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…

  Check out our speakers for beLAUNCH 2013!! The order is in the order that they are speaking in! 🙂 ■     James Jung     CEO of beSUCCESS ■     Euno Lee     Editor of beSUCCESS ■     Mongjoon Chung     Honorary Chairman of ASAN Nanum Foundation ■     Phil Libin     CEO of Evernote ■     Jaeuk Park     CEO of VCNC ■     Jeongseok Chester Roh     CEO of Ablar Co. ■…

  AGENDA 1 May 2013 [Day 1] 08:59 ~ 09:05 Opening by beSUCCESS ■     James Jung     CEO of beSUCCESS ■     Euno Lee     Editor of beSUCCESS   09:05 ~ 09:10 Welcome Speech   09:10 ~ 09:20 Congratulatory message ■     Mongjoon Chung     Honorary Chairman of ASAN Nanum Foundation   09:20 ~ 09:50 Founders Stories – Evernote, “Building a 100 year start up” ■     Phil Libin     CEO…

This year beLAUNCH organized an Indian edition to enable startups from India interested in entering the Korean/East Asian market. We are delighted to announce the winner of beLAUNCH India edition – Bangalore headquartered UMobile. A panel comprising of VCs and industry experts in Korea have chosen the winner from the 65 startups from India that applied. Palo Alto headquartered company Cooliris has supported the participation of the beLAUNCH India winner at beLAUNCH…

Soujanya Bhumkar, CEO of Palo Alto based CoolIris, will be speaking at beLAUNCH on May 1st – 3rd and he has given us a taste of what is in store, in the form of 16 gems of wisdom, taken from his journey so far. Idea is only 5% of what it’s going to take. Execution is 95% It’s not the what and the why, it’s the how. The how is the game…

I never recommend anything without trying it first: that is the golden rule that I go by! 🙂 Here are some great websites I found that will help you increase your productivity within your startup. 1. Projectflow It’s simple and easy to use with a drag-and-drop interface. It has customizable columns – so you can add more columns needed and is more flexible than the traditional To Do/In Progress/Done columns. “A popular example is…

There is a growing population of foreign workers here. The National Tax Service, estimated that the number of non-Korean taxpayers surpassed 500,000 in 2012. (That’s a significant increase from 403,000 in 2010 and 465,000 in 2011!) Foreigners must file for their year-end tax settlements, but NTS provides a set of guidelines you can follow. Foreign residents must submit tax forms on the same day as Korean citizens, but tax treatments differ slightly….

As I explained in the previous article, startups can choose to share or partner up with others for mutual benefit. Startups like yourself would enter into these sorts of partnership arrangements as a part of your endeavor to do everything legally/ethically as possible; not only that, this would improve your bottom line and sustain/increase profits. This can be done in various ways. You can do things like: arms-length licensing, strategic alliance building, joint ventures,…

You want to remain profitable in an increasingly global economy. There’s pressure to create new opportunities, new revenue streams from existing assets, new innovations. And all for what? Well, to create new products, enhance existing ones, and to explore new markets. Innovations are valuable assets and must be protected by using the tools of the intellectual property system before you reveal, share, or have it stolen from you. Gain and retain competitive…