[Attention! This Person] Attorney Cheong Sung Koo takes on a new challenge as a ‘Startup CEO’
“In startups, there are hardly anything that are not related to the law”
“There are countless things that a lawyer can do in a startup. This is because the management system is set from ‘zero’ and there are very few areas that are not related to the law. The demand for lawyers in startups will grow in the future and I hope to see more of my lawyer colleagues take on the challenges in startups”, say Mr. Cheong Sung Koo, who left 23 years of lawyer’s life behind and recently took on a new challenge as the CEO of EQBR Networks (“EQBR”), a blockchain startup established in Singapore. A graduate of prestigious Seoul National University Law School in Korea, Mr. Cheong is a ‘veteran’ lawyer who worked at Yulchon (1999~2005) and Kim & Chang (2005~2022), the top law firms in Korea. Before he quit his law career last month at Kim & Chang, he has specialized in finance and IT as a part of Kim & Chang’s ‘Derivative Financial Transaction‘ and ‘Data Fintech’ practices and has advised on behalf of clients in these fields, including virtual assets and non-fungible tokens (NFT). It was at this time that he first met with EQBR as a client.
“While working as a lawyer, I was always curious about other fields of business. However, I was very satisfied with my law firm and my life as a lawyer, and never thought about changing career, until I got an offer to join EQBR and thought that it would be the last lifetime opportunity for me before I get much older.”
Legal advisor to financial and IT corporate clients
Has first met with EQBR as a legal client
Aims for 20 million downloads of ‘Whisper’ app
Intends to prove blockchain as a useful technology for tens of millions of people
EQBR Network is a Singapore subsidiary of EQBR Holdings, a Korean company established in 2020. EQBR Holdings has developed its own proprietary blockchain engine on which it built a ‘Web 3.0’ infrastructure. EQBR Network was established this year to sell the infrastructure and infrastructure-based services created by EQBR Holdings in Southeast Asian markets, and to create and operate its own blockchain network. Mr.Cheong is responsible for EQBR Networks’ Asian (excluding Korea and Japan) businesses.
Blockchain is a representative technology of the recently deriving Web 3.0 era. If Web 2.0 is an online environment based on a ‘centralized server’ of giant tech companies such as Google and Meta, the ‘decentralization’ is the key to Web 3.0, in which web users directly manage their own data and digital assets and exchange data and assets with other web users without the involvement of a central server.
“It is true that the platforms of the central server in the Web 2.0 era have contributed greatly to create the convenient world of today, but there are also problems caused by misuse and abuse of personal information and monopolization of such information. Web 3.0 can be an alternative to the central server platform by implementing a P2P platform that does not depend on the central server and does not expose personal information”, says Mr.Cheong.
“The downside of current blockchain technology is its slow speed and instability. As a result, many people still think of blockchain as a technology solely used to create cryptocurrencies, and I was one of these pessimists. However, after witnessing the speed and stability of EQBR’s technology that is comparable to the existing central server services, my hopes for the future of blockchain revived again. We are currently sailing smoothly with over 500,000 downloads of Whisper app in the region, and our goal by next year is to increase the number of downloads to 20 million, proving that a blockchain that can be used by tens of millions of people in real time is possible.”
As Mr.Cheong iterates, “All of my experiences as a lawyer for 23 years has been of great help to the company’s management, and lawyers have the advantages as both a management and corporate lawyer.”
“A ‘manager who knows the law’ will be naturally more thorough in protecting the rights of customers and employees and complying with the laws than those who do not. Such management policies are of course helpful to the success and development of the company. However, it is dangerous to jump in with the hope of economic success only through stock options in a short period of time. I would like to advise to my fellow lawyers to carefully consider whether the start-up is an organization that provides opportunities in main line of work to lawyers and where they can further grow as lawyers. And once you make that choice, I would advise them to stick around for at least three years.”
This content has been translated from the following link.
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