Prologue

 <START Date: Sunday, January 12, 2025>

<Release Date: Sunday, January 12, 2025>

<Revision Date: Sunday, October 26, 2025>

 

Prologue

Written by DONG WOOK KIM

 

<Regarding Formatting>

 Sentences that I consider important are “Highlighted in bold”. In particular, sentences (or ideas) that I regard as especially important are “highlighted in bold”.

 

In Japan, color television broadcasting began in 1960, but in my home country, South Korea, it started 20 years later in 1980, due to the circumstances of the military regime. Not long after that, my family finally got our first color TV at home, and it was truly shocking when we all watched a color TV broadcast together for the very first time.

 

This may be a bit of a digression, but in the early 1980s, there was a small candy shop near my house that had arcade machines where you could play games for a 50-won coin. The games included titles such as GALAGA (see Figure 1) and PONPOKO (see Figure 2), and I used to go there almost every day.

At that time, the arcade machines used black-and-white CRT displays, but people thought of them as “color displays” because red, green, and blue cellophane strips were pasted horizontally across the screens.

Of course, the color varied depending on which part of the CRT was covered with which color cellophane, but I still remember how much more popular these improvised “color” screens were compared to the standard black-and-white ones.

 

Figure 1. GALAGA

Source：https://galaga.com/

 

Figure 2．PONPOKO

Source：http://babsika.cocolog-nifty.com/okiniiri/2006/09/post_22f7.html

 

Back in 1980, at least in my hometown of Busan, most local candy shops and game arcades were equipped with black-and-white CRT displays covered with red, green, and blue cellophane strips to make them look like color screens.

 That was the common perception at the time. Then, my father, who was an early adopter, likely became (probably) the first person in our neighborhood to buy a color television. When our whole family watched a color TV broadcast for the first time, the vivid and dynamic colors that filled the entire screen were beyond comparison to the limited hues of the cellophane-covered displays we were used to.

 At that time, my mother said, "If televisions can show color now, maybe someday they’ll even release scents." This remark became the catalyst for me to pursue my dreams and move to Japan, where color television broadcasting had begun 20 years earlier, in 1960, long before it arrived in South Korea.

 

During the five years I spent in graduate school, I researched "scent-emitting televisions (olfactory displays)."

In 2007, I successfully developed the world's first olfactory display capable of controlling the release of scent molecules by using a functional polymer gel that undergoes sol-gel phase transitions.

 

After obtaining my doctoral degree, I joined the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), where I continued research and development on “olfactory displays” within the broader field of five-sense communication.

As my research progressed, I became increasingly determined to make olfactory displays — devices that reproduce scents, just as monitors reproduce images and speakers reproduce sound — a part of everyday life.

Moreover, I developed a strong aspiration not only to contribute as a researcher in the academic field, but also to take full responsibility as an entrepreneur in managing the entire process leading to the practical realization of olfactory displays.

Rather than waiting for the emergence of “scent-emitting televisions,” I decided to take action myself to commercialize the technology and promote it worldwide. Driven by a strong determination to “realize olfactory (scent) communication," and "enrich the world through olfactory (scent) communication," I founded Aromajoin Corporation in October 2012 as a venture originating from NICT, which we would today call a “Startup.”

Having walked the path of a researcher in an olfactory display technology until that point, I boldly stepped into the uncharted territory of the olfactory communication business. However, even today, it continues to be a constant struggle filled with challenges and perseverance.

A smart person might notice this right away, but despite having spent more than 350 million yen and 12 years so far

Until now (you might quickly notice if you're a smart person), despite spending over 350 million yen (about USD 3.5 million) and 12 years so far, I still have not been able to fully systematize (monetize) the business, and time continues to slip away.

Feeling as though I were grasping at straws, I decided to start reading a web book that had long intrigued me, “Startup Playbook” (https://playbook.samaltman.com/), both as a source of inspiration and as an opportunity to improve my English, beginning on December 15, 2024.

 As the CEO of Aromajoin, now in its 13^th fiscal year, I honestly thought I had already experienced and understood enough about the startup world. However, ‘Startup Playbook’, written by Samuel H. Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (widely known for ChatGPT) and former president of Y Combinator, turned out to be a true eye-opener for me.

The ‘Startup Playbook’ is an exceptionally well-structured guide to building and managing a business. The more I read it, the more I felt as if I were reading a detailed account of my own past mistakes. Each chapter is packed with invaluable insights that are profoundly important for anyone running a startup, and at times, almost painfully relatable.

 However, on the website where the ‘Startup Playbook’ is published, only the original English text and a Spanish translation were available. Therefore, I decided to translate it into Japanese and Korean, both to share it with startup founders here in Japan, where I currently live, and also in my home country, South Korea. With the help of ChatGPT, I have been working on these translations in the hope that they will serve as a valuable resource for many entrepreneurs.

 Above all, I sincerely wish that others can learn from my experience and avoid repeating the same mistakes, achieving maximum results with minimal resources.

 

 

October 12, 2025 (Sunday)

 As Aromajoin enters its 14^th fiscal year, I came across the essays of Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, which are introduced in Startup Playbook written by Samule H. Altman.

I also gained many valuable insights from Paul Graham’s essays themselves.

 Both Startup Playbook and Graham’s essays share a common focus on “optimal hiring” and “steady growth.”

Excess personnel who lack passion act like a handbrake on an organization, slowing its momentum, causing critical damage, and becoming a significant obstacle to growth. Therefore, achieving steady and sustainable growth requires one essential condition: hiring the right people.

For your reference, the article “What kind of person should we hire?” delivered on Sunday, May 18, 2025, by Aromajoin’s co-founder, Ms. Yasui, focuses not so much on “hiring” itself, but rather on the mindset that leaders of small, long-enduring deep-tech startups should possess. However, when viewed from the opposite perspective, it also provides many valuable insights into the principles of “optimal hiring.”

 

 

＜特記事項＞

1．原文（当該の言語）をベースに、英語、日本語、韓国語へと翻訳を行っております。

2．配列の順番は、原文（当該の言語）を主としているため、その都度、順序は変わります。

3．英語から日本語への翻訳は、英辞郎アルク：https://eow.alc.co.jp/）を活用しております。また、文書全体の翻訳はChatGPT（https://chatgpt.com/）を活用しておりますため、多少ニュアンスの違いが生じる可能性があります。

4．本ブログの内容に訂正または修正及び追記が必要な場合は、当該の文書に対してコメントをいただけますと対応させていただきます。

5．特定のコンテンツにおいて、より具体的な説明または文献情報が必要な場合は、当該の内容についてコメントいただきますと可能な限りご対応させていただきます。

6．掲載内容は予告なしに追記または修正が加わる可能性がありますのでご了承ください。

 

＜특기사항＞

1. 원문(해당 언어)을 기준으로 영어, 일본어, 한국어로 번역을 진행하고 있습니다.

2. 배열 순서는 원문(해당 언어)을 주(主)로 하고 있기 때문에, 그때그때 순서가 달라질 수 있습니다.

3. 영어에서 일본어로의 번역은 "영어사전" (알크: https://eow.alc.co.jp/)을 활용하고 있습니다.  또한, 문장 전체 번역은 ChatGPT(https://chatgpt.com/)를 활용하고 있기 때문에, 약간의 뉘앙스 차이가 발생할 수 있습니다.

4. 본 블로그 내용에 대해 수정이나 수정 추가가 필요할 경우, 해당 문서에 코멘트를 남겨 주시면 대응하겠습니다.

5. 특정 콘텐츠에서 더 구체적인 설명이나 문헌 정보가 필요하시면, 해당 내용에 대해 코멘트를 주시면 가능한 한 대응하겠습니다.

6. 게재된 내용은 예고 없이 추가되거나 수정될 수 있음을 양해해 주시기 바랍니다.

 

＜Notes＞

1. The translation is being carried out based on the original text (in the respective language) and translated into English, Japanese, and Korean.

2. The order of the content may vary depending on the original text (in the respective language), so it can change from time to time.

3. For translations from English to Japanese, I use the English-Japanese dictionary “Eijiro” (Alc: https://eow.alc.co.jp/). Additionally, for full document translations, I use ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/), there may be slight nuances or differences in meaning.

4. If any corrections or additions are necessary to the content of this blog, please leave a comment on the respective document, and I will respond.

5. If more specific explanations or references are needed for certain content, please leave a comment on that content, and I will do my best to address it.

6. Please note that the published content may be added to or modified without prior notice.

 

 

次回の更新は2025年11月2日（日）に予定されています。どうぞお楽しみに！

다음 업데이트는 2025년 11월 2일(일)에 예정되어 있습니다. 많은 기대 부탁드립니다!

The next update is scheduled for Sunday, November 2, 2025. We hope you look forward to it!