South Korea Is a Great Place to Build Product

https://substack.com/home/post/p-187289120

If you were born in Korea, chances are you’ve heard something like this at some point.

Don’t stand out too much.

This is the root cause of Korea’s conservative society, and it’s also the reason why innovation in this country still begins and ends with Samsung. Most Koreans live their entire lives without ever realizing their own potential. Korea has plenty of problems.

A collapsing birth rate
Career disruption caused by mandatory military service
A deeply conservative society

And yet, if you’re Korean and you’re running a startup, you might actually be luckier than you think.

Low housing costs (even in Seoul, rent can be under $700 per month)
Low cost of living and food expenses
Low hiring costs
An exceptionally high level of public safety
Fast and efficient government administration

All of these fundamentals point to one thing.

“ Korea is one of the best places in the world to build a business. “

You can keep your monthly burn rate low and pour everything into the actual work.

(seoul is #8 in the global startup ecosystem ranking)

And aside from the birth rate crisis, the rest of Korea’s problems are things you can solve through personal strength or mindset alone.

The world can say whatever it wants. I’m going my own way.

From what I’ve seen, Koreans worry far too much about what others think. The culture is excessively collectivist, and individual success is almost seen as a threat. Everyone is expected to be radically equal, and yet within that sameness, people constantly compare themselves to each other and spiral into anxiety. Politicians exploit this psychology with surgical precision. They manufacture division, breed hatred, and ride it to higher approval ratings.

Killing Innovation

Korea has a long history of killing innovation. Centuries ago, it was Joseon that demoted the great Admiral Yi Sun-sin and replaced him with Won Gyun, who went on to destroy the fleet.

This legacy persists to this day.

In the late 2010s, the government went after the very companies that were trying to reshape industries. Tada was blocked by taxi regulations and ultimately shut down entirely by legislation, and countless other startups were strangled by legacy industries lobbying to protect themselves. Korea doesn’t just neglect innovation. It actively punishes it.

And just a few years ago, the government slashed R&D budgets for science and engineering, which pushed many talented young Koreans to settle abroad. Every brilliant person I know personally is now in the United States.

In a country like this, true innovation may well be impossible. And many innovative founders have been crushed by this reality.

In Spite of It All

Just ignore it. Whatever Korea says, you need to use Korea to your advantage. This country will keep killing innovation, but it cannot kill your potential. Become stronger than the nation. Then go out and produce results that shock the world.

The world is more fragile than you think.

Those are the words of the founder of Dolphin Kidnapping, a renowned Korean creative agency behind Apple ads and many other major campaigns.

The power you hold is stronger than you realize. Shock people. And make sure that shock leads the world to a better place.

So why is Korea a great place to build? Because it’s cheap, fast, and no one will see you coming.

The Bigger Picture

Make people’s lives better. Revolutionize industries. Open the era of human expansion into space. We don’t have as much time as we think.

Every industry you revolutionize on Earth is one more problem solved for surviving off it.

Elon Musk built SpaceX and opened the door to space. Your job now is to survive out there. That will require countless innovative startups and a 10x leap across every industry.

Right now, capital markets are undervalued relative to the future of humanity. The industrial acceleration driven by AI will all flow toward space.

Stop being held back by Korea. Korea is nothing more than a testbed before we head to space.

So use it as one.

Build in Korea. But never build for Korea. Aim outward from day one.