Shifting Mindsets

 An important step for Seoul's entrepreneurs may be nothing more than a shifting mindset.

 

The young CEO concluded his presentation and looked at us, breathless. After a long explanation of the complex algorithm he had developed, his eyes were wide and expectant. Having spent the better part of the past eight months working on a mobile application, his team felt ready to launch, and he had sought us out seeking mentorship and funding.

 

The technology was impressive and the company founder was intelligent and motivated, but we had only question:

Why had they based their algorithm on Naver and Daum, Korean search engines, thereby implicitly resigning themselves to the relatively small domestic market?

He had no answer.

This story has played out time and again at our office, as we screen small businesses and assess their viability for the world market. Companies like this one seemed to be limiting themselves from the very beginning. We saw a gap between the potential for Korean startups and their current achievements chiefly due to a collective failure of imagination. 

It had not even occurred to the young man that he could think bigger.

 

Yet this confining mindset is changing, and just in time, as we believe the Korean startup ecosystem is poised to take on the international scene, particular in the realm of high-tech. Samsung may have transformed consumer electronics, but Korea's startups are going to take on the world of mobile technologies and digital services.

 Investors and leaders of multinational companies alike would do well to take note of the opportunity therein.