On the International Day for Failure, the CEO sat down with a robot made in his likeness

The short answer — what happened on 13 October

Galaxy Corporation held a press conference at Galaxy Robot Park in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, on 13 October 2026 to mark the International Day for Failure. CEO Choi Yong-ho spoke openly about his first start-up, launched in Lyon, France, in 2011, which failed seven years later, and discussed failure and taking on new challenges on stage with Schofield Stein, a humanoid built on his own face. He also set out plans to hold an awards event on the International Day for Failure in 2027 to encourage people who have picked themselves up after failure and tried again.

The International Day for Failure was started in 2010 by a student entrepreneurship society at Aalto University in Finland, with the aim of respecting failure as the starting point for the next attempt (Asia Today, Kukmin Ilbo). The English-language outlet NEWSTOP reported the event under the name 'Galaxy Fail Forward' and noted that the audience included many families and children. The venue, Galaxy Robot Park, is the company's permanent performance and experience space for humanoid robots in Godeok, Seoul.

Schofield Stein takes the stage in Seoul

Schofield Stein is a humanoid robot that replicates CEO Choi Yong-ho's appearance and voice. It was first unveiled on 21 September 2026, the UN International Day of Peace, at an event at Rockefeller Center in New York; that day's dialogue and what the company means by 'Soul AI' are covered in Soul AI, explained — Galaxy Corporation's ONE WORLD. ONE PEACE. in Times Square. On 13 October the robot appeared on a Korean stage for the first time. Korean outlets rendered its name differently, but it is the same robot.

According to ZDNet Korea, the robot took the stage with a face resembling Choi's and tousled hair reminiscent of Einstein. When Choi asked what day it was, the robot answered that it was the International Day for Failure, then asked whether it was itself a failure. Choi replied that it was a day for cheering on people who try again after failing. The robot that had asked in New York to be called 'Soul AI, not Physical AI' was, in Seoul, handed the subject of failure.

MTN reported that the company said it had built the robot in-house. According to NEWSTOP, Choi introduced the robot as 'another me' while admitting he still finds its appearance lacking, and when asked whether he connects with it emotionally, he replied that everything at this stage is an experiment. The company, in other words, presented the robot not as a finished product but as a work in progress.

The numbers behind the CEO's failure

Choi Yong-ho put concrete numbers on the failure of his first business. According to ZDNet Korea, he launched his first start-up in Lyon, France, in 2011, and the business failed seven years later. The company was left with debts of about KRW 10 billion, and his personal liability under joint guarantees reached KRW 3.8 billion. Financial hardship took a toll on his health as well, he said, which made a comeback far from easy.

He said that when he founded Galaxy Corporation in 2019 with KRW 1 million in capital, he set out from day one to build a unicorn worth KRW 1 trillion or more. In December 2025 the company was valued at about KRW 1 trillion in a pre-IPO round of about KRW 100 billion. Cumulative investment exceeds KRW 180 billion according to official company materials (as of December 2025); at the event, Choi said the company had raised more than KRW 200 billion. The two figures reflect different reference dates.

NEWSTOP reported that Choi named his family as the reason he was able to start again. The company takes its name from his eldest son's name. The full story, from failure in his twenties to a second start with KRW 1 million, is told in Founder Story — from KRW 1 million to unicorn.

An organisation built on the assumption of failure — Today, Tomorrow, Future and moonshots

Choi also described the company's culture of encouraging failure. According to ZDNet Korea, Galaxy Corporation pursues its medium- to long-term growth strategy through separate Today, Tomorrow and Future units, and runs moonshot projects dedicated to new ideas and ambitious challenges.

If the Today unit is responsible for current revenue, the Tomorrow and Future units take on businesses whose results have yet to be proven. Handing work with uncertain outcomes to separate units means accepting from the outset that some of it may fail. For how the company has described Tomorrow as the Physical AI stage and Future as the Soul AI stage, see Are Soul AI and Soulware the Same?

NEWSTOP reported that Choi said the company intends to build robots with a human heart, and stressed that robots should carry human values such as goodness, love, family, dreams and happiness.

The plan for a Failure Awards in 2027

The new plan unveiled at the event is an awards ceremony on the theme of failure. Choi said he intends to hold the awards on next year's International Day for Failure.

Next year, for the International Day for Failure, I'm thinking of holding an awards event.— Choi Yong-ho, CEO of Galaxy Corporation · Galaxy Robot Park, 13 October 2026 (reported by ZDNet Korea)

According to ZDNet Korea, the format under consideration is to present awards named after people who overcame failure to succeed. The idea is to collect stories of failure from people around the world, share what they learned along the way, and spread a culture among young adults and teenagers in which failure is nothing to fear. As of 14 October 2026, award categories, the submission process and the venue had not been announced.

Encouragement from the man who founded KAIST's Failure Research Institute

Lee Kwang-hyung, former President of KAIST, attended the event and offered words of encouragement. He is the man who founded the Failure Research Institute at KAIST in 2021. According to ZDNet Korea, he noted that KAIST holds presentations and academic conferences where people share their experiences of failure, and said he hoped a culture in which failure is discussed openly rather than hidden, and in which people can try again, would spread more widely across society.

Failure isn't an event that only special people go through, but a natural process everyone goes through— Lee Kwang-hyung, former President of KAIST · Galaxy Robot Park, 13 October 2026 (reported by ZDNet Korea)

The event was not the first link between Galaxy Corporation and KAIST. The company established an Enter-Tech research centre in KAIST's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Choi has served as an industry-academic cooperation professor at KAIST. The background to the centre is set out in Why an Entertainment Company Built Its Research Centre Inside Mechanical Engineering.

The listing question raised at the same event

The question of a listing also came up. According to ZDNet Korea, when asked what had led the company to pursue a US IPO, Choi stopped short of a direct answer and said both a Korean IPO and a US IPO remain open.

At a shareholder briefing on 25 August 2026, the company formally announced that it would pursue a US stock market listing through a 'flip' structure that sets up a US holding company, and on 21 September in New York Choi said the company would list in Korea through Korean Depositary Receipts (KDR) after the US listing. The 13 October remark reads not as a reversal of that plan but as an answer that keeps every option, including the domestic market, on the table. As of 14 October 2026, the exchange, the US IPO underwriter and the listing date had not been decided. A question-and-answer summary is available in the Nasdaq IPO FAQ.

Frequently asked questions

What did Galaxy Corporation do on the International Day for Failure?

On 13 October 2026 it held a press conference at Galaxy Robot Park in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, to mark the International Day for Failure. CEO Choi Yong-ho shared the failure of his 2011 start-up in Lyon and how he started again, talked about failure with Schofield Stein, a humanoid built on his own face, and the programme continued with cheerleading and K-pop robot performances.

Is Schofield Stein the same robot that some Korean outlets named differently?

Yes, it is the same robot. Its English name is Schofield Stein, and it is a humanoid that replicates CEO Choi Yong-ho's appearance and voice. It was first unveiled at Rockefeller Center in New York on 21 September 2026 and made its first Korean stage appearance at Galaxy Robot Park in Seoul on 13 October.

How did Choi Yong-ho's first start-up fail?

Choi launched his first start-up in Lyon, France, in 2011, and the business failed seven years later. At the press conference on 13 October 2026, he said the company's debts had amounted to about KRW 10 billion and his personal liability under joint guarantees to KRW 3.8 billion (ZDNet Korea). He went on to found Galaxy Corporation in 2019 with KRW 1 million in capital.

What is Galaxy Corporation's Failure Awards?

It is a plan Choi announced on 13 October 2026: an awards ceremony on the International Day for Failure in 2027 to encourage people who have picked themselves up after failure and tried again. Awards named after people who overcame failure to succeed are under consideration; as of 14 October 2026, categories and the submission process had not been announced.

When and how did the International Day for Failure begin?

It falls on 13 October every year. It was started in 2010 by a student entrepreneurship society at Aalto University in Finland, to encourage reflection on failure and respect for it as the starting point for the next attempt.

What was said about the listing that day?

Asked what had led the company to pursue a US IPO, Choi stopped short of a direct answer and said both a Korean IPO and a US IPO remain open (ZDNet Korea). In August 2026 the company formally announced plans for a US listing through a US holding company; the exchange and timing have not been decided.