Hi! It's Editor.S with the 16th MNM. Starting this week, the new Learning Block 03 has begun, and it seems like everyone made the most of their vacation. Many makers came with news about funding, employment, YouTube, and more, which got everyone excited! We welcome new makers who joined Metes for the first time in this block, and those who have been participating in previous blocks!

Editor.S went through the process of renewing the newsletter during the vacation period, and this time, I thought about sharing what's happening at Metes each week through a newsletter that summarizes the sessions we attended. I've covered a lot of topics in the previous 15 MNMs, including startups, entrepreneurship, and current issues, so I thought this block could be a good time to review our inputs.

The theme for this Learning Block 03 is 'Company Building.' We've already had some really necessary sessions from the first week. Let's review what we learned this week.

During the PSC session, we discussed "What's your cause?" and 'Why we have to make money.' This session taught me that we need to sell something to make money. Selling isn't just about products or services; it also includes selling ourselves, like writing a cover letter to prepare for a job. In the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street," Leonardo Dicaprio responded to the question of how to sell a pen by either stuttering or making customers feel the need to buy it. Which category do we belong to? To make money, we need to satisfy the needs and demands of our customers.

In the afternoon session, Lawyer Jang Mun-hwa, a patent attorney from KASAN, talked about what patents are, how to apply for them, and where to get support for intellectual property protection. We learned that it's essential to understand what patents are and design them according to the range of rights we need and that we can get help from lawyers as much as we know about our technology. It's also important to express in writing our technology, our rights, and the importance of filing a patent that will protect our business or future businesses. I think we all need to study more to protect our current and future businesses.

Every morning, we learn IT-related terms through a daily Check-In on Slack. On Wednesday, the Check-In term was "Fungible." Fungible means "replaceable, the ability to exchange something for something else." NFT's middle letter is Fungible! Who would be the biggest beneficiary? Wouldn't it be creators? Blockchain can prove that this product is original. The value of money continues to fluctuate. Who knows if 100 million won now will be worth 10 million won later? What is Irreplaceable even if the value of money changes? Isn't it our intellectual property? If everyone wants something, but only one exists, wouldn't it have tremendous value?

The "Soul of Leadership" session delved deeper into what makes a leader. What is the difference between a leader and a boss? We had a lively discussion on this question, and the conclusion was that a leader says, "Let's Go!" while a boss says, "Go!" This session focused on how to nurture and care for a leader's most critical internal source. The first topic was "Following the heart," and we talked about why it is difficult for us to know our hearts and how we can know them, using the "Circle of trust" as a framework. This is a good question to think about, even for those who missed the session!

In the afternoon session, we invited Lee Hee-yoon, director of SparkLabs Accelerator, and learned about the investment types of early startups through the concept of accelerators. Did you know that incubation and acceleration are completely different concepts? Acceleration goes beyond just providing space and work support; it includes educating and growing early-stage startups by providing investment, startup knowledge, experience, and know-how. Accelerators help startups achieve a growth rate of 5-7% per week and evaluate and assist based on metrics such as revenue or active users to help them ultimately achieve their goal of making money. Ultimately, we cannot grow without failure, so let's learn and grow through failing fast and failing cheaply. We hope to encourage all makers to learn from failures and keep moving forward.

Looking back on this week's sessions at Metes, we can see that it was another fruitful week. Metes continues to offer various sessions to help makers grow and develop their businesses and projects. We will continue to share Metes' news every week and support the challenges and growth of makers!