Korea Startup scene — you piss me off, but I still love you
The article was originally published in early 2019 by Marta Allina, on her personal blog, as she was getting ready to revamp Seoul Startups. What do you think? Have things changed since then?
The good…
Korea is highly-dense, consumption-focused market (especially with cosmetics, beauty and fashion but not only), equipped with super-efficient, high-speed network infrastructure. ‘High-speed’ is pretty much a keyword here: not only when it comes to 5G telco technology but also work, life, delivery services etc. You don’t have to wait around too long for anything here.
Whatever gets said later on, it must be acknowledge that the government support for startups (in diverse sectors) is HUGE here, when it comes to funding, education, overseas promotion. The government, pretty much, has created the startup ecosystem here.
The local workforce is very well-educated, very smart and capable. Multiple free coworking spaces and living prices (slightly) lower than SF, NYC or Western European cities, together with startup visa program (OASIS), add up to very good basis for turing Korea into an international startup/tech scene.
The bad…
Let’s start with the government programs. There is too many of them. On top of being run very inefficiantly (*cough* shady) by civil servants whose business and startup knowledge is limited to ‘Startups101 on Weekend’, there is just SO. MANY. This results in very little community activness and root-grown organic support of founders for founders. Numerous startups are relying to survive for years on government grants (as long as you use ‘keywords’ of the year in your applications), without really doing anything else. But most importantly — startups are not failing. Failing is part of being an entrepreneur. You fail 100 times or more before something kicks off. And each time you learn and grow as a bigger person, as an entrepreneur. But in Korea failing a business is failing as a person. And with the declining economy, the government is determined to have companies not go under (officially), to keep numbers up, and unemployment down.
VC… the funds are mostly government grants (the unofficial number is 70%, but that may be bigger). There may be some Korean ‘unicorns’, but really are they? They operate almost only in Korea and have very little recognition around the world.
And on top of that…. All that huge government support is not really available to foreigners. Not that they are not eligible (BUT! only with the right visa and a registered business), but the whole K-Startup website is only in Korean and works most efficiently in Internet Explorer (yes! not a joke!). Over the years there have been a few government programs aimed at foreign startups (K-Startup Grand Challenge, K-Ground or Seoul Global Startup Center)
And then we have more social issues. Even the ‘young and funky’ startup scene is conservative, rather passive, run but middle-aged and older gentlemen (VERY limited female founder scene). It’s hard to network, not only as a non-Korean speaking foreigner, but also as a younger person (even worse if you are female), without proper, personal connections. Not to mention, most networking events are… NOT fun (and very rarely in English)
What can we do?
We won’t change the world overnight. And we certainly cannot change Korea, the country where we are guests. But we can start taking small steps, that may inspire and impact people here to make the startup scene a better place for everyone.
- Continue building a vibrant community with a strong clear voice. Maybe one day that voice will reach the decision-makers at the very top
- Sharing information, solutions and experiences — #give first is my favorite motto. We all go through some tough situations here, but maybe some other founder out there already went through something similar and can share advise on how to get out of the hump? Sharing is caring, like the wise Care Bears have taught us.
- Holding regular events/meetups in English, where people can network, learn, discuss. And, most importantly, have fun.
- (as foreigners) Learn Korean, learn English (as Koreans). Meet each other mid-way.
- In the long-term create an impactful global event like Slush, WebSummit or Rise. Which main theme is FUN and it’s organized by the community for the community (not by the government for… who knows whom).
- Creating a strong community support for entrepreneurs, something like the Family. Showing the Korean startupers that they don’t have to be government/corporate dependent and the world is really their own oyster.
What do you think? Where should the Korean startup scene go on from here? Where can we take it to?
What is Seoul Startups?
It started as a brain child of 2 expat UX designers, who recognized a need for some sort of networking space for people like themselves: foreigners who work in / work for / work with startups and startup organizations in Korea. The thing is, as much as the Korean government trumpets about Seoul being the global startup hub of the future, the current facilities, events, programs, offers are 99% in Korean.
Alas, there was a need for SOMETHING, so we teamed to create a platform, where people could share information about doing business in Korea, experiences, news, job posts and anything else that was somehow connected to the local startup scene.
The community now counts over 1,000 members and is growing everyday. A team of dedicated connectors and community leaders works hard to create events, contents, network that will help Korea become a truely global startup scene.