Seoul National University's Campus Town provides startup companies with expert lectures on how to target the U.S. market
Date
2023-09-21 10:42
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135
As a necessary condition for Korea's high-tech start-ups to grow into global unicorn companies, it was suggested that timely investment, sales, and government support programs should be used as prerequisites for successful settlement along with entering the U.S. market."The most important strategy to enter the U.S. market is to use investment, sales, and government support programs together in a timely manner," said Yongbum Kim, head of The Livingston Group's strategy department, in a special lecture by experts on "successful U.S. market entry strategy" in the process of deepening campus town startups at Seoul National University on the 16th.The Livingstone Group is a lobbyist group headquartered in Washington, D.C., that lobbies the U.S. House and Senate for client companies and countries, links between governments, international relations and business development, general public relations advice, and strategic marketing. In particular, it is helping to benefit from U.S. federal and state loans, subsidies, and incentives by utilizing a long-standing network of experts in politics and business, led by former U.S. House Speaker.Seoul National University explained that The Livingstone Group was selected by Bloomberg as "one of the best performing lobbying companies in 2022."
In a lecture, Kim explained why the startup Asian market has been relatively good since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the U.S. venture fund situation fell 27% in the previous quarter, forcing the overall global trend to fall, citing an example of a company."The U.S. market has more opportunities than Korea, and the market is already formed, so it is necessary for startups to enter the U.S. market in order to do global scale-up," he said. "Most of the top rankings of cities with global clusters of startups around the world are in the U.S."
Asked in which cities in the U.S. are likely to succeed, Mayor Kim advised, "Even top cities (in the U.S.) cannot succeed unconditionally, and more importantly, it is important to understand what infrastructure and characteristics each city has.""One strategy is to start in a city with a well-established infrastructure in consideration of the characteristics of each industry that we want to start a business, and the best area to enter is where customers are, so it has to be different for each company," he added.
He cited market research as a necessity to attract investment in the U.S.
"In order to attract successful investment in the United States, It need to understand the difference between the market (domestic vs. the United States) , trying to enter and also understand the perspective of U.S. investors," Kim pointed out."Among the various reasons why startups fail, the biggest percentage is 'launching products that the market does not want (42%)', followed by a lack of funds (29%), and a team (20%).In addition, he stressed that Pitch Deck, which can attract investors' attention, is also an important factor, and ordered, "An interesting Pitch Deck that can lead to the next meeting for investors should contain only key elements and have a conclusion to the solution by accurately identifying the problems in the market." Pitch Deck refers to promotional explanatory materials to attract investment.
Kim defined sales as the most difficult area and said, "The reason why sales are difficult first time, it takes a long lead time. In addition, sales vary from industry to industry, and sales techniques must vary depending on the environment in which the company is located, he said."The sales process is almost the same as meeting investors, but it's also different," he pointed out, and advised, "It's advantageous to always have a local manager so that he can come out right away when I say, 'I'll bring the director, let's talk over a cup of coffee.'"Head of the department Kim stressed that government programs are important for fair competition with companies in the U.S. "The U.S. is one of the most funded places in the world, and because there are so many government support programs and various programs between ministries, Korean companies should also be supported for competition in the U.S."The special lecture was held at the invitation of the Seoul National University Campus Town Project Group for Gwanak S Valley, companies in Seoul National University Campus Town, and members of Seoul National University.
Kim Tae-wan, head of the campus town business at Seoul National University, said, "We will provide better special lectures in the future so that many outstanding companies can come out of Gwanak-gu," adding, "The future goal and dream is that companies that have grown through the support of the campus town project group will be produced as unicorn companies by 2026."