When Kevin Kim dropped out of faculty at 21 to grow to be an entrepreneur, it appeared like an enormous gamble.
“My mum cried slightly,” Kim, now 33, said with fun.
But his confidence was not unfounded. Kim had just sold his first company — which he began when he was just 18 — for “six figures.”
That was no small feat, on condition that his starting capital was just $2,000, which Kim said he saved up from doing part-time jobs.
His e-commerce company imported streetwear from South Korea and sold it throughout North America, he told CNBC Make It.
Achieving product-market fit is actually hard, it takes years. You want to ask yourself … Do I actually like this industry? Can I see myself construct around this for 10 years?
Kevin Kim
Co-founder and CEO, Stadium Live
“After I sold my first company, it was easy to come to a decision,” said Kim, who emigrated from South Korea to Canada when he was 11.
“There was no vision or alignment … I used to be a civil engineering undergrad but I desired to create services and products for various audiences.”
Kim then spent almost 10 years constructing digital products for other startups and firms, before venturing out on his own in 2020 with Stadium Live — a metaverse app for sports fans.
The app allows users to customize their very own avatars, buy digital collectibles, hang around with other fans in virtual rooms, participate in interactive sports livestreams or play mini games.
The startup has raised $13 million to this point, including a Series 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 running a successful company.
1. Founder-market fit
It is common for entrepreneurs to attribute the success of their startups to finding an excellent product-market fit.
But for Kim, what he calls “founder-market fit” is much more vital. It means a founder is actually obsessed with what he’s constructing.
“Achieving product-market fit is actually hard, it takes years. You want to ask yourself, do I actually like what I’m doing? Do I actually like this industry? Can I see myself construct around this for 10 years?”
They’re capable of go into it and make cash, but they burned out faster than other founders who’ve founder-market fit.
Kevin Kim
Co-founder and CEO, Stadium Live
Kim said he knew he all the time wanted to construct products across the 4 areas that talk to him — sports, gaming, music and fashion.
“I do know founders who, for instance, [launched] a SAS startup with accounting, but they weren’t even into accounting,” Kim said.
“They’re capable of go into it and make cash, but they burned out faster than other founders who’ve founder-market fit.”
2. Closing a spot
Nevertheless, product-market fit remains to be crucial to a business’ success, said Kim.
“Without product-market fit, you would not have the opportunity to survive as a business resulting from there being no real demand or supply between your product and the audience.”
Meeting the needs of consumers has enabled the success of his corporations. The truth is, Kim began his first e-commerce business because he wanted to seek out clothes that fit his “style and sizing.”
“I could never try this with brands within the U.S. and Canada on the time,” he said.
“It really began as a private hobby and wish … I quickly saw that other people had the identical need.”
Stadium Live is a metaverse app that enables sports fans to customize their very own avatars, buy digital collectibles or play mini games.
Stadium Live
That also applied to Stadium Live — Kim noticed that the sports industry was focused on constructing products for a limited demographic of “millennial or older fans.”
“I could see they were all specializing in one-dimensional content and constructing towards betting. This was an interesting opportunity for me to check out the subsequent generation of fans and think ‘who’s constructing for these fans?'” he told CNBC Make It.
“They did not have money yet, they consumed sports in a very different way, they desired to interact with others inside a community and so they wanted something latest.”
Kim’s idea seems to have paid off — Stadium Live amassed over 750,000 users who “spend over an hour a day on the platform,” said the corporate.
Stadium Live can be valued at around $32 million, Kim told CNBC Make It.
3. Don’t overlook company culture
In keeping with Kim, setting a robust vision and set of values to your team is “absolutely critical.”
“Why should talented people join your organization and grow with you? This query can’t be answered by just the product that you simply are constructing, but in addition the corporate and culture you are constructing,” he added.
The importance of company culture can’t be underestimated, Kim stressed, if one wants to construct an “iconic long-term company.”
I saw this primary hand after I was a fifth worker and saw the corporate grow to 50. The culture morphs itself each time an organization doubles in size.
Kevin Kim
Co-founder and CEO, Stadium Live
