Supersonic Demo Day was successfully held at a vibrant jazz cafe, featuring dynamic pitches from seven innovative startup founders. The finalists—MRAG, JJAANN, Blabla, Naivy, Vault Micro, Action Power, and Salin—who were selected three months ago, presented their business visions to a panel of Venture Capital judges and an engaged audience.

The Supersonic startup accelerating program was initiated by Agora to identify and empower innovative startups in Korea. The program provides critical technical support through Agora’s Real-Time Engagement (RTE) platform, strengthens marketing strategies via specialized seminars, and amplifies business stories through various public media channels.

Having hosted and participated in numerous startup demo days throughout my career, I found the Agora #Supersonic Demo Day particularly refreshing. The unconventional jazz cafe setting created a unique atmosphere that balanced high-stakes competition with creative energy. While the seven startups vied for a ticket to next week’s Startup Battleground online pitching event, the audience enjoyed a seamless blend of visionary pitches and high-quality business networking.

Judges who were my past colleagues from Gyeonggi Center of Creative Economy & Innovation (GCCEI) played a key role asking sharp questions to challenge the founders on the stage. They were Startup Research, Techstars Korea and Korea Investment Accelerator. I was happy that I could invite them as the event host and reconnect with them professionally.

All 7 startups’ pitching styles were different as the rainbow’s colors. Some focused on the market opportunity and their business model whereas the others tried to explain the key features and functions of their project. First startup pitch was from Bryan, CEO of MRAG, explaining his vision to provide Netflix-like interactive contents service in a real space, connecting such spaces aka as “Supercell” with each other in multiple locations in Korea. JJAANN Company was the second startup to pitch by Samuel Park, co-founder, with holding a wine glass during this pitch to explain how his startup is trying to bring ‘drinkers’ worldwide into the metaverse to have as much fun as in real life.

blabla, a social audio startup won the pitching competition to receive the most vote both from the judges and audience. Steve, CEO of blabla gave a passionate pitch with impressive business figures of fast growing social audio market and secured the ticket for the Startup Battleground online pitching next week.

After the pitching event, an invited singer performed to bring people together during business networking while enjoying the good rated wines and delicious food. Special thanks to my staffs, Sebin and Hojung for smooth event operation, Agora #Supersonic Demo Day was a success.