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Yeogirl Yun, CTO

Yeogirl Yun

If you’re looking for it, Yeogirl Yun wants to find it for you. After founding and managing four websites, this 36-year-old Stanford graduate is continually looking for ways to put more information in your head and keep money in your wallet. Yeogirl and his team of engineers are breaking ground and staying ahead of the competition when it comes to web-based shopping. By developing fun, informative, and easy to use websites that are continually evolving to user needs, Yeogirl Yun’s web-pages (become.com, koreawisenut.com, mysimon.com) are helping consumers make better buying decisions. His interests reach further than the web-world of shopping. Yeogirl’s web search engine, wisenut.com, offers Internet users a refreshing alternative to Google and Yahoo. Check out this week's Young & Professional Profile to learn more.

Company

Become.com

Month & year founded

2004

Website

www.become.com
www.wisenut.com
www.koreawisenut.com
www.mysimon.com

Name, Title/Position

Yeogirl Yun, 36, Founder and Chairman

Hometown

Seoul, Korea

Current residence

Moutain View, California

Education

Stanford University, MS in Computer Science, 1995; Seoul National University, BS in Computer Engineering, 1993

Work experience

Korea Wisenut, Inc., Wisenut Inc., MySimon Inc,, JazzSoft Inc., Tandem Computers, Inc.

Ethnicity

Korean

About the company

We founded Become, Inc. in early 2004 with a mission to help people make ideal buying decisions. As avid shoppers, we realized the tremendous difficulty associated with researching new products and services.

We found that none of the available shopping services met all of our needs. General purpose search engines were fine for general purpose queries, but they frequently provided search results unrelated to shopping or page after page of merchants trying to sell us something. At the other end of the spectrum, price comparison sites never showed comprehensive research information such as buying guides, product reviews, articles, forums, and other useful shopping information.

We are working to provide comprehensive, relevant, and unbiased research information to help you choose the right product. We also provide a comparison shopping service to help you get the best deal. Finding the right product at the best price to save you time and money --that is our goal. We are meeting this goal by developing innovative new technologies and search services.

What are your responsibilities?

As CTO, I am in charge of technology innovation and engineering development. As Chairman, I help drive the corporate strategy and vision.

Most notable milestones

Built a great engineering team and developed the industry’s most advanced and cutting-edge search engine technology for shopping.

What's the niche?

Our company’s strength lies is in the combined expertise of engineering, product development, business development and entrepreneurship. We’ve brought in top talent from across these disciplines.

Unexpected learnings along the way

I learn new things everyday. I’m very passionate about learning and this is part of our company culture as well.

What's in store for the future?

We will continue to add engaging, robust features to Become.com that further help consumers make better buying decisions.

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Best way to stay ahead

Study and learn.

Guiding principle in life

Integrity and love.

Yardstick of success

Contribution to the society.

Goal yet to be achieved

My entrepreneurial endeavor is to conduct my life and my work in a process in which I practice integrity and love.

Best practical advice

Stay healthy.

Most memorable business experience

Wisenut, Inc. A toughest time during internet bubble bust period. But we still succeeded and the company got acquired.

What motivates you for success?

It comes natural. I do my best all the time.

Like best about what you do

To be able to study and learn.

Like least about what you do

I’m not that good at socializing. I tend to be focused on my work.

At age 10, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I don’t remember…maybe president of Korea?

Biggest pastime outside of work

Exercise and movies.

Leader in business most interested in meeting and why?

Steve Jobs. Want to learn what made him who he is today.

Three interesting facts about yourself

1 - I don’t have a passion for sightseeing. I’d rather enjoy staying home and reading, researching, or listening to music.

2 - I have been practicing yoga for 10 years along with other regular exercise such as treadmill, weight lifting, and swimming.

3 - I have had a cold only a few times in the past 20 years and have never called in sick. I also never failed to attend school from elementary to high school. I did skip some classes while in university, though, for playing billiards and other fun!

Three characteristics that describe you

Honesty. Straightforwardness. Diligence.

Three greatest passions

Passion for learning especially in computer science, foreign languages, and philosophy.

Favorite book

Good to Great by Jim Collins.

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Yeogirl Yun

Credits

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