Millennial sold first company for 6 figures at 21. Here are his tips

When Kevin Kim dropped out of college at age 21 to become an entrepreneur, it seemed like a huge gamble.

“My mom cried a little,” Kim, now 33, said with a laugh.

But his confidence was not unfounded. Kim had just sold his first company – which he started when he was just 18 – for “six figures”.

This was no small feat, given that his starting capital was just $2,000, something Kim said he saved by working part-time jobs.

His e-commerce company imports streetwear from South Korea and sells it across North America, he told CNBC’s Make It.

“When I sold my first company, it was easy to decide,” said Kim, who moved to Canada from South Korea when she was 11.

“There was no vision or alignment… I was a civil engineering graduate but I wanted to create services and products for different audiences.”

Kim spent nearly 10 years building digital products for other startups and companies before striking out on his own in 2020 with Stadium Live — a metaverse app for sports fans.

App Allows users to customize their own avatars, purchase digital collectibles, hang out with other fans in virtual rooms, participate in interactive sports livestreams, or play mini-games.

The startup has so far raised $13 million, which includes Series A funding led by NBA star Kevin Durant’s 35 Ventures, World Cup champion Blaise Matuidi’s Origin Fund and Dapper Labs Ventures.

CNBC Make It tracked down Kim’s three tips for running a successful company.

It’s common for entrepreneurs to attribute their startup’s success to finding a good product-market fit.

But for Kim, what he calls “founder-market fit” is even more important. It means that a founder is truly passionate about what they are building.

“Product-market fit is really hard to achieve, it takes years. You need to ask yourself, do I really like what I’m doing? Do I really like this industry?

Kim said he knew he always wanted to build products around four areas that speak to him – sports, gaming, music and fashion.

“I know founders, for example, [launched] A SaaS startup with accounting, but they weren’t even in accounting,” Kim said.

“They’ve been able to get in and make money, but they get burned out faster than other founders who have founder-market fit.”

Still, product-market fit is still critical to a business’s success, Kim said.

“Without product-market fit, you will not be able to survive as a business because there is no real demand or supply between your product and audience.”

Their companies have found success by meeting the needs of consumers. In fact, Kim started her first e-commerce business because she wanted to find clothes that fit her “style and size”.

“I could never do that with brands in the US and Canada at the time,” he said.

“It really started as a personal hobby and need… I quickly saw that other people had the same need.”

This also applies to Stadium Live – Kim observed that the sports industry was focused on building products for a limited demographic of “millennial or older fans”.

“I could see that they were all focusing on one-dimensional content and moving towards betting. It was an interesting opportunity for me to take a look at the next generation of fans and think ‘Who are these fans for? building?'” he told CNBC’s Make It.

“They didn’t have the money yet, they consumed games in a completely different way, they wanted to interact with others within a community and they wanted something new.”

Kim’s idea seems to have paid off – the company said that Stadium Live has gathered more than 750,000 users who “spend more than an hour a day” on the platform.

Stadium Live is also valued at around $32 million, Kim told CNBC Make It.

According to Kim, having a strong vision and set of values ​​is “absolutely critical” for your team.

He added, “Why should talented people join your company and grow with you? This question can be answered not just by the product you’re building, but the company and culture you’re building.”

The importance of company culture cannot be underestimated, Kim stressed, if one wants to build a “reputable long-term company.”