Adam Torres and Justin Choi discuss the Korea Conference.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Listen to coverage of The Korea Conference in Marina Del Rey, California. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Justin Choi, Founder & CEO at Nativo, Inc., explore entrepreneurship and the Korea Conference.
Watch Full Interview:
About Nativo, Inc.
At Nativo, they enable brands to unlock the power of content to engage and influence their audiences. Their patented technology leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate the distribution of content in a non-interruptive, fully integrated experience within trusted environments. Their mission at Nativo is to solve the mid-funnel and drive consideration by making content as easy to execute, scale, and measure as advertising.
Founded by Justin Choi in 2010, Nativo is an Asian American-owned technology company—certified by NMSDC as a Minority Business Enterprise—holding more than a dozen patents in its proprietary technology and working with more than 7,000 premium publisher websites around the globe. Learn more at www.nativo.com.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right, so I’m in Marina Del Rey today at the Korea Conference 2024 and I was able to snag Justin.
I know they’re in upstairs networking, doing everything else. I’m like, Justin, come on, man. Give me that interview I’ve been asking you for. How are you? I’m good. How are you? How are you loving this conference? I am loving being on a boat with a bunch of Koreans. I think it’s great. It reminds me of how I got here.
Yeah, I I was listening to some of the stories. I was listening to some of the, the entrepreneurs and the pitches. I know you’re an entrepreneur yourself. Did you find it inspiring? What did you like? You know, I can really empathize with the entrepreneur journey and then getting up there and presenting and the whole thing, you know, so it’s, it’s really cool to see and it’s fun to root on fellow entrepreneurs.
Yeah. It’s not easy, right? That whole journey. It’s painful. Let’s be honest. Yeah. Yeah. You know that, I don’t know if you know those Mrs. Fields cookies that they have in malls and all this stuff. So I had him, I had him on the show once and he was telling me, he’s like, I had to ask him a similar question.
Like what was entrepreneurship like? And he’s like, you gotta love pain. You gotta be a masochist. You gotta, I’m like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. You’re Mr. Fields, like cookies. I thought this was supposed to be like, like easy, but no, it’s a, you know, ups and downs to be an entrepreneur. Right. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Oh, I’ll take that one all day. So, we recently, one thing I want to bring up here while, while I got you on we recently had an event that you were, that you co hosted with us, and we went out there, and I mean, that was, talk to me a little bit about that. Like, what was the concept behind that? Like, it was, it was a great event.
Well, you know, it was in Orange County California, and, The community down there doesn’t quite get together as much as, let’s say, the community in Los Angeles or San Francisco. So we wanted to get professionals down there together and just mix them up and see what comes of it. And so I had a good friend who is the head of health over at Amazon.
And he agreed to go speak on stage and share some of the things that he’s doing. And that was a good excuse to bring everyone together. And I think everyone had a great time, and it’s really cool to see all the connections that come from. Doing something like that and seeing what results of it.
So, that was the goal. I think it’s fun. So, I talk to Shragwath this pretty often and I’m like, Man, we gotta get down to Orange County more and, and, and he kept on No, you don’t. You liar. He kept No, I do. I do. And he kept on telling me he was like, What? And I’m like, he’s like, I got a guy. And I’m like, what do you mean you got a guy?
When he says that, he doesn’t really say anything. That to me very often. He’s like, no, you got to meet him. Justin. He’s awesome. We’re going to do an event with them. Then I saw it. Then I saw the crowd that came out and I’m like, Oh, we’re going to be doing more in orange County. This is fun. I’m like, this is fun.
I was like, I mean, in the, in the location was amazing. The audio, what was it called? Finish line. Did I get there? Yeah, it’s finish line auto club. So it’s like, it’s basically almost like a country club for car collectors. You get to buy your garage and build it out. And then they have this beautiful clubhouse, which is where we host.
Yeah. And you saw how amazing it was and what’s really cool about it is they have 30 members or so and so not a lot of people get to experience that environment. So it was really cool to host people there and see the garages and the cars and all of that kind of stuff. And that, and you don’t know this but afterwards I was on the app and I’m looking for some food and I’m like oh I gotta get some food before I go home.
I found this little pop up kinda little area over there and there’s a bar. bunch of different like that whole area has these little enclaves of automotive things, right? Like, it’s really cool. I turned down one street and if we were in a different neighborhood, I would have been like, okay, this seems a little sketchy.
But then I turned down this particular street and it’s like, no, there’s a car for a whole garage full of Lamborghinis and Ferraris and they’re fixing them or whatever they’re doing there. And I’m like, okay, this is a nice area for to have an automotive club. Yeah, for Orange County. It’s kind of that whole area has kind of become like the Call it like the car commercial industrial zone.
It’s really cool. Ferrari service centers there. Yeah. That’s probably where I went by. Yeah. That’s probably where I was. Yeah. I got lost for calling them Lamborghinis, but that’s okay. That’s probably you’re right. You’re right. I think I, it might’ve been that one. When did you originally get into cars? Like how did you, what drew you in to the, to the culture?
I mean, when I was like 15 years old, you know, when I grew up, cars was the start of you activating a true social life. Yeah. So I think every guy got into cars back then. Yeah. My, my first car was a different type of Ford than the one that you had on there. I had the very old classic Ford Taurus when I was 16.
I’m thinking about way back when. Hey, that’s better than an Escort. Good job. Oh, come on. Thank you. Started right in the middle. All right. That’s awesome. So what are you working on nowadays? Like talk, talk to me about your, your business or what you’re working on. Well, I’m a CEO of a ad tech company called Nativo.
We provide software to publishers to run their ads businesses. We also work with brands and advertisers specifically around helping them leverage content to reach consumers, not just ads. So we build software to do all that. I also am a chairman of a web three gaming company. So we’re building what we hope will be the number one auto game in this space.
Build also on what three pipes. So I had a prior company that had the number one automotive game in the world on mobile called racing rivals. We also had one of the. We actually had the 10th largest app on Facebook, which was a car collecting game. So cars have always been in my DNA and you know, I’ve had the good fortune of being able to mix that passion with man.
That’s fun. So you have the real cars in real life, then you’re, you’re building them in the games, then you’re building the ecosystem around them. Like that’s a, a bit, it was like I had cars in real life. That passion turned into doing business endeavors around that, that luckily succeeded to then turn. Me selling virtual cars and then buying even more real cars and become a real car collector.
Which then in turn got me close to all the car companies and having a relationship with a lot of them. Which then in turn enabled me to do this Web3 game company because they’re all involved in the new one. What would you say to the new entrepreneurs, that next wave of entrepreneurs, whether they’re getting into gaming, cars, whatever.
What do you say to the next group of entrepreneurs that are coming up? Don’t do it. You know you heard all the cookie crumples, how painful it is. You know what’s funny is all kidding aside, the CEO of NVIDIA gave an interview where he basically said the same thing. He would tell himself not to do it because the journey is so painful.
I would say the same thing. I would say the exact same thing it is. But the reality is, is my advice is to do it. And just be prepared that you’re going to get a series of both successes and lessons and experiences and the journey is going to be. Incredible, and incredibly hard, and incredibly rewarding, and may not work out.
Yeah. But you got one life, take a shot. Yeah. You know, so I would encourage them to go for it. How did, did mentors or teachers, or did you have influences like that in your life that kind of helped you along the way, or how, did that play a part? May not have, by the way, just. No, you know, it was a bit in my DNA, I almost played the role Fake businesses when I was a kid, it was just kind of my DNA, but I think the thing that really was impactful for me was just being naive, you know, I’m like very optimistic, and I get excited by ideas that need to exist in the world, and I’m naive enough to not look at all the obstacles, and the reality is then you start, and you get punched in the face by all the obstacles, but then if you believe enough about the idea, and if you’re stubborn enough, then you persevere through them, and, and, and, That’s really the mix is like having a something you want to do that you believe in so much that you fight through all the punches in the face.
And you know, you stay in it long enough, your, your odds of success are there. Yeah. Final question. What is the exciting you right now as an entrepreneur? It could be whatever. It could be technology, could be industry, could be, could be in something gaming, could be otherwise. Like what gets you excited right now?
You’re, you’re seasoned. You know, I’m always excited about building things, whether it’s high tech or low tech. I helped found a energy drink company called Energy Defense Plus, which is like a healthy immunity and energy shot. Mm hmm. Completely outside of my zone. Yeah. And, you know, a friend is running it and doing the whole thing.
It’s like fuel octane. You pour it in a car. No, you pour it in a human. That’s, you’re right. It helps you develop and program. Yes. Mm hmm. But the thing is, is that, you know, I found that just creating something, whether it’s high tech or low tech is exceptionally rewarding on the tech side. What I find really fascinating is I think that the impact of artificial intelligence is largely underappreciated and we’re not living it yet.
And I think that that’s going to have a profound effect. I also think that We went through this wave of Web3 where there was kind of this hype cycle. Oh yeah. But the, the actual utility of the tech wasn’t quite there yet. I’m really excited by the next 5 10 years where the real utility comes out. Living it today and kind of being in that space now, I, I see what’s coming.
And I think that people are gonna be really excited and have a fresh look at Web3 and realize, okay, the This has real utility. Yeah. So I’m excited by AI and Web3. Amazing. Justin, how can people follow you on Instagram, LinkedIn, otherwise? How can people follow your journey? On LinkedIn look me up.
I, I believe I’m under Yeah, I’ll put, we’ll put that in the Yeah, we’ll put the the LinkedIn and that would be great. Yep. But yeah, add me on LinkedIn. I’m also on Twitter as Justin CIE. Yep. Which is one of my companies, . So yeah, look me up there. And if you’re into cars, follow on Instagram at J-C-H-W-A-J.
Yeah, you’re gonna, you’re gonna like that. I follow it and I’m always looking at these cars. I’m like, come on, man. That gets me fired up in the morning. Well, thank you for coming on the show. It’s been a lot of fun. Thank you for coming out to Korea conference, man. I hope to see you here next year again. To the audience as always, thank you for tuning in.
If this is your first time with us and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or that follow. Follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new entrepreneurs, new stories, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow.
And Justin, again, appreciate you, man. Thank you.