Secrets to Winning K-Startup Grand Challenge
If you’ve been to South Korea, you’d notice how dynamic and aggressive this country is. I happen to be residing in Seoul, after having falling in love with the country and its people since I first set foot here in 2011.
One very thing that strikes me about South Koreans is their insatiable appetite for success — be it financially, academically, or popularly. Virtually every able person in Korea has a strong desire to be the best they can be and venturing in startups in one key area that the South Korean government is pushing in its agenda.
Hence, the creation of K-Startup Grand Challenge — a global startup competition that binds a 3-month long acceleration program with a final demo day to decide the final five winners to share the $240,000 prize pool.
Its inaugural program was in 2016 and is organized annually by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and funded by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of South Korea.
Any startups from around the world are welcomed to participate in this competition happening each year. In their 2020 format, 60 startups are shortlisted to participate in their 3-month long acceleration program where the final 30 startups shall compete for the top 5 grand prizes. The program is hosted in South Korea’s very own Silicon Valley called Pangyo Techno Valley, located 30 minutes by subway train from the famous Gangnam district in the south of Seoul.
To learn how to win the K-Startup Grand Challenge competition, you first need to understand what makes Koreans tick.
South Koreans live in a relatively homogenous society similar to Japan and somewhat like China, where people live harmoniously by conforming to one another. Instead of being different, Koreans are always taught to follow. This societal behavior is instilled in their ancient long heritage that also encourages its people to work hard.
Thus, often you will find similar patterns among Koreans. These patterns can be seen in their lifestyles, products, fashion, K-Pop and also in their cuisine. Therefore, it’s not a surprise if this also applies to how they judge a startup competition.
For the record, I’ve done business with multiple Korean companies, participated in Korean business competitions and also had the privilege to befriend past K-Startup Grand Challenge winners to come to the following tips and how to significantly boost your chance in winning the K-Startup Grand Challenge competition or any other business competitions in South Korea. Here are my thoughts…
You are judged based on your academic credentials
This may not apply to being shortlisted or to reach the finals, but to win, it’s one colossal advantage to you if you boast a PhD degree (or degrees), especially from a top-notch institution. I’ve seen and heard countless of times where startup entrepreneurs are turned a blind eye on their startups as long as the founders are well-equipped with ultra-impressive resumes.
Case in point is the 2017 K-Startup Grand Challenge grand prize winner, Is It Fresh Gmbh. This startup was founded by two German researchers, Dr. Jan Schnitker and Dr. Alexey Yakushenko — both are PhD degree holders. In fact, their team is glittered with academic distinctions such as Dr. Johannes Reim (Head of Software with PhD in Science), and Mathis Ernst (Head of Hardware with Master of Science). Here’s the cherry on the cake — all four of them did their postgraduate studies from RWTH Aachen University, one of the top 3 engineering universities in Germany.
Another case in point is the winner from 2019, which happens to be part of Station F’s Founders Program, together with my startup. NR2, a French startup won the 2019 edition of K-Startup Grand Challenge grand prize and don’t be surprised to find that the founder is also a PhD holder. Jordan Monnet received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Paris Diderot University. Not only that, his list of achievements includes a Master of Science degree from HEC Paris (one of the French Grandes Écoles aka Ivy League of France) and another from Paris Diderot University also.
Here’s another. The 2018 winner is Nodis and founded by Dr. Sergey Shokhor, who owns a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Its strategic advisor Mike Holt owns an MBA from the University of California.
Want more proof? Here’s another one albeit not directly related to K-Startup but does reinforce the notion. I happened to know the founder of a startup based in Seoul where its founder admits that the reason why his startup is a DOUBLE-RECIPIENT of Seoul Global Startup Center Incubation Program is due to his academic qualification from Seoul National University (SNU) — the crème de la crème of all universities in South Korea. SNU is such a prestigious institution that a fellow friend of mine tried 4 TIMES to enter but failed. I always wondered why the fuss over entering SNU, I guess I was wrong. Double-recipient here means he actually received two times the funding from the same program, although the first startup idea went bust. Also, isn’t it odd for a South Korean to receive funding support from a program meant for foreign entrepreneurs in Korea? You be the judge of that.
But why? Looking back to the notion of wanting to be the best, academic excellence is one of the few distinctions that many Koreans aim to pursue. People are highly revered when they could claim to have a PhD or Master’s degree especially from renowned universities in Korea or abroad. I personally know a Korean who lie about his educational background just to blend in among his peers.
Incidentally, you also don’t have to look far to learn this Korean trait. The oscar-winning film Parasite, Ki-jung (the daughter) poses as “Jessica”, an art therapist who “graduated” from Illinois State University. She also helped her brother Ki-woo to forge a university degree from Yonsei University, which ranked top 5 in Korea.
I know this perception seems common in anywhere in the world, but do add an extra 40% to this idea when you are dealing with Koreans.
You are also judged based on who you worked for
It goes without saying, people want to employ people with good working experience but Koreans up the ante by preferring those who worked for large multinational corporations. Think Samsung, LG, Hyundai/Kia, Lotte, SK, GS, CJ, Hanhwa, Doosan and more. These are Koreans huge conglomerates known as “chaebol.” If those names are on your CV, you’re good to be hired!
Foreign founders in foreign startups may not have the opportunity to be employed by these Korean corporations but anything equivalent in the world will do. How about FAANG — Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Are those names on your Linkedin profile? If no, you can try Microsoft, IBM, HP, HSBC, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, and any Fortune 500 companies will do. The more popular your ex-employer is, the better.
Here’re my cases in point.
- Founders from Is it Fresh worked for Forschungszentrum Jülich — one of the largest research centers in Europe. Academician judges in Korea would be able to relate to this.
- The same Korean founder I mentioned above (double-recipient guy) worked for SK Telecom — the largest wireless carrier in Korea. His confession to me did include this point as the reason for his double-dipping exploits.
- Two South Korean first-time entrepreneurs received a government grant worth $50,000 to build an app before even quitting their fulltime jobs. The founders worked for CJ Group, a Korean entertainment conglomerate.
Wait, what about your product? Does it matter?
Yes, I wish to believe it has to. But controversially, a past winner came out on top with a product that eventually failed to be fully commercialized. This is due to the inherent technology behind the product which could not withstand industrial manufacturing processes.
Think Korea first, then think global
To most of us, the word “global” means the world as we know it — as in globally open to all countries and accessible by anyone in the world and so forth. However, in South Korea, the word has a very different meaning. It means “South Korea to the world”. This entails helping Korean companies to export their products and services overseas.
South Korea thrives purely on its export-oriented economy. There’s a funny saying that South Korea has no resources but one — human resource! The ability to do export is on every Korean CEO’s list and to put things into perspective, Samsung’s annual revenue is 17% of South Korea’s GDP.
So, one critical criterion to win this competition is the ability of your startup to collaborate with Korean companies in order to sell your product from Korea to the global market. Collaboration here can be awarding manufacturing contract to a Korean factory to fabricate your product, transfer of technology or even IP sharing with a Korean entity. Either way, promoting South Korea and/or enhancing Korean exports should be in your startup’s agenda.
How about entrepreneurship experience? Doesn’t that count?
After spending 2 hours+ writing this story, it comes to my belief that perhaps your entrepreneurship experience does not matter much in this competition. It’s sad but could be true. I sense that most of the judges are from strong academic backgrounds thus, entrepreneurship experience does not mean much to them.
Should you still participate in K-Startup Grand Challenge competition?
Sure, why not? Just don’t press your luck in winning if you don’t have the qualities mentioned above. But even if you don’t win, don’t take it to heart. I reckon billionaire college dropouts like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg would never succeed too!
