Finance that never existed before,
Toss, the people who create a culture that has never existed before

92.8 billion hours.
Since the launch of the Toss app in 2015, the total time users have saved through easy money transfers has exceeded 92.8 billion hours.
One in 2.5 adults in South Korea has started checking their credit scores and managing their credit ratings on the Toss app.
On the bus home from work, or in bed before falling asleep, you can find a loan that suits your needs with just a few clicks, and even complete the hassle of filing an insurance claim in less than a minute.
Remember what financial life was like before Toss? Every time I transferred money, I'd vent my frustrations on online banking sites, and every time I made a purchase at an online shopping mall, I'd be in agony.
After installing various security programs including ActiveX, verifying mobile phone user identity, and issuing and reissuing public certificates, there were errors and more errors.


It wasn't a major financial company or government policy, but a small startup that eliminated these unnecessary inconveniences and made financial activities possible with just a few touches.
The Toss team, which began as a simple remittance service and grew into a comprehensive financial platform encompassing banking, securities, insurance, and payments, has achieved this success. How did they create their unique corporate culture, which has become a hot topic? We interviewed 35 people, including the founder, and scoured internal documents like meeting minutes to compile a history of Toss' extraordinary 11-year journey of challenges.

The Toss team is failing again today.
Even when it seems like you've achieved your dream, you're dreaming bigger.
As I look back on the ongoing journey of the Toss team, all that remains are stories of people.
It is a story about people who, at some point in their lives, race with all their might toward a special goal.
---From the "Prologue"

Lee Tae-yang wanted to become someone like Han Xin, one of the founding fathers of the Han Dynasty.
His great-grandfather was, of course, Lee Seung-geon.
I wanted to help Seung-Geon Lee, who was trying to define and solve the world's problems in his own way.
I wanted to be a good weapon that he could use to achieve his goals.
Since when did Lee Tae-yang call Lee Seung-geon ‘Captain’?
As the two-month part-time job period he initially promised was coming to an end, Lee Tae-yang declared that he would give up on joining Naver.
“I think I’ve found my way, Captain.
“I want to go down the path of entrepreneurship with the captain.” Seung-geon Lee hugged Tae-yang, who, like his name suggests, exuded boundless energy.
---From Chapter 1, “The Courage to Cross the Line”

The team's lifespan was barely extended by taking on outsourced development projects.
I went to the office once or twice a week, and spent the rest of the time freely outside.
Lee Seung-geon often visited Insa-dong.
It all started after I heard somewhere that the Cyworld planner sat in a cafe in Insa-dong and conceived the idea of ​​a 'mini room' that was used by 30 million people.
If you observe the countless people coming and going on Ssamzigil, will you be able to discover the items they really need?
I was anxious about the possibility that my teammates might not return next week, but I steeled myself, believing it was a task I had to take on. After gathering ideas for over a month, the four of us laid them out, and we ended up with about 100 across all disciplines.
Most of the ideas, including a service that rates restaurant menus, a site where amateur singers can upload videos of themselves singing, and a real estate information site that tells life stories, were eliminated in the preliminary round.
Of the five ideas that passed the finals, three were deemed promising and prototypes were created.
It was an app that allowed you to take photos of receipts and save them, a portal site where you could check and sign up for all kinds of classes offered by cultural centers and department stores, and a business tool that provided planning and design resources and allowed you to check the progress of your work. However, the initial response was not very positive, so I quickly folded it.
It was at this time that the idea that would be introduced to the world a few months later under the name 'Toss' came to mind.
On October 21, 2013, a document titled “Frictionless Remittance and Payment” was created.
So, Seung-Geon Lee and Viva Republica did not intend to become a ‘fintech startup’ from the beginning.
Dabot and Ullabla were far from finance.
Not wanting to fail any more, I made a long list of items that I thought the public would like, and all I found were easy remittance and payment options.
Even this document was mercilessly labeled as 'for disposal'.
---From Chapter 1, “The Courage to Cross the Line”

The marketing budget was up to 20 million won per month.
Ha Jun-baek came up with a way to advertise efficiently while saving money.
The principle is 'fail small and learn from failure', and the goal is to reach 1 million users within 3 months.
“We also divided the target age into 1-year units and advertised 1,000 won worth of each.
You never know what content will resonate with what age group.
We're creating 52 ad sets for ages 14 to 65.
So, when we see a response from a certain age group, we spend more on advertising there.
Turn off the rest of the ads.
I tried every method I could think of.
I threw a tantrum.
“Rather than hoping to avoid being fired from the company or to be recognized, I wanted the valuable service called Toss to grow quickly and not disappear from the market.”
---From Chapter 2, 'With Sincerity, But With Viciousness'

It was natural and logical that the person closest to the customer would earn the most money.
Isn't it an old story that most of the music revenue goes to distributors like Melon, not to composers or singers?
Naver, Kakao, Coupang, Baedal Minjok, and other platform companies have emerged and are increasing their contact points with customers.
Seung-Geon Lee raised one question.
'So who absolutely dominates customer contact in our country's financial industry?' None.
Most of the major players in the financial industry, such as banks, insurance companies, and credit card companies, were suppliers who simultaneously manufactured and sold.
There were plenty of suppliers.
Banks offer dozens of savings, deposits, and loan products, but most of them are similar in price and quality, so there is no differentiation.
As a result, no one place was able to monopolize the market.
---From Chapter 2, 'With Sincerity, But With Viciousness'

When Toss successfully launched the first free credit inquiry service in Korea, other fintech companies, including Kakao Pay, soon followed suit with similar services.
Then, two years later, a domestic economic newspaper also covered the phenomenon of 'credit inflation' in an article.
The report stated that the proportion of high-credit borrowers (grades 1 to 3) among the economically active population in Korea is increasing from 48% at the end of 2016 to 53.5% at the end of 2019.
The article assessed that “the growing awareness of the importance of credit ratings in financial transactions and the popularization of free credit management services provided by fintech companies have contributed significantly.”
---From Chapter 3, "The World's Fastest Growing Startup"

Lee Seung-geon called Choi Jun-ho a 'guardian of culture' who appears in every moment of crisis.
He also said, “I owe him a debt that I will have to repay forever.”
Many people have advised Seung-Geon Lee before and since.
As the number of team members increases, it will be difficult to maintain a horizontal culture, and there will come a day when a top-down system will feel more efficient.
It won't work if there are more than 50 people, it's over if there are more than 100 people, it'll be hard to get past 300 people...
However, Choi Jun-ho was a person who recognized the value of the effort itself to maintain a culture of autonomy and responsibility.
Few people had the courage to act even in the face of the fear that they might lose their jobs if they made a single move.
He sent several more DMs to Seung-Geon Lee after that.
“I have something to say. Can I have some food?”
---From Chapter 3, "The World's Fastest Growing Startup"

Jeong Seung-jin wrote the history of Toss as he had intended.
At the end of October 2019, Toss MAU exceeded 10 million.
Among them, the growth driven by inflow silos reached a whopping 4 million.
The marketing expenses they spent over the past six months were 40 billion won.
The total marketing budget executed by the entire Toss team in 2019 was 80 billion won, so half of that was spent.
They were fearless young men.
Despite the team's disapproval, the four of them stuck together.
As a result, we achieved in six months what other silos would have taken 60 months to experiment with, and generated sales of up to 3 billion won per month.
It was truly an epic change.
---From Chapter 4, “Why Road Bikes Are Inconvenient”

“This is our first time here.
The coming year will be filled with unexpected changes and unimaginable challenges.
We will have to overcome more extraordinary challenges than other companies.
That's because our dream isn't to be a company that does everything the way everyone else does, but to create a fundamentally new corporate culture that delivers a level of satisfaction customers never expected, develops products no one could have dreamed of, drives industry change that divides the world into before and after, maintains trust with customers even as we pursue continuous innovation, and makes us happier through accomplishments at work in a culture of autonomy and responsibility."
---From Chapter 5, "Signs of a Great Challenge"

Many Toss team members consider this day to be the day when the essence of Toss culture was revealed.
The developer who first came up with the scraping idea had a deep understanding of the entire Toss team's business strategy and the importance of key indicators.
This is because key information related to company management was openly disclosed to everyone.
Although he had no connection to the silo he belonged to, he actively promoted ideas that could improve metrics that the entire team considered important.
The scraping team, having come across a great idea, recruited guild members, saying, “Gather the team members you want to work with.”
He didn't try to take credit for the idea, nor did he pretend not to hear it, saying he didn't have time.
Team members from other silos also joined the guild without hesitation.
Each person had their own silo-based tasks and missions, but there was no reason to hesitate because we discovered something that could make a bigger impact during that time.
There was no one to report to team leader Seung-Geon Lee or ask for permission.
It was not someone's instructions, but the excitement that if done well, it would be a real hit that drove them.
It didn't matter whether it was a weekday or a weekend.
They were as excited as children who had discovered a fun toy.
It was an autonomous decision made after analyzing the impact it would have on the team, going beyond the level of freedom of 'I can do whatever I want.'
The number of people who applied for emergency disaster relief funds in advance reached 800,000 in just half a day.
It was indeed a tossdown day that will be remembered for a long time.
---From Chapter 5, "Signs of a Great Challenge"

From the very beginning of its simple remittance service, Seung-Geon Lee considered information protection and security to be key pillars of Toss.
Because it is a financial service that allows users to entrust their assets and transactions, even if it is a small amount of money.
It was in 2016, one year after Toss' launch, that Shin Yong-seok, who had worked as an information security officer at the Blue House, Microsoft, and Nexon, joined the Toss team as CISO.
At a time when it was difficult to guarantee even a few months into the future, Toss's appointment of Shin Yong-seok, who had a distinguished career, was a huge investment.
Lee Seung-geon, who met Shin Yong-seok, immediately said, “I want to get PCI-DSS certification.”
It was an international information security standard jointly created by credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard, but at the time, no domestic credit card company had acquired it.
Shin Yong-seok said, “It was impressive that the startup founder was the first to show his commitment to obtaining security certification, which is expensive and time-consuming.
“Their understanding and interest in security was higher than that of any other financial institution leader,” he said.
Since joining Toss, Shin Yong-seok has established a company-wide security policy, and based on this, the Toss team has subsequently achieved four world-class security certifications. They have achieved Level 1, the highest level of PCI-DSS compliance.
Seung-Geon Lee asked to set a thrilling goal that surpassed this, and Shin Yong-Seok presented a very specific goal.
“Let’s receive the Information Protection Award from the Minister of Science and ICT.”
It was the most prestigious award in the field of information security in Korea.
---From Chapter 5, "Signs of a Great Challenge"

In June 2021, Toss received an investment of 462 billion won at a corporate value of 7.4 billion dollars.
Investors said, “Now we know what the super app SG was talking about is.”
Seung-Geon Lee has long envisioned a future for Toss as a financial super app equipped with securities and banking services.
But people didn't really believe it.
That was also the reason why Toss' corporate value stagnated for a while.
It is something I could not have imagined before facing the future that Seung-Geon Lee speaks of.
People only got the hang of it after they saw the Toss Securities service launch and its user base grow to millions in an instant.
We can finally see what a financial super app means and what changes it will bring to people's financial lives.
And by the time Toss Bank opened, people were convinced.
“Now, Toss users won’t need to open any other apps for their finances.”
---From Chapter 6, “Innovation Has No Beginning or End”

Everyone knew that the credibility of Toss Bank, which had only recently launched, could be seriously damaged.
The situation where benefits would have to be reduced, whether or not that was the case, was becoming increasingly realistic.
The deadline for keeping the promise for as long as possible was the end of the year.
The limit of 2% annual interest on payments of up to 100 million won was set to minimize the number of users affected by the policy change.
At the time, the average amount received per person skyrocketed, but analysis revealed that less than 1% of all subscribers had deposited more than 100 million won in their Toss Bank accounts.
A very small number of high net worth individuals deposited huge sums of money.
“The moment I made this decision, I had to give it everything I had.
All the work skills and intuition that I have learned and accumulated over the years, as well as my physical strength and emotions.
It's always been like that in Toast, but it was really difficult back then.
I was distressed because it seemed like it was causing damage not only to the banking team but also to the entire Toss community.
Still, I was able to choose to persevere as much as possible in a direction that would benefit the most customers because I believed that my team members would support this mindset.” This attitude of prioritizing customer convenience over anything else was the entrepreneurial spirit that Hong Min-taek envisioned.
Only those businesses where good will overcomes greed, even if they are sometimes tempted, can last for 100 or 200 years.
I have resolved to continue to create products and services that are in line with good intentions and to make decisions that are most beneficial to customers.
“It was a toss-down decision,” said Park Jun-ha, tech head of the banking team.
“I also suggested that if banks suffer large losses, the risk becomes too great, and that we should just lower the interest rates themselves.
Min-taek made the final decision with DRI, and I immediately agreed with his point about making it as beneficial to the customer as possible.
It's not just about being bold, but if you logically think about it and decide that you can endure it, then you take action without hesitation.
“Just like the Toss team always has.”
---From Chapter 6, “Innovation Has No Beginning or End”

The change in the wage system attracted great attention both internally and externally.
It was a transition from an inclusive wage system where all allowances are included in the contracted annual salary to a non-inclusive wage system where overtime pay is additionally paid for work exceeding 40 hours per week.
There was an effect of increasing wages even when working the same number of hours.
It played a role in strengthening recruitment competitiveness while also setting an appropriate limit on the intensity of individual work.
Team members' reactions were mixed.
About a third of the respondents thought that it was natural to be paid more if you worked more.
There were also high expectations that the rumors about working hours could be put to rest in one fell swoop.
But another third expressed regret at the disappearance of a "culture of autonomy and responsibility that eschews even the slightest rule," and a reluctance to input and manage the work hours they had freely chosen into the company system.
This is because a tool to measure an individual's working hours was needed to calculate and pay allowances.
“Sitting for long periods of time doesn’t necessarily create more value,” said Seung-Geon Lee.
“I don’t think measuring working hours has anything to do with engagement.
At least within the Toss team.
The point is that recording working hours doesn't suddenly make hard workers lazy, or make non-working people work.
People modify their behavior by finding and imitating role models that fit the dominant sentiments of the organization.
The Toss team has a culture of trust and respect for team members who achieve great things through extraordinary immersion.
It's firmly rooted enough that it won't change easily.
The total amount of value created is equally influenced by factors such as talent density, number of people, working hours, and collaboration efficiency.
By introducing a non-inclusive wage system, I believe we will be able to increase the density and number of talented people and appropriately adjust working hours.
Then, the amount of value that the Toss team creates as a company and as a team will increase even more.”

---From Chapter 6, “Innovation Has No Beginning or End”