VOL.43 ENG _ Together

VOL.43 · August 31 · 2018

Together

Opening a New Chapter of Smart Order Management Platform for Companion Animals

Team3F

What would happen if a person with a companion animal met a web developer? Here is the answer. Yoon-hwan Choi, a pet shop owner, and Kyo-keun Kim, then a visiting researcher at ETRI, happened to meet, and shared the same thought that a huge success would arise if they brought together what they like and what they can do well. The companion animal market, sharply rising every year, was also a reason behind their joining hands. If you try something new, you may fail, but if don’t try, nothing will change. With the notion in mind that nothing happening would be even worse than failure, the two men decided to give it a try and take action.

Home TOGETHER

01

Two Men Joining Hands

Who initiated this move? Mr. Kim said that Mr. Choi was the one because he came up with the idea first. In return, Mr. Choi assumed that his partner was the one because all these ideas would not have been possible if it had not been for his technological abilities to actualize the given idea. Despite some minor differences in opinion, they are like-minded overall. They figured that they needed more manpower to implement their idea of establishing a smart B2B order management platform that directly connects manufacturers of companion animal supplies with offline pet shops. This was how Chang-dae Cho and Ji-yeon Kang, who used to work with Mr. Kim, got together. After acquiring a business license in 2016, they started business but had no revenue or profit because they had just begun to build a platform. Nevertheless, the four staff members crisscrossed the country, visiting pet shops all day long, and spent day and night developing their platform with passion.

02

What is the Key to Securing Good-quality but Low-cost Products?

It had been a long time since Mr. Choi, from his experience of running a pet shop with his wife, realized that there was something wrong with the distribution and pricing structure associated with companion animal supplies. Despite the rapid growth of the industry, its distribution structure was still underperforming. As frequently shown in other fields, the prices of companion animal products soared as they went through each distribution phase, even though the production costs were low in the first place. Naturally, consumers moved toward online shopping to find better deals. This started a vicious cycle, in which offline pet shops began to lose their completive edge in price, became even more petty, and forced consumer attention away from them. As an alternative solution, pet shops might have attempted to produce their own products or imported products directly from manufacturers, reducing costs; however, this was not an easy task for small pet shop owners. How might it be possible to connect companion animal supply manufacturers and pet shop owners in an organic manner? This was the greatest concern for Mr. Choi at that moment. He finally contacted Mr. Kim to ask for help, and the two men concluded that the solution would be to build an Internet-based smart platform in which offline pet shop owners and manufacturers could freely trade. This platform could be commercialized and made available in the market. With the strategy set, there was no need for them to hesitate. The two men partnered to build a platform named Pet Mama. Currently, based on the database they have been building, containing data from over 8,000 pet shops, they are conducting Beta testing for the service.

03

Moving toward the Dream of Digitalizing the Pet Industry as a Leading Player

The staff members of Team3F Co., Ltd. are now drawing a big picture. The first target is to establish a smart order management platform for companion animal suppliers, capable of connecting pet shop owners and manufacturers. Their final destination a total platform capable of automatically handling all necessary tasks for the operation and management of pet shops. They are considering applying big data technology to the development. Their ambitious goals include analyzing and predicting entire sale and purchase patterns associated with manufacturers, pet shop owners as intermediate distributors, and consumers. In this way, they are planning to lead the digitalizing of the companion animal supply market. With increases in numbers of single-person households and in population aging, the companion animal market will continue to grow, and there is no doubt that in the future the distribution and sale of animal supplies will be made through a digital platform optimized for consumer purchase patterns. Messrs. Kim and Choi looked back on the time when they carried their lunch boxes to work every day. Now they enjoy affordable and delicious lunch offerings at the ETRI Cafeteria. Simply and proudly saying that they have noticed an increase in the stature of their company from such changes, as in what and how they eat for lunch, they shouted in passionate and confident voices, “We are a leading player opening a new chapter of the digitalized companion animal market for the 21st century.”

Mini interview

History of Team3F

Company Status

-	Establishment / April 2017
-	Ceo / Kyo-keun Kim and Yoon-hwan Choi
-	Address / 9-204, 218, Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon
-	Website / www.ddakpet.com
-	Item / Smart B2B Order Management Platform for Companion Animal Supplies

Advice from Start-Up Founder to Preliminary Founders

It’s Not Over until it’s Over
Business never unfolds exactly as planned. During its short history, our company has faced three major changes, i.e., changes of direction. These setbacks provided us with valuable lessons that we should not lower our guard until the business starts to go round and round smoothly like the cogwheels out of gear. Notably, time is money for a small startup like ours. It is still regrettable that we failed to set the right direction at an early stage of business. We would have been able to save that time spent in changing direction. Having said that, we were able to accumulate valuable experiences, along with pieces of advice and encouragement from others. Indeed, it’s not over until it’s over. Nothing will be finished until we are confident that something has been fully and meticulously completed.

Do not Put off Adding Value to a Later Time
Business starts with finding people to work with and building a team. At an early stage of business, with no revenue or profit, we need to find measures, other than paychecks or employee benefits, to bring together these people. To be sure, it is not an easy task. Therefore, what we normally do is talk about future value, saying that we will be able to make our company into something like this or that if things go as planned, or when we have much larger revenues and profits. What is more important, however, is present value. The common, present value shared by all staff members of a company is what gives them the strength to carry on and stay focused in times of hardship during the initial stages of business. With the presence of present value, that all members can share with one another, their company will never fail, even when faced with huge difficulties and setbacks going forward. I am confident that present value at an early stage of business is as important as future value, which will be realized when the business begins to thrive.