Why Most Founders Fail at Selling Their Company with Han Ko, President & CEO at USAKO Group

Han Ko (Sacco Group) joins Raj Tut to share his journey from being born in South Korea, immigrating to Southern California, and ultimately building his career in the St. Louis region after studying engineering at Washington University. With a background in computer science, electrical engineering, and signal processing, Han climbed the corporate ladder in the telecom industry before taking the entrepreneurial leap to build and own software products himself. Over the years, he has become an active venture capitalist and advisor, involved in 80+ companies with collective valuations exceeding $1B, while also serving in regional economic development roles and supporting entrepreneurship through mentoring and speaking engagements. The conversation centers on Han’s core investing and leadership philosophy: taking other people’s capital creates a real moral responsibility, which is why he favors full transparency, clear risk disclosure, and investors who do proper diligence upfront. Han breaks down how he identified market needs early, made a high-risk decision to resign to protect IP ownership, and learned that building a product is only half the battle—distribution, validation, and relationships are critical to closing enterprise deals. He also explains how he “accidentally” became a venture capitalist by helping friends through funding gaps, then intentionally built his finance skillset to operate professionally. The episode closes with a practical operating principle that shows up in every chapter of his story: learn aggressively from mistakes, put in your best effort with the information you have, and build a life you can look back on without regret.

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Connect with Han Ko

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/han-ko-3b8814185/

Timestamps for Key Segments

00:00 Investor philosophy: responsibility, transparency, and disclosure
01:04 Storyboard Living sponsor message

01:35 Guest introduction and credentials overview

02:41 Han’s background: Korea to California to St. Louis via WashU

05:05 Early career: telecom engineering and moving up the corporate ladder

10:46 Selling enterprise software: production validation and due diligence lessons

11:55 Networking as the unlock for landing the first license deal

13:26 Choosing signal processing and “following the money” in grad school

14:29 After the exit: travel, restlessness, and returning to build again

15:57 Becoming an “accidental” VC by helping friends through funding gaps

17:32 Dot-com bubble context: overheated investing and lack of diligence

20:44 Building finance competence: learning valuation concepts like EBITDA

21:14 Professional growth: learning from mistakes and doing your best

29:13 Getting buyer attention: the “non-sexy” product problem

30:34 Making buyers come to you: the billboard strategy story

33:12 Helping portfolio companies: sharing mistakes and guiding decision-making

34:52 Why he’s an active investor: founder fit, communication, and empathy

39:02 Regional mission: bringing global companies to St. Louis for jobs and growth

46:42 Project phasing: historic building redevelopment and innovation ecosystem

47:34 Workforce gap: training center and trade pipeline focus

51:20 Illinois-side coordination and regional partnership efforts

53:06 Commercial real estate legacy: multi-generation background

57:02 Hole-in-one advice: do your best and live without regret

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