Yong-Soo is a Serial Entrepreneur and Creator of First Class Founders, a weekly business podcast for founders & creators. Yong-Soo launched Urban EDC in 2015, an e-commerce shop selling everyday carry gear. Then, he started an online dog boutique Spotted By Humphrey with his wife and French bulldog Humphrey, Chief Barketing Officer with over 150,000 followers across all social channels. In 2019, Yong-Soo launched a Climate-Neutral Certified 3PL for emerging e-commerce brands with a 39,000 sq ft warehouse. His businesses have done over $20 million in 8 years. Now, he’s on a mission to impact one million entrepreneurs through his new venture, First Class Founders, a weekly podcast sharing his lessons on building a sustainable, bootstrapped company to 8-figures in annual revenue.
Key Moments
[03:44] Starting at the bottom, struggled with finances.
[09:14] Got a lease for unique warehouse workspace.
[11:13] Embracing change and seeking new opportunities always.
[13:43] Unwavering belief in a positive future ahead.
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https://FirstClassFounders.com
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Transcript By CastMagic.io
Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, so the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneur’s Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneurs and Things podcast.
Seth [00:00:34]:
I am as always your host, Seth, today I have young Soo Chung on the program. He is a serial entrepreneur, a young serial entrepreneur. He is the creator of First Class Founder, which is a weekly podcast and for for founders and, like, creators. So it’s a newsletter. He, like, he was on Wall Street, so he’s done other things. He’s not that young. He, branched out in 2015 Teen with Urban EDC, which is Everyday Carry, little knife shop of whatnot online. Then He got bit bit bit bit by the bug again while still doing urban EDC because he’s a really cute Frenchy French bulldog named Humphrey.
Seth [00:01:20]:
So he and his wife decided to do a online dog boutique inspired by Humphrey, And who’s the chief barking officer, and they were a 150,000 followers across all the social channels. Then as as if that wasn’t enough, like, come on now. Come on. That’s plenty, dude. Plenty, dude. You know? In 2019, Yung Soo launched a climate neutral Certified 3PL, which is a private which is logistics for ecommerce brands with a 39,000 square foot facility. I mean, so he’s he’s done enough business in these years to be over $20,000,000 in 8 years. It’s pretty impressive.
Seth [00:02:01]:
So I was bringing Sue in here. How’s it going, buddy? How you doing? Great. He’s got he’s got baby face and everything if you’re watching the video. I mean, the guy the guy is a what are you? 32, 33?
Yong-Soo [00:02:13]:
I am 37, but I I did shave this morning, so it makes me look Alright.
Seth [00:02:17]:
So you knocked off a few years. Yeah. They Yeah. Still 37 running 3 successful companies. I mean, I’m sure this hasn’t been an overnight success. Nothing’s an overnight success. Everything was, like, oh, okay. He’s done it, you know, 8 years.
Seth [00:02:31]:
Yeah. I mean, it’s impressive. It’s not exactly overnight, though. It’s 8 years. Got the 20 mil over $20,000,000, which is great. And so she you live in San Francisco, for crying out loud. Yeah. So it ebbs and flows how much that you know, how far that 20,000,000 can actually go.
Seth [00:02:47]:
But, I didn’t notice that you were on Wall Street before this. Right?
Yong-Soo [00:02:50]:
That’s right. Yep.
Seth [00:02:52]:
So you you were working for the man. Actually, you were really working for the man prior. So what made you kinda get the itch to do your own
Yong-Soo [00:03:00]:
thing? Yeah. You know, when I was in Wall Street, I graduated from college in 2009 during the great recession.
Seth [00:03:06]:
Oh, best time. Best time. That’s why
Yong-Soo [00:03:07]:
I started writing. To graduate.
Seth [00:03:09]:
Oh, oh god. Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:03:10]:
And, I always had the the bug of of entrepreneurship. And and what’s funny, Seth, is that I started freelance writing immediately after. So, basically, I got my My job at a, on Wall Street, but then I look for other ways to make money. And so I used to write
Seth [00:03:29]:
have to. People think what people think Wall Street, and they think, like, the Wolf of Wall Street. Oh, hopefully, nothing bad about you. But, you know, You think Wall Street bankers, lots of money. Now when you start out, you’re making some change. Just keep that in mind. Making money for everybody else. Is exactly
Yong-Soo [00:03:44]:
the norm. You gotta start at the bottom, right, and and go work your way up. But, so, yeah, I used to write these personal finance blogs for $25 a pop, an article, And, it took me, like, a couple hours to write those. So pretty sure that was, like, barely meeting minimum wage if you do the hourly calculation, maybe. But, anyways, I did that, and then, tried doing a couple iPhone apps, which, during this time, it was, you know, it was 2010, 2011. This is when the iPhone new. Yeah. App economy economy was really booming, and, those didn’t really pan out well, but I I did learn a lot
Seth [00:04:19]:
excited. You learn from the failures.
Yong-Soo [00:04:22]:
And so, you know, I wanna get into more tech and startups, but living in New York, you know, the the the The ecosystem of startups was nonexistent. And so that
Seth [00:04:32]:
kind of special. Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:04:34]:
Decided to buy a one way ticket out to San Francisco In 20 at the end of 2011. And then I was crashing with a friend at at his place up in, in Berkeley, which is about an hour north of San Francisco
Seth [00:04:47]:
Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:04:48]:
And, I didn’t have a job. So I did basically, I didn’t have a place to, You know, stay for for, like, for myself. I didn’t have a job, and and, yeah. I mean, I lived up of 1 suitcase. And When
Seth [00:04:59]:
I went out to San Francisco.
Yong-Soo [00:05:02]:
Exactly. So that’s how it all started. And this is in 20 so this is what? Like, 12 years ago?
Seth [00:05:08]:
Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:05:09]:
And then, I I I worked at a couple of different startups
Seth [00:05:13]:
Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:05:13]:
Including one that was, a blockchain crypto company back in 2014.
Seth [00:05:18]:
Wow. They existed back then, everybody. Existed back then just knowing what the heck it was.
Yong-Soo [00:05:23]:
And then after that, I, decided to launch, my 1st ecommerce shop, Urban EDC, this is, September 2015 is when I launched that. So
Seth [00:05:32]:
So why everyday carry? Why knives and, like, Gadgets the business.
Yong-Soo [00:05:39]:
So I did an exercise for myself, where I was looking at My credit card statements. And, usually, when you look at your credit card statements, well, first of all, you’re kinda like
Seth [00:05:49]:
eye opening.
Yong-Soo [00:05:50]:
It’s eye opening. Yeah. And so I I Aside from, like, the normal stuff like groceries and utilities that you you have to pay for, there were things on that on on the credit card statement where I was like, alright. I’m spending a lot of money on, like, Titanium pens or, you know, these, like, desktop toys.
Seth [00:06:06]:
Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:06:07]:
And so I was like, alright. Well, can I can I turn these expenses into Income
Seth [00:06:12]:
somehow? Oh.
Yong-Soo [00:06:12]:
And so I thought, you know, I’m already into everyday carry gear. And so Why not just start a shop? And then everything I you know, if I start a shop, then first of all, all the all my hobby expenses can be tax deductible, but also, like, I can create an online shop.
Seth [00:06:28]:
I mean, after my own after my own heart, I love it, dude. That’s what I do for my goals to meet you. Like, oh, I need something. Unfortunately, for everyone who wants to buy me something, it’s a tax write off, so please don’t buy it for me. We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.
Yong-Soo [00:06:43]:
Yeah. So that is how Yeah. I mean, I I was just analyzing my credit card statements, decided, hey. This is something I spend a lot of money on. Let’s, you know, let’s start something here. And so that’s how Urban ADDC started.
Seth [00:06:56]:
And that was in 2015. Yeah. And then and then, I guess, your inspiration for, you know, Spy by Humphrey was the little knucklehead. You know? Yeah. You little doggy.
Yong-Soo [00:07:08]:
So he was, he came to us in 2017, and then we weren’t planning on it, but he gained a quite a bit of following really fast. And this is right around Instagram. When Instagram started boosting the videos, because it was transitioning from, photo to a video platform, and, a lot of his videos went viral. And so, we gained a following there, and we decided, hey. We already have 1 ecommerce shop. Why not launch a second second one?
Seth [00:07:34]:
What’s what’s the worst that happens? Like, literally.
Yong-Soo [00:07:37]:
Yeah.
Seth [00:07:37]:
With that, what’s the worst that happens? It doesn’t work? Okay. You got one. You know? Move along.
Yong-Soo [00:07:42]:
Yeah. So we launched, Spotify in 2018. Wow. And so that’s been, yeah, going steady. So he’s oh, and we also get brand sponsorship deals, by the way. So
Seth [00:07:55]:
I know. I get here with my dog all the time. My dog follows your dog and wolfs at your dog every once in a while. I’m just yeah. But, we get them all the time, and we’re like, some of you had to be careful with those.
Yong-Soo [00:08:08]:
You know? Yeah. We we we get, Some of the deals we get are you know, they’re not necessarily paid either. So, like, we get we’re going to, Sonoma at a 5 star hotel in a couple weekends, And, we just have to create content, a blog post, and all that stuff. And so there’s a lot of benefits that come out of having A celebrity dog, that is
Seth [00:08:29]:
You just said that. I saw your face when you said that you’re, like, a celebrity dog. Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:08:34]:
Yeah. So, And he
Seth [00:08:36]:
knows it too. You can tell he’s got he’s got a lot of attitude.
Yong-Soo [00:08:39]:
He actually doesn’t wanna be he doesn’t like being photographed. So whenever we Take the camera out. He kinda, like, does he’s, like, tired of it almost.
Seth [00:08:46]:
Aw. Poor kid. Poor kid. So then you and if that wasn’t enough, You have 2 2 ecommerce shops. In 2019, you decided to do a climate neutral logistics company to kind of Yeah. I guess, kind of it’s related. There is a red spot here that’s all kinda related. It’s all ecommerce.
Seth [00:09:05]:
But you but now you have a physical entity. Like, the warehouse. It’s physical. It’s not like drop shipping and stuff like that. So you have a lease.
Yong-Soo [00:09:14]:
Yeah. We got a lease. And so, the story behind that is that we were working out of this, like, really unique space. It was almost like a WeWork before warehouse space, but it was a self storage facility. So they didn’t market it as that, but there were a lot of start ups in the ecommerce space that were, like, in in this large warehouse subdivided into smaller Sections, like, working together. And, we were doing, like, we were doing great, and these people saw us what we’re doing. And they’re like, hey. Who’s doing your fulfillment? Because fulfillment is just a pain us.
Yong-Soo [00:09:46]:
And so
Seth [00:09:46]:
Oh, it’s a pain for everybody.
Yong-Soo [00:09:48]:
Pain for everybody. So we have pain clients, without even a website or a name for the business yet. And so When that happened, we’re like, alright. Well, we should probably make this into a real thing. So that’s when GrowthJET, was launched, and then
Seth [00:09:59]:
Tell me about IRS about, okay, your EIN number. The easiest thing we get is for EIN number.
Yong-Soo [00:10:04]:
Yeah. So to
Seth [00:10:05]:
get something back from the IRS other than your EIN number is impossible, but you know? So the growth jet was was born, and then COVID hit. Dum, dum, dum.
Yong-Soo [00:10:17]:
Oh, COVID hit. Yeah. So we actually was we were forced to leave our Warehouse. And, we we we we were given 1 month, and so we had to find a new warehouse. And this is March 2020, beginning of the lockdown. And so it was like It was chaotic because we’re looking for a ware a new warehouse to move to. And, what’s funny is, ironically, Amazon was coming in after And taking over the entire warehouse. So Amazon fulfillment took over the entire warehouse, and our tiny little fulfillment operation was overtaken by Amazon.
Yong-Soo [00:10:48]:
And so
Seth [00:10:49]:
It’s a badge of courage, you guess.
Yong-Soo [00:10:51]:
Yeah. So that that happened, and then, yeah, we got pushed out, but, you know, it’s it’s all good. So
Seth [00:10:57]:
You found another spot. So in your mind, what’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur? I mean, because you’ve done the Wall Street grind. You’ve done the nomad life where you fly out to San Francisco on a whim with no no kind of no real plan. What’s the best thing about being entrepreneur in your mind?
Yong-Soo [00:11:13]:
From yeah. For me, the but the best part is that, You never know like, the journey is not the same. Like, there’s always a new challenge. Like, nothing is is is static and stable, Which is, like, I guess, some people might see that as a bad thing, but, I just love because I guess I’m I’m I love seeing opportunities and, like, spotting them, and so I’m not I’m always, like, looking for the new thing. And so when when when COVID, for example, like, I was like, okay. This is a huge change, and, like, people are scared. Like, where are the opportunities? Because this is gonna change some things. Right? And so, Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:11:51]:
That that was a big shift in my thinking. And the best part about so in my opinion, the best part about entrepreneurship is that we have, you know, it’s not A steady thing where predictable revenue. Okay. Well, I go to the I go to my 9 to 5 job. I sit there. I know what I’m supposed to work on, and then I leave. Like, it’s so boring for me. Like, Entrepreneurship to me is, like, every day are the new challenge.
Seth [00:12:13]:
So Oh, that’s fine. That’s awesome. And so what keeps you up at night as an entrepreneur? I mean, because there’s always the flip side of, like, oh my god. Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:12:22]:
I guess it’s it’s the same same thing, which is that, You know, you don’t know what’s happening. Like, literally tomorrow, I can get a notice in the mail being like, hey. Like, you’ve been sued or whatever it is. Right? You just never know What is coming in the mail or whatever? Like, you just never know. Like, tomorrow, something could happen. I could receive an email. Or, like, you just don’t know.
Seth [00:12:43]:
Yeah. You just have
Yong-Soo [00:12:43]:
to have have to be comfortable with that unknown, and, like, I’ve learned over the 8 years that
Seth [00:12:48]:
Yeah.
Yong-Soo [00:12:49]:
You you know, it’s you just gotta live life, you know, kinda go with the flow and let things happen.
Seth [00:12:54]:
Exactly. Exactly. So then what’s the most important thing to carry with you all the time despite Despite, you know, not everyday carry gear. Like, you know, that’s too it’s too easy. That’s too easy for you.
Yong-Soo [00:13:08]:
Sorry. What was the question?
Seth [00:13:09]:
You know, what is the most important thing we carry with you all the time?
Yong-Soo [00:13:12]:
What is the most important thing? I think for me I mean, like, physically or just mentally?
Seth [00:13:17]:
Could be you can go as deep and woo woo as you wanna go with this. Alright.
Yong-Soo [00:13:21]:
I think I think I’ll just go with woo woo here, and, I’ll go I’ll go with, technical term. I guess just the belief that, like, you know, in the end, like, things will work out, and I and I like to zoom out also a lot. It’s like, you know, if if you’re in the weeds of of something where it’s not working out. Like, you just gotta zoom out and being, like, alright. Like, what is what I’m worrying about right now, like, actually that bad
Seth [00:13:42]:
Yeah. You know,
Yong-Soo [00:13:43]:
in the grand scheme of things. And so I think what I carry with me is just, like, this unwavering belief that things will be okay and that Yeah. I guess the world has my back. Like, no one is out to get me. It’s just And I trust that everything that’s happening right now is for the better of a future tomorrow of of of me. Right? So, like, that’s the belief that I carry, and I I think that attracts a lot of good good energy. So
Seth [00:14:07]:
It it does. The positive belief, I think, is everything.
Yong-Soo [00:14:10]:
Yeah.
Seth [00:14:10]:
So where is your main watering hole online? I know you’re on x For better or for worse, you know, until something blows up over there. I know, you know, we can find you at first class founders.com, Which is I I love the podcast. It’s excellent. It it’s it’s it’s just what I need every day. Well, not every day, but, like, when it comes out. Yeah. Urbanedc.com, spottedbyhumphrey.com, growthjet.com. Where online do you hang out the most? Like, where do you post the
Yong-Soo [00:14:35]:
most? Twitter? Right now, I would say x slash Twitter right now. I’m I’m gonna I’m starting to expand on the LinkedIn and Instagram too, but, right now,
Seth [00:14:46]:
we’re Instagram with your dog.
Yong-Soo [00:14:49]:
That’s true. Yeah. Yeah.
Seth [00:14:50]:
You’re kinda there already, but that’s your wife’s gosh. That’s her baby. Right? Like,
Yong-Soo [00:14:54]:
Yes. That is my wife. Yeah. Baby.
Seth [00:14:56]:
Especially if we only first talked, you’re like, that’s more like your wife likes to do the dog things. So
Yong-Soo [00:15:02]:
Yeah.
Seth [00:15:03]:
Well, that’s fun. So, Yung and Sue, thank you for coming on. It’s been great. And guess what? We’ll see everyone next time.
Yong-Soo [00:15:12]:
Thanks, Seth.
Seth [00:15:13]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the Marketing Podcast Network at marketing podcasts.net. Goldstein hopes you have enjoyed this episode.
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