At the start of each Dragon Kim Foundation fellowship program, co-founder Daniel Kim tells aspiring teen entrepreneurs how he once had early ideas for companies like Amazon and Uber—but he never acted on them.
The former New York City investment banker uses the lesson to drive home a point: plenty of people have great ideas, but it’s the Jeff Bezos’ of the world that triumph because they push past self-doubt and execute.
“I’m teaching them how to be all in, how to take something they really want to do and go do it,” Kim told the Business Journal.
Last year, Kim received a Business Journal Family-Owned Business Award for his work as co-founder and chief executive of the Dragon Kim Foundation, an Irvine-based nonprofit incubator that funds social entrepreneurial projects by high school students from California, Arizona and Nevada.
Since its inception in 2017, the program has guided more than 500 teens, organizing them into teams that each receive $5,000 in seed funding.
The goal is to add more training centers. Teach more kids. Impact more lives.
“We want to go nationwide,” Kim said. “I want to change the world.”
Dragon’s Legacy
The foundation was created in honor of Kim’s son, Dragon Kim, who died during a camping trip in 2015. Dragon’s parents channeled their grief into ensuring their son’s legacy would endure by founding the Dragon Kim Foundation, initially a music program serving kids in underserved areas.
Dragon, a gifted musician, came up with the idea to teach music to kids while a freshman at Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana. Kim, who spent more than 25 years as an investment banker at top firms including SBC Financial Group, PaineWebber and Abacus Partners, guided his son through his business plan.
But Dragon’s tragic accident occurred before he could get the arts program off the ground.
His family established the foundation in 2015.
While music lessons are still part of the program, Kim said the entrepreneurial segment is the “thrust” of the foundation.
In the first year of the fellowship program, the foundation funded five projects by 11 teens.
Last year, it funded 63 projects by 138 high school students, impacting the lives of more than 56,000 individuals.
Teen fellows receive rigorous leadership and business training called an “MBA in a box,” and are paired with a professional mentor.
The program ends with a Shark Tank-style Dragon Challenge, where teams compete for additional funds to continue their projects. Judges over the years have included Masimo Corp. Founder Joe Kiani and the president of Stanford University.
Last year’s Dragon Challenge winners created a CPR program in Phoenix for more than 1,000 kids and trained them on how to handle emergency situations.
“These boys worked so hard, organizing an amazing program,” said Kim, adding that he was moved by how well they articulated the impact they made.
“I love that most importantly,” he said. “I really do believe we are changing their lives.”
