Preparation for beLAUNCH, Korea's top event for tech entrepreneurs in Asia, is well under way. It's now time to break under the surface of the event to uncover the content that will cement the third annual beLAUNCH in Seoul as one of the stand-out events in the startup calender in Asia.
A good conference relies on top quality content crafted carefully around a superb line-up of world-class speakers. Below is a highlight of some of the key players who will be making beLAUNCH a startup event to remember.
Peter Vesterbacka (CMO, Rovio)
Peter Vesterbacka is the CMO and Mighty Eagle of Rovio. Peter drives the company’s marketing and brand strategy, taking Angry Birds to new and unexpected places. Rovio is an entertainment media company based in Finland, and the creator of the globally successful Angry Birds franchise. Angry Birds, a casual puzzle game, became an international phenomenon within a year of release, and is now the number one paid app of all time. Following this success in mobile gaming, Angry Birds has expanded rapidly in entertainment, publishing, and licensing to become a beloved international brand.
Naval Ravikant (CEO, AngelList)
Naval raised an astounding $25M last year for Angel List, which is disrupting the global early stage funding environment, and comes to beLAUNCH to talk about the future of Angel and Early Stage Investing in a hyper-connected world. AngelList is a community of startups and investors who make fund-raising efficient. The funding platform was started by the dudes who do Venture Hacks. Meet the startups and investors.
Eric Migicovsky (CEO, Pebble)
The wearable device market has been growing steadily over the last 12 months and was thrown fully into the global spotlight at the recent World Mobile Congress (WMC). Pebble is one of the key players in this market, which makes CEO, Eric Micigovsky, one of the industry's leading figures. He will be joining us on a panel to discuss the future of one of the most groundbreaking emerging industries, and possibly teaching our home-grown wearables company, Samsung, a thing or two.
Sonny Vu (CEO, MisFit)
Sonny is the CEO of Misfit Wearables and is best known for designing highly wearable computing products, including the Shine, an elegant activity monitor (Red Dot & A’ Design Awards). Sonny was also the Founder and CEO of AgaMatrix, makers of the world’s first iPhone-connected hardware medical device (Red Dot & GOOD Design Awards).
Ben Huh (CEO, Cheezburger)
Ben Huh is the God Father of humorous online content, dispersed daily to millions of fans across Cheezburger's 50+ websites. He has created a multi billion dollar corporation around 'cat pics, memes, and LoLs'. He will be joined by new kid on the block, Ray Chan from the wildly popular 9Gag, to discuss how he built his content corporation at a time when the banks were failing. They will also be uncovering how content will be consumed in the coming years, as the space becomes ever-more crammed with new players that aim to carve out a niche in the global online content industry.
Ray Chan (CEO, 9GaG)
Ray is the co-founder of 9GAG, one of the leading user generated content sites in the world, where he focuses on making a sustainable business out of humor. 9GAG is a Y Combinator and 500 Startups alumnus where Ray and his team spent a large amount of their time in Silicon Valley, learning from the best.
Sirgoo Lee (Co-CEO, Kakao Corp.)
Sirgoo Lee Founded KakaoTalk, a global messaging service with over 130M users. It is also seen as a front-runner in the new social platform space that is developing in a 'Post-Facebook Era'. Kakao announced its IPO planned for next May, with an expected $3Bn - $4Bn exit.
Bom Kim (Founder, Coupang)
Bom Kim is another rising star in the Korean startup ecosystem. Having dropped out of his Harvard MBA he founded daily deals site Coupang which rapidly developed into a full-scale e-commerce success. Only four years after the company was founded it is rumored that Bom is preparing for Korea's second multi billion dollar exit for 2015.
Mike Cannon-Brookes (Co-CEO, Atlassian)
Mike has achieved what few other Entrepreneurs have, built a highly successful software company outside Silicon Valley. Mike Cannon-Brookes is the co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian, an award-winning enterprise software company that helps innovators everywhere plan, build, and launch great software. Sydney-based Atlassian counts some of the world’s largest organizations as clients—including some of the biggest names in media, manufacturing and technology—such as eBay, Coca-Cola, Netflix, United Airlines, Cisco, Proctor & Gamble, BMW and NASA. Atlassian currently has over 33,000 customers globally and has been named one of the "Fastest Growing Companies" by both Deloitte and BRW Magazine.
Soujanya Bhumkar (CEO, CoolIris)
Soujanya is CEO and co-founder of Cooliris, which is creating the world’s best experience for the navigation and discovery of content. Cooliris is Soujanya’s third start-up. Soujanya is passionate about building great teams to create products that contribute awesomeness to the world.
Eric Alexander (VP Flipboard)
Eric is a VP of Flipboard, a digital social magazine that aggregates web links from your social circle, i.e. Twitter and Facebook, and displays the content in magazine form on an iPad. Headed by Mike McCue, former CEO of Tellme, and Evan Doll, former Senior iPhone Engineer at Apple, Flipboard is on a quest to transform how people discover, view and share content by combining the beauty and ease of print with the power of social media.
David Lee (Founder, SV Angel), Jay Eum (Co-Founder & MD, TransLink Capital), Tim Chang (Managing Director, Mayfield Fund), Eric Kim (Managing Director, Maverick Capital), Yashuhiko Yurimoto (CEO, Global Brain)
A startup event is not complete without the investors that help to finance the ambitions of budding entrepreneurs. The investors we have invited to beLAUNCH are all seasoned startup financiers, with enviable track records of success in helping to build and exit numerous tech startups.
David Lee is one of the most prominent early stage investors in Silicon Valley, who founded SV Angel with partner Ron Conway. Among his investments are Zappos, DropBox, Twitter, Jawbone, Zynga, EventBrite, FourSquare, Yammer, and Path (as well as several hundred others). His ability to chose winners is simply awe-inspiring.
Eric Kim is one of the most successful overseas VCs to have invested in Korean startups. Two portfolio companies (KakaoTalk and Coupang) will be discussing with Eric how, with his help, they have been able to build multi billion dollar companies in Korea in less than five years, well below even the Silicon Valley average.
Yasuhiko Yurimoto is now a well known face in the Asian startup scene. His incredible support of the growth of an Asia-wide ecosystem has led to Global Brain becoming one of the best friends of startups in Asia over the last few years. He most recently invested $2.5M in 5Rocks, a Korean startup we introduced to him at beLAUNCH 2013.
Jay Eum has been in the investment game for over ten years and has a special place in his heart for Asian startups. He is responsible for TransLink’s investments in Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB), Chartboost, Enterprise DB, and many others.
Key Facts:
- Wbsite: www.belaunch.com
- Dates: May 14 - 15, 2014
- Location: Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul
- Attendees: 3,000+
- Top tech / Entrepreneurship Speakers: 50+ from across the world
- Startup Booths: 100+
- Corporate Booths: 15 - 20
- Startup Battle: 20 startups showcasing
- VIP Party / Corporate introductions / After Party / Much More
- Early Bird tickets: Click here
- Startup Booth Registration: Click here
- YouTube: beLAUNCH2013, beLAUNCH_Palo_Alto_2013
- Key contact: Nathan Millard, Global Director (nathan@besuccess.com)
Abouth beLAUNCH: beLAUNCH is one of Asia's biggest annual events for the tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem, hosted by beSUCCESS, Korea's top tech startup media. In 2014, the event will be accommodated in the brand new Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, a futuristic conference venue that suitably captures the mood of excitement and growth in the domestic entrepreneurship ecosystem. We expect over 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors, media personalities and tech luminaries to join us for this momentous festival of tech and entrepreneurship, for startups, by a startup. As well as tech and startups, come and experience the vibrant city of Seoul and sample the local culture that is infiltrating the global consciousness, and share a few 'sojus' with the local startup movers and shakers.
