koreabizcast KBLA

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.