Today, in 5 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
- 💰 How a founder slashed his monthly overhead from $142K to just $8K
- 🎯 The real reason behind switching from "growth at all costs" to "growth on your terms"
- 🤖 How AI and no-code tools are changing the game for this solo founder
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🚀 From Growthaholism to a Minimalist Business | Yong-Soo Chung
“My name is Yong-Soo, and I’m a recovering growthoholic.”
Yong-Soo Chung recently hit publish on this newsletter post, “How I Cut My Monthly Overhead Cost from $142,777 to $8,134”—which landed in my inbox instantly.
I was immediately intrigued.
For a while, I had been following Yong-Soo’s tweets on creating his holding company.
But after reading his post, I knew I HAD to invite him to share his thought process.
Going from a “growth at all costs” to “growth on your own terms” mentality is one thing.
Actually taking action to produce your desired reality is a whole ‘nother thing.
Especially when the decision is paired with becoming a new father.
I’m pleased to introduce Yong-Soo:
Yong-Soo Chung is a serial entrepreneur who founded an e-commerce brand called Urban EDC in 2015 from his one bedroom apartment in San Francisco after leaving his job as a Software Engineer at Ripple, a cryptocurrency startup in Silicon Valley. He then launched GrowthJet in 2019, a Climate Neutral Certified third party logistics company, from a second floor dance studio in the Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco. GrowthJet sold to a strategic buyer in 2024.
He and his wife Sandy are also proud dog parents to two French bulldogs named Humphrey & Pota, who have over 150,000 followers across all social channels. Sandy, his business and life partner, also owns a dog boutique called Spotted By Humphrey.
You wrote about giving up “growthaholism” and downsizing your business from 21 to zero employees. What were the biggest challenges you faced during this transition, and how did you overcome them?
To be fair, it wasn't like I was firing 21 people. Part of the "downsizing" was me selling off one of my three businesses (GrowthJet) to a strategic buyer. That business (third-party logistics company) had the highest overhead cost with employees and a warehouse lease.
Selling the company was no joke. (You can read about it in detail here)
When GrowthJet came off my books, I just had a couple other employees on my ecommerce business, Urban EDC. But given that I was transitioning and simplifying operations, I decided to slim down even further. Plus, Urban EDC's revenue was a lot lower than it was in 2023, so I had to make some tough changes.
Before, I had an operator in place to run Urban EDC while I started other businesses / companies. But, I've learned that it's difficult to grow a business with your own vision when you've delegated so much of your. business. So, I decided to take it back and run with it myself... with no w2 employees. I still hired offshore, and I have a US-based contractor... but really, it's me as the operator again, which has been surprisingly fun!
You've embraced a 100% remote, contractor-based business model. How has this shift affected your work-life balance, especially considering the birth of your son?
Ever since I remember, I've wanted to start my own company... and be successful.
And my definition of "success" at that time was a fast-growing company with a lot of employees. Because you can't scale a company by yourself, especially since I had a warehouse fulfillment business that required employees physically in our warehouse shipping out packages.
Now that I no longer have that business, I've completely embraced a remote-based work culture. Even though our team is thousands of miles apart, we communicate asynchronously. And to be honest, we're way more effective at our work without constant interruptions with meetings, etc.
I actually don't believe in "work-life" balance. I love my work too much to consider it "work." But, I do want to be present for my son when we're spending time together. What's ironic about all this is that while I'm with my son, I come up with my best ideas. Our Lucky Duck Lanyard Bead / Zipper Pull was inspired by my son's favorite bath toy... they sold out within seconds in the shop.
I've been enjoying this new "work-life" balance or "work-life" integration as I like to call it.
Instagram post by @urbanedcsupply
You mentioned the explosion of AI, no-code tools, and offshore talent in your article. Can you share 2-3 specific examples of how you're leveraging these technologies and resources in your business?
I've cut down on all W2 employees in the states. I currently have zero W2 employees working for me. I have 5 freelancers and remote off-shore employees working with me... so that's the offshore talent part.
In the past, when I wanted to scale my business, I thought I needed to hire the best talent (typically in the US) to help me scale. I was right then. But I would be wrong today. There are so many automation tools, no-code tools (including AI) that you can leverage to get so much more done by yourself.
For example, I use Perplexity / ChatGPT every single day to help me with market research, competitor analysis, and product descriptions.
I use Shopify (obviously) for my shop which is combining so many tools (analytics, payments, web dev) into one simplified no-code tool. Before, you had to hire a developer for at least $100,000 to build out your website.
Everything is getting cheaper and easier to run a business. Of course, this also means more competitors. So in my opinion, the entrepreneurs who will rise to the top are the best operators who know HOW to use these tools and gain as much leverage as possible with as little resources (both time and money) spent as possible. That's the game now.
What is one non-obvious piece of advice you give to people who are feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to constantly grow?
Ask yourself - what's it all for? Aiming for growth isn't a bad thing. But growing for the sake of growing is. Evaluate the reason why you want to grow in the first place. If you're killing yourself, grinding everyday without enjoying it "to grow" then it's not worth it at all. Zoom out and see why you're stuck feeling stuck.
Where can we go to learn more about you?
The biggest thing I'm working on now is my e-commerce shop is UrbanEDC.com but folks can check me out on Instagram / Threads at @YongSooChung or subscribe to my newsletter at firstclassfounders.com/newsletter
🌐 Beyond your borders
🔬 ASU published a new study that highlights: “people who perform multiple jobs on a given day have less meaning from a streamlined sense of who they are, but they also feel enough stimulation from occupying various roles that they offset that potential lack of meaning.” What do you think?
🎫 Before Sam Parr sold The Hustle to Hubspot for over $20M, he launched HustleCon 2014 in SF, making a sweet $40k profit as a 25-year-old (yours truly was in attendance)! Here is how he did it.
FROM OUR COMMUNITY
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