Okay, let me tell you about this whole “500 million won” thing. It wasn’t like I suddenly got handed a big bag of cash, nothing like that movie stuff. It was tied to this project, this wild idea I got sucked into a while back.
The Grand Plan (or so we thought)
It started, like many things do, with a couple of guys talking late at night. We thought we had this killer concept for an app, something nobody else was doing quite right. We sketched it out, argued about features, the usual stuff. We got really hyped up. Then we started thinking about what it would actually take to build it for real, market it, you know, the whole nine yards. Someone, I think it was Dave, threw out the number: “We probably need like, 500 million won to do this properly.” That number just stuck.
Getting Hands Dirty
So, we weren’t just dreamers, okay? We actually started working on it. Nights and weekends, that was our life for about six months.
- Coding sessions: I handled most of the backend stuff initially. Used whatever tools I knew best, nothing fancy. Lots of coffee, lots of staring at the screen.
- Design mockups: Another guy, Jin, was pretty good with design. He whipped up some screens. They looked decent, actually.
- Business plan V1: We tried putting together a plan. Lots of guessing, trying to make spreadsheets look impressive. That’s where the 500 million won really got cemented – server costs, marketing budget, hiring a couple of people. It added up fast on paper.
Hitting the Pavement
Alright, so we had something. A clunky prototype, some nice-looking pictures, and a document full of hopeful numbers centering around that big 500 million won target. We thought, “Time to get the money!” Easier said than done, let me tell you.
We cleaned ourselves up, put on our best shirts, and started trying to talk to people. Angel investors, VCs, even that rich uncle of Jin’s cousin. Man, that was rough. You pour your heart out, explain your brilliant idea, and mostly you get blank stares or polite smiles that say “no way”. A few meetings seemed promising. They’d ask sharp questions, nod along. We’d leave thinking, “This is it!” Then… silence. Or an email a week later saying, “Market conditions aren’t right,” or some other garbage.
Reality Bites
This went on for months. The initial excitement started wearing off. Team meetings got tense. We argued about strategy, about changing the core idea to please potential investors. That 500 million won started feeling less like a goal and more like a mountain we couldn’t climb. My day job started demanding more time. Dave’s wife had a baby. Jin got a really good job offer he couldn’t refuse.
The whole thing just… fizzled. We didn’t have a big blow-up fight or anything. We just stopped having the late-night coding sessions. Stopped calling potential investors. The shared drive with all our plans just sat there, gathering digital dust. That 500 million won dream evaporated.
So, What Now?
Yeah, we never got the 500 million won. Never launched the app. Sometimes I see something similar pop up and think, “Hey, that was kinda like our idea!” But honestly? I learned a ton. Mostly about how hard it is to turn an idea into reality, especially when big money is involved. It’s not like in the movies. It’s a grind. And sometimes, even with a good idea and hard work, it just doesn’t happen. Now? Back to the regular grind. But hey, I actually built something, even if it lives only on my old hard drive. That’s something, right?
