“What do you mean ‘create’ a culture? Cultures should and do just happen.” “A company is a purely intellectual concept.” – Dee Hock, Founder of VISA International. As Tom Peters put it in his book “In Search Of Excellence”, a company can provide the same level of ‘social resonance’ as does an honorary society, or an exclusive club. A company has the same culture that goes hand-in-hand with that resonance. But how…

At beLAUNCH2013, I had the privilege of interviewing Christine Tsai, Partner and ‘pug herder’ at 500 Startups. (Confession time. I almost fell in love.) “Grace under pressure” really did define Christine as a person – throughout the interview, she was collected, passionate, and incredibly charismatic. But she was also sharp, clear and spoke with conviction. Christine is a true compétant of a woman and role model. Previously, Christine was in product marketing at…

International markets are too big an opportunity to pass up. Why allow physical borders to dictate the limits of your business? Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, once said that “if you have a product business and you aren’t focused on international, you are missing out on two-thirds of your potential customers.” This is still widely relevant to many startups around the world. Michael Fertik, the ‘serial entrepreneur’ said in his Harvard Business…

Inspiring CEO, an incredible team, united by one vision. VCNC: possibly one of the most successful startups in Korea. Just like Jake, the CEO of VCNC, the company is incredibly, incredibly driven and passionate. I must say, it’s not every day that you get to interview both the CEO and someone from within the company – and what integrity. I’m excited for things to come for this one – and you should…

I had the privilege of interviewing with Gwendolyn Regina Tan, SGE’s Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. SGE is one of the best online publishers dedicated to the Southeast Asia startup and entrepreneurship scene. SGE is one of beSUCCESS’ partners and serves as an online ecosystem where fellow entrepreneurs, investors & venture capitalists, technologists, developers and business plan competition organizers discuss their experiences on entrepreneurship and enterprise in Singapore. Startups In Korea: Her Perspective “This…

LatteScreen’s Grand Global Launch in 14 Countries LatteScreen Launches in 14 Countries Across Asia, Europe and North America: The First Incentivizing Mobile Advertising Platform on Smartphone Lock Screen. Jeong Soohwan, CEO of AppDisco (http://eng.adlatte.com/), the market leader in reward-based mobile advertising scene, announces the launch of LatteScreen in 12 countries in addition to its current operations in Korea and Japan. On May 13th, the product will be released in six countries including…

  “링크드인(Linkedin)이 거실에서 시작 되었다면, 버진 그룹(Virgin Group)은 다락방에서 시작 했다.” 시작은 누구나 힘들다. 버진 그룹 회장 리처드 브랜슨(Richard Branson)도 같은 시작점이 있었다. 그러나 그에게도 발전이 있었기에 지금은 비즈니스를 시작하는 창업가들에게 다섯 가지 팁을 자신있게 강조할 수 있다. 남의 말을 잘 들어주는 사람이 되자 우리의 귀는 두 개고 입은 한 개이다! 인정받는 리더가 되려면 잘 들어주자. 기발한 아이디어는 어느 장소에서는 나오기 마련이니 언제 들릴지 모를 조언을 위해 항상 귀를 열어두자. 미팅 기록 뿐…

Noom Weight Loss Coach, a leading weight loss app on the Android platform, has announced the release of its first iOS version today. Like its Android application, Noom Weight Loss for iOS will track exercise and food habits of users, and motivate users throughout the day to lead a healthier and more active lives. To help members eat well, Noom Weight Loss tracks food intake through food logging. The search functionality is…

Justin and I got the opportunity to chat with Jeff Clavier about the Korean startups and the ecosystem. Jeff Clavier has a MS in Computer Science and a degree in Distributed Computing and is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC (one of the most established seed VC firms in SV. They closed 150 investments since 2004!). What I found fascinating and admirable was that although SoftTech concentrates on the US, Jeff makes at…

I sat down with Andrew Kim, the first angel investor at Shakr Media, just a few hours before Shakr was announced as the beLAUNCH2013 Startup Battle Winner. Andrew Kim is currently working for a major Korean conglomerate in a senior position, and was previously with telecom startup Kineto Wireless. He studied Engineering at Carnegie Mellon and holds a M.Sc. in management from Stanford University. We talked about why he invested in Shakr,…

I had the privilege of interviewing David Lee, Founder & CEO of Shakr Media at beLAUNCH 2013. We asked him about Korean startups, the ecosystem, Shakr’s goals and about David himself. Sue J. Hur: Thank you for making the time for this interview David! Justin, this is David Lee, the Founder and CEO of what I can confidently say is the ‘next big thing’ – Shakr Media. David Lee: Nice to meet…

A panel discussion titled ‘Disruptive Asian entrepreneur: Cracking the Silicon Valley code’ was organized on Day 2 of beLAUNCH 2013, the biggest startup and technology conference in South Korea. The panel discussion was designed as a forum for successful Asian American entrepreneurs to share their insights and experience from starting and growing their company in Silicon Valley. The moderator of the session was Jay Eum, Co-CEO of Translink Capital and the panellists…

We are delighted to announce the winners of beLAUNCH 2013! 20 startups pitched at the Startup Battle at beLAUNCH 2013, South Korea’s biggest startup event. Winners of the different categories: 1. Amazon Web Service Winner: JDLab 2. K-APP Global Business Project Winner : CloudVision and WePlanet 3. Global Brain Winner : A chance to pitch in front of Japanese investors SinglePet 4. beLAUNCH2013 Winner : A chance to pitch at beLAUNCH New York (sponsored…

My colleague Vallabh and I conducted an exclusive interview with the CEO of KakaoTalk, Sirgoo Lee. Sue J. Hur: Hi Sirgoo, thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us. This will be a great opportunity for Korean startups and entrepreneurs.  Vallabh Rao: Yes, thank you so much for sparing the time for us.  Sirgoo Lee:  Thank you. Sue: Phil Libin said that it’s dangerous for Korean startups to…

KakaoTalk CEO Sirgoo delivered a session on the Future of Mobile at beLAUNCH 2013. Below are excerpts from his talk. On competition and growth strategy Although we have competitors, we have 5 billion messages being sent every day which is our competitive edge. KakaoTalk is the world’s first mobile social platform and has been a stepping stone for other services. We didn’t really know how we will evolve, we are planning to…

Mong-joon Chung, Honorary Chairman of Asan Nanum Foundation, spoke at beLAUNCH 2013 on the entrepreneurial roots of the Hyundai group and the importance of startups for the Korean economy. Asan Nanum Foundation was set up by the Hyundai group to encourage entrepreneurship in Korea among other things. Mong-joon also spoke about the role entrepreneurs have played in the post Korean war industrial growth in the country. Mong-joon Chung shared the story of…

The following is the extract from Phil Libin’s speech. [On their service] “The more people use Evernote, the more they come back to it. The more people sign up, more people stick around. It really shows that people can become attached. [People] use it and they stop over time. This is true with a lot of companies at the beginning. The whole goal with Evernote is that it becomes more valuable the…

I had the privilege of talking to Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote, about the current outlook of the Korean startup ecosystem. Phil shared with us some of his valuable insights with regards to the startup industry, entrepreneurship, and his perception of Korea. Sue J. Hur: Hi Phil, thank you for making the time for me today. Phil Libin: Thank you Sue. Sue: You mentioned that you’re looking for significant talents in…

Partnership creates first Southeast Asia-focused accelerator for tech startups with a Silicon Valley Fast Track™                                                                                        May 1, 2013, Seoul, Korea and San Francisco, California — Silicon Valley-based BootstrapLabs, and…

Startup Battle 1:  1. CloudVision – Knowck Co.  2. Tipinboard – Corping Inc.  3. Anydoor – Anydoor Inc.  Startup Battle 2:  1. Shakr – Shakr Media 2. Lookpage – Lookpage. 3. Tripvi – Tripvi Inc.  4. DGMIT – DGMIT Inc.  5. Profeel.me – Profeel.com   Startup Battle 3:  1. Twinword – Twinword Inc. 2. Phongle – Phongle 3. 500 Videos – 500 Videos 4. Wishket – Wishket 5. JDLab – JDLab Startup Battle…