Oct 20, 2025
From Zero to 600K: Building a Media Brand in Silicon Valley
Proof that a small teams with big conviction can reach anywhere
Behind The Scenes
Every startup talks about growth.
Every founder claims they want to go global.
But few pack their cameras, leave everything familiar behind, and cross an ocean just to keep telling stories.
EO did.
And somehow, I followed.
This is a story about a media startup that decided to push the boundaries.
I’m not sure if stories like this have a place in Silicon Valley. Still, I had to begin the first issue of our magazine with this one, because it was the very beginning of everything.
We Don't Buy That
“Everyone told me to run another business that leverages our YouTube channel, instead of growing the channel itself."
"But… I just didn’t want to do that."Taeyong KimCEO of EO
EO Studio — which began in 2017 as Taeyong's personal interview project — was one of the most recognized media outlets in Korea’s tech scene.
It captured the early stories of the most iconic startups and inspired a generation of young people to dream of entrepreneurship.
But by 2022, growth had stalled. Taeyong knew something had to change, though he wasn’t sure what.
Investors and founders around him kept giving the same advice: to branch out into a new business.
Behind those comments lay a quiet assumption: In this market, a content business could never grow big. Taeyong didn’t buy that. Rather, he chose the opposite path.
"I knew there was always a kind of information lag between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world."
"If we follow people in Silicon Valley — like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk — then why not go there directly?"Taeyong Kim
"As an interviewer, I met founders who didn't have perfect credentials and thy still built remarkable companies. If they could do it, why not us? We had to go abroad."Taeyong Kim
Why Should We Interview You?
May 10, 2022.
It was EO’s first day in San Francisco.
"Did the casting go well? Not at all. Since nothing was confirmed for two weeks, we wen anywhere we could get an interview. We even drove 807 miles for one."Taeyong Kim
They tried to reach big names in the U.S. tech scene, but it wasn’t easy. Some people never replied. Others asked why they should bother. A few offered interview slots so tight that they barely had time to set up their cameras.
For EO, it was an unfamiliar situation. In the past, everyone wanted to be interviewed by them. But in Silicon Valley, everyone asked why. EO’s producers described the experience in a later interview:
"Our interviews usually ran for two hours. However, we could only ask for one hour at most in Silicon Valley. From their perspective, why give an hour to a media outlet they barely knew?"SungWoon ChoiFormer producer of EO
"In one interview, there was almost 30 minutes for the actual interview. Time was running out, and the PR manager kept giving me the cut sign.Dowon KimProducer of EO
Three days after their arrival in SF, Taeyong posted publicly:
"Our schedule is a mess. Shoots are canceled, others postponed. We came with a tight plan, so this is a tricky situation. If you're in the Bay Area and willing to share your knowledge — in English — please reach out."Taeyong Kim
How Badly You Want This
"It was close to midnight around 11p.m. A Facebook Messenger notification popped up on my phone. It was a message from John Kim, CEO of Sendbird."
"He said, 'A lot of people come to the U.S., but most give up after one or two years. But you've been coming to Silicon Valley for five years. I want to help you because I can see how badly you want this.'"Taeyong Kim
EO created their first real opening to meet Michael Seibel, a general partner of Y Combinator.
"At first, we just waited for Michael's reply for two weeks. One day, John checked in and told us that, 'In the U.S. you have to make chances on your own even if someone introduces you'. We didn't even know how to send a good cold-mail."Taeyong Kim
The team had to rely on the connections they had. It was a difficult thing, because the early supporters had to spend their trust capital to help. But they helped simply because of EO’s sincerity.
Then, interviews with people like Michael Seibel (YC), Phil Libin (Evernote), and Akshay Kothari&Ivan Zhao (Notion) finally happened.
"Once we secured a few truly influential founders and those episodes performed well, casting became much easier."
"The initial lineup was strong, and we turned every opportunity into high-quality, high-impact content."Taeyong Kim
Always In The Red
Teammates who once promised to take on the challenge together left quietly, one by one. Money was always tight. They never once felt safe.
"The video that first hit one million views, the moment we reached 100,000 subscribers, raised investment, and when Taeyong decided to scale the U.S. channel and make hires... all of that happened around April 2023."
"But even after that, there weren't many moments when it actually felt like we were doing well."Dowon Kim
"Maybe now it looks like things are going pretty well. But honestly, we didn't always fell that way. Even as recently as last year, we were so busy that we'd shoot around twenty interviews in just a three-week business trip."
"The U.S. team was always in the red, and it's only recently that we turned profitable. Up until last year, failure wasn't an option. I put a lot of pressure on the team."Gunwook YooCCO of EO
Interestingly, the data told a different story from how they felt.
They were clearly growing.
EO took 17 months to reach 200,000 subscribers. The next 200,000 came in just 12 months, and the following 200,000 came in only 8 months.
The subscriber curve was getting steeper. It was the result of nearly three years of endurance and accumulation since they first landed in San Francisco.
"At some point, appearing on EO started to feel cool. It took about a year and a half to get there. In Silicon Valley, there are always those lesser-known but cool companies. For example, Perplexity was exactly that.Taeyong Kim
Earning Trust, Not Just Views
In April 2025, an email landed in EO’s inbox.
- Subject: “Hello from a16z!”
"Thanks to one of the VC interviews we did during those quiet, grinding days, we eventually got to work with the Speedrun team at a16z."
"I think we simply needed time to build the credibility that we were a team worth partnering with."Gunwook Yoo
"The word underdog sounds cool, but it really just means you have low credit. And in business, everything comes down to building trust and credibility."
"Whenever something important came up that could help us earn that trust, we took it no matter what it was. We were outsiders, and that made us hungry. Because of that, we were fast, we were sharp."Taeyong Kim
Major figures in tech shared EO’s videos, and founders began naming it one of their go-to channels. Founders now reach out first to ask to be featured on the channel.
The brand carries a reputation: EO is cool.
EO isn't the biggest or the most famous channel in the world. At least not yet. But it made a real growth from scratch, with genuine quality and trust. They grew not because they were big, but because they were hungry, fast, and unafraid to go first.
What we can learn from this is simple.
1. Conviction Rewards:
True belief moves not only yourself but also those around you, and in the end, it brings help, opportunities, and results.
2. Growth isn't instant:
Growth isn't free, and it doesn't show up overnight. It comes from the slow, steady work of building and delivering over time. For those in the middle of it, the process can feel painful.
3. Trust is the real currency:
In business, what mattered more than views or user growth was earning market trust. Trust isn't something you can see, but it's what makes you a real partner.
The Story Continues in Words
Yes, what you’ve just read is the first issue.
I’ve spent years as a journalist, but interviewing and writing in English are real challenges for me.
Everyone I’ve met here looks puzzled when I tell them I came to write about the tech scene, and to do it in English. (Because they’re hearing my broken English as I say it.)
Yes, I know it sounds a little absurd. But I was tired of hearing people say that the content business is impossible in a minority-language culture.
Coming here was my no-return choice, so there is no going back now. So history repeats itself, this time in text.
We expand our influence into the U.S., Korea, Vietnam, and beyond. We broaden our business into education and a platform. And text is one of the paths in that expansion.
The text feels more grounded, sometimes more observational, and sometimes a little more distant in perspective. But it always remains devoted to those who create.
We believe in entrepreneurship because we live it. We take risks. We go first. We push ourselves to the edge. And that’s the biggest strength of EO.
We are inspired by the spirit of those who create something new in the world, and we pour everything we have into telling their stories.
"What matters to us is not the views, but the number of founders born today. Our mission is to help humanity thrive through entrepreneurship. To do that, we inspire, educate, and connect people."
"I bet we’ll beat the market and become the biggest media company. Just watch."Taeyong Kim