Start-Up Season 1 Episode 8 Recap – Backup

[00:01:00] Yong-san refuses to leave the office without making a backup of their current project. Chul-san explains it’s important to make a backup to avoid issues. He learned from his personal experience with ransomware nearly costing him 100 million won. Dal-mi heard about another startup losing 100 million won due to ransomware. Chul-san tells them they should really be more careful and start securing their assets. Sa-ha points out they don’t have any worthy assets, but Do-san responds they should still make backups as they don’t know when investors would start pouring their money in.

[00:03:00] Du-jeong and Sang-su plan their next move against Samsan Tech. Du-jeong won’t let Do-san get away with what he did inside his office. He wants Sang-su to give the security footage to the legal team so they can take action immediately. Meanwhile, Dal-mi treats Do-san’s cuts while he asks her what she likes about him. Do-san thinks Dal-mi will give a different answer, but she doesn’t. Her answer is still the same: she likes his hands. Dal-mi appreciates Do-san’s support when they were in Du-jeong’s office. He didn’t back down despite going up against a titan.

[00:05:30] Chul-san, Yong-san, and Do-san fool around outside Sandbox. They wait for Sa-ha and Dal-mi to finish their interview with a visually impaired woman. After the interview, they brainstorm on a different approach to their program and software. The woman gave them a lot of feedback, but most of the things she wants are already provided by some of the existing programs and software in the market. Do-san wants something different and innovative in their model. Dal-mi asks Do-san if they can make dogs talk. For a visually impaired person, having someone to guide them each day is a big help. Dal-mi wishes they could make dogs talk so guide dogs will have a stronger bond with their owner. Do-san realizes they could do such a thing. He calls Dal-mi a genius and drags her back to the office so he can explain.

[00:10:00] The solution is to incorporate Yeong-sil into their model. Do-san asks Yeong-sil if she could tell him where the nearest crosswalk is. Yeong-sil responds he would tell him if he could see where the crosswalk is. Yeong-sil can become a better guide for the visually impaired with their image recognition software. Dal-mi brings the proposal to Ji-pyeong, but he denies it immediately. Ji-pyeong knows no one would invest in their application; it doesn’t make money. Dal-mi insists they can convince investors to invest. Their ideas and goals will move them. Ji-pyeong responds investors are only moved by money. He tells Dal-mi that if he’s not convinced, so will the investors.

[00:13:30] Dal-mi takes the challenge to convince Ji-pyeong about their proposal. He tells him to wear the emotional transistor they are testing out for Cheon-ho. She tells Ji-pyeong if her pitch convinces him, the transistor will light up. Dal-mi tells Ji-pyeong about a letter she received from Do-san 15 years ago. She learned every moment in life is special and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Dal-mi doesn’t know it was Ji-pyeong who wrote the letter. Ji-pyeong feels wonderful Dal-mi still remembers his letters. Meanwhile, Won-deok starts to feel the effects of her illness; she has difficulty entering the passcode to their house. The transistor lights a bright blue hue. Dal-mi knows she convinced Ji-pyeong. He tries to convince Dal-mi not to proceed with the proposal — it’s a road full of hardships.

[00:16:00] Dal-mi doesn’t care. She tells Ji-pyeong not to worry about her because she enjoys hardships. She leaves Ji-pyeong inside his office. He thinks Dal-mi went back, but it is Seon-hak. She enjoyed eavesdropping on Ji-pyeong’s conversation with Dal-mi. She praises Dal-mi for knowing why she wants to do a certain project. Ji-pyeong tells Seon-hak that Dal-mi only knows the why; she doesn’t know how to execute the project. Seon-hak tells Ji-pyeong that everyone else will follow as long as they know the why. Ji-pyeong knows Seon-hak pertains to the girl on the swing. He tells Seon-hak the girl on the swing could also be Dal-mi. He reveals In-jae and Dal-mi are sisters. Ji-pyeong tells Seon-hak the back story behind In-jae and Dal-mi’s relationship.

[00:18:00] Dal-mi is in the hallway talking to a digital poster of Du-jeong. She insults Du-jeong’s image. In-jae sees her and asks why she didn’t tell those insults in person. Dal-mi tells In-jae they did something better. She heard about what Do-san did inside Du-jeong’s office. Dal-mi reminds In-jae about the time she would always give her the food she didn’t like. Dal-mi always fell for it, but she ate the food even if it only looked good outside. She explains this time she didn’t choose to be fooled and spat the food out. Before In-jae could respond, Sa-ha calls on Dal-mi for a meeting.

[00:20:00] A-hyun is outside a convenience store waiting for the clerk to open the door for her. She kept on waiting, but the clerk never came to the door. A-hyun only has 10000 won left in her wallet. She knows she’s running out of options, so she finally answers Du-jeong’s call. She asks him to reinstate her cards, but he refuses to do so without something in return. He wants A-hyun to bring In-jae back home. A-hyun didn’t know In-jae ran away from home. Du-jeong is still explaining what happened, but A-hyun ends their conversation and calls In-jae to meet up with her. They are eating when A-hyun opens up the topic: Why did In-jae leave Du-jeong’s home. She tries to convince In-jae to return to Du-jeong’s company, but she refuses.

[00:22:00] In-jae doesn’t want to talk about it. She is already content with the current state of things. Meanwhile, Dal-mi speaks with Ji-pyeong again as he is helping her with their business proposal. He gives her a list of big companies that could help them with their funding. The companies on the list are either interested in helping the handicapped or need to work on their image by working more with the handicapped sector. Dal-mi thanks Ji-pyeong for his help. She wants to make something special for his birthday, but it has already passed. He tells Dal-mi his birthday is on May 7. Dal-mi notices Ji-pyeong has the same birthday as Do-san. Ji-pyeong confirms he has the same birthday and ends their conversation.

[00:24:00] Dal-mi doesn’t know Do-san is watching from afar as she talks with Ji-pyeong. Meanwhile, the developers at Samsan Tech work hard to get their program running while Dal-mi hunts down a company that would invest in their business model. She goes to the first company on the list, but she knows they will ignore her. The manager asks for her business card but places it along with other business cards of companies they are ignoring. Dal-mi realizes her road is indeed full of hardships, but she once again accepts the challenge. Chul-san and Yong-san go back to knitting with Do-san to reduce their stress levels. While they knit, Do-san gets an idea and pitches it to Chul-san and Yong-san.

[00:27:00] Dal-mi just finished another interview with another company; she gets rejected again. It’s the 10^th company on the list, but she will not give up. Dal-mi knows she needs to be persistent to the point of being a pest, but she is willing to do whatever it takes to land an investor. Do-san is also doing whatever he can to get their program and application off the ground. After what seemed to be weeks of hard work, Do-san and the team developed a working prototype of their application. They invite the visually impaired woman to try their application out; it works as intended. The application detects money and tells the specific amount.

[00:29:30] They use Yeong-sil as the application’s voice, and he tells the blind woman how much money is on the table. It’s a defining moment for Samsan Tech, and Dal-mi uses the test run to provide results for their investors. Dal-mi hitches a ride with one of the investors just to explain their proposal to her, but she doesn’t know the place they went to. The investor knows the service is great, but their company no longer has the budget to fund them. The investor also knows Ji-pyeong personally. She calls him so he can pick Dal-mi up.

[00:33:00] Ji-pyeong arrives in his car and tells Dal-mi he’s in the area for business matters. He tells Dal-mi to get some sleep while they drive back. She tells Ji-pyeong she has trouble falling asleep in someone else’s car but instantly falls asleep. Ji-pyeong drives back to Sandbox without waking Dal-mi up. He allows her to sleep in his car until she wakes up on her own. Ji-pyeong reviews their proposal while she sleeps. When Dal-mi wakes up, Ji-pyeong tells her to just leave the voice processing technology out of their program. Dal-mi confidently tells Ji-pyeong that Do-san would be able to pull it off. She asks Ji-pyeong not to tell Do-san about her difficulties finding an investor. She wants Do-san to focus on his work without worrying about the money.

[00:38:00] Dal-mi goes up to their office, but she left her scrunchie in Ji-pyeong’s car. She goes inside as the rest of the team celebrates. They tell Dal-mi their final test for the app went great. The app scored a 97% recognition rate. They are ready to upload the app on the global market, but Dal-mi remembers the higher the users, the higher the cost of the app. Dal-mi tells Yong-san not to upload the app on the global market, but they want to upload it; they have a bet on the number of users who would download it. The one who guesses closest to the number of downloads for a week needs to treat everyone. They all agree and upload the app on the global market.

[00:41:00] Dal-mi goes to church with Won-deok to pray for a lower download count for their app. She knows it is selfish, but they don’t have any investors yet, so they can’t afford a download count higher than 1000. After praying, Dal-mi and Won-deok go home. Dal-mi notices their digital lock got replaced. Won-deok tells Dal-mi the digital lock got broken, so she replaced it with an old lock instead. Dal-mi wants to get a new digital door, but Won-deok refuses. Dal-mi is so proud of their application she shows the app to Won-deok. She tells her it is Do-san’s idea to create an app for the visually impaired.

[00:44:00] Won-deok downloads the app on her phone to give it a try. She tells Yeong-sil to read a bible passage for her. Yeong-sil reads the passage flawlessly, bringing Won-deok to tears. She opens her notebook and decides to write something down. Meanwhile, Yong-san and Chul-san constantly check the analytics of their application to see how many persons have downloaded their app. Sa-ha tells Yong-san to stop refreshing the page; it doesn’t change the download count. Dal-mi tells everyone she’s disappointed, but she has a large smile. Chul-san notices she isn’t disappointed at all. Cheon-ho appears in their office and offers to make a marketing strategy for them. Do-san wants to know what idea he has in mind, but Cheon-ho just left, so they assume he really doesn’t have an idea in mind.

[00:46:30] Dal-mi tells everyone to cheer up as she’ll treat them to chicken later on. They go out that night to eat chicken and drink some beer. Everyone is disappointed except for Dal-mi. She tells them her prayers have been answered again. Dal-mi doesn’t know Cheon-ho is working on a marketing strategy for their application. He looks for the picture of Do-san with the famous baseball player, Park Chan-ho. He takes a picture and posts it on social media to stir up online talk about the app. While Dal-mi celebrates, the image of Do-san with Chan-ho reaches Chan-ho. He tries the app and is impressed by it. Do-san takes Dal-mi home. She is already drunk. Won-deok gives a notebook to Do-san. She tells him it is filled with her feedback on the application.

[00:51:00] Won-deok thanks Do-san for creating an app that would help her in the future. The next day, Do-san’s mother wakes him up; he is on TV. Chan-ho immediately does an interview for the app. He tells everyone the app is wonderful; it will help visually impaired people. Even Ji-pyeong is shocked to see Chan-ho talk about Do-san and his application. The download count of their application goes from 10 to 10000 in a single night. Samsan Tech is declared Start-up Company of the week for their feat. Now everyone celebrates except for Dal-mi. She knows the download spike will cost their company a fortune.

[00:55:00] Sa-ha tells Dal-mi their application might reach a download of 30000. Dal-mi worries about the overall cost of their application. Meanwhile, Do-san arrives at Sandbox. He receives a call from the police. The rest of the team celebrates in a karaoke bar. Yong-san calls Do-san so he can celebrate with them, but he isn’t picking up his phone. The police called him over because Morning Group filed a case against him for property damage and threatening. The police tells him to just settle things with the Morning Group, so he can avoid further issues. If he fails to secure an agreement with the Morning Group, he will face trial, a bigger problem for him. Meanwhile, Dal-mi is also running out of options as her list of investors grows smaller.

[00:57:00] The next company on the list is the Morning Group, but she refuses to ask them for help. She is outside Sandbox when she spots Do-san sitting on the bench. Dal-mi approaches Do-san and asks him where he was all day. Do-san gives the notebook filled with Won-deok’s feedback on their application. Dal-mi recognizes the handwriting, but she doesn’t know yet that her grandmother wrote it. She tells Do-san she wants to meet the old lady, but Do-san tells her the truth.

[01:00:00] Do-san takes Dal-mi home. She cried earlier once she learned the truth, but Dal-mi still thanked Do-san. She thanks him for developing the app and telling her the truth before everything is too late. Do-san tells Dal-mi that Won-deok wants to see her smile for a longer time. He tells her to put on a smile and go home. Dal-mi puts on some makeup to cover her crying. Dal-mi goes home to face her grandmother. She does her best not to cry, but she can’t avoid it. Dal-mi assures her grandmother she will work hard on their application, so she can make use of it in the future.

[01:04:00] Dal-mi goes back to work and speaks to In-jae. She wants In-jae to take her to Du-jeong. She badly needs an investor, and she’s willing to beg for his forgiveness to set things straight. In-jae and Dal-mi arrive, but they see Do-san already kneeling before Du-jeong. Dal-mi doesn’t know, so Du-jeong tells her about the case they filed against him. Dal-mi tells Du-jeong she wants to meet him because she needs funding for their project. Du-jeong is willing to fund their project if Dal-mi and Do-san kneel in front of him and beg mercy. He tells In-jae it’s time to teach them a lesson about running their mouths when they don’t have the money to back it up. Du-jeong doesn’t know Dal-mi has a backup plan up her sleeve.

[01:08:00] During their meeting with the Morning Group, Dal-mi receives a text from Ji-pyeong. He tells her to record the meeting just in case. Dal-mi does as told and records everything. Sang-su decides to run his mouth and be arrogant during the meeting. Dal-mi ends up recording everything Sang-su said and what Du-jeong told them. The recording is juicy enough to ruin the Morning Group’s reputation and cost them a lot of money to repair the damage. Dal-mi tells Du-jeong she’s willing to make his problems go away if he settles the case with Do-san and gives them the funding for their project. Du-jeong is in no position to decline the deal, so he accepts and declares they will fund Samsan Tech’s project.

[01:11:00] To show her appreciation for Ji-pyeong, she gives him a gift, the special noodles from Gapyeong. Ji-pyeong tells Dal-mi he went to Gapyeong for business and the noodles. Dal-mi goes back to Gapyeong and gets Ji-pyeong the noodles, thinking he’s craving for it. She wrote the instructions on how to cook it and left it on his table. Ji-pyeong gives Dal-mi their business proposal and tells her to prepare for Demo Day. Ji-pyeong is happy with the gift, but he notices he needs to cook it on his own. Dal-mi goes home to check the notes Ji-pyeong left on their proposal. She notices the handwriting looks familiar. Dal-mi takes out one of Do-san’s letters from 15 years ago and compares the handwriting.

[01:13:00] She finds it odd Ji-pyeong has the same handwriting as Do-san. She also remembers they have the same birthday and starts doubting the coincidences. Meanwhile, Ji-pyeong finished cooking the Gapyeong noodles and is really impressed by their taste. The noodles taste like pine nuts, even though no pine nuts are included. While Ji-pyeong enjoys his noodles, Do-san cries over Dal-mi’s scrunchie. It is the same scrunchie she left inside Ji-pyeong’s car. Dal-mi is on the verge of discovering the connection between Ji-pyeong and Do-san.

[01:16:30] While Do-san leaves the building, Ji-pyeong sees him and devises a plan to make him jealous. Ji-pyeong finds Dal-mi’s scrunchie inside his car, and he knows giving it to Do-san will send him off the wall. Ji-pyeong doesn’t get the initial reaction he imagined and is annoyed with Do-san. But as he leaves the building, he sees Do-san staring at Dal-mi’s scrunchie; he knows his plan worked. Do-san sees Ji-pyeong’s car leave the car park, and he can’t help but stare at it like he wants to blow it up.