An Entrepreneurship Spotlight on Minsoo Jeon​​​​: Plot Holders LLC

Minsoo Jeon is a first-year law student at Villanova Law Charles Widger School of Law. Minsoo founded Plot Holders LLC, a real estate investment company, in October 2019. Since then, the company has completed more than fifty transactions involving the purchase of raw land, obtaining development permits, and flipping entitled property to a third party (e.g., a local builder). Take a look at Minsoo's company's website here: https://www.plotholders.com/

Q: Tell us about your business; what motivated you to start it?

A: I started the business during my third year at Drexel University. At the time, I was a Philosophy major and slowly realized that many of the traditional career paths in that field were largely limited to academia or law (I was not interested in law school at the time). That realization led me to start thinking about entrepreneurship more seriously. Real estate stood out because it offered opportunities to create value in practical ways, and it seemed like an industry where someone young and willing to work hard could actually get started.

Q: What did the beginning phases of the business look like?

A: There was certainly an element of trial and error. Like many startups, the business went through several iterations, especially because I was working with very limited startup capital. The first 15-20 deals were “wholesale” transactions, where we essentially played a middleman role. We would identify a property, line up a buyer, and assign the purchase contract at closing in exchange for an “assignment fee.” ​Those early deals were valuable because they showed me how important the intermediary role can be in real estate transactions. Over time, the business evolved from simply facilitating deals to actually closing as the buyer and adding value ourselves, primarily by securing development entitlements.

Growth in the beginning was very gradual. Our first real investment was sending about 5,000 letters to landowners who might be interested in selling. Fewer than five people responded, and eventually one of those responses turned into a deal.

One thing that makes real estate unique is that there are many ways to create value without large upfront costs. For example, someone can obtain a real estate license for under $1,000 and immediately begin helping people buy and sell property. For Plot Holders, the initial investment was less than $3,000. That first deal funded the next round of outreach, and we simply kept reinvesting the proceeds.

Q: When would you say your entrepreneurial spirit developed?

A: Looking back, I’ve always had an inclination to “build things.” When I was in elementary school, I used to say that I wanted to become an “inventor,” whatever that means. . . My more concrete entrepreneurial direction developed during college. While studying philosophy, I began thinking about how I could create opportunities rather than following a predetermined path. I watched some YouTube videos of people doing real estate deals, researched the process in more depth, and gradually learned how it worked. Eventually I decided to try it myself, and that experimentation ultimately led to Plot Holders.

​Q: Why was working for yourself more appealing than working for someone else? Did taking a risk play a role?

​A: I previously interned at Amtrak and held a few other jobs. Starting the business was less about rejecting employment and more about creating an opportunity. As a Philosophy major, I recognized that the traditional path likely required graduate school, which I wasn’t interested in at the time.

​I’m definitely not opposed to working for someone else, and I actually hope to work for a law firm in Philadelphia. I think I would love a law firm environment if the organization’s mission and values aligned with my own. But at the time, starting Plot Holders seemed like a natural way to explore opportunities.

As for starting on my own, it didn’t feel especially risky. I was nineteen years old and understood that even if the business failed, I would still have plenty of time to pivot. That perspective made it easier to “go all in.” That said, I did have a strong belief that if I put in the work, something positive would eventually come from it.

​Q: When deciding how to prioritize your time, how do you choose between your law school studies and working on your business?

A: Coming into law school, I knew I would need to scale down my business activity significantly. My approach now is to focus only on deals that are straightforward and familiar, rather than taking on projects that require a large amount of new learning or attention.

Of course, some issues are unpredictable. For example, during the second week of my 1L fall semester, I had to deal with a breach of contract situation involving a business partner, which required a significant amount of time and energy. Situations like that are difficult to predict.

At the moment, my main priority is on my education and building a legal career, so I’m intentionally limiting myself to one active deal at a time.

Q: For someone looking to start their own business, what would you say is a positive part of going into real estate specifically?

A: I think the real estate industry is so unique in that there are many ways to create value without large upfront capital. Of course, purchasing property itself may require significant investment, but there are also many opportunities that depend more on hustle and creativity than on money.

For example, someone can obtain a real estate license for under $1,000 and immediately begin working as an agent. From there, success will usually depend on the willingness to put in long hours building relationships and finding clients. I actually have several friends in the industry who started out that way. Over time they used the income from brokerage to acquire their own investment properties. All of them began with just the cost of getting licensed and the determination to work hard.

Q: How does your own business change the way you see how much the law intersects with entrepreneurship?

A: Running my business was actually the biggest factor in my decision to attend law school. While building Plot Holders, I saw firsthand how closely business transactions and law are connected. For example, I’ve negotiated more than twenty joint venture agreements, worked with local municipalities to obtain zoning variances, assisted a construction company through the process of filing a mechanic’s lien, and even been involved in litigation against a buyer who breached a purchase agreement. Working through these legal challenges ended up being some of the most interesting and rewarding parts of running the business. Those experiences ultimately shaped my goal of becoming a mergers & acquisitions attorney who can help clients navigate the legal side of business transactions.