A startup is a young company founded by one or more entrepreneurs to develop a unique product or service and bring it to market. By its nature, a standard startup tends to be a shoestring operation, with initial funding from the founders or their friends and families. And this is all that the new South Korean drama “Start-Up” is about.
This K-drama tells the story of young people who dream of success and who start working in start-ups. At least at a high level, the series correctly portrays basic facts about how startups work, and accurately uses technical terms to portray software development. Start-Up might be primarily about business start-ups, but it’s also about the start you get in life and sometimes the need to start over. It tells their 'START' and their growth 'UP'.
The drama started to air on 17 October and ran till 6 December. Looking at the top 10 ranking of daily popular content on Netflix Korea (Oct. 20), the new drama took the 1st spot. It is the most popular Netflix programme of the day. The drama has also started to be released in some other countries on Netflix.
The drama already entered the top 10 most popular Netflix programme of the day on 19 October in Bangladesh, Hong-Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Philippines, Qatar and many more countries. On 6 December, the drama aired its series finale to relatively stable viewership ratings.
In this new tvN x Netflix drama, Bae Suzy (Seo Dal-mi), Nam Joo-Hyuk (Nam Do-San), Kim Seon Ho (Han Ji-Pyeong), and Kang Han Na (Seo In-Jae) are the lead actors of this drama.The show follows the lives of these people trying to make it big in the world of start-ups in Seoul. While Start-Up’s premise might indicate a deep dive into the cutthroat world of innovators and fledgling companies, some rather refreshing and heart-warming episodes came as a pleasant surprise.
In this drama, we’re introduced to the main characters through a feel-good back story that connects them. Growing up, young sisters Seo Dal-mi and Seo In-Jae see their father struggle with his entrepreneurial ambitions. While they are separated soon after, they meet years later only to find themselves on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Dal-mi is kind, intelligent, and determined. She’s bubbly like other K-drama leads but also practical and can think on her feet. She has stars in her eyes and hopes to successfully launch her own company as she struggles through a host of part-time jobs.On the other side, Life has been kinder to her sister Seo In-Jae, who has a thriving career. Though Seo In-Jae, also finds herself that she’s equally ambitious but simultaneously fierce and exacting. The show could have easily made In-Jae a two-dimensional villain. But instead, the sisters act as each other’s foils and become rare representations of two types of female bosses. Different but both valid.
In their life, also a blast from the past comes in the form of Nam Do-San, the youngest math Olympiad winner in the drama, whom has started a company named ‘Samsan Tech’ with an innovative idea but not much practical success. And then again there’s Han Ji-Pyeong. He’s an excellent role model for aspiring entrepreneurs. In the drama, he is an investment manager at SH Venture Capital. In his teenage years, he won a virtual investment competition, where he realized that he has the smarts for it. He also wormed his way into everyone's heart as the silent supporter of Dal-mi through every step of the way.
In the whole drama, these main leads centers on a fictional South Korean version of Silicon Valley named ‘Sandbox’, a tech startup incubator in Seoul, where start-ups are provided with investment, educational networking, and more. It takes place in where young dreamers set out to achieve success in the world of startup companies. Actually, there is no exactly such place in Korea. The crew filmed the scenes where ‘Sandbox’ is included, in different places for the outside and inside. Though it was mainly filmed in the Nodeul Island in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Nodeul Island is a small artificial island located near Seoul’s financial hub, Yeouido. It’s surrounded by the Han River that flows through the city and is filled with lush trees and open spaces. It’s fairly new but fans of Korean pop culture are already all too familiar with it because of ‘Start-Up’.
In reality, there’s no such thing as Sandbox that can guarantee your security and set up a favorable environment. Start-ups have to prove their abilities and persuade people all the time because many people think start-ups are young and inexperienced. A successful startup is one where people are happy with your product. Founders that start out by trying to solve a specific problem will determine whether they are successful or not by the number of people who use their product and are happy with the way it is working.
Starting a business is a lot harder than most people think. Rarely is a business so in tune with its niche that it can float along with minimal effort. It seems that most businesses are destined for failure. But there are key points to not becoming one of the 20% that fails right off the bat.Approximately 11 out of 12 businesses fail. That's a high number indicating that many things need to go right for a business to succeed. Fortunately, you can be one of the 20% that succeed in the first year. To do this, you need to follow the tips outlined above, and, most importantly, you have to test your idea, do your homework, and make sure it will work before you jump in with both feet.
As an example, when taxis first hit the streets, rickshaw pullers protested like many are doing now. If we prioritized their livelihood over innovation, we'd have rickshaws instead of taxis now. Forget cellphones. We'd still be using that old phones with telephone operators. Is that the world you want? No, right? And that’s why we should support some startups. Otherwise, we can’t make the world much more better place for the next generation.
Overall, Start-Up is a fantastic series about the tech entrepreneur ecosystem with great individual moments. While there is some typical K-Drama tropes, it also tackles themes about family and business ethics wonderfully. You can stream ‘Start-Up’ in Netflix and apps like Viki, Kocowa and Tubi.
Rumaiysa M Rahman is a 9th grader at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Dhaka