The 2019 'Lecture Series' hosted by Korea University Business School (Dean= Jae Wook Kim) Startup Institute (Director= Hicheon Kim) was held at Hana Square Multimedia Room on Nov. 19 (Tue). This time, Lee Hee-yoon, manager of global startup accelerator ‘SparkLabs’; YeonJu Oh, CEO of ‘AX Inc', a startup which received accelerating from SparkLabs; Yonghyeon Kim, CEO of 'GINT', which also received accelerating from SparkLabs gave the lecture.

The lecture started with the introduction of the SparkLabs by manager Lee Hee-yoon. "An acccelerator not just involves in investment but involves in a new concept of investment model that combines the incubation of startups." said manager Lee. "SparkLabs is a global investment institution that started in South Korea in 2012 and is currently expanding by region and sector." "The key role of an accelerator is reducing time," he said. "When it is identified that a business model possesses possibility of success, an accelerator quickly proves the possibility and helps companies grow faster."

YeonJu Oh, CEO of AX Inc., then continued the lecture under the theme "Starting Start-Up in your 20s”. AX, Inc. is a startup in the field of tour and activity that presents automated reservation management solutions to local travel agencies. "The biggest difference for the AX is that it enables instant booking through real-time inventory management," CEO Oh said. "In the travel industry, which is already an amazing red-ocean market, we are trying to target the blue-ocean market, which increases sales, reduces costs, and even provides big data." Oh then talked about her own experiences. “I think many experiences such as school admissions consulting and programming have built up and connected to the current business," said Oh "I wanted to say that if you ‘start’ anything in your 20s, you would be able to 'up! in the end'."

As the second speaker Yonghyeon Kim, CEO of GINT continued the lecture under the theme "Starting a Technology-Based Business." GINT is a company specialized in electronic control and data services that provides intelligent technology platforms for tractors and construction equipment. "After working as a researcher at Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung Electronics, I started by registering as a corporation even without deciding on an item," said Kim. "Since it took a year just to develop a business model, I wanted to tell prospective start-up CEOs in detail about something very important but was unexpected before the start of my business." "We need to carefully consider which business model increases company's value.” "We need to define this properly so that we can have weapons that can enter existing hegemony of industry markets through destructive innovation." "I hope you spend a lot of time looking for a problem that you didn't consider before," he said. "You will be able to create some kind of breakthrough by that process.”

After each speaker's lecture, a heated question-and-answer session followed. "I wonder what on criteria you decided to make a pivot," said a student who is currently preparing to start a business. CEO Oh said, "In the beginning of a business, it is difficult to know the exact time for change." and emphasized the need for accelerating. "I think the biggest asset of the start-up is time and speed transfer," manager Lee said. "It's not easy for a first-time start-up to make a decision on when to stop or when to change direction, so that is why accelerating is so important." It was followed by questions about the process of settling and changing of business model. "Although we changed the business model for about 50 times in a year, the first and last ones were not so different after all," said Kim. "Through the process of questioning, we were able to verify whether this project is a business that we can do for 100 years."

Every semester, Startup Institute provides startup education through "Lecture on Demand," a working-level lecture series, and "Lecture Series," a special lecture series on startups and ventures. Classes are open courses, which means they are open to not only the employees of a tenant company, but also anyone interested in starting a business. For related inquiries, you can contact the Startup Institute (02-3290-1699).