Everyone here knows for a fact that studying at KAIST is not easy; the stress of academics often prevent students from being involved in many club activities let alone activities outside of school. Oftentimes the pressure is enough to eat away at one’s confidence in his abilities. However, the widely reported case of an undergraduate student who single-handedly developed a Smartphone application and started up a company to market it seems to be one of the exceptions that everyone can take inspiration from. The KAIST Herald went to find out more.

▲ In mo Chung

Can you introduce yourself and your company?
Hello, my name is In mo Chung and I am the founder and CEO of IM Company. I am currently a senior dual majoring in Industrial Design and Management Sciences. I founded IM Company in July last year after it was picked by the “Daejeon City University Entrepreneurship 300” project and received funding as a reward. The company specializes in the development of Smartphone applications for educational purposes. Although it completed registration as a venture company in April last year, it is still in its start-up phase and is consequently rather small. It has six employees including myself.

Can you introduce the Smartphone application that your company has created?
IM School is a free app that allows schools and parents to exchange information more conveniently; for example, if the school wishes to send a notice to parents it used to be that the students had to carry home a piece of paper with the notice printed on it, or the parents had to log in to the school website on a computer to access it. Those schools without a website had to invest a significant sum of money into creating one. IM School does away with all those problems, enabling parents to directly access any updates from the school and enabling schools to conveniently post information directly onto a mobile application instead of having to create a webpage. In a sense, it connects parents and schools in a way befitting the mobile age. A version of IM School, IM Elementary School, has just been released for elementary schools, and additional versions for middle and high schools will be released until the middle of this year. These apps provide updates on school notices, scheduled events and contact details for teachers and students. Currently there are over 300 schools that have asked for this app as well as 3,000 schools that are to be equipped in the near future. We have plans to expand the concept to other organizations such as kindergartens and hagwons, though we aren’t really sure as of yet.

How did you come up with this idea?
I first thought of the concept when I was staying with my relatives. The children there were attending elementary school, and the parents had to check the school website every now and again to receive notices or updates. I realized how little had changed since my generation had gone to school, though the technological advances in the last few years in the way of communication technology and IT have been great. I suggested the idea in one of my business classes and received recognition for it from the Office of University-Industry Cooperation. This helped me develop the idea and finally receive funding from Daejeon Metropolitan City to start up IM Company.

Did your experiences at KAIST help you in your activities?
Yes, my business classes have certainly helped me a lot, particularly in managing employees and marketing the products. My experiences as an Industrial Design major also helped me design the user interface to be user-friendly. However, the most important things I think I gained from KAIST were the connections I made with people who have helped me immensely during the past year. Some of my friends majoring in Computer Science have assisted me in programming the application itself, while Professors Minhwa Lee and Lak-Kyung Song of the Department of Management Sciences have been especially helpful in offering me advice on entrepreneurship.

Thank you. Do you have anything to say to prospective entrepreneurs at KAIST?
Being an entrepreneur is a process filled with hardships and challenges. It requires a lot of preparation and a lot of help from other people. Also, not everyone is fit to manage a company; I must admit I am still struggling with my responsibilities as a CEO myself. Also, funding is especially important and one needs to cultivate a number of relationships with other people who might be able to “help out” once in a while. However, I am glad that many students are showing interest in management. I would like to wish those people the best of luck in following their dreams.

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