Startup School kicks off including a dozen budding entrepreneurs from South Korea
Mind the Bridge (MTB) has been organizing Startup School programs for several years now (namely since 2007!) with sessions dedicated to different development stages of entrepreneurship education. Our sweet spot has been the focus on international founders, their challenges and opportunities while confronted with the high standards of Silicon Valley.
The current program, that just started, has a focus on the earliest stage of this process. It will bring carefully selected graduate students from Europe and Asia to collaborate and to craft startup ideas while learning the methods and tools that can be replicated during the participants’ future endeavors.
We are excited to lay the foundation for another extension of our long bridge… this time going all the way to East Asia, namely South Korea.
The program would not have been possible without our partners, in particular the Korean Innovation Center Silicon Valley (KICSV). Engaged in a multitude of activities KICSV’s mission is to help entrepreneurs develop and scale their businesses by providing strategic solutions from incubation and acceleration through localization and business development to funding. KICSV is also the flagship organization of the Silicon Valley Korean network. Through this session of Startup School MTB is proud to contribute in educating the future generation of Korean entrepreneurs.
The program will be a 3-week full immersion experience starting with a hands-on 2-day workshop on prototype-thinking . The same technique that Google has been using for new inventions will enable the group to rapidly come up and test new ideas that might as well end up being realized.
Throughout the weeks the participants will be working in project teams and complete modules that will include communicating the value proposition, lean startup methodologies, digital marketing, data monetization just to name a few. Each of these serve as building blocks enhancing their initial project ideas. After developing their presentation and pitching skills the program will culminate with the teams presenting their final projects in San Jose at KICSV.
According to Henry Chon, Head of Incubation at KICSV, this program is a great example of South Korea’s dedication and mindset towards long term innovation, while he hopes that the participants, coming from 5 of the most prominent universities in South Korea, will return soon to the Valley after establishing their startups.
Mind the Bridge is excited about building this new bridge of innovation across the planet and looks forward to the outcome of this special Startup School.