One of my favorite TV shows in Korea is “Rule of the Jungle” aired on SBS Channel every Friday and it’s reality show hosted by Byungman Kim with different expedition groups to visit many exotic jungles and islands in the world. Their mission is to survive for a certain period of time with limited resources of food and water and depend on their survival tactics with the chieftain, Byungman Kim’s leadership and guidance. As the episodes progressed, I was amazed how well the expedition group adapted and survived in a tough environment and unexpected circumstances. Also the chieftain, Byungman Kim’s role is so critical in many circumstances to help his followers not to make serious mistakes and set examples by his own experience and expertise. Similarly, I would like to compare my current position as the director of Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation as the chieftain of the entrepreneurial group to Go-to-Market in global markets. I am happy to share my experience based on my survival in Silicon Valley until recently and hope to see more Korean startups to ‘survive’ in the market.

The Silicon Valley expedition trip was co-hosted by Dankuk University and Gyeonggi CCEI after the IoT(Internet of Things) Startup Idea Contest to select 10 startup winners. Among the 10 startups, 5 startup teams were selected to be on the Silicon Valley expedition trip from Jan 25~29, 2016. First mission of the Silicon Valley expedition trip was to find accommodation for 13 people for a week. It was just one week away from the Super Bowl which was expecting to draw over 1 million visitors in the Bay Area so the hotel and AirBnB house prices were over the ceiling. Thanks to my friend who moved to a big house near Morgan Hill, we could find a comfortable house with a 6 bed room with breakfast catering at a minimum price. The house is also known as the Empower Ranch and I would recommend to any group less than 20 people for a company workshop since they have a seminar room in the garden.

First day’s official company visit started from Samsung Research America, the new Samsung Electronics’s organization in Silicon Valley who spent $250M to acquire the property to cement Samsung’s commitment to the Silicon Valley. We were greeted by University relations manager, Irene Oh, the venture capitalist at Samsung Global Innovation Center (GIC), Amit Garg and tech strategy manager, Richard Chun. We were amazed how much we were welcomed to SRA with a formal presentation. Besides many research divisions to develop new technology for Samsung products, SRA had an interesting organization called Global Innovation Center(GIC), which made investments in startups including Unikey. We met with one of the principals in GIC, introducing its mission and a few portfolio startups including Unikey. Amit was an ex-Google engineer who had VC experience and now leads investment in startups at GIC. His presence at our meeting was inspiring and helpful to understand how SRA is positioned in Silicon Valley, drawing the top talent and using such talent to invest in many innovative startups.

We were also greeted by Richard Chun, who is a senior manager at Samsung America sourcing new technology at Visual Display division. He shared his experience to Korean entrepreneurs as a mentor and gave a few inspiring books as a gift including Start-up Nation. Having lunch with a mentor like Richard was very helpful for the Korean entrepreneurs to listen to his work experience and life at one of the top global companies in Silicon Valley.

Next meeting was IgniteXL, a Silicon Valley based startup accelerator founded by Korean American, Claire Chang at GSV Labs, co-working space in Redwood City. She gave us an lecture on Silicon Valley’s startup culture and what Korean startups can learn. IgniteXL was already working with many Korean government agencies to bring Korean startups to Silicon Valley and meeting her in person was helpful to understand what startup accelerators do to help Korean entrepreneurs to develop business in US market.

Not only could we learn from a startup accelerator but also from an actual French startup who was developing business in Silicon Valley with one business development manager. The startup was called Zenly and it was a location based service (LBS) app that provided real time location to registered friends. Dino Brusco, head of business development in US shared his experience how a small startup in France developed business with one man office in Silicon Valley. His presence was a great testimony for Korean entrepreneurs to think big by starting small.

Then we moved to Foster City to visit Conviva, a leading start-up which provides an intelligent control platform to optimize video content delivery by analyzing real-time network streaming data. Matthew Shapiro, head of business development greeted us and explained Conviva’s history of two professor’s research projects in university that ended up being a successful business.

Second day, we visited the Google Mountain View office to meet Dr. Jinho Kim and his colleague, Donghui Lee, who wrote the book “Silicon Valley Travelog”. While they were giving us a great tour of the Google facilities including town hall meeting place, Dr. Kim shared Google’s culture of openness of the organization to be able to meet and communicate with the Google founders easily.

After visiting the Google visitor center to meet with other Korean university visitors coincidentally and taking photos at the Android statues, we had lunch with one of the serial entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Paul Kim, who was working on his next startup. He shared how he found the needs among the club sports coaches to manage their game schedule and how he wants to create this niche market into a big market. Korean entrepreneurs were amazed how one is trying to scale a market from a small need.

Then we visited an ad-tech startup, in Palo Alto, Moloco whose co-founder is an ex-Googler software engineer, Ikjin Ahn. He was on a business trip to Korea so we could meet his co-founder, Gerrit Hall and see how two co-founders were backing each other and creating a synergies from each professional background.

Next meeting was followed by Ludei, a Spanish startup which provides a HTML5 development tool for app developers. We met with Eneko Knorr, CEO of Ludei in Paris Baquette cafe on University Ave. He shared a great story of his survival journey from Spain to Silicon Valley and trying to raise funds from Asian VC. Not only he was a serial entrepreneur but also he was an angel investor to many startups in Spain.

Our last company visit was Bluestacks, a mobile marketing automation company based on their Android app virtualization technology on PC/Mac and TV. Bluestacks’ SVP, John Gargiulo greeted us with his colleague and explained how Bluestacks could grow based on their core technology as well as global operation with an emphasis on their startup culture; Drive, Get-it-done, Smart & Humble. Having international offices around the world including Korea, China and India, Bluestacks set a good example of growing Silicon Valley startups.

Our third day of Silicon Valley expedition trip was focused on meeting the venture capitalist and visiting one of them. We visited KIC (Korea Innovation Center) Silicon Valley to meet Keith Kang, CTO of KIC SV who introduced the KIC acceleration program and encouraged Korean entrepreneurs to apply for the program. Then we met with Sean Ryu, a venture capitalist at Nautilus Venture Partners and the former principal at SK Telecom Ventures gave us his insight how VCs would find startups and evaluate them and finally invest in them. He advised that Korean startups should first focus on their product and services before even thinking of coming to Silicon Valley because it’s very competitive market.

Then we moved to Storm Ventures and met with Sunghoon Suh, senior manager at Korea Development Bank, who is under visiting program at Storm Ventures. Also Storm Ventures was where my office was in Silicon Valley for last 5 years until my return to Korea to join CCEI and it was a historical moment for me to host an entrepreneurial group to where I used to commute everyday and show what a Silicon Valley VC office looks like. I hope to see many Korean entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas to VC partners in Silicon Valley.

After a quick tour at Stanford University, a self-made celebrity figure in Silicon Valley named Chad-Meng met with our group in Cupertino. He is more well-known as the Google engineer who hosted many celebrities who visited Google and became celebrity himself. It was amazing to meet him in person and listen to his story how he found the Search In Yourself Learning Institute (SIYLI) and One Billion Acts of Peace foundation. It was our finale event to take a photo with him for a perfect memory of our Silicon Valley. I look forward to bringing more entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley for business expedition trips and helping more Korean startups survive in the most competitive markets in the world.