Illinois Student Stands Tall In Silicon Valley, 'Shark Tank'

CHAMPAIGN, IL — For many college students, senior year goes hand-in-hand with the anticipation of what job they've landed, where they'll start their post-grad life, or what graduate school they'll attend. But Chang Hun Lee is a little past that. A senior accountancy major at the University of Illinois' Gies College of Business, Lee has already founded his own startup company (yes, company) called OneSoftDigm (OSD), and he is working with his team members to bring a third product to market.

Seven years after he began at U of I, Lee is headed to Silicon Valley. It seems he's done more in those seven years than most of us do in our entire lives, including the 2017 launch of One Smart Diet, a product he described to Patch as the first small pocket-sized device that measures and analyzes body measurement data.

At 25, the college senior from South Korea has already traveled the world thanks to his startup, touring their offices across the globe, attending conferences, exhibitions and meetings, receiving awards, and making a stop back home in Korea for two years of mandatory military service in the marines. In 2015, Lee said he separated himself as a sergeant, and then took off a year and a half before his junior year to bring his product to Silicon Valley.

Lee was and is able to travel and promote OSD products thanks in part to taking care of his health after finding out he was already on a diabetic path as a teen, due to being overweight and in bad shape. Lee said his academic schedule in Korea was morning to late night, therefore no after school sports.

In fact, Lee said the inspiration for OSD and One Smart Diet can be credited to that health issue and the need for a convenient, detailed way to obtain accurate health measurements.

The product

(OSD product line. Photo credit: Cheng Hun Lee)

When Lee attended high school in England, he went to a hospital for diabetic treatment. That's where Lee said he first saw an expensive device that measured body fat and muscle mass.

"[The doctors] recommended diet and exercise based on the results of the data I got from that machine," Lee said.

But how is this machine different from other similar products out there?

According to Lee, One Smart Diet goes beyond just receiving numbers or information on a printout. You aren't just moving around, tracking your activity and accepting a number that shows up on your screen or device.

The product is a wellness device, and therefore isn't FDA approved, Lee said. But he and the company want to make it accessible to all. Lee told Patch he already owns 10 patents for the technology, so one could say he's headed in the right direction.

"Through our product, we let you manage your own results, through our iPhone and Android app, which will show you trends of different data," Lee said. "We can show you data from up to a year, you can track your own data, see progress, and show you how your body fat changed. It also recommends diet and exercise based on your measurements."

Lee said the One Smart Diet website provides data as such:

• Body fat mass
• Body fat percentage
• Skeletal muscle mass
• Body mass index
• Caloric metabolic rate

Lee said the product is a convenient, in-home way for people, especially the elderly, to be able to obtain important health-based data. You can also see how much your data deviate from target values and track your numbers over time.

(Photo credit: Cheng Hun Lee)

The pitch

After his sophomore year, Lee said he deferred his degree and headed to Silicon Valley. But, his journey to California can be credited to Gies College of Business.

"During my sophomore year, when you have to decide a goal for what you want to do, or what your parents want to do, one of the professors helped me out," Lee said. "There were also so many professors encouraging me to do what I wanted to do. So, that encouraged me to defer my degree and go to Silicon Valley."

Lee said it took him about four months to get into the "network" in Silicon Valley, meaning, into the realm of investors. According to Lee, if your pitch stands out to an investor, it will flow into the network because investors share information even though they're known to be competitive.

When asked to describe a common misconception about Silicon Valley, Lee said the following:

"There's a 0.007 percent survival rate in Silicon Valley. The reason I stood out was because of the pitch, which is the key I guess, because they give you three to five minutes to pitch investors your product."

Your personal story and student background can be included in a pitch, Lee added.

The odds were in Lee's favor. Despite being rejected by dozens of investors, his product ended up standing out in the end, with thousands of dollars being invested in One Smart Diet.

Lee said he also won first place out of hundreds of startups, which came with an award of $10,000. The name of that competition was clarified by Gies College of Business News as GITEX Dubai Expo 2018.

(Photo credit: Cheng Hun Lee)

The startup was also selected as a top 15 startup in the western region of America, as each country sends three startups to silicon valley for the chance to win $1 million.

Fast-forward to 2019, Lee said he's sold around 15,000 units, which is $1.5 million in sales, for his product that's valued at around $5.5 million. The product is available in the Middle East and Europe, but Lee said it will be available in the U.S. by March, as Amazon Launchpad — a program for startups — selected Lee's company.

The (future) plan

According to Lee, more developments, fundraising and product launches are part of his post-grad plan. In addition to the product's latest version, Fitrus+, Lee said they hope to launch a third product after graduation. A patent has been cleared for a blood-pressure monitor that they've made into a wearable device without using actual pressure, and they're hoping for $2 million more in investments for the hardware. Then, according to Lee, the company's value would be on its way to $10 million.

Playing with Sharks

Oh, and why not stay tuned to see if Lee makes it onto the hit ABC show, "Shark Tank," as he told Patch he finds out soon if he was chosen to present in front of the "Sharks" in June.

(Photo credit: Cheng Hun Lee)

But until then, Lee will enjoy his last few months as a Gies student at a place he always found his way back to, while bringing encouragement to current and future Gies students.

"As long as you have passion, that is what matters," he said.