Difference between revisions of "1415T2g1 South Korea/Reflection/day2"
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| − | <div style="font-size: 20px">Day | + | <div style="font-size: 20px">Day 4: Pristone & SNU & KBAA & FuturePlay</div> |
| − | <div> | + | <div> |
| + | |||
| + | <h3>Pristone</h3> | ||
| + | Pristone is located in Seoul National University (SNU) where Mr. Minhee Cho (CEO of Pristone) graduated from. SNU has an entrepreneurship club called SNUSV (Seoul National University Student Venture) which gathers students with interest in entrepreneurship and is a support group for nurturing potential entrepreneurs. Mr. Cho was introduced to SNUSV club in 2002 by a senior and this experience changed his career decision from business management in mechanical engineering to entrepreneurship. He went on to lead the club as president in 2004. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Up to date, he has had a wide range of experience tinkering with potential business ideas which he shared with us. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In June 2003, he joined Samsung as an intern for about 7 month. As a person with overflowing creativity juice, he found that he did not have much freedom in expressing his ideas. Working in a company was also not the fastest and best way for him to earn money. Hence, he decided to take on the path of entrepreneurship. | ||
| + | |||
| + | His first start up, CIZIX, was in October 2005 but it wasn’t successful as they were too optimistic about the product. He then set up Rebi in Feburary 2007, a search engine, but it was disrupted by the release of iPhone and money from investors was scarce at that time. The team later abandoned the project as they could no longer financially support the development as money was needed for technology, research, and maintenance of the application. He went on to develop some other ideas and in December 2010, he set up Pristone with some of his friends who worked with him on previous projects. | ||
| + | |||
| + | One advice he shared was to keep the company name different from the brand name. This allows the company to develop many different applications under one brand. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The first application developed under Pristone was Gamification in March 2011 but they were disappointed as they had high expectations. Also in 2011, they developed 3 other applications (PetsGram, Kaktail, Now) which all were not well received by the public. They reached a panic period as they didn’t know what to do but they kept trying new ideas until the team broke up in February 2012. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Then in August 2012, the remaining founders started getRocket using the Tumblr platform. getRocket was a platform dedicated to job search in start-ups. While they fast-tracked their development of the idea through Tumblr, another company which came up with the same idea before them took 3 months to develop a website for it. This resulted in Pristone gaining first mover advantage. When getRocket was proven to be well received, they moved it to a website and renamed the application to RocketPunch. | ||
| + | |||
| + | I’ve learnt a lot from Mr. Cho and to sum up my learnings, it would be to | ||
| + | *Try various ideas before you decide to start a business. You will need time and resource to try but “if you make time to try, you will find the answer”. | ||
| + | *Take your time to find a product/service that really meets the needs of people. No point rushing and coming up with something that people don’t want or need. | ||
| + | *Solve a real world problem with realistic plan and focus. | ||
| + | *The best time to try starting up a business is when you’re in school. | ||
| + | *When you start testing an idea, you don’t need to fully develop the service. Making use of existing resources and platforms is a way to quickly speed up your development process. | ||
| + | *When a product/service becomes successful, don’t get too ahead of yourself. Updating the service is just as trying as the initial development. If you update your service improperly, you will lose users. Hence, it is important to test the waters to see if the added functionality is what the users really want. | ||
| + | *Partnership is very important. Pristone has had partnership with Venture Square, Platum, and beSuccess which helped them win over their competitors. | ||
| + | *Growth hacking can help to measure success and failure. The funnel concept in growth hacking is coined as AARRR and consists of Acquisition, Activation, Revenue, Retention, and Referral. Out of them all, retention of users is the most difficult. | ||
| + | *Address culture difference in the service. For example, Linkedin requires education graduation date but Koreans go by entrance date as some students take long breaks in school for other activities. | ||
| + | *Having connections is important. Through connection, he got jobs, found co-workers, got information for his business and they were of great support to his growth as an entrepreneur. | ||
| + | *Investors always ask “Why you?”. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <h3>Seoul National University (SNU)</h3> | ||
| + | We were received by Sulli, a student studying in the entrepreneurship course offered by SNU. She shared with us in a lecture hall about what she learnt in the course. Entrepreneurship first spiked interest in 2007 by the need for more jobs and it’s only recently that universities introduced courses to guide students who are interested in setting up businesses. The course was introduced 3 semesters back and they have received 20 students per semester and currently there are 60 students studying in the course. The course caters modules to help students who already have start-ups or are planning to start a business. They learn about product development from identifying the problem, customer segmentation, to revenue streams. In the course, they also have student organized events and activities like study groups, visits to Silicon Valley, and entrepreneurship training. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The entrepreneurship sector in South Korea is still growing and we expect to see more support in universities for the development of start-ups. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <h3>Korean Business Angel Association (KBAA) </h3> | ||
| + | We had a short 40 minutes session with KBAA and it’s a relatively new non-profit company that helps start-ups get funding from angel investors and the government. Mr. Go, Chairman of KBAA shared with us that marketing, patent/legal issues, and funding are common problems that start-ups face. Hence, KBAA serves as a platform to build an angel investor network for aspiring entrepreneurs to tap on. The reason why KBAA focuses on angel investor is because angel investors are open to investing in ideas that have yet to be solidified. | ||
| + | |||
| + | KBAA has a Angel Investment Matching Fund where the government provides the entrepreneur with an investment amount that matches the angel investor’s investment. They also have a Tech Incubator Program for Startups (TIPS) which has mentors to guide the newbies. These mentors are usually people who have start-up experience and want to contribute back to the entrepreneurship eco system. This enhances efficiency of finding good startups with good ideas. After the angel investor decides to invest, the government will then review the idea and decide on how much to invest. In addition to the two activities above, KBAA also provides Angel Forum Operations which provides platforms for entrepreneurs to learn from people with experience in the field. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Mr. Go also shared with us that only 1% of students are interested in start-ups. This is because most people aim to enter the big brands like Samsung and LG and many are also unaware about the support for starting up a business. He estimates that in 20 to 30 years, many of our current jobs will become obsolete and by then, people will have to find new way to earn money. | ||
| + | |||
| + | From the sharing session, I believe that the entrepreneurship support in South Korea is getting stronger but there needs to be an increase in awareness of these opportunities. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <h3>FuturePlay</h3> | ||
| + | FuturePlay is a company builder which makes investment in technology focused companies. They support innovators who have the capability and knowledge to kick start their business. Currently, they have funded many companies with potential to roll out their product/service. | ||
| + | He shared with us about a few companies like | ||
| + | *FingerSense - an application that senses different objects and parts of your hand to perform various functions | ||
| + | *WAVE – an application which measures air quality in your current surrounding | ||
| + | *SNAP – interactive mobile prototyping application | ||
| + | and more.. | ||
| + | FuturePlay creates patents for these ideas and keeps them until the product/service spins-off in the market. They provide mentorship for entrepreneurs with high potential to disrupt the current technology industry and they have been very successful in nurturing these entrepreneurs. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Like KBAA, FuturePlay is part of the entrepreneurship ecosystem that supports aspiring entrepreneurs and we can look forward to seeing revolutionary technology in the market soon. | ||
| + | |||
| + | </div> | ||
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<div style="margin-top: -4em"> | <div style="margin-top: -4em"> | ||
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==<div>Sithu</div>== | ==<div>Sithu</div>== | ||
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Revision as of 23:18, 28 April 2015
South Korea
| Day 2 |
Contents
Day 2: Reflections
Pristone
Pristone is located in Seoul National University (SNU) where Mr. Minhee Cho (CEO of Pristone) graduated from. SNU has an entrepreneurship club called SNUSV (Seoul National University Student Venture) which gathers students with interest in entrepreneurship and is a support group for nurturing potential entrepreneurs. Mr. Cho was introduced to SNUSV club in 2002 by a senior and this experience changed his career decision from business management in mechanical engineering to entrepreneurship. He went on to lead the club as president in 2004.
Up to date, he has had a wide range of experience tinkering with potential business ideas which he shared with us.
In June 2003, he joined Samsung as an intern for about 7 month. As a person with overflowing creativity juice, he found that he did not have much freedom in expressing his ideas. Working in a company was also not the fastest and best way for him to earn money. Hence, he decided to take on the path of entrepreneurship.
His first start up, CIZIX, was in October 2005 but it wasn’t successful as they were too optimistic about the product. He then set up Rebi in Feburary 2007, a search engine, but it was disrupted by the release of iPhone and money from investors was scarce at that time. The team later abandoned the project as they could no longer financially support the development as money was needed for technology, research, and maintenance of the application. He went on to develop some other ideas and in December 2010, he set up Pristone with some of his friends who worked with him on previous projects.
One advice he shared was to keep the company name different from the brand name. This allows the company to develop many different applications under one brand.
The first application developed under Pristone was Gamification in March 2011 but they were disappointed as they had high expectations. Also in 2011, they developed 3 other applications (PetsGram, Kaktail, Now) which all were not well received by the public. They reached a panic period as they didn’t know what to do but they kept trying new ideas until the team broke up in February 2012.
Then in August 2012, the remaining founders started getRocket using the Tumblr platform. getRocket was a platform dedicated to job search in start-ups. While they fast-tracked their development of the idea through Tumblr, another company which came up with the same idea before them took 3 months to develop a website for it. This resulted in Pristone gaining first mover advantage. When getRocket was proven to be well received, they moved it to a website and renamed the application to RocketPunch.
I’ve learnt a lot from Mr. Cho and to sum up my learnings, it would be to
- Try various ideas before you decide to start a business. You will need time and resource to try but “if you make time to try, you will find the answer”.
- Take your time to find a product/service that really meets the needs of people. No point rushing and coming up with something that people don’t want or need.
- Solve a real world problem with realistic plan and focus.
- The best time to try starting up a business is when you’re in school.
- When you start testing an idea, you don’t need to fully develop the service. Making use of existing resources and platforms is a way to quickly speed up your development process.
- When a product/service becomes successful, don’t get too ahead of yourself. Updating the service is just as trying as the initial development. If you update your service improperly, you will lose users. Hence, it is important to test the waters to see if the added functionality is what the users really want.
- Partnership is very important. Pristone has had partnership with Venture Square, Platum, and beSuccess which helped them win over their competitors.
- Growth hacking can help to measure success and failure. The funnel concept in growth hacking is coined as AARRR and consists of Acquisition, Activation, Revenue, Retention, and Referral. Out of them all, retention of users is the most difficult.
- Address culture difference in the service. For example, Linkedin requires education graduation date but Koreans go by entrance date as some students take long breaks in school for other activities.
- Having connections is important. Through connection, he got jobs, found co-workers, got information for his business and they were of great support to his growth as an entrepreneur.
- Investors always ask “Why you?”.
Seoul National University (SNU)
We were received by Sulli, a student studying in the entrepreneurship course offered by SNU. She shared with us in a lecture hall about what she learnt in the course. Entrepreneurship first spiked interest in 2007 by the need for more jobs and it’s only recently that universities introduced courses to guide students who are interested in setting up businesses. The course was introduced 3 semesters back and they have received 20 students per semester and currently there are 60 students studying in the course. The course caters modules to help students who already have start-ups or are planning to start a business. They learn about product development from identifying the problem, customer segmentation, to revenue streams. In the course, they also have student organized events and activities like study groups, visits to Silicon Valley, and entrepreneurship training.
The entrepreneurship sector in South Korea is still growing and we expect to see more support in universities for the development of start-ups.
Korean Business Angel Association (KBAA)
We had a short 40 minutes session with KBAA and it’s a relatively new non-profit company that helps start-ups get funding from angel investors and the government. Mr. Go, Chairman of KBAA shared with us that marketing, patent/legal issues, and funding are common problems that start-ups face. Hence, KBAA serves as a platform to build an angel investor network for aspiring entrepreneurs to tap on. The reason why KBAA focuses on angel investor is because angel investors are open to investing in ideas that have yet to be solidified.
KBAA has a Angel Investment Matching Fund where the government provides the entrepreneur with an investment amount that matches the angel investor’s investment. They also have a Tech Incubator Program for Startups (TIPS) which has mentors to guide the newbies. These mentors are usually people who have start-up experience and want to contribute back to the entrepreneurship eco system. This enhances efficiency of finding good startups with good ideas. After the angel investor decides to invest, the government will then review the idea and decide on how much to invest. In addition to the two activities above, KBAA also provides Angel Forum Operations which provides platforms for entrepreneurs to learn from people with experience in the field.
Mr. Go also shared with us that only 1% of students are interested in start-ups. This is because most people aim to enter the big brands like Samsung and LG and many are also unaware about the support for starting up a business. He estimates that in 20 to 30 years, many of our current jobs will become obsolete and by then, people will have to find new way to earn money.
From the sharing session, I believe that the entrepreneurship support in South Korea is getting stronger but there needs to be an increase in awareness of these opportunities.
FuturePlay
FuturePlay is a company builder which makes investment in technology focused companies. They support innovators who have the capability and knowledge to kick start their business. Currently, they have funded many companies with potential to roll out their product/service. He shared with us about a few companies like
- FingerSense - an application that senses different objects and parts of your hand to perform various functions
- WAVE – an application which measures air quality in your current surrounding
- SNAP – interactive mobile prototyping application
and more.. FuturePlay creates patents for these ideas and keeps them until the product/service spins-off in the market. They provide mentorship for entrepreneurs with high potential to disrupt the current technology industry and they have been very successful in nurturing these entrepreneurs.
Like KBAA, FuturePlay is part of the entrepreneurship ecosystem that supports aspiring entrepreneurs and we can look forward to seeing revolutionary technology in the market soon.
