“A lot of people say, ‘If you believe in something, do it 100 percent,’ ” says Sisun Lee. “I actually think that’s horrible advice.” So during 2016, the first year of his startup, 82 Labs, Lee also kept working as a product manager at Tesla Inc. In year two, however, he quit to focus on his product: an American version of the South Korean hangover cures that helped him out during a vacation in Seoul. In April he closed an $8 million Series A funding round that valued the company at $33 million.
① Research
A little Googling revealed that the secret ingredient in Korean hangover drinks was dihydromyricetin (DHM), a compound found in the Japanese raisin tree. He contacted a leading DHM researcher—Jing Liang, a professor at the University of Southern California—as an informal consultant. For academics, “their passionate interest is intrinsic motivation,” Lee says.
