Born stateless in Japan, Taejun Shin’s journey from refugee travel documents to private equity and then founding Gojo is anything but ordinary. In this episode, he explains how his personal story shaped a mission to deliver financial services to low-income households across 13 countries, from India to Africa. He shares why governance and regulation remain his biggest hurdles, why face-to-face interactions still outperform AI in credit scoring, and how he structured Gojo’s cap table to balance profit with social impact. With ambitions to reach 100 million households in 50 countries, Taejun reveals what it takes to scale microfinance responsibly while staying true to its mission.