koreabizcast

What Drives Success in a Korean Startup? The Early Investors Perspective

John Park, Managing Director of Sparklabs Korea speaks with Alex Jensen from KBLA about Korea’s growing startup scene and in particular what differentiates those teams that really kick on from those that don’t.

 

John describes the intense nature of the Sparklabs accelerator experience. The three-month program bootstraps a company’s growth and provides mentoring, support and skill development. For many startup founders running an office efficiently, paying people and handling government certification and regulation are skills they never thought they would need. Sparklabs helps them develop those skills.

 

However, the core focus is setting demanding weekly KPIs and working hand-in-hand with the teams. As John says, “Working with a startup team is both a science and an art. We deep dive into their data at a granular level and keep them on track with weekly KPIs. But we also look at the team chemistry. Are they resilient and hungry enough to push beyond what' they did yesterday? You need a team that will push past the hurdles, the challenges and deliver for you consistently.”

 

With an increasingly large section of Korea’s young talent seriously considering the startup scene as a career alternative, Sparklabs provides the structured opportunity to test themselves and find out what they are really capable of.

 

Today’s episode is sponsored by Innovation Center Denmark. Creating innovation and business opportunities by building relationships between Korean and Danish R&D intensive companies, research institutes and universities

Jandi, Workplace Collaboration Tool that’s Smoother and More Engaging

Even before COVID changed the world, workplace flow and workplace communications were seen as being important. Still major firms relied upon on tools such as Kakao, Line and WhatsApp to organize teams and meet deadlines. This was possible because people were meeting face-to-face every day.

When COVID sent us all home, companies had to either develop their own tools or find a robust solution that was easy to use, secure and could cope with all their demands.

Headquartered in Seoul, Toss Labs In. Developed Jandi a workplace tool suited to the COVID and post-COVID eras. Alex Jensen talks Jandi with Yang Jinho Head of Business at Toss Labs about the 8-year story of the startup and their flagship solution, Jandi.

Like his solution, Jinho was born in Korea, but grew up across Asia and the Pacific. In 2021, Jandi has more than two million users across 300k teams across APAC. As Jinho says, “pre-COVID, people never imagined having to manage workflow away from the office. But now, it's vital that communications are omnipresent and instant.”

Although the pandemic pushed Jandi’s growth into overdrive, the post-pandemic world has not slackened the demand. Many firms are not asking their employees to return full-time to the workplace. Many others are using this time as a reset. To evolve their workplaces to become more efficient and more attractive to younger talent.

Companies also know that the MZ generation will not stay at workplaces that are not agile or smart. MZers think every day about employer branding. They demand a reputable corporate culture, simplified work process, with accessibility to information and to decision makers.

As the pace of digitalization continues to increase, companies like Toss Labs and their solutions will continue to be vital.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Eastpoint Partners. Offering an unparalleled Asia-wide network connecting you with corporates, investors and governments.

 

Edge Communications: 14 Years of Value to Both Korean and International Clients

Alex Jensen from KBLA speaks to Eric Thorpe and Jeffrey Bohn, Managing Partners and Co-founders of Edge Communications, a Seoul-based Public Relations firm that has just celebrated its fourteenth anniversary.

The firm differentiates itself from other PR firms through building a culture of work-life balance in its team. This builds consistency and quality in their client services as well as allowing relationships to deepen.

As Jeff puts it, he was asked by a client one day to, “Give us a reason to hire you.” His answer was that “It really comes down to the individual at the time in the room. You're sitting there and you're looking across at the people who are going to be working with you, can they establish and maintain those relationships that are really going to make the difference to your business.” In Jeff’s view, PR companies are all cut the same way. They propose similar things, in a similar fashion so it’s the people on your team, and their ability to build better relationships.

From Eric’s perspective, Edge’s other point of differentiation is blending their strong business acumen with content and writing skills. As Eric says, “There is a misconception that public relations firms need to be run by journalists, because it's about content, and writing. While content and writing is obviously important, you also need to be able to communicate, share your expertise and advise strategically by utilizing business acumen across industry sectors. I think that's what really cuts through and makes the difference in terms of relationships.”

A great company culture, commitment to long-term relationships, excellent communications content and strategic advice. These are the skills that Edge Communications has built since 2004.

Today’s episode is brought to you by The Four Seasons Hotel Seoul. Stylish Elegance in the very heart of the city.

 

Will BTS and Kpop be the Trojan Horse that Leads to Export Growth in Korea’s Post COVID Era?

Alex Jensen and Choi Kyungmi KBLA’s special issue reporter discuss the recent #bts successes in the United States and the potential importance of BTS, Kpop Bands and other cultural products in spurring Korea’s economic recovery.

Not only was BTS stunningly successful in their recent Las Vegas concerts selling out over 200,000 tickets over four nights, the entire city was transformed into a mecca for their loyal fans.

Coming back home, the impact of the BTS and other cultural content exports is hard to overestimate. It has been estimated that its estimated that each BTS concert generates between KRW 620B and KRW1.2T worth of economic activity. But perhaps more significantly, The Korea ExIm Bank reports that a rise in music exports correlates to an amazing 17X rise in other Korean consumer goods.

This economic discussion happens as the issue of the BTS members’ national service reemerges. The economic benefit and the super-group is seen as being more than enough by many to have them excluded in the same way as Korean champion athletes are. Others argue that it is a better policy that the members complete their national duty in some way.

NFTs as a New Revenue Model for Korean Artists and Investors

Alex Jensen talks with Thomas Sommer, CFO of SG Entertainment about investing in NFTs.

As many know, HYBE the management company behind BTS invested in Dunamu the operator of Upbit with the goal to releasing BTS-branded NFTS. This move was condemned by many in the Army (BTS fan organization) due to the high carbon footprint, which was seen as contradictory to the band’s pro-environment stance.

Since then, however, other Kpop management companies such as YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment. Fantagio, Abyss and now JYP Entertainment have all announced interest in releasing artist-themed or branded NFTs.

Thomas and Alex describe the why and the how of this trend. As well as looking into what exactly you are buying when you invest in an NFT.

They also discuss the various ways in which you can protect yourself when investing.

Today’s episode is brought to you by the Innovation Center Denmark, Seoul Office. Creating innovation and business opportunities and build up relations between Korean and Danish R&D intensive companies, research institutes and universities.

 

Business Finland: Working with Korean Companies To Improve Our Environment with Technology

Alex Jensen talks with Suvi Sundquis, Commercial Counsellor at Business Finland here in Korea. They discuss the role Business Finland as an ecosystem builder to foster and fund innovation with startups, SMEs, large companies, and research organizations.

Business Finland is a Finnish Government agency that collaborates with chambers of commerce and other partners to encourage business exchanges. With an unmatched network in Finland and access to unpublished research, Business Finland is at the forefront of innovation.

Suvi’s specific role is to encourage the Finnish companies to go further, faster. As she says. “If you start with a company's growth strategy, for example, they always have some kind of plan, then we step in and we ask, well, what's the part that you left out? What was the part that intrigued you? But you thought that that had too much risk? And they always have that kind of topics, then under the table? And then we say, well, what if we paid part of it, we take some of the risk on the government, would you try it out. And this is the way we encourage the companies to go a little bit further.”

In Korea Business Finland is to match Finnish companies with the best South Korea partners. They look for synergies. By talking with the Korean companies about what they're working on and discovering their needs. In a typically Finnish style, they focus on deep 1:1 relationship that generate long term mutual benefits as well as shorter term synergies.

Away from her role as Commercial Counsellor, Suvi also discusses her enjoyment of Korea, the cultural differences that have intrigued her, and she shares her opinions on why Finland is the happiest place on earth, and some ideas on how Korea might improve their score on the happiness index.

European Chamber of Commerce in Korea: Building Market Access & Relationships

Christoph Heider is the President of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

Yesterday he talked with Alex Jensen from KBLA about his time in Korea, and the role that the ECCK has in enabling varying kinds and sizes of European businesses to access Korean markets. They also discuss Korea’s increasing profile and importance to Europe.

Christoph began visiting Korea back in 1997, and the trips became more frequent until he was appointed CFO of Bayer in Korea. A role he held until becoming President of the ECCK.

Christoph is well known in Korea, and his #LinkedIn tagline of I love my job, I love Europe and I love Korea is also becomingly increasingly well known. Christoph and his team work tirelessly to build the relationships between European and Korean businesses which are vital for business.

This however is not what he sees as being the core of his role, and the role of the ECCK.

Christoph dispels the notion that ECCK is an umbrella chamber for the other chambers representing European countries. Although called a chamber, the ECCK performs a differentiated role from that of the single-country chambers. As Christoph explains, “The ECCK is called a chamber, but we don’t really do chamber work. We do pure advocacy. We run 25 industry platforms where company representatives and experts participate. We talk about problems such as market access and then we address this towards the Korean Government via letters, visits, or our Annual White Paper. This is the unique work we do.”

Alex and Christoph also discuss one of the newer European business ventures in Korea, Legoland. Legoland is the first overseas theme park in Korea. Located just outside of Chuncheon City in Gangwon Province, it is scheduled for opening in just a couple of weeks, on Children’s Day May 5.

Away from work, Christoph is a musician and recently performed in a Blues Concert at the Studio to raise funds for  Ddingdong, a LGBTQ Youth Crisis Support Center.  

This episode is sponsored by the Four Seasons Seoul Hotel. Stylish elegance in the very heart of the city.

Korea Looks to Reignite the Economy By Relaxing COVID Restrictions

The Korean government has announced that almost all social distancing restrictions and operating hours. The government also hinted that in two weeks the mask mandate may be revised, at least when people are outside.

Choi Kyung Mi and Alex Jensen from KBLA review the past two years of restrictions and support the Korean government has provided in light of the announcement made last week.

As well as the support given to small businesses government benefits are also intended to encourage families to go back to watching sports live in stadiums as well as travel domestically. They will distribute 400,000 sports coupons for football, baseball, basketball and volleyball as well as also providing more than a million discount coupons for lodging.

They also discuss the high hopes many parts of the country have for economic relief from the incoming Yoon Seok Yeol administration. As well as direct cash payments, businesses are looking for support such as a freeze on wage increases.

The Ukrainian Crisis: How is the Russian Invasion Affecting the Everyday Lives of People

A very special episode of #koreabizcast today, looking at the Ukrainian crisis through the eyes of two international lawyers.

Firstly Ron Parks, Senior Foreign Counsel from Lee & Ko discusses with Alex Jensen from KBLA the crisis from a geopolitical perspective.

Last week, Ron connected KBLA with Timur Bondaryev, Founder and Managing Partner of Arzinger Law Office. Through this connection we are able to hear Timur talk us through, the build up to the invasion, the first few days as well as what the situation is like today.

Timur also talks about the impacts of the invasion upon Korea. As he says, “The Ukraine is strongly connected to Korea through both technology firms such as Samsung with large R&D facilities, but also as breadbasket so many major Korean companies source their food and ingredients. So much so that POSCO has invested in a sea terminal in the south of Ukraine.”

 

The discussion wraps up with Timur letting us all know how we can help, whether by donating directly or making sure that the politicians representing us know how we feel and continue to put whatever pressure that can to help Ukraine regain its independence.

 

Today’s episode is brought to you by the Innovation Center Denmark, Seoul Office. Creating innovation and business opportunities and build up relations between Korean and Danish R&D intensive companies, research institutes and universities.

Human Rights Watch: Bridging the Gap Between Governments, the Media and NGOs

Judy Kwon, from Human Rights Watch talks with Alex Jensen about her personal journey from international student to journalism to Media Consultant with HRW. It is a fascinating journey.

For businesses everywhere in such turbulent times it is important to be aware of the social progression happening around us and their changing responsibilities.

Judy began her professional career working for CNN in Beijing as an intern, due to her talent, work ethic and skills at languages, this turned into a full-time position.

After twelve-years earning her stripes in global journalism, Judy moved to Human Rights Watch, first as Director of the Seoul Office, but then into a regional role as Media and Communications Consultant. She explains the move thus, “I have a lot of respect for all the journalists out there, but our major difference is that Human Rights Watch looks to change government policy on children’s rights, marriage equality, war crimes etc. Journalism can’t do that because they have to move on to the next topic. Public policy takes more than a few days, or months, to push the boundaries, one step forward, one step back.

Judy discusses her progress working with global companies to help them understand the impact of their actions on human rights. Recently she was able to highlight to Kirin, the Japanese brewer, how their actions and support in Myanmar was in fact not helping the general population but was actually supporting the military government. Kirin decided to cancel their contract.  

Judy’s work and the work of HRW is commendable in helping governments and corporates understand their human rights responsibilities.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Eastpoint Partners, bringing you an unparalleled Asia-wide network that connects you with corporates, governments and investors.