3 business days
A first response, with direction
Within 3 business days of receiving your materials, I'll tell you whether they were received and the initial direction of my review. If something's missing, I'll start by telling you what.
Great founders shouldn't need a warm intro to meet a VC.
Building a great product doesn't guarantee a path to investors. Without an introduction, even asking for a review can be a wall — and too many good teams get buried that way. So I opened a direct channel of my own. Send your materials here, and I will read them myself.
What I promise
No intro, no perfect deck required
If market sizing or revenue projections feel out of reach right now, leave them out. Your product and your team's story are enough to start — and I'll point out exactly what's missing.
It leads to a real review
This isn't feedback for feedback's sake. When I see potential, it moves straight into an actual investment review.
Why here instead of email
A cold email is a delivery. This desk is a commitment.
ReplyNo guarantee of a reply — your email may simply sink.Queued on receipt, and the system holds me to a first-direction reply within 3 business days.
ContentYou start from a blank page, unsure what to write.I ask only for what the review needs — and tell you specifically what's missing.
Starting lineEmails with an introduction get opened first.No introduction needed; every submission meets the same bar.
MaterialsAttachments linger in inboxes and get forwarded who knows where.Private storage, access limited to me, deleted on request.
AfterwardsSilence.Track progress anytime with your reference number.
If we already know each other, email works just fine. This desk exists to give founders without an introduction the same guarantees.
What a reply looks like
First-pass reply · example
“Thank you for the materials. Your three paid pilots and repeat-purchase metrics stand out. To take the review further, I'd ask for three things — ① the contract structure and monthly revenue per pilot, ② usage patterns of your most engaged customer, and ③ an event in the next 12–24 months that could re-rate the company. Send them under the same reference number and I'll pick the review right back up.”
Actual replies are written to your materials — no scores or grades, just what the next step needs, specifically.
01 About
At Intervest's IT investment division, I focus on AI and AI-agent technologies and new businesses, humanoid robotics, and B2B software. What I look at first is the team's authenticity and capability, and whether customers actually use and pay for the product. From there, we think together about whether it can expand into a sufficiently large market.
Career
- 2016 – presentIntervest · Managing Director, IT Investment Division
Investments and portfolio management across AI, AI infrastructure, robotics, and B2B software
- 2015 – 2016Boston Consulting Group (BCG) · Associate
Post-merger integration strategy for a financial group's P&C insurer
- 2012 – 2015A.T. Kearney · Senior Business Analyst
Growth and market-entry strategy across finance, telecom, retail, and manufacturing · Consultant of the Year 2014
- 2010 – 2011Microsoft · Assistant Project Manager
Windows division, product strategy for the Korean market
Selected exits
- SuaLabAI vision inspection for manufacturingAcquired by Cognex, 2019
- AlcheraAI facial recognitionIPO 2020
- MaxstAR SDK platformIPO 2021
- ToomicsGlobal webtoon platformAcquired by a US company, 2022
- M83AI VFX studioIPO 2024
- AijinetAI insurance analytics and salesIPO 2025
Core portfolio
UpstageHoliday RoboticsHealingpaper (Gangnam Unni)AllganizeLinerBanksaladFindaLINQALPHADalphaNeosapience
Education
- 2004 – 2011Korea University · B.B.A., Business Administration
Publications
- Visual Basic in Practice (비주얼베이직실전노하우) — 2001, Dongil Publishing · co-author
- Thesis Investment OS ↗ — An open-source framework for recording and verifying investment judgment — thesis cards, prediction ledgers, screeners, feedback loops
- Korea Invest Insights ↗ — A multilingual insights site mapping Korea's alpha — daily analysis across the semiconductor, HBM, and AI value chains
A leading Korean venture capital firm“In investing, risk is not a variable but a constant.”
Intervest is a venture capital firm that assesses risk objectively, stands up to fear, and stays prepared for the changes coming to capital markets.
- 25 yrs+A leading Korean VC, investing since 1999
- ICT · Bio · GlobalPortfolios across every major sector
- Risk-first principlesFacing fear, preparing for what's next
- USD 1.7B+Funds under management · 450+ portfolio companies (official figures)
02 Portfolio
Portfolio companies led by Youngseong Shin
Applied AI · Workflow automation
AI software used repeatedly inside real workflows, tied to measurable customer outcomes.
UpstageAllganizeLinerDalphaVoyagerXNeutuneCochl
AI infrastructure · Semiconductors
Foundational technology that removes cost and performance bottlenecks in AI compute, memory, and silicon.
RebellionsMobilintFuriosa AIPanmnesiaTenstorrent
Robotics · Physical AI
Robots that work repeatedly in real environments — beyond the demo — with proven safety and cost.
Holiday RoboticsStronghold RoboticsClobotWIRobotics
Fintech · Financial services
Services that compound data and regulatory capability across finance, insurance, payments, and wealth.
BanksaladFindaAijinetLINQALPHAPortOne
Healthcare · Consumer · Marketplaces
High-frequency services where accumulating data improves quality and economics together.
Healingpaper (Gangnam Unni)KmongAblyCatchTableNoom
Content · Media · Creative
New media where voice and video AI meet content production, IP, and fandom.
M83NeosapienceModhausKong StudiosPinkfong
03 How I review
What I look at — and what only a human decides.
What I look for
The team's authenticity and capability come first, along with whether customers actually pay. I care how often and how deeply the product is used — and we think together about whether it can expand into a market that's big enough.
Machines don't decide
Not the investment, not the meeting, not the reply you receive. Until I've personally confirmed it, everything is a draft.
Main focus areas
AI · LLM · AI infrastructure · Robotics · B2B software
04 Related links