01

Challenging the world with Tech Patents

Jeong Gi-woong , CEO of GuberNet, has thrown down a gauntlet with its home-grown patented technology for the global next-gen network access apparatus market. He is developing a next-generation network access apparatus dedicated to virtual servers. Jeong has created a prototype based on the concept of virtual flow and has three conceptual patents in the fields of virtual servers and related technologies.
Jeong, who served as a researcher for a long time, has seen numerous cases in which invaluable research outcomes fail to bear fruit in the market and eventually become obsolete. Thinking that helping those small yet significant research outcomes with great potential bear tangible results in the market would be as much meaningful as being involved in government-funded national research projects, he launched his own business. He believes that even though Korea is a bona fide IT powerhouse and has achieved remarkable economic growth that is envied by most other countries, there may be room for concern when it comes to technological originality. This may be an issue that we all have to think about. By tapping into those years when he was engaged in government-funded research, Jeong wants to develop a truly home-grown technology based on originality. It came as a surprise that he, someone who seemed to have such an unwavering goal and business philosophy, started a business without much preparation and great commitment.

02

Starting up a business half willingly
and half not

“It just happened somehow.”
He joined ETRI in 1990 and suddenly left to study in the US in 1996. He was thirty-seven and had a daughter who was only three years old. He thought that he had to learn more, but it was a tough decision, looking back. He said that it was a decision he was able to make only because he was still young. While he was studying in the U.S., Korea was hit by a monetary crisis in 1997. It led to a restructuring at ETRI, and Jeong had to make a choice: return to the Institute or retire. Unable to stop studying, he chose retirement and continued his studies. When he came back to ETRI in 2006, he was employed as a contract-based researcher.
Although he returned to his old workplace, the surroundings and research environment had changed a lot. One day, a venture company proposed that he start up a business, and he did not hesitate to say yes. It was a refreshing start, and he was full of hope that he could now conduct his own research. It just happened like that.
His first business, started in 2012, was a research project commissioned by ETRI. It felt like he was still a contracted researcher at ETRI since he had to stay in the Institute during the project, but it was invaluable time during which he came up with many ideas. After two years, he joined the Pre-startup Support Program sponsored by ETRI, following the advice of a colleague he worked with at the Institute. That might have been a turning point of his business, he said. Participating in the program, he met many other entrepreneurs and learned from their experiences. Those were very helpful, he said, in preparing a full-fledged start-up later.
Until his company was officially established in January 2015, he had no time to look back on or worry about his surroundings. Although he started his own business without much preparation or commitment, he said he did not regret it; since there was nowhere to return, he had to try his best, and it turned out to be successful.