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Sooinn Lee | CEO and Founder of Enuma

By Jennifer L on May 26, 2019

Sooinn Lee
CEO, Creative Lead
Founder of Enuma.

Sooinn Lee is the founder of Locomotive Labs, now known as Enuma. They design learning apps for children ages 3-8, specifically geared towards children with special needs and learning differences. Todomath, its most popular app, has been downloaded more than 1.1 million times. In 2013, Enuma launched Todo Telling Time, an app to help children learn to “tell time to the hour and minute, calendar concepts, digital time, and the components of a daily schedule” (source). Enuma creates apps that are inclusive to all children: engaging apps meet their specific learning needs in areas of mathematics, and provide accessibility options such as language, left-handed mode, OpenDyslexic font, simplfied keypad, and more. Other apps include Visual Schedule, a wearable schedule for children with autism, and Kid in Story, a storybook maker for children with autism.

Biography

After graduating from Seoul National University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sooinn Lee immersed herself in the video game industry for the next 12 years. She went from being an illustrator at Mirrsoft, to game designer, to corporate strategist at Ncsoft, to project lead at Project Injini, to finding Enuma—then Locomotive Labs—in 2012.

Lee’s entrepreneurial success can be attributed to her ability to identify a specific need and provided a solution. Lee desired to create ways to keep her son with special needs motivated once he starts school. The conception of Enuma came to fruition shortly after her son was born. “We come from Korea, where academic environment is particularly competitive and intense,” Lee says. “We thought, how could our son have a good experience in his early academic career? That was our motivation to start this company.”

In contrast to Kumon, a popular after school “cram school” in Asia, where rigorous worksheets and drills are used to strengthen mathematical understanding, Lee changes the way children can practice math outside of school. Kumon lacks the accessibility that Lee touts in her apps.

Her apps have been listed in the Apple App Store under “New and Noteworthy” and “What’s Hot”, and “Best Autism Apps” by parenting.com. Her app was a “Best Special Needs App of 2013” finalist and won the Parents’ Choice Award in 2012.

 

 

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27 Jan Posted on Sooinn Lee | CEO and Founder of Enuma

Sooinn Lee is a founder and CEO who had skin in the game beyond money: the educational success and development of her own child. I am impressed that she left a corporate strategist position at NCSoft to become a project lead at Inijini (part of NCSoft) to develop cognitive games for special needs children, and then left NCSoft to start her own company. She had the experience, skillset, passion, ideas, and drive to create a venture that delivers a solution to a real issue. She clearly had her own vision and wanted to be in control of delivering it, and I believe more women should take this risk in their professional lives. Her solution of creating accessible apps to help children with special needs has now touched the lives of over one million families and children. To echo everyone else, she is inspiring, and I aspire to be more like her.

27 Jan
0 Thumbs Up!
Mel @mddrake

Sooinn Lee is a founder and CEO who had skin in the game beyond money: the educational success and development of her own child. I am impressed that she left a corporate strategist position at NCSoft to become a project lead at Inijini (part of NCSoft) to develop cognitive games for special needs children, and then left NCSoft to start her own company. She had the experience, skillset, passion, ideas, and drive to create a venture that delivers a solution to a real issue. She clearly had her own vision and wanted to be in control of delivering it, and I believe more women should take this risk in their professional lives. Her solution of creating accessible apps to help children with special needs has now touched the lives of over one million families and children. To echo everyone else, she is inspiring, and I aspire to be more like her.

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2 Jun Posted on Sooinn Lee | CEO and Founder of Enuma

Thank you for sharing this with us. It touched me how Sooinn Lee created an app to help her son and eventually sharing it with the world. I personally hate Kumon too and don't think that is the way to educate kids. She's very inspiring.

2 Jun
1 Thumbs Up!
Sarah Wong @sfung

Thank you for sharing this with us. It touched me how Sooinn Lee created an app to help her son and eventually sharing it with the world. I personally hate Kumon too and don't think that is the way to educate kids. She's very inspiring.

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30 May Posted on Sooinn Lee | CEO and Founder of Enuma

This is wow. My oldest daughter (16) is spectrum and has learning disabilities. I always had to find ways to make learning more accessible to her, and was thankful that as a teacher, I had experience in personalizing learning, which helped us at home. I am sure that we could have benefited from Enuma in my daughter’s early childhood years. To see a mom that did not let her challenges break her or discourage her, but rather build from it, and use her skills and knowledge not only to advance her own child’s learning, but to fill a gap and help other children with special needs learn happily, is truly inspiring. Thank you.

30 May
0 Thumbs Up!
chava kassierer @chavik

This is wow. My oldest daughter (16) is spectrum and has learning disabilities. I always had to find ways to make learning more accessible to her, and was thankful that as a teacher, I had experience in personalizing learning, which helped us at home. I am sure that we could have benefited from Enuma in my daughter’s early childhood years. To see a mom that did not let her challenges break her or discourage her, but rather build from it, and use her skills and knowledge not only to advance her own child’s learning, but to fill a gap and help other children with special needs learn happily, is truly inspiring. Thank you.

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30 May Posted on Sooinn Lee | CEO and Founder of Enuma

I'm impressed with Lee's ability to create openly accessible apps, especially when coming from the unfriendly culture of South Korean school districts towards students with disabilities. Perhaps it was this personal experience in her own schooling system that caused her to have a greater empathy for the students that she designed her apps for. This grit, perseverance and passion, in her personality certainly contributed to her success.

30 May
0 Thumbs Up!
Brogan Pratt @bpratt10

I'm impressed with Lee's ability to create openly accessible apps, especially when coming from the unfriendly culture of South Korean school districts towards students with disabilities. Perhaps it was this personal experience in her own schooling system that caused her to have a greater empathy for the students that she designed her apps for. This grit, perseverance and passion, in her personality certainly contributed to her success.

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29 May Posted on Sooinn Lee | CEO and Founder of Enuma

Lee created something very personal when she used her son for inspiration. She created a product that she strongly believes in and works for her son. She utilized her expertise in game and graphic design to launch her venture. She took a risk when she marketed apps specifically for children with special needs, especially in Korea when a big focus is placed on fast-tracking, grades, and lengthy practice. But, at the same time, she filled a niche and catered to all those who could not flourish under traditional learning systems. I imagine she had to learn a lot too; she had to educate herself on learning theory and the multitude of challenges students face. Lee used her strengths and then upgraded her knowledge base and skill sets to create this venture. She must be very flexible, self-motivated, and just down right smart. Great find, Jennifer!

29 May
1 Thumbs Up!
Ying Gu @gying

Lee created something very personal when she used her son for inspiration. She created a product that she strongly believes in and works for her son. She utilized her expertise in game and graphic design to launch her venture. She took a risk when she marketed apps specifically for children with special needs, especially in Korea when a big focus is placed on fast-tracking, grades, and lengthy practice. But, at the same time, she filled a niche and catered to all those who could not flourish under traditional learning systems. I imagine she had to learn a lot too; she had to educate herself on learning theory and the multitude of challenges students face. Lee used her strengths and then upgraded her knowledge base and skill sets to create this venture. She must be very flexible, self-motivated, and just down right smart. Great find, Jennifer!

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26 May Posted on Sooinn Lee | CEO and Founder of Enuma

Enuma caught my attention the week prior when we looked for market projections. As I have mentioned before that I push for game-based learning and I have to say that children do learn best when they are having fun. Enuma used adorable creations, games, and reading to interact with young learners of all capabilities. When children are engaged, having fun, and are encouraged to level up-they don't realize that they are learning about math, reading, arts, etc. I am especially proud of Sooinn Lee for creating this, or inspired by her son which would definitely motivates her greatly to be able to help not only young children, but also reaching out to all children and young adults who need this program. I see the intention from the founder and I do see this program to become even more successful with the multilingual option, Enuma is able to extend to many different countries.

26 May
0 Thumbs Up!
Judy Tai @taijudy

Enuma caught my attention the week prior when we looked for market projections. As I have mentioned before that I push for game-based learning and I have to say that children do learn best when they are having fun. Enuma used adorable creations, games, and reading to interact with young learners of all capabilities. When children are engaged, having fun, and are encouraged to level up-they don't realize that they are learning about math, reading, arts, etc. I am especially proud of Sooinn Lee for creating this, or inspired by her son which would definitely motivates her greatly to be able to help not only young children, but also reaching out to all children and young adults who need this program. I see the intention from the founder and I do see this program to become even more successful with the multilingual option, Enuma is able to extend to many different countries.

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