I’ve been on a bit of a rewatch kick lately, revisiting old dramas on Netflix, and one show keeps pulling me back in more than the others: the 2020 tvN drama Start-Up (스타트업). The first time I watched it, I thought it was just a romance. Coming back to it years later, I realized what it’s really about — the very real dreams (and very real struggles) of young people trying to build something of their own in Korea. So I wanted to put down why it still gets to me, even now.

What Is Start-Up About

Start-Up is an original drama set in the fictional startup district of Samsan Techno Valley, following a group of young people chasing their entrepreneurial dreams — and falling in love along the way. It aired on tvN from October to December 2020, across 16 episodes.

At the center of the story are two sisters separated as children, Seo In-jae and Seo Dal-mi. Left on her own as a kid, Dal-mi gets through the hardest years of her life clinging to a single letter from a pen pal she’s never met, a boy named Nam Do-san. Years later, the two of them reunite at a startup incubator called Sandbox — except there’s a twist: the person who actually wrote those letters, and the person who only lent his name to them, turn out to be two different people. It starts out feeling like a love story, but underneath it is a tightly woven, grounded account of what it actually takes to raise funding, pitch to investors, fail, and get back up again.

The Characters Who Bring It to Life

Bae Suzy as Seo Dal-mi

Bae Suzy’s Seo Dal-mi is the heart of this drama. Despite growing up with almost nothing, she’s a character who fights her way forward with real grit, and Suzy’s understated performance keeps her from ever feeling overly melodramatic. Watching her go from reckless beginner to someone who’s been tempered by failure is one of the real pleasures of this show.

Nam Joo-hyuk as Nam Do-san

Nam Joo-hyuk plays Nam Do-san, a brilliant developer who’s hopeless with people. He’s completely confident in his AI skills but awkward and stiff in front of others — and somehow that’s exactly what makes him impossible not to root for. Watching him grow alongside Dal-mi is the drama’s other emotional throughline.

Kim Seon-ho as Han Ji-pyeong

Kim Seon-ho’s Han Ji-pyeong is, personally, the character I connected with the most. He looks like a successful investor on the surface, but he’s really someone quietly carrying an old wound — and his restrained, controlled way of showing emotion gets me every time.

Kang Han-na as Won In-jae

Kang Han-na plays Won In-jae, the opposite of her younger sister — cool-headed, composed, seemingly perfect. But as the loneliness and insecurity underneath that composure slowly come into view, she becomes far more than the “cold older sister” archetype.

Moments That Stayed With Me

My favorite moments in this drama aren’t the flashy investor pitches — they’re the quiet ones that come after failure. A scene of someone packing up an office after a startup falls apart, and then quietly opening their laptop again the very next day. Those are the moments that have stuck with me longer than anything else.

I can’t talk about this show without mentioning the soundtrack. Paul Kim’s song “We’ll Meet Again (우리 다시)” still brings back the exact mood of this drama whenever I hear it. Its quiet, understated melody lines up perfectly with the characters’ growth, and I couldn’t bring myself to take it off my playlist for a long time after I finished watching.

Korean Culture & the Backdrop Behind the Story

Recommending this show to friends abroad, I realized there are a few things that are hard to fully appreciate without a bit of background.

First, there’s a real place behind the fictional “Sandbox” incubator: Pangyo Techno Valley, in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province — often called “Korea’s Silicon Valley.” It’s an area packed with both major tech corporation offices and startups, and it’s widely seen as the real-world model for the drama’s “Samsan Techno Valley.”

Another detail worth knowing is the government program referenced throughout the show. Korea actually runs a real program called TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup), a government-backed initiative that matches promising startup teams with private investment plus public funding. Once you know that, the fundraising competition in the show stops feeling like pure dramatic invention — it’s modeled on something that genuinely happens inside Korea’s startup ecosystem.

Family culture is another layer worth noticing. The grandmother who raises Dal-mi isn’t just a side character — she reflects something fairly common in Korean society, where grandparents often step in to raise grandchildren directly. Once you understand that a family or community stepping in to raise a child, even without parents present, isn’t unusual here, the bond between Dal-mi and her grandmother lands with a lot more weight.

Lastly, there’s the social backdrop around choosing entrepreneurship over a stable corporate job. For a long time, Korean society measured success by landing a secure position at a large company, so choosing to start a business has often been viewed — especially by the older generation — as an unstable, uncertain path. The resistance and worry the characters face from the people around them is rooted in that social context.

About the Filming Locations

The building used for the “Sandbox” incubator is known to be Sangsang Platform (상상플랫폼) in Incheon — a former oil storage facility that’s been converted into a cultural space. The way old industrial architecture coexists with a sleek modern interior fits the show’s startup-office atmosphere surprisingly well. If you’re ever planning a trip to Incheon, it’s worth a stop for fans of the show.

Wrapping Up

Coming back to Start-Up now, what strikes me most is that the story was never really about romance — it’s about people who keep trying again after they fail. It doesn’t dress up success as something glamorous; instead, it sits quietly with the process of falling down and getting back up, which is exactly why it still resonates years later.

If you’re looking for a calm, grounded coming-of-age drama, I’d recommend giving Start-Up a chance. There’s something in this story of young people chasing their dreams under the lights of Pangyo that might offer a little comfort, wherever you are chasing something similar yourself.