An Interview with Hisun Kim, the Founder and CEO of Wildseed Tech
At the beginning of the year, you are all pumped up to set a goal that you are sure to achieve, from losing weight to reading a book a month to eating healthier. A month later, your life catches up with you and your New Year’s resolutions are long forgotten. Hisun Kim, the founder and CEO of Wildseed Tech, is a couch potato turned marathon junkie with the help of a simple but powerful social app called CoDo.
According to a study on accountability from the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), you have a 65% chance of completing a goal if you commit to someone. And if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you've committed, you will increase your chances of success by up to 95%. CoDo app does just that, increase your chance of achieving your goals.
Q: What is the CoDo App? How did you come up with it?
H: Each of us may have experienced that it is tough to exert consistent daily effort in something, however eager we were at the beginning. The CoDo App uses the power of social to help you overcome mental blocks and achieve your goals. It has many features for you and a few trusted friends to check in your goal progress together, celebrate each step together, and stay on the course together. I transformed myself from a couch potato to a three-time half-marathon finisher in 2019, thanks to online friends' support and encouragement.
Q: What is CoDo App used for? Do you offer specific guided programs?
H: The CoDoer community gets the willpower boost for many diverse challenges that need consistent daily or weekly effort. Some examples of popular activities tracked on the CoDo App include: running, walking 30 minutes a day, going to the gym, taking an online lesson, reading at least one page of a book, read an article in a foreign language, and keeping up with the Keto diet. The CoDo App is free to download and use. Anyone can create a challenge and invite their friends. For a more structured program with experienced moderators and a group to join, the CoDo team offers limited seats at a few selected challenges for a fee.
Q: Simple Steps recently hosted a personal planning workshop with you in January. How does planning connect with your work at CoDo?
H: I am a planning nerd who've been doing the Annual Personal Planning for over 12 years. While I was getting better with planning over time, it was still tough to stick with plans throughout the year. It was only after I discovered the power of social in personal accountability that I felt that I finally completed the full cycle of planning and achieving the plan. I shared the findings with close friends, and in turn, friends asked me to share it with a bigger audience.
Q: You and Doyeon go way back. Can you share your experience working with your long-time friend?
H: I've been an old friend and a believer of Doyeon going back 25 years. Doyeon tried my Personal Planning framework and asked to share it with the Simple Steps community. I realized the mission of Simple Steps fits well with that of the CoDo App, to help people achieve their full potential through social factors. Furthermore, the CoDo App's social interaction, co-tracking, and co-celebration are quite effective for the all-women community. So it was my pleasure to work with Simple Steps to provide the workshop for Personal Planning. I hope the Simple Steps community could use the framework to plan what is needed to step forward this year, and the CoDo App for the daily journey.
Hisun is a mother of a 7-year-old with a full-time job as a CEO of a busy startup, plus a half-marathoner. Her background in Product Management and Experience Design quenches her thirst for optimizing many aspects of life and making them more efficient. Are you inspired yet? Read about her first marathon experience.
CoDo App is offering a special discount on moderated challenges for Simple Steps members. Contact support@codoapp.co for more information.
Interview date: January 26, 2020
Edited by Kat Choi