn to design and code in my workplace is an advantage very hard to find from any other.

Testing my bandwidth

I honestly have so many things I want to do right now. I think I would go as far as possible, testing my bandwidth. Let's see how I end my 2025. Rather than feeling like I've done everything I've wanted to do for this year, I would want to feel like there were so many thing I wanted to do more but couldn't finish.

Watch me. I'm going to do it well. "Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do."

Best,
Bosung

2025 Q1

The restructuring of Y-Ventures

I'm a late joiner of Y-Ventures. The student-run accelerator of Yonsei was founded in March 2023 by my dear friend Sunwoo Park. Since then, it has accomplished great things: getting half of the teams from our own accelerating program, Boost, funded from amazing early-stage VCs of South Korea, founding two teams from Yonsei via a startup school program Y-Startup, and creating a network of Yonsei founders. I was granted a chance to be a part of the mission: facilitating Yonsei as a hub for startups, since November 2024.

Going forward, we had so much we wanted to do but had no one running the group full-time. Therefore, we needed a systemized structure and plan to make the best use of our time. So I asked our members if I could restructure the group into three parts: Accelerator, Academia, and Fund. Accelerator continues to do what Y-Ventures has been doing so far. Academia is working as a league of students who want to hop onto the study of venture capital. Fund is a more long-term project, but it will be in the form of an individual investment association.

So far, not much coming up from Accelerator. Academia, on the other hand, has been very busy. We recruited seven members as the first generation of YVA (Y-Ventures Academia in short). We had three sessions a week, diving into defining problems, testing out hypotheses, studying business models, and profound startups' journeys. Every member in our group was smart and unique, which led any discussion we had to be very fruitful and insightful. With Fund, three of the Accelerator members gained GP licenses, which now allows us to open a fund and gather LPs. We're creating a list of Yonsei founders and potential investors.

In the second quarter, venture scout project from Academia and VC Career Session from Accelerator are upcoming. Let's see how it goes!

Taking the last CFA Exam

On February 13, a day before my birthday, I took the CFA Level III exam. It wasn't as difficult as I have imagined. My guess is that I would safely pass. I started to prepare for CFA Level in January 2023. Back then, I had little to no understanding of how the investment ecosystem looks like. The only reason why I decided to take the exam was because I had enough time to, and a lot of my senpais recommended that I take it for a general understanding of finance.

On May 2023, I took CFA Level I exam. I passed. A year later, on May 2024, I took CFA Level II exam. I passed. However, by the time I received a pass for Level II, I was realizing that my core interest was not in equity investing or portfolio management. I wanted to invest in startups! However, it felt like starting a Master's degree and not finishing it. Unlike many of my friends with amazing talent who can make bold decisions to drop out for their own projects, I'm more of a risk-averse type. So, it felt more safe to continue on with the last exam and finish the curriculum.

The result is coming out on April 22. If I pass, there wouldn't even be a report card of my performance. Let's hope that I don't get one!

Starting work at ZUZU (Kodebox)

I started working at ZUZU, basically a Korean version of Carta + AngelList,. There are three teams: Core team that helps companies out with corporate management, Total Compensation team that deals with stock options and payrolls, and Investment Banking team that creates a platform matching VCs and startups. I joined the IB team to help startups meet investors that fit their profile with more ease.

Ever since Y-Ventures decided to raise funds, working for a venture capital firm was an option out of my boundaries. The conflict of interest was too present. Hence, I was finding a job that would suit me the best. I consider ZUZU and Y-Ventures a good fit. Not only am I able to observe how startups and investors actually interact with each other, but I also expect to meet the different kinds of startups and study them along the way. It's only been a month since I came here, so let's see how I find this job in the second quarter.

Going Forward

Studying CFA till the end, doing internships in private equity and consulting, then founding a finance community in Yonsei UIC, just don't add up to starting my career at a startup. However, I feel much happier with my life than before, as I know I'm doing what I've always wanted to do. Hopefully I can keep up the spirit even in the second quarter.

Best,
Bosung