“We Cheer for the Powerful Leap of Entrepreneurs!” … Successful Completion of the 2023 Spring CHOO CHOO DAY 

The event ‘2023 Spring CHOO CHOO DAY’, hosted by the Korea University Business School (Dean= Sang Yong Kim) Startup Research Institute (Director= Jungbien Moon) and organized by the Korea University LINC3.0 Project Team, KU Campus Town Development Team among others, was held on May 12th at the International Remote Conference Room of the Korea University Centennial Memorial Samsung Hall.  

‘CHOO CHOO DAY’ is a startup demo day where young entrepreneurs fostered by the startup institute program of the Korea University Business School present their visions and services to the market. ‘CHOO CHOO’ of CHOO CHOO DAY symbolizes the sound of a train powerfully departing, representing the enthusiastic leap of the participating startups and takes place every spring and fall. CHOO CHOO DAY which was held offline in Korea University, for the first time in three years due to Covid-19, there were six teams participating △TimeBomb, △BuddyPie △PickFlea △Geurrillas △CalBack △Geotz.  

The event began with the opening remarks of Jaeho Jung, Director of the Iljin Startup Support Center and welcoming remarks of Sang Yong Kim, Dean of the Business School. Director Jaeho Jung stated, “I ask for your support encouragement for these six teams who have just embarked on their challenge.” Dean Sang Yong Kim said, “We applaud the passion and efforts of these startup teams who aim to change the future and contribute to a better life for humanity with new challenges and innovative ideas.” He added, “The Business School will more actively strive to open doors of opportunity for many young entrepreneurs.  

Before the official presentations, there was an open mic session of Sungjin Kang, CEO of ‘Covering’, who participated in the 11th CHOO CHOO DAY. ‘Covering’ is a platform that provides a garbage collection mobile service. Sungjin Kang adviced “The success of entrepreneurship depends on how well you manage failure and difficulties”. He added, “It is important to structure your own routine for dealing with failures and recovering.” He also delivered a message of encouragement saying, “I hope that everyone can enjoy their own journey through entrepreneurship meaningfully.” As panels, Jaeho Jung, Director of the Iljin Startup Support Center, Jingyu Park, Director of the Seungmyeongho Entrepreneurship Education Center, Yoonkyung Choi, Partner from Mashup Angels and Yoonjung Kim, team leader of BluePoint attended. Each team presented for five minutes followed by a ten-minute Q&A session.  

The first presentation was given by Myungeun Lee, CEO of , a short distance real time communication social platform. TimeBomb enables users to easily arrange offline meetings with friends in a 30-minute walk distance and local merchants to utilize hyper-local services such as real-time local advertisements. Myungeun Lee said, “We will grow as the only location based SNS in Korea optimized for scheduling meetings, due to the UX·UI optimized for appointment setting and the ability to use it without concerns about privacy. We will explosively grow as the core SNS in the areas of social gatherings, building relationships and information sharing and acquisition.” 

The second presentation was given by Gyuhyun Kim, the CEO of , a local travel curating platform. ‘BuddyPie’ is a platform that offers foreign travelers travel information content and experiential products directly curated by locals. CEO Gyuhyun Kim said, “We have surpassed 6000 self-produced travel content and as a clear global positioning, we have secured users from over 110 countries”. He also said, "Please look forward to the innovation of the paradigm not only in domestic travel market but in the global travel market as well. 

The third presentation was delivered by Dongho Kim from R2C company, the CEO of the personalized date collection and generation platform .  ‘PickFlea’ connects the data consumer and suppliers directly based on voluntary user participation, to quickly collect and generate high quality data. CEO Gongho Kim said, “We are able to achieve more than a 50% cost reduction and collect data twice as faster compared to other research firms.” He also expressed his ambition saying, “We aim to become a platform with the potential to be a database and datahub beyond the statistics office.”  

The fourth presentation was given by Jeongeop Yeom, the CEO of the nomadic life platform . ‘Geurrillas’ provides online and offline solutions for medium to long term residency by utilizing abandoned accommodations nationwide. CEO Jeongeop Yeom said “We provide solutions that cover everything from regenerating abandoned accommodations to improving the accommodation operation process through loT. We plan to expand our services to urban regeneration and unpopulated areas to promote regional revitalization.”  

The fifth presentation was delivered by Hyunjun Lee, the CEO of , an interest-based subscription service platform. Through ‘CalBak’, users can easily select and manage their desired schedules using a subscription and keyword-based curation system and AI-based recommendation system. CEO Hyunjun Lee said “By using CalBak, you can reduce the average schedule management time from approximately 1 hour to around three minutes. We will become the world’s first schedule shopping platform.”  

The last presentation was given by Island Heecheol Jung, the CEO of a data-driven team training fitness service. Through ‘Geotz’, users can enjoy team based athletic training to enhance physical abilities at offline training centers and record real-time exercise performance with the application. CEO Heecheol Jung said “Geotz has systemized and popularized athletic training systems that were limited to elite athletes in the past.” He also expressed his ambition saying, “We aim to create a new paradigm in the sports industry.” 

The event concluded with the closing remarks of Jeongbin Moon, Director of the Startup Research Institute. Director Moon delivered encouraging remarks saying, “I hope all the teams that presented today will grow into unicorn startups and become beloved companies by the public by growing alongside with senior companies.”