On December 17th, Startup Grind Seoul hosted its fifth event at Maru180. We did not expect many attendees that night due to the blistering cold. But, it turned out to be a great crowd.
Perhaps the turnout was so great due to our special guest that night – Hee-Eun Park of Altos Ventures. She was our first female guest, a rare breed in the world of start-ups. She has been in the start-up scene for several years as co-founder and CEO of IUM, the largest mobile dating service in Korea, and now as Principal at Altos Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. She has experience in both sides of the start-up game – start-up and investing – so she was able to give us insight into both.
First, she went on to speak briefly about her career path that began with NC Soft and how it led to IUM. She spoke of the initial struggles at IUM trying to increase the user base with a limited marketing budget. For this, you must get creative. First, you have to narrow down your target to a specific user and second, you have to understand their lifestyle patterns and choices. This led to IUM’s successful collaborations with Caffe Bene and Mr. Pizza.
Then, we switched gears to her experience in venture capital. We weren’t able to go in depth due to time, but she did give us some excellent advice.
Here are some tips she gave as a VC to entrepreneurs.
- Balanced team: A start-up that solely consists of engineers or of sales is going to be rough. You need both to have a healthy business.
- Right fit: Teamwork is important but you also need the right fit between the start-up and the VC.
- Integrity: Obviously.
Lastly, she also pointed out some common mistakes by startups in meeting with VCs.
- Secrecy: Being so secretive about your technology or product is not wise. Unless you really sell your product, VCs will not be interested.
- Bluffing: Remember VCs have their own networks as well. If you say this or that VC has invested in you, VCs can and will cross check.
Thank you Hee-un Park for your words of wisdom! Thank you to our sponsors (The Asan Nanum Foundation, SparkLabs, Mousq Angel Club) and to our partners (KISED, SMBA, Oliversweet, Tapzin, Kiwi Productions, Whatap and MangoPlate)! We will see you at our next event on January 22, 2015 at Maru180!
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