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John Kim, Founder
Five9 and LeadMarket CEO & Entrepreneur John KimIf there's anything worth getting, it's usually worth taking risks and sacrificing yourself to achieve. That's what John Kim, 32, did when he ditched the corporate world to start his own software business. His first company, Five9, took more than two years before receiving its first customer check. A slow start to some, but the experience John received enabled his next company, LeadMarket.com to see its first customer check in just two and a half weeks. How did he do it? Finding good, talented people and treating everyone as equals is just a start. We'll let him tell the rest in this week's Young & Professional Profile.
Company
Five9, Inc.
LeadMarket.com
Founded
Five9: 2001
LeadMarket.com:2006
Website
www.Five9.com
www.LeadMarket.com
Name, Title
John Sung Kim
Founder
Age
32
Hometown
Manhattan Beach, California
Current residence
San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas; I split my time between two cities
Education
Penn State, English & Chemistry, 1997
University of Memphis, Technical Writing, 1999
Work Experience
TD Ameritrade
Charles Schwab
Ethnicity
North Korean
About the company
While the Internet has emerged as the strongest and most cost efficient way for many businesses to advertise, the level of complexity and competition have made it difficult for less experienced and smaller businesses to have their voices heard in front of the millions of potential customers on the web.
LeadMarket.com was started in 2006 to help small businesses advertise more effectively on the internet. Through the use of patent-pending software that gives small businesses popular business marketing functions in an easy-to-use application. LeadMarket then supports its customers by setting up an online-based lead generation system for their websites so that ad spending dollars are maximized.
This means that small businesses can get the same technological and experienced consulting advice from experienced Internet marketing consultants as well as through intuitive technology that helps businesses generate leads through their websites. Just like their larger competitors.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
My key responsibility is handling operations in the organization and ensuring my vision for what we and our software can do for our customers is being implemented on a daily basis, as in six days a week (though we only work half-days on Saturday).
Most notable milestones
At Five9, it took two years to get our first check from an actual paying customer for our software. It was a five year marathon that was, in my opinion, as valuable as a Harvard MBA.
When we started LeadMarket, it took two and a half weeks to get our first customer check. As they say, "you can't buy experience."
What's the niche?
Five9 was unique in that it offered call center software for $300 per person, per month, instead of the $5,000 to $10,000 per person our much larger competitors were charging.
LeadMarket is different in that, besides our patent filings and intellectual property, we offer a combination unique in the search engine marketing / SEO / Web Marketing industry - Software & Web Marketing Consulting - in one low-priced package that any small business can afford.
Of course, as I've learned painfully in the past, even small successes are duplicated quickly in today's hyper-competitive online marketplace. Few things (or businesses) remain unqiue for long on the Internet without consistent innovation and marketing from the founders.
What's the biggest challenge?
Keeping talented, passionate people. I dislike the term "employees," or the title, "CEO" because they're very divisive words and egotistically self-serving. Don't get me wrong, it feels great to be seen as in charge and on top, but it's not the best management move for a young business.
We prefer to incentivize our people (called "Lead Marketeers") with stock option ownership and to call them "business partners." As for my title, I use the term "founder," but prefer everyone to just call me by my first name, or "JK" as my friends call me (though certainly other people have called me worse things). Software, like many other high-tech industries, relies heavily on the talent of its smart, passionate people.
Keeping this passionate spirit intact among our team members is probably my biggest challenge. How do you tell your business partner who you want to be friends, or at least friendly, with "NO" or that they need to work smarter, without hurting their feelings or diminishing their company enthusiasm? I'm still trying to figure that one out.
What's in store for the future?
John Lennon's famous quote, "Life is what happens when you're making other plans," is the reason we don't spend too much time planning or working on our business plan.
In the end, whether you're looking to raise money or sell your company, growing revenues make the business attractive, not the business plan. That means getting more and more customers every quarter - and keeping them.
Who would you like to be contacted by?
Small business owners and marketers in venture funded companies. Basically, anyone that is looking to improve their search engine rankings, lower the costs of their current online ad campaigns, and anyone else with a valid credit card...
Just kidding.
But not really.
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Best way to keep a competitive edge
A combination of passion, creativity, and desperation.
Guiding principle in life
Most people are smarter than you and very good in at least one business function. Unlocking this potential and winning their long-term loyalty will always ensure your success - even if you're not the smartest tool in the shed.
Yardstick of success
Revenues, revenues, revenues.
Goal yet to be achieved
Taking a company public.
Best practical advice
If you catch yourself daydreaming in your corproate job about starting your own venture - do it. You'll look back years later and realize that quitting your day job was the hardest part of starting your own business.
Supportive words from a family member or friend on your venture
My father, who is very old fashioned about business, calls me once in a while and asks, "So how many computers did you sell this month?"
When I explain to him (for the umpteenth time) that I sell software which runs inside computers and not the actual hardware itself, I can hear him sigh over the phone before he says, "Doesn't sound like it's going that well. Maybe you should try something else."
It sounds funnier in Korean.
Mentor
In my personal life, my little league coach Bob Degarceau was a big inspiration. He and his wife adopted children and rqaised them as their own, and were very active in the community.
He would always say, "John, you're capable of doing anything you want in life, you just need a swift kick in the ass every once in a while."
What motivated you to get started?
Being incapable of laughing at jokes that are not funny, I realized that playing politics in a large organization was not suited for my personality.
Having said that, I believe that most entrepreneurs have a burning passion to be different and independent.
Like best about what you do?
Working with smart, creative people whose IQ's could sink a battleship. It constantly inspires and awes me.
Like least about what you do?
When software crashes or a customer complains about a bug. I take it very personally. Probably too personally.
At age 10, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A professional guitar player. I ended up playing guitar for a Led Zeppelin cover band in Los Angeles. Fortunately, no pictures exist as evidence.
What was your first job?
Selling candy out of my backpack at Pennekamp Elementary during recess.
Biggest pastime outside of work
Do entrepreneurs really have time for anything but work?
Person most interested in meeting
Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea, so I could punch him in the face. He's a bit heavier than me, but I'm confident I can take him.
Leader in business most interested in meeting and why?
Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines. He was the first CEO I had ever read about that was not afraid to be "real" in a corporate environment, and encouraged everyone else at Southwest to (in his words) "not wear the corporate mask."
He's also the only CEO of a publicly traded company whose opening statement in a quarterly meeting was, "I've come to realize I can't live without Wild Turkey and Phillip Morris cigarettes."
Upon which the Southwest faithful got up on their feet to give him a standing ovation.
Three interesting facts about yourself
1. I love to hanglide, play music, and frequent local dive bars - all of which I usually do not have time to do.
2. I secretly love country music, including the lyrics.
3. I love to love.
Three characteristics that describe you
1. Passionate about my business
2. Persistent
3. Persistently annoying to my business partners
Three greatest passions
1. My business
2. My girlfriend (whoever she happens to be at the time)
3. Live music
Favorite book
"The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas
Favorite cause
UNICEF - I see them wherever I go in second and third-world countries doing their best to help local children who everyone else has pretty much given up on. They're not celebrities and they don't get nearly enough funding or recognition, but they keep going anyway.
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