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Isamogu (2359), which operates 14 D2C (direct-to-consumer) brands including health functional foods and derma cosmetics, recorded sales of 176.8 billion won last year. Sales rose nearly eightfold from 23 billion won in 2021 within four years. Operating profit reached 26.1 billion won.
Isamogu was established in May 2019 and is now an eight-year-old company. Two co-founders, graduates of Seoul National University, started from a campus startup club and have built a structure that directly plans and operates various brands including Wellit, Celladixs, Medion, Cleanery, Housewit, and Bifigen.
The name was derived from "23:59," reflecting the intention to create products that accompany consumers' daily lives until the very last moment of the day. This also explains why the company expanded its categories from health supplements to cosmetics, women's products, and baby products.
A key feature is growth achieved solely through internal sales without external investment. After validating product planning capabilities domestically, the company expanded into Taiwan and Hong Kong, then North America, leading to rapid overseas sales growth. This year, it has set a goal of achieving 300 billion won in sales.
The organization's size more than doubled within a year and a half. The workforce grew from 120 employees to 250 (including contract and dispatched workers, totaling around 280). In September last year, offices scattered across three locations were consolidated into a single new building, "SPACE11," located on Hak-dong-ro in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The average age is 30.7 years, making it a young organization.
Evaluations suggest that Isamogu's unique organizational culture, which has successfully managed rapid expansion, lies at the heart of its steep growth trajectory. The company describes its working style around two pillars: "transparent communication" and an "environment for deep work immersion."
The core of Isamogu's communication method is "full disclosure." All internal Slack channels, except those related to management and human resources, are open, allowing anyone to observe the activities of marketing, product planning, quality, and design teams.
A flat atmosphere is also highlighted as a distinctive feature. The co-founders born in the 1990s are directly members of an internal League of Legends (LoL) club and compete against employees in basketball matches on the basement court of the office building. Leadership workshops even invite employees' families.
At the beginning of each quarter, all employees gather for an offline town hall meeting. The session starts with introductions of new hires and awards for long-serving staff, followed by team project sharing and presentations of corporate strategy by management. It concludes with a real-time question-and-answer segment.
Questions are submitted anonymously online. During the early-year town hall, 111 questions were posted. Sharp inquiries regarding salary increase calculation criteria, fairness of evaluation systems, and the company's stance on abolishing comprehensive wage systems are not filtered out but appear directly on stage.
Questions and answers from the field are managed in a separate database. Presentation materials are also distributed to all employees to ensure those who could not attend do not miss the company's direction.
Voluntary events at the headquarters level are also active. For example, the Brand Support Headquarters operates a "Bottleneck Resolution King" award, where individuals who resolve organizational bottlenecks are voted on quarterly, and the department head personally funds gift certificates as rewards.
Shortly after moving to the new office building, a "Two-Week Ground Challenge" was held where each floor created its own rules. Rules such as greeting colleagues during commute and having lunch with other teams took root on each floor. This was an initiative to unite the previously scattered organization into one team.
Isamogu seeks individuals whose clear definition of growth outweighs industry experience. The company is also open to job mobility across brands and regions. In fact, there are cases where employees transferred from the Southeast Asia business team to the North America business team and successfully replicated their success models.
Performance rewards are directly implemented. Starting this year, semi-annual individual incentives have been introduced centered on sales teams. The management's core stance is to provide clear rewards to high performers to prevent talent attrition.
The current turnover rate stands at 6–7%. Oh Yu-jeong, head of Isamogu's HR team, stated, "Last year, it was less than 3%." She added, "In many companies, the workforce turns over completely within a year, but we have a relatively low hiring failure rate because leaders personally conduct first-round interviews to maintain high standards."
Oh Yu-jeong (Team Lead) said, "I don't believe in lifelong employment. Even if someone doesn't continue working at our company, I hope they are recognized as an 'Isamogu alumnus' anywhere." He further noted, "When the company succeeds, individual careers also thrive, so we invest fully in growth."
Despite rapid workforce expansion, a robust onboarding process is cited as the reason the organization remains stable. New hires undergo a six-week onboarding program, starting with Week 1's Welcome Week for tool setup and coffee chats with team leaders, followed by Culture Fit and Excellence Weeks.
Each week focuses on different topics such as welfare systems, expense usage procedures, feedback culture, and codes of conduct. Individual onboarding pages are provided, and a "buddy" is assigned to offer close support from the neighboring desk. Originally a 12-week process, it was condensed to six weeks due to the judgment that it could not keep pace with the company's growth speed.
Welfare programs focus on deep work immersion. Recently, the lunch delivery system was changed to floor-based distribution so employees can enjoy warmer meals. Cafe beverages and snacks in the office building are available free of charge 24/7 without limits.
Other benefits include: annual welfare points worth 1.2 million won; welcome gifts from company brands upon hiring; quarterly random lunches worth 40,000 won per person; two weeks of paid refreshment leave for 3-, 5-, and 7-year anniversaries; comprehensive health checkups; and early Friday departures for additional work Monday through Thursday.
All expenses related to work-related lectures, seminars, and book purchases are fully covered. Lectures featuring external speakers are also held regularly. The company's stance is that if something is deemed necessary for growth, there are no spending limits.
This year, the most prioritized task for Isamogu at the corporate level is the introduction of AI (artificial intelligence). Initially, accounts were distributed only to team leaders, but based on the judgment to "broaden the base from below," it was expanded to all employees.
Currently, over 200 employees receive Claude accounts worth 200,000 won per month each. This represents an annual investment of hundreds of millions of won. Eight members with high AI utilization rates were selected as "AI Champions" and provided access to the top-tier plan.
Isamogu's mid-to-long-term goal is to achieve 1 trillion won in sales. The company is further refining its organizational structure to realize this target. Joo Jae-hyung, Lee Sam-o-gu (CEO), emphasized, "The faster an organization grows, the easier it is for systems to lag behind people. Continuously improving shortcomings is Isamogu's way."
[MoneyToday startup media platform 'Unicorn Factory']
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