Summary and Links
Just back from NYC, so I wanted to share the link to The
Korea Society presentation. Nikita Desai
and the team did a wonderful job hosting and then professionally producing and
uploading the event. You’ll want to set
aside some time to watch the recorded session.
I have included the YouTube link in week’s copy.
The topic of Korean startups seemed to come up lots last
week. We touched upon it in The Korea
Society interview, but it was a subject of discussion in several of my high
level meetings while in the City.
I feel it is a “talking point” that I will be elaborating
more on in the next few weeks, but frankly entreneurialism and the roots of
Korean style entreureurialism has long been a subject of my study, writing and
work.
In fact, my first book was titled, The Filleys: 350 Years
of American Entrepreneurial Spirit
A second book Intrepid
Americans: Bold Koreans—Early Korean Trade, Concessions, and Entrepreneurship
As well as Chemulpo to Songdo IBD: Korea’s International
Gateway,
and Hyundai Way: Hyundai Speed all approach entreneurialism
from different perspectives, historically and culturally.
So today, just as an introduction to the topic of Korean
startups, I see the major challenge with Korean startup is culture. Let me explain, what has evolved in America
regarding startups is they tend to hub in cities like Boulder, Colorado, San
Francisco, Austin, TX, and NYC, although more and more scenes are emerging like
here in Golden, CO…
Within these communities I have witnessed an amazing synergy
not only in day-to-day interactions and dialogue, but also in resources. Actually spending an hour and listening to the
chats and even pitches for funding in edgy Caffe Centro on a South Park Street in San Francisco (the couple of blocks
once referred as Ground Zero of the dot.com, where concepts like Twitter were launched and scores of tech
companies and startups now call home )
one quickly sees why locating in one of these scenes is key ….
Noting this, where the gap between US and Korea occurs is
primarily in mindset. Today the entrepreneurs,
angel investors and VC who launched Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and
Shopify continue to look for, invest and provide mentorship and guidance to
what they hope will be the next success story…. In most cases they are
investing resources in multiple ventures….
This said they know and accept that failure is part of the
process…. As Biz Stone (Twitter, Square, Xanga, Medium…and a bunch more) said
at SXSW… “the failure of one
venture, Jelly, led to success at a venture, Super.”
So getting back to Korea the real challenge is not in lack
of ideas, innovation, and talent, but in allowing and fostering a culture for
an acceptance of failure. And this is where I will take up in the next episode
of Everything Korea and share some an exciting developments, which may be the
very answer…so stay tuned.
Until next time….
Link to The Korea Society
Link to Don’s Books
For some fun with your iPhone
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