Meet the 5 ‘Geeks from Gangnam’ eyeing US market entry at SXSW

Nathan Millard was Korea’s most active writer about startups (in English) for several years before founding G3 Partners in 2015. Now he supports startups across Asia with Global PR and Communications. Follow him on Twitter @nathan_mill.

My first SXSW Interactive, the tech extravaganza hosted annually by the city of Austin in Texas, was a whirlwind of global innovation, keynote addresses, and good old southern food. I accompanied five of Korea’s most interesting early stage startups on the trip and helped them capture the eyes of the press – not an easy task, considering the hundreds of others looking for the same.

The trip was led by D Camp, an organization in Seoul that supports startups with a co-working space, events, and incubation. Along with KOCCA, a Korean government organization that supports the content industry in Korea, they sponsored booths in the main startup arena, as well as a K-pop fueled ‘Geeks from Gangnam’ after party.

While each startup had their own ambitions for the event, the overriding focus was to explore market potential in the US and build groundwork for partnerships that can support imminent US market entry.

The five Korean startups in attendance were:

You Are The Designer

You Are The Designer is bringing customization to the footwear industry. Their web-based service enables both amateur designers and even consumers to design their own footwear and bring their designs to market. Designers that make it to market, as chosen through regular competitions, are awarded a commission on sold items. Still in beta in Korea, 48,000 have signed up and over 500,000 designs have already been produced on the platform. The company is planning its global launch in the summer of 2015.

The custom market is growing exponentially, with the introduction of technology into the design process, across a huge range of consumer goods. You Are The Designer wants to capitalize on this opportunity. “Especially women we met at SXSW were very interested in being able to design their own shoes. They were also surprised at how easy the app was to use,” CEO Chris Park stated.

Getting in-person feedback from potential users was also a critical event mission. “This will help us in the final phases of development and localization for the US, prior to our global launch,” Park added.

Zikto

Zikto is the Seoul-Los Angeles hybrid startup that developed Arki, a wearable device that aims to improve walking posture. The team, with validation from the medical industry, believes that using the device has health benefits, including solving back and joint problems.

Zikto has developed a patented technology that analyzes walking posture, through sensors in the wrist wearable device, which is connected to a smartphone application. The technology records user’s walking pattern and suggests improvements. Zikto recently became Korea’s most successful company on Kickstarter, raising over US$150,000 in a campaign that ended in December 2014. Zikto are still taking pre-orders and will start mass production in the next couple of months.

Co-founder Brian Kim was attending SXSW to find potential business partners in the health care, preventative care, and insurance industries. He was also keen to identify potential distribution and retail partners for their global expansion and to speak with fashion brands for collaboration.

“From a design perspective, we got really great feedback,” Kim said. “People want better designed wearables and they were impressed that our device is both useful wearable device and also a stylish fashion item.”

Mindquake

Mindquake is an ed-tech company which has developed a mobile adaptive learning and training service to help children learn time management and self-control. Their mobile application for parents and children, Nester, delivers a safe and enjoyable smartphone experience for children and helps parents control the time spent by their children using their smartphone. Nester also enables parents to block apps they feel are inappropriate and teaches children self-control. Their Android app is on Google Play and they are developing their iOS version.

Sunhae Kim, CEO of Mindquake, explained that the she got about Nester from US parents was a core value of attending the event. “We received a really warm response to the product and based on this will expedite our further development for the US market, including finalization of our iOS version,” she explained. They were also hoping to to identify potential content partners in the US and are now in discussions with Nickelodeon, thanks to a chance meeting at their booth.

ChattingCat

ChattingCat is a web-based, real time English correction service, which helps non-native speakers communicate more fluently in English. The service is targeted at non-native speakers who need support during work, for example when writing emails or other work-related documents. Sentences for correction are uploaded to their website and are sent out to language tutors sourced through the crowd. Corrections are typically returned within four minutes and as the platform grows this time is set to reduce further.

April Kim, CEO of ChattingCat felt that SXSW was an amazing opportunity to connect with potential users in the US, and also around the world. “I was impressed by how many global startups and attendees came to the event – it’s a real melting pot,” she explained.

ChattingCat are planning their full US launch later this year and also used the opportunity of being in Austin to further their plans on this front.

500videos

500videos aims to disrupt the way businesses communicate with the world, through video. Their bulk video production service delivers professional grade intro videos quickly and cheaply and at US$200 per video costs a tiny fraction of traditional video production. They also offer a verification service, which helps to increase the reliability of the videos. All videos are filmed on-site at client businesses, with post production completed by 500videos.

500videos recently signed a deal to provide videos to restaurants on Korea’s largest food delivery smartphone app service, Baedal Minjeok which also operates in Japan and is expanding rapidly across Asia, fueled by around US$40 million investment from Goldman Sachs.

Ho Yang, CEO of 500videos, believes that while Korean startups are very good technically, their weakness is marketing and global exposure. In addition, very few Korean founders are able to speak English fluently, so it’s much easier to contact global partners, face to face. “If we are physically here, we are better able to discuss our values in person, rather than through broken communication on email, Skype, and so on,” he explained.

At SXSW Yang was also keen to connect with companies like Yelp, or big advertising agencies to explore partnerships similar to their deal with Baedal Minjeok in Asia. “We’ve been able to connect with decision makers at Alibaba, Facebook, 20th Century Fox and Time Out. It’s certain we could not have made so many valuable connections in Korea at a single event,” he explained. The quality of attendees at the event was a factor that many of the other founders also highlighted, demonstrating the value of traveling across the world for the event.