Chat with the Founder

Founder and CEO Youngwon Lee shares his personal and entrepreneurial journey. From his early days in Korea’s alcohol industry to building the Bay Area’s first Asian craft brewery. What began as a series of challenges and reinventions became a mission to celebrate culture through creativity. Blending Korean heritage with modern craft beer innovation, Youngwon reflects on how identity, resilience, and passion shaped Dokkaebier into a brand that proudly represents authenticity and change.

but I think the problem with me is is
I'm kind of overly
[Music]
optimistic hi I'm Youngwon Lee I'm founder
and CEO of Dokkaebier is Asian inspired
craft beer
I found it in 2019 that's when I started
to brainstorm come out with the concept
and we finally got to launch in 2020
February

how did you get your start in the alcoholic industry what Drew you to make here in
it's pretty
long you're
good do do what you can so I lived in a
lot of places born and raised in Korea
and I lived in Guam when I was in
seventh and eighth no sixth and seventh
grade and I moved to New Jersey and then
finished high school there I got into
Cal so I moved to Berkeley took a leave
of app after first semester in Cal and
went to LA I found out that my
grandmother who raised me um in South
Korea was really sick and she was
hospitalized so I took another leave up
absence and went to Korea it's been a
while since I lived in Korea and it was
really fun just going to like you I mean
although the whole Grandma situation but
it was good to be back in Korea and then
kind of experience the culture again I
got a part-time job at a wine consulting
company the CEO was running a restaurant
in New Jersey born and raised in New
York he wanted to do business in Korea
um he wanted to learn uh Korean

when was that
I think that was like a freshman in
high school so I tutored him how to
speak Korean and then after a while he's
like hey do you want to part-time at my
restaurant so I started bus in at that
restaurant fast forward to 2008 uh his
company was doing better so I got a
part time job and yeah that's how I got
into the alcohol industry a couple of years
ago when I was trying to start do beer I
did a like an exercise of why I wanted
to start a company and it actually
interviewed that the whole program
interviewed me to my childhood what are
the common like keywords from throughout
my life and then it was uh I think it
was like a challenge but I moved quite a
bit and you know going to Guam was a
whole new thing going to New Jersy was
whole new thing and I went to a high
school that was out of my town and that
was a whole new thing going to Cal going
to LA and then like I always moved and I
always went to a new place and always
there was some kind of a challenge
although as much as I was very scared or afraid of the challenge I kind of
enjoyed it or I'll like figure it out
and make it happen so it never scared me
to do something new and different that
company did well and then we thought it
was a good good opportunity for us to
start start our own wine company so we
started importing and then Distributing
wines ourselves and then that wine we
became a portfolio of products so we had
wine vodka Patron tequila armanda BR
champagne a lot of other lure and that
company did really well so we started
building a brewery in Korea in starting
2014 so that's how I kind of got myself
into it however um some stuff life
happened and then and then
I actually had lost everything I built
in that company I was actually thinking
to move to a different industry and
somehow yeah completely I wanted to make
some money so I wanted to sell the
programs that I made for operating
alcohol company and I went to a crappier
company to pitch to sell because one of
my old staff what got became a sales
director there and he's like I I want to
use this program again can you try to
convince our Founders to use this so I
went through to pitch it and the founder
thought I was a developer so he tried to
recruit me so I originally said no and
then after 6 months he finally I finally
said yes so I joined the company and he
was like you know we actually have a
brewery in California can you go there
and manage it uh I just had a really
hard time in my life and I was like well
let me give it a shot and I came here
for one week uh for as a business trip
to check out the brewery and everything
and kind of felt like a new chapter yeah
new chapter right and the more I lived
in Korea it was harder to come it was
harder for me to come back to the States
we did really well in the States but
then the headquarter had hard time so we
had to kind of fold the business and
that's when I came out in 2019 June and
I decided to start Dokkaebier in 2017
every time I go to beer festival I'll be
the only Asian person like pouring beer
like in California it's a very diverse
state so if you go to beer festival you
would have very diverse consumers
attending the festival but if you put
people who are pouring together or beer
industry people in one room I was the
only Asian person so when I had on
opportunity to start my own um I was
like well maybe being Asian even with
the brand would make the brand more
stand out more unique and I felt like it
was about time because it was being
Asian being being Korean uh when I was
growing up in middle school high school
versus now was it had a whole different
meaning right um people in like you know
my or older generation would use to hide
your Asian-American you try to be very
perfect American but now like you you
can be Asian-American and proud to be
and I think uh people recognize being
you know who you are right being being
authentic and I felt like it was the
right time to do that um so when I had
an opportunity to to start I wanted to
be as Asian as possible with the product
that I make

why did you want to name the brand
so I wanted to have something with
um Korean inspiration and at the same
time I wanted my company to be as agile
like quick to change because what I
experienced in the past is that the
bigger you are it takes longer or harder
to to be Innovative so how do you be
Innovative all the time and in the event
that we became successful how do you
still be Innovative and be creative
whether you're big or small and I wanted
all of that to align with the name and
everything the whole inspiration and my
wife was like hey what do you think
about Dokkaebi I was like Dokkaebi they are like
shape shifters mythical creature um
likes to you know eat drink hang on with
with people they hide in objects during
the daytime they come out at night and
you know hang out they punish the bed
and help the good people so I felt like
that was really good you know there are
adventurers shape shifters wander around
and we didn't have a brewery when we
started so we're like going to different
breweries to make the beer and we're
trying different ingredients so I felt
like that was a really good way to kind
of dissolve the identity and then the
concept of to into the product into what
we are doing I wanted our team to kind
of act like the toes
and it ends with bi and then adding ER
makes it like kind of German

any words of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start their own business whether it's beverage or anything else
don't start you have to really love it
you could be lucky and then you know
really go up but there's always going to
be a lot of up and downs right and when
it's like really low or down unless you
really love it it's going to be very
hard and difficult and painful so if you
have like the right Mission why you want
to do this and and the reasons behind it
then you could kind of survive through I
always do it ask myself and then do it
to myself too but like reality check is
really important cuz a lot of times you
have a very passionate Founders who
really love their product but it's only
them that that like it

okay outro outro yeah what's up what do we do
it's been your only great
talking to you like And
subscribe damn you know what like
everyone when they start like I'm never
going to say that but after a while
they're like oh please like And
subscribe if you like this video and I
think every going to end up just doing
it
so yeah we're actually canning this
product
today yeah just you have to have that
kind of like passion for it I mean I
didn't start with the passion it was
just fun you know uh and then the
company was growing really well and it
was really fun to build it was like it
was almost like playing RPG game and
you're like leveling up and then like
you know doing more and bigger and then
like it was kind of really fun ride um
at one point I though I I did realize
that um I I do really love it I love
when uh I make a product and then let
you like taste it and I love seeing like
you actually enjoying it