An Interview with Thomas (Yong-il) Ahn, founder and CEO of Mad Ventures, Inc.
Thomas (Yong-il) Ahn is the founder and CEO of Mad Ventures, Inc. and directs the overall vision and operation of the company. He is an active entrepreneur, an expert in technology research and also in nurturing technology start-ups. Thomas has successfully incubated several IT companies in Korea including Mobile Culture, iCity and Acrotech. Prior to Mad Ventures, he was a venture capitalist with Hanmi Technology Investment and has taught various topics in entrepreneurship at the Korean Venture Capital Institute. He holds a B.Sc degree from POSTECH in Korea and a B.Com degree from the University of Victoria in Canada.
Yaron Bazaz: Hi Thomas, How did you find yourself involved with Venture Capital activities?
Thomas (Yong-il) Ahn: “During the B.Com program at UVic, students are required to have a industry internship of one year (co-op). I was fortunate to find a position at a small Korean conglomerate - Wonik Group which placed me into their newly opened division called the “Strategic Planning Team”. After starting from the absolute bottom of the corporate ladder (I got to know the photocopier very very well), I soon found myself flying around the world working on multi-million dollar negotiation deals for the company.
After my internship was over, I went back to UVic to graduate and I was offered a formal full time job at Wonik. Since I knew how much work was involved in taking a job at Wonik, I asked for an outrageous amount of money. I was surprised that Wonik accepted my pay increase of more than 2X what I was getting, but quickly found out that I was now getting a higher compensation than any of my own supervisors. Fortunately, Wonik had acquired a venture capital firm - Hanmi Technology Investment Co. and could place me where they could support my salary. The moral of the story? Sometimes GREED pays!”
Y.B: Based in Victoria, BC you are the owner and manager of an early stage fund called the MAD Ventures. What distinguish your fund from other early stage funds in the western Canada/ US Pacific Northwest area? Read more »»
