LEADING
innovation
ALEX KWON WANTS YOU TO SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY ONE MINUTE AT A TIME.
MTV may have named Generation Z
“The Founders”, but PGN-ers have been
breaking new ground for a long time. We
caught up with Alex Young Kwon, an
entrepreneur and class of 2010 alumnus
from Cornell University.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO
ENTREPRENUERSHIP?
I’ve always loved building products, so
after college, I started a couple businesses
ranging from toilet products to android
games out of my parent’s garage. I
joined Samsung Mobile a year later, and
started a social network for smartphone
artists, called Pen.Up. It now has over 15M
downloads.
Even with a full-time job, however, I have
always had “side-projects” that I eventually
wanted to grow. Last year, I decided to
quit my job and flew out to San Francisco
to tinker with a couple product concepts.
oneminute was one of the three products
I launched since I moved out here.
Alex Kwong
Class of 2010
Cornell University
Through a series of fortunate events, we
have been invited by Apple to present
oneminute, and also received $100K credit
in server bills from Google. Some of the
early press coverage helped us kickstart
the growth.
Icon by: http://puppetscientists.com
WHAT IS ONEMINUTE?
The oneminute app instantly visualizes what’s
happening around the world, and nearby.
We send a simultaneous notification to all our
users around the globe, and everyone only gets 1
minute to anonymously share their world as-is.
Within 1 minute, the feed turns into an instant
stream of authentic moments around the world.
HOW DID IT GET STARTED?
While at work, I was staring out the window,
wondering what could be happening around the
world at that very moment. I thought, ‘what if I
can see the world through other people’s eyes?
It’s possible now if I can get everyone to share
what the