I'm taking on a ₩100B exit in three years | EP.01

I once announced that I was starting a business, then quietly disappeared.

It was not only because the idea was completely wrong. I did not want anyone to see me fail. I wanted to prepare a little more, wait for results, and then make it public. I was afraid to let people see something that was still unfinished.

The outcome was always similar.

The more perfectly I tried to prepare, the later I started. A new idea made the old plan look inadequate. When things did not go as expected, I stopped quietly instead of explaining what had gone wrong.

I thought a process without results was not worth recording. I believed I could make the past sound coherent only after I had succeeded.

Looking back, the business was not the only thing I was postponing. I was postponing the moment when I would have to own the result and explain it if I failed.

This time, I am changing that.

Instead of polishing the story after I succeed, I will start documenting now, while nothing has been proven. I will not show only the choices that worked. I will record what I tried, why I was wrong, and how I changed what I did next.

What I'm changing this time isn't the idea

I used to think another idea would solve the problem.

A slightly better market, a clearer customer, or a more perfect business model felt like the thing that would finally keep me going. I repeatedly made plans, chose names, and did research, but often failed to push far enough to see how real customers would respond.

I did not lack ideas. I lacked a structure that kept execution going.

The first hypothesis may be wrong this time too. The business I am preparing may turn into something entirely different. I will not confuse holding on to the same idea at all costs with seeing something through.

But I will not stop taking the next action.

If the hypothesis is wrong, I will change it. If the plan does not match reality, I will revise it. I just will not disappear without explaining why.

"If I am wrong, I will change. But this time, I will not disappear without an explanation."

Why a ₩100B exit in three years?

I have set one goal.

"Build a company worth at least KRW 100 billion and attempt an exit within three years."

The ₩100 billion is a company valuation target, not a personal wealth target.

I do not know whether I can build a company of that value. I have not proven that three years is realistic either. This essay is not a declaration that I am certain of success.

Still, I chose a number and a deadline for a reason.

When the goal was vague, I changed direction too easily when important choices came up. I struggled to distinguish work that made money now from work that would compound in value. Every new idea made me question what to reject and what to choose.

₩100 billion and three years are not predictions about the future. They are filters for the decisions I make today.

Whenever I face an important choice, I will ask:

"Does this choice move me closer to building a company worth at least KRW 100 billion within three years?"

That question tells me what to do. It also tells me what not to do.

Will I stay in a model where my hours grow at the same rate as the number of customers, or turn recurring problems into products and systems? Will I choose only the revenue in front of me, or build something where data and experience accumulate over time? I set a specific goal so I cannot avoid those decisions.

₩100 billion does not simply mean that I want to make a lot of money.

I want the room to try again after failure, time that is not governed only by short-term revenue, and the option to work with better people on bigger problems. More than anything, I want to become someone who built a genuinely valuable company instead of stopping at small experiments.

Why share this before succeeding?

The first reason is myself.

I want to make it harder to postpone again or disappear without a word when things get difficult. A public record is not a way to boast about my resolve. It is a constraint that keeps me acting.

The second reason is that the process can be a more honest record than a success story.

Stories written after success interpret the past with the outcome already known. The choices that worked gain meaning, while wrong turns and luck are easy to pass over. But while building a business, there is no answer key. You choose with limited information, spend time and money, watch how customers respond, and decide again.

That is the moment I want to preserve.

What was I certain about, and what turned out to be different? What numbers did I expect, and what actually happened? Why did I keep a plan or abandon it? I will write it down before memory makes the story prettier.

Making this public does not mean publishing everything. I will protect customer personal data, account information, contractual secrets, and material that could directly harm the business. When I share numbers, I will not strip away the context and present them as inflated achievements.

What I will actually share in this series

This will not be a vague motivational diary. I want it to be an experimental record of how one company gets built.

Where possible, I will share:

which customer and which problem I chose
how I tested whether that problem mattered enough for someone to pay
how what customers said differed from what they did
which early hypotheses were wrong
why I built or abandoned a product or offer
what I tried to reach customers
how costs and revenue changed
whether an agency model can become a repeatable product
how I chose the next action when the result differed from the plan

I will not select only the good outcomes and arrange them into a success story.

I will also record offers that received no response, work that took longer than expected, and experiments that wasted time or money, as far as I reasonably can. I will not make failure sound noble. What matters is not the fact that something failed, but what the failure established and how it changed the next decision.

The cycle I will repeat is simple.

"Hypothesis → Action → Customer response → Numbers → Change"

I will not sit with an idea for too long. I will put even a small version in front of customers, watch the response, and use the result to decide what to do next.

Why this isn't a declaration of success

I have not achieved a ₩100B exit.

I am not in a position to teach this as the right method. What I have is not a result, only a goal and a few operating principles.

I will not write this series as if I have already succeeded. I will separate facts from interpretation and label what has not been confirmed as a hypothesis. I will not hide bad numbers, or inflate one good result into a formula for success.

Three years from now, this could end in several ways.

I may reach the goal or finish far short of it. The business I start with may disappear, leaving a completely different product behind. This record may become long evidence that I was wrong.

Even so, I will not wait until the outcome is certain.

I am recording this now precisely because there is no result yet.

The first business hypothesis: Libera

The first business hypothesis in this project is Libera.

What kind of company Libera will ultimately become is not settled. But rather than remain an agency that simply does people's work for them, I want to build a "digital employee" that understands a company's context, carries out real work, and learns from the result.

I will not fill EP.01 with a polished product description. Too much still needs to be tested with customers.

In the next essay, I will describe the first customer problem Libera plans to solve. I will explain why I chose it as the entry point, how I will test the hypothesis with customers, what evidence would make me continue, and what result would make me change direction.

It starts today

I do not know what will remain when I read this again three years from now.

But I will not repeat the pattern of quietly starting another idea and then disappearing without an explanation.

This is not a promise to cling to the same plan until the end. It is a promise to respond to reality, change when needed, and record why I changed and what I will do next.

"If I am wrong, I will change. But this time, I will not disappear."

₩100B EXIT PROJECT, EP.01.

In the next essay, I will share the first customer problem Libera intends to solve and the business hypothesis behind it.

Would you make the process public before you had any results?