I have been fortunate to work with some great founders. They generally have four distinct personalities inside one person. Some naturally conflict – like being Moses externally and Kung Fu Panda internally. But, this split personality makes the CEO very lonely, because the CEO cannot generally discuss his doubts and fears with the execs or the investors without impacting his external Moses image.

Whenever I meet a founder, I remember the emotions of starting Venture Law Group.

As a cofounding partner of Venture Law Group (VLG), I experienced first-hand the emotional roller coaster, self-doubt and financial fears of a start-up. All partners had no income for the first six months of VLG – while everyone else received full salary. Law firms are legally ineligible for venture capital funding. To compound the stress, my wife also gave birth to our first child two weeks before we started VLG. My wife likes to say: the husband’s job is to bring home the cash and take out the trash. I failed on both at that time, since I had no income and was working almost every hour. I had voluntarily resigned from a high-income position as a partner of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to start a risky venture. I felt like I had jumped off a high cliff without a safety net – this is the Silicon Valley ethos.

One startup CEO gave me great advice: he said the higher the cliff, the more time you have to learn to fly. We did learn to fly.

“I really enjoyed working with Tae Hea when I was at Airespace. Tae Hea Nahm was the founding investor of Airespace, a successful wireless LAN systems startup acquired by Cisco in 2005 for $450mm. Tae Hea did a great job pulling together the founding team and setting them on a path systematically to determine customers' top problems with wireless LAN's and to create an innovative architecture to address those problems. As successful as we were later in bringing the Airespace products to market, the seeds of our success were planted before I arrived, in Tae Hea's hands-on mentoring of the founding team as interim CEO. When I joined as CEO, Tae Hea graciously handed over the reins (and they were great reins!) Thereafter I was the grateful beneficiary of Tae Hea's incisive counsel. He is great at quickly coming to the heart of a matter and gently suggesting a way forward. We were in a fast-moving and highly competitive space; Tae Hea's support made a huge difference to me and the company. In all, Tae Hea was a great partner, along with the rest of the board, as we rapidly grew the company and came to a great exit. I heartily recommend Tae Hea as an investor and board member.”

"My career has been shaped by two start ups- Metricom and Airespace. Both were great and memorable experiences but Airespace was undoubtedly a case study on how you would want a start up to go. Airespace started as a vision at Storm Ventures around wireless in the enterprise and the incubation of four founders in their offices. I was fortunate enough to be one those founders and get to work with the partners of Storm Ventures. Tae Hea Nahm who is a partner at Storm ventures was our founding CEO and provided us key leadership in the early days of the company. While there are many factors to the success of any startup, one of the key ones is understanding the problem and opportunity. Tae Hea provided the leadership, industry contacts and time necessary to understand the problem and define the product that allowed us to successfully raise money and ultimately deliver the solution that the market was looking for. So while there are many things needed for the success of a startup, one of the key ones for any founder is correctly defining the solution up front and minimizing any course corrections that would require unplanned fund raising. With Storm’s support and Tae Hea’s early leadership in the company as CEO and later as a board member, Airespace was a great successful 3 ½ year adventure from defining the solution, fund raising, hiring the development and executive team to ultimately a very successful acquisition by Cisco."

"The entire team at Storm provided invaluable advice and support, particularly Tae Hea Nahm acting as our CEO for the first 14 months. Their attitude of “customers first” aligned very well with our desire to solve a real problem with our products, not just introduce a new technology for its own sake. Their introductions to other venture firms and their personal relationships with the partners in those firms led directly to our successfully filling out all of our funding rounds. After closing our A round, Storm continued to support us, introducing potential employees, customers, and suppliers. Their network of contacts in the industry and our potential market was quite extensive. Without Storm, our path might have been very different and, possibly, much less successful."

"Storm was the lead investor in the Series A financing for BerkanaWireless and stayed with us for five years. During the time, all the Storm partners were extremely helpful and provided us with precious advice and support . The company grew with them. Especially, Tae Hea was always available and guided us in various ways, including funding strategies, customer relationships, recruiting, business development and product roadmap. Tae Hea is very well connected with the Korean customers and venture capitalists and helped the company get engaged with customers in the early stages and build credit in Korea. From his experience in making successful startups in Silicon Valley, Tae Hea gave us confidence for the company’s ultimate success. With Tae Hea’s help along with support from various venture capitalists and advisors, BerkanaWireless successfully raised Series A and B funds and was eventually acquired by Qualcomm, where the Berkana Engineering team has delivered phenomenal outcomes by producing profitable top selling products and achieving huge revenue. I strongly recommend to have Tae Hea as a partner for a startup. He will guide them to success."

"스톰의 남변호사님은 컴투스 투자 이후 계속 이사회멤버로 재직하면서 당사의 성장, 글로벌경쟁력, 및 경영효율성을 제고하기 위해서 많은 도움을 주고 계십니다. 대체적으로 재무적인 투자자 역할에서 지원이 끝나는 한국 VC와는 달리 회사의 장기적인 전략설정에도 충분히 관심과 이해를 가지고 계시며, 이를 실행하는데 있어 경영진에게 많은 신뢰와 지원을 아끼지 않으셨습니다.
시장에 대한 높은 이해, 비니지스 경험 및 글로벌 인사이트를 바탕으로 복잡한 문제 속에서 단순한 원인을 찾아내고, 그에 따른 해결방안을 도출하거나, 새로운 사업기회를 발견하는데 있어 탁월한 능력을 가지고 계신다고 생각합니다. 또한 남변호사님이 보유한 폭넓은 비즈니스 네트워크를 통하여 미국 현지에서 글로벌 업체와 미팅 및 사업제휴를 주선하는 등 컴투스가 미국 현지에서 글로벌 진출 전략을 수립하는데 있어서도 많은 도움을 받고 있습니다.
글로벌 시장에 성공적으로 진출하고 싶어하는 국내 Start-up들에게 신뢰있는 전략적 파트너로서 남변호사와 스톰VC를 강력히 추천드리고 싶습니다."
"After investing in Com2us, Tae Hea Nahm of Storm Ventures has continued to work as a board member and provided advice on corporate growth, global competition and management efficiency. Unlike Korean VCs who supply only funding, TH Nahm has showed great interest in the company and understanding of our long term goals . And, he has provided his trust and support for the management to achieve these goals. Based on his understanding of markets, business environment and global insight, he finds simple solutions to complex business problems. He also has identified new business opportunities for us. Additionally, he has helped Com2us formulate its global strategy and expand into the US market by utilizing his network in the US.
We would like to strongly recommend Tae Hea Nahm and Storm Ventures as an ideal strategic partner to any Korean start-ups who would like to compete in global market."

" 한국의 venture 환경은 미국과 다릅니다. 한국에는 도전을 즐길 줄 아는 우수한 기술자가 많고 뛰어난 IT 환경을 갖추고 있어서 IT venture를 시작하기에는 매우 좋습니다. 하지만, 대기업을 중심으로 한 경제적 환경은 때때로 venture의 성장을 방해하기도 합니다. MCW 역시 H.264 기반의 mobile multimedia solution을 세계 최초로 상용화하는 과정에서 얻은 결과를 회사의 성장과 연결시키는 과정이 필요하였습니다. 이때, Storm Ventures와 Tae Hea Nahm을 investor로 만나게 된 것은 큰 행운이었습니다. Tae Hea Nahm은 결과에만 관심을 보이는 일부 투자자들과 달리 목표를 분명히 하고 그 목표에 도달하는 과정에 대하여 조언하고 끊임없이 feedback을 주었습니다. 또한 미국내의 global company와 연결에도 직접적인 도움을 주었습니다. 이 과정을 통해서 MCW는 한국에서 창업한 기술 ventures로서 global company들과 성공적인 business를 한 회사가 될 수 있었습니다. Tae Hea Nahm의 회사에 대한 긍정적인 격려와 지지는 회사가 Core Logic에 인수될 때까지도 경영진에게 큰 도움이 되었습니다. 즉, Storm과 Tae Hea Nahm은 단순한 investor가 아니라 회사의 전략과 실행에 참여하는 partner가 된 것입니다. 이것은 우리 팀이 시작하는 두번 째 startup에도 Storm과 Tae Hea Nahm이 참여하는 것을 매우 기뻐하는 이유입니다."
"The business environment for start ups in Korea is different from the US. Because Korea has many good engineers and great IT infrastructure, Korea has good resources for IT start ups. However, Korea’s economic structure is based on conglomerate, and this economic structure can restrict new start ups. MCW was the first company in the world to commercialize a H.264 based mobile multimedia solution, but it was not simple to turn this technical success and experience to the growth of the company. At this critical time, we were very lucky to meet Storm Ventures and Tae Hea Nahm as investors. Unlike other investors who only focused on the final results, TH Nahm set clear objectives for us and provided continuous advise and feedback. He also helped us with introductions to US global companies. Through these processes,MCW became one of the few Korean start ups who successfully entered into business with global companies. TH Nahm’s constructive encouragement and support were essential to the management team until MCW was purchased by Core Logic. In other words, Storm Ventures and Tae Hea Nahm are not simple investors but they are business partners fully vested in company’s strategy and operation. This is the reason why our team is so happy to partner again with Storm Ventures and Tae Hea Nahm for our next start up."

"As a cofounder of AireSpace (acquired by Cisco) and MobileIron, I have worked closely with Tae Hea in the founding and success of both companies. He understands the sausage-making process of startups very well. More specifically, he helped me recruit the founders, develop the business plan, close the other investors, and provided key counsel as a board member. I would recommend him as the founding investor for any start-up."

"I’ve had two laps around the track with Storm and Tae Hea---first was Airespace sold to Cisco in 2005---then our current company MobileIron, which we are building to be stand alone profitable company. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tae Hea closely in both companies. Tae Hea finds core strategic market theses and backs a team to tackle it. Tae Hea has great coaching instincts, doesn’t get hung up on the details, and has the knack to see through all the noise and smoke and focus in on the one or two “knobs” that matter. His focus on building capital efficient companies is a source of long term value. As an entrepreneur, he is very helpful at the early stage fundraising all the way through the latter stage business strategy when scaling and focusing on cost of sales. He trusts the executives to do the right thing but won’t waver to deliver a tough message. I respect Tae Hea and I look forward to 3rd lap around the track with him and Storm."

"I have worked with Tae Hea since the early 90’s at our previous company IC Works. Tae Hea was vary instrumental as our corporate attorney with all stages of IC Works from formation to selling the company and made significant contributions to our founding, growth, and key events such as financings, divesting our fab, and sale to Cypress At Silego he continues to support highly dynamic semiconductor business with experience and knowledge. Specific skills that Tae Hea brings in:

• Understands technology and business environments
• Strategic thinker with ability to simplify pretty complex business conditions
• Great sounding board to examine our strategy and even tactical issues but not intrusive
• Willing to be patient while creating a valuable business enterprise
• Very helpful with legal interpretation as needed
• Calm personality and never loses temper even under very stressful situations”

"As with any startup, we faced a variety of unique challenges in founding VLG. No one before had started a law firm focused solely on doing corporate work for technology companies. And unlike many startup companies, we had no head start in developing a new product or service. In fact, we had to hit the ground running to compete directly with many larger, better-known and better-financed competitors. This required developing a crisp, strategic and tactical mission statement and business plan that would enable us to attract significant business and achieve meaningful profitability in record time. Tae Hea provided great leadership in helping to develop our successful business plan. A key element of that plan was a set of core values that would ensure that partners, associates and staff would work together as a cohesive team with a shared vision. Tae Hea noted that, given how hard we all were working, we needed to create an environment in which everyone felt part of a happy family— and we succeeded in doing that."