1617T2g1 South Korea/Reflection/Day3

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Day 3
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Reflections
Student Name Seoul Global Startup Centre/Rezi Trazy Luxboro
Ang Jui Ping Rehoboth and Seoul global startup centre

In order for startups to internationalise, close cooperation between both locals and foreigners is needed to achieve the most diverse and friendly environment. Rezi Having a clear theme and workflow, with a targeted product will be good for capturing markets.

Focusing on a existing good product and expanding it could be more likely to pay off as compared to expanding within similar fields without holding any market leadership positions Customisable products are well-received due to their flexibility towards the user's multiple needs and ability to retain interest.
Benedict Wee Yu Rui A quote from Mr Miller that i learn is that in Korea, an expert are not the experts but just highly educated. An expert should be someone who is successful in their own startup and have their story to tell”. 4 Key factors i learn to measure how well a comapny is doing is by their revenue, HR (is the company hiring people), Investment (is the company attracting investment), Intellectual Property (Patents, IP) Trazy is a one stop travel platform that target free individual travellers that aims to be the number 1 travel shop in the Asia market with over 300k monthly visitors. A quote i learn is that “Passion is what drives them in the travel industry” Luxrobo is a robotics platform of entertainment and educational robot for changing everyone’s life smarter and more efficient. A quote from the CEO video was that “He aims to inspire us to use hid modules to gain interest in robotics and coding”
Bryan Lian Junquan Although this center do not offer any special incubation facilities/services, it is still attractive place for startups who are keen on launching their products/services in South Korea. One thing that I got out from the engagement was their passion for Trazy and I believe that this is something that every startup needs in order to have motivation to push through during tough times. I have learnt the importance of pivoting. The founder created 5 other products before MODI and rejected them. Most people/businesses are resistant to change and think that their product is the best. However, Luxrobo pivoted every time something is out of place/mismatch which it is very admirable.
Chua Weilun Both ideas and resources are equally important to the creation of a business; a under-utilization of both will lead to a limitation on the potential of the business. Your past experiences in any industry may prove to be useful for your future ventures, do not forget what you did, instead, use it to empower your future. With passion, it can drive both determination and innovation required to kick start a childhood dream.
Dawn Tan Sze Hui - Partnership program for foreign entrepreneurs to contribute to seoul's economy

- Some Restrictions on foreign entrepreneurs - Key takeaway: govt support is always pertinent in helping budding startups, especially foreign ones. But too much would often cause complacency. Locals are useful for helping foreigners

- Key takeaway: Passion drives people. Jessica, the co-founder of Trazy, and many of her crew are avid travellers and sought to bring better travel experiences to others. - Do everything by themselves, from sourcing to assembling

- bringing robotics to the world, which was a lifelong passion of the co-founder - Key takeaway: follow your dreams, take baby steps, don’t have to follow the conventional path


Goh Gui Xiang Wendy Sometime locals could not see the problem that the country is facing that is why foreigners are key in developing. The lady who did not give up and continue to refine her portfolio till she received a reply from Trazy. Started from love for robot and now a potential growing startup - A desk to a whole table to a room.
Goh Teo Wee Gavin A startup there, Rezi who presented to us, have to think if their target market would be big enough to sustain the business, would just targeting Americans and their resumes be sufficient in the long run. By offering tours and packages for activities, are they able to compete with big tour companies selling such packages as well, who are also moving towards catering to free travellers. The company is currently doing it mostly for educational purposes only, would the startup move towards the general public to generate sufficient profits for the investors.
Jason Koh Xue Quan “Foreigners are able to see apparent problems that locals uncomfortable adapt to over time”

Learning point: Always hear other’s opinion.

“The most important/ hardest thing to do is to hire the right people that you can fully trust on”

Learning point: Hiring the right team is important.

Their CEO manage to bring his dreams and vision to reality.

Learning point: Dream big and keep trying.

Jerome Lek Guan Hong According to Landon Miller, a startup’s success is based on the team being focused, driven, and persistent. These attributes help keep the team on track when developing their startups, so that they never give up when the going gets tough. The journey of an entrepreneur is full of ups and downs, and it is vital that one does not let the downs affect the motivation of the team. When developing a startup, a lot of it has to do with passion. Just like the founders of Trazy, having a product you're really passionate about helps keep yourself on track to come back to work everyday. Luxrobo’s founder turned a keen interest in robotics since young into a very marketable end product. Having an interest and loving what you do really motivates a startup owner to work harder on his own product to make it as successful as possible.
Student Name Seoul Global Startup Centre/Rezi Trazy Luxboro
Jonathan Chua Yi Xian Bringing global talent to Korea is essential in developing innovative solutions in the Korean market. The young co-founders have inspired me that age is not an obstacle in creating a startup that is a complex and successful as Trazy. The CEO’s passion for robotics since such a young age has motivated me to continue leveraging on my strength and to pursue my dreams.
Kay Zong Wei If I were to ever step out to have a startup, my first step is to join competitions and try to get into these startup centres, be it Korea, or any other countries. Another great example of how a simple idea, coupled with passion, is able to be so successful. Highly motivational for us If you are extremely passionate in something, you will be able to think of great ideas to turn your passion into career.
Kelvin Poh Kian Lim It is good to re-innovate tools that have not been explored, example the measuring tape that was showcased in K-ICT lab, with certain technologies been imbued into it, it become a multiple purpose tools that could aid contractors in many ways. Just last year i had similar idea to Trazy business model/idea but i didn’t really work on it because i was worried that i won’t be easy to get whole of up-to-date information of tourist attraction places, so the lesson i learn here courage, as it is always the negative thought that weigh us down and preventing us from becoming who we mean to be. Passion is one key factor that allow this co-founder to turn his dream into a business idea, other that, he also did an important step by engaging experience business personnel to work for his as major was not in the business domain.
Kovan Chan Jie Hong By incubating foreign startups, it provided them with an unique opportunity to identify needs that may exist in the current environment, and also tackle issues that locals might have overlooked. I’m impressed with their ideology, as they built and managed contents of tours mainly around South Korea. That said, I feel that they should have launched the mobile application earlier to retain more market share and create a stronger brand presence. Although we didnt get to interact with CEO SangHun Oh, but his story behind the founding of LuxRobo has taught me to focus on a startup that you are passionate in, and not for the money. It is only with passion, will one be able to enjoy what he is doing and constantly improve on it.
Lam Wan Ting Seoul GSC is a newly built startup center that aims to help foreigners to set up businesses in korea - Personally, I feel that such a specialised place is really beneficial for foreigners as it helps to provide the assistance they need in terms of language barriers as well as the mentoring, for them to adapt into the korean market. Trazy is a travel tour booking site where customers can purchase tickets to a large variety of tours or concerts online - the company is mainly driven by 4 female friends with a common passion for travelling abroad. Luxrobo is a fun IOT company that was started by a really young, robotics loving entrepreneur that has recently launched its MODI IOT project that was a hit on kickstarter - its a really fun module that allows users to be.
Lee Kuan Yong Seoul Global Startup Center: An ideal place to glue teams and partnerships together, and able to allow foreigners to establish business easily here. Trazy: Content is critical to their success, as basically without good content they are unable to attract and generate customers. Luxrobo: Need to adapt to market conditions, as certain market is more viable than the other, for example the educational sector.
Lee Teck Hui To built international partnership, you have to be focus, persistence and aggressive. Pivoting your idea if you know you are in the wrong direction: Trazy realised that people have problem purchasing travelling than finding traveling information. Importance of pivoting idea: Luxrobo pivot from product to education because retail price is too expensive which needed alot of money for marketing
Loo Qi Xuan Ryan Elyas Rehoboth:

• The government has a fairly big say in its initiatives, and this is something that should be considered during a joint venture.

Resi: • Would a help guide in English actually be helpful to Koreans (any users, actually) who are weak in that language?

Still want to know how they can capture the part of the market that loves to plan trips with “custom additions” to their own itineraries, which Trazy may not be able to do well Smart of them to target the education market as the product is too expensive for most households, but great gift nonetheless
Mak Kar Kit Rehoboth/ Seoul Global Startup Center/ Rezi - This center is government funded, has a very big space and it was a pity that we were in the interlude between startup batches. Trazy - The office looks very cozy for a small team and I would think that their expansion opportunity would be to get as many in-house operators and tour guides as they can and pass on the “Trazy experience” as described in their travel guides to their customer base. LuxRobo - This is probably the first company that we have been to that is housed in a normal office setting. They probably do have a lot of funding and it is really interesting how robotics can be promoted in such an interesting way. IoT 2.0?
Ng Jia Ning Their success comes from the passion of the start-ups to make a mark in the world A passion for travel and sharing about the country they love motivates them to build the company better A combination of passion and hard work not only won the CEO many awards; it also got him a job that he loves
Student Name Seoul Global Startup Centre/Rezi Trazy Luxboro
Ng Zheng Hao “The startup gets success, they exit, and the entrepreneur gets back to the accelerator and tries to help the startup or join the team to do the same thing. There's kind of like the cycle.” Mr. Landon Miller, Global Team Leader, 2017 Having a startup is not an easy feat and it all boils down to your team, especially your co-founder. Trazy has confirmed this fact and I hope to find this missing partner. “Our CEO is very young, he is only 26 years old. In fact, most of our team is in their twenties. However, there are 2 of us which are in our forties.” Mr. Han Sung Kang, CCO, 2017
Pek Caimao Jeremy Seoul global startup center - they are very supportive of overseas startups to establish their product/service to the Korean market. Trazy - very small sized company that relies on packages to attract consumer to get revenue, they are more like the digital marketing for the tour companies. Luxrobo - They have been steadily growing since 2014, it was a good move for them to target the education industry rather than the retail industry because of the growing trend in teaching coding and robotics that will stimulate the stem subjects in students.
Ranon Sim Wen Yang A key determinant of a successful start-up in Korea is its people. Choose the right people as part of your team. A business can only last as long as the passion that drives its team members. If you’re building a product, you can’t be afraid of hearing criticisms about it. That Is what the CMO of Luxrobo
Royce Junior Tan San Ye Great co-working space, great presentation by Rezi - however the presentation by Langdon was a little too long. Trazy has a good idea in a good industry right now - the travel industry is slowly shifting from offline to online and it’s a great space to grow in. I really enjoyed playing around with the robots - they were very well made and of high quality; could really see a big potential in licensing or getting acquired to Lego.
Russell Yap Song Chen Foreigners could be the best people to solve the problems in your own country due to their fresh perspective. Interesting concept and useful, however they are very easily copied. However, glad to see the team is united and motivated! Very beautiful story of how a young man with a dream was able to turn his idea from nothing into something that can benefit the maker community.
Sally CHIN Si Ying Koreans have a palli palli mentality, meaning things move really fast. Sometimes, foreigners are able to spot gaps and identify problems that Koreans aren’t able to. Everyday is a challenge for them, but what keeps them going on is their passion and drive for travel and a great team. The CEO was so driven by his passion for robotics and his vision to make robotics accessible to everyone that at such a young age he managed to develop Luxrobo to such an extent.
Sebastian Hadinata “You do not need to know what is the end of the staircase before taking your first step". This is important because in most occasion, you need to be able to have the courage to take the leap of faith to believe your idea will be successful. “Always work towards your passion!” Sometimes we can turn our personal interest into innovative idea for new business i.e. this startup is founded based on the common interest of travelling. “When you have a great passion, do not be afraid even when you are alone. Keep pursuing your success and you will soon find yourself having an excellent team as you progress”
Sim Mong Khim Jared Seoul Global Startup Center appears to be a great entry for startups looking to break into the Korean market. Trazy impressed me with their simple idea: make readers come for the content but stay for the discounts. Luxrobo's Modi seems like a more accessible Lego Mindstorms but on further inspection might be too costly and too simple.
Soh Han Cherng Stanley Giving foreigners like us a chance to compete in the Korea market. Having the right team is an important aspect for success. Passion is an important factor for success. The stronger the fire, the better it is for a shot at success.
Tan Jie Sheng Global Startup Centre - Fellow startups can give a lot of useful advice to your startup and you have to be persistent and confident. Trazy - Getting a team together is one of the main challenges of startups Luxrobo - Passion is the key to success and it will bring you to places where you have never imagined
Tan Lay Ting Startups that are lack of resources and support tends to do better as they have more motivation to persist. Meeting right members that share the same passion is crucial for teams to work together and achieve a common goal. Having passion would bring the company closer to success, it would be better to use this passion to help others.
Tan Si Ying It was an interesting learning experience to Seoul GSC and know about their selection process. If I were to expand overseas, Korea might be a good place, at this wonderful incubator. With users becoming more internet savvy, looking for discount vouchers online, Trazy has tapped into a market with great potential for growth. It was great meeting up the team behind Trazy, and to hear from them about their future plans, and how they cope with challenges along the way. I really like the IOT hardware there! It was a great hands on experience playing with the cubes, and allowed us to see what Luxrobo has done out of great passion.
Tay Ren Ann Andrew “In Korea, the experts (mentors) are not really experts. But just highly educated. An expert should be someone who is successful in starting a startup.”

— Landon Miller

Trazy started off initial goal was a travel information website. However, they changed to a commerce a couple of years ago as they realize that people have difficulty in buying stuff. It’s fine to change the goals of your company, as long as you know where is the demand. Luxrobo built a really simplistic approach to IoT. However, I feel that the price tag of USD 299 is too high for it to be adapted by institutions (when compared to competitors).
Tay Wei Rong The Korea Government to encourage more foreign start-ups to work on their business idea as this would open to more employment and solving problems in a different perspective. Passion and preserve is what I see in Trazy, as one of the employee kept trying to apply to the job that she wanted till she gets it. Another example of a company with a CEO who is passionate about his idea to make robotic easier to be reach out.