You might have already read about our forthcoming TC Meetup + Pitch-off in Seoul next week. But what you might not know is that we’re integrating more content into the program so you can hear from some of the most intelligent minds in the industry.
As per usual, we’ll be holding the TC Pitch-off, where 10 companies will have exactly 60 seconds to pitch their wares to a panel of expert judges. But before the madness begins, we’ll be hosting two panels.
The first is about Going Global. Most startups find it difficult to tackle the unique challenges of each new market, from naming to distribution to marketing, not to mention local regulations and governments. Is it better to hire someone that knows the local market or knows the business?
We’ll tackle these questions and more with the help of 500 Startups partner Tim Chae and MangoPlate CEO Joon Oh.
Tim Chae, 500 Startups
Tim is a Partner at 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley based seed stage VC fund with companies like Twilio, Grab, Talkdesk, Intercom, Udemy in its portfolio. Tim manages 500 Kimchi, a $10M+ fund of 500 Startups focused on Korea, leading its investments and ecosystem building initiatives. Since joining 500S in 2013, Tim has made 30+ investments into companies like Famebit (acq’ by Google), AutoLotto, PeopleFund, Althea, and Finda. For his work, Tim was named to Forbes Asia’s inaugural 30 Under 30 list in 2016.
Prior to 500S, Tim founded several bootstrapped and venture backed businesses including PostRocket (500S Batch 3 company), a social media marketing optimization software, to nuFlw Entertainment, a nightclub for high school students. As an entrepreneur, Tim was named by NFIB/McKelvey Foundation as one of the top Youth Entrepreneurs in the US in 2009.
Joon Oh, MangoPlate
Joon Oh is the CEO of MangoPlate, a startup founded in June 2014 that offers restaurant reviews and information. Previously, Joon Oh was Senior Director of Business Development at Samsung and, before that, was Senior Director of Strategy at Hewlett-Packard.
The second panel will focus on diversity, asking why there aren’t more female cofounders and what the Seoul tech community can do to foster a more inclusive environment for women-led startups. We’ll be joined by Rebekah Kang, Fiscal Note’s Head of Asia, Finda CEO and founder Hye Min Lee.
Rebekah Kang, Fiscal Note
Rebekah runs the Seoul office of FiscalNote, a Washington D.C.-based startup offering a legal analytics platform to take control of government strategy for all businesss with machine-learning technology. FiscalNote predicts the outcome of bills introduced from both federal and state governments and currently serves Fortune 500 companies as clients. Rebekah previously founded MyCandidates in Korea. MyCandidates was acquired by FiscalNote in 2015 and is planning to be updated under FiscalNote’s Asia strategy.
Hye Min Lee, Finda
Hyemin has always been passionate about finding opportunities and building business. While earning her B.A. at Korea University, she interned at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade based on experience in Universidad de Pontificia Católica de Chile, realizing so many potential businesses in unexplored countries. In order to elaborate business skills, she worked at STX corporation as a project manager for new strategic business development and investment for STX Group with honored registration as a member of ‘Knowledge experts group’ of Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
Hyemin joined Rocket Internet and successfully co-founded their first subscription business model, Glossybox, and led expansion to 6 Asian countries. With a kindred spirit to expand business, she established People & Co, an e-commerce and marketing consulting startup, with the co-founders of Rocket Internet as CEO and awarded as the IT start-up of the year.
As soon as she met co-founders at Noom that is a healthcare app based on AI, its healthy and global vision moved her so she brought Noom from NewYork to make Asians much healthier in a smart way. In 2012 Dec, she founded NoomKorea where she contributed to raise USD 30 mil with a record of top grossing app in the both Android and iOS for 2.5 year.
To support to build Korean startup ecosystem, she also contributes as a venture advisor of 500 startups and as a mentor of Google campus Seoul. Inspired to start-ups by mentoring at Google campus and by moderating Eric Schmidt as a representative serial entrepreneur in Korea, she determined to build her startup again and is currently running Finda(www.finda.co.kr), an online financial product comparison platform at Google campus Seoul. Finda has raised $1.5 Mil in 2016 from US and Korea.
We can’t wait to see you at the event on October 27. Buy tickets here.
