Reported by Kyeong Ho Yang (KITEE President)
KITEE (Korean-American Innovative Technology Engineers and Entrepreneurs), an APS of KSEA, held the 2nd KITEE Entrepreneurship Forum on December 6~7, 2024. The entrepreneurship program consisted of two elements, (1) Visits to Global Tech Innovators and Young Entrepreneurs Dinner Networking on December 6 and (2) KITEE Entrepreneurship Forum 2024 at Reed Smith LLP in New York, NY on December 7.
1. Visits to Global Tech Innovators and Young Entrepreneurs Dinner Networking
On December 6, 2024, from 10:30 am to 5:00 pm, together with about 10 young entrepreneurs from Seoul National University and KAIST in Korea, about 15 Korean-American young entrepreneurs from local US universities including Princeton University, Columbia University, and UPenn visited AT&T Labs Innovation Museum (in Middletown, NJ) that displays the history of communications including the invention of the telephone, the transistor, optical networking, Unix operating system, and many others, and had a small workshop to meet with innovators in AT&T Labs and Bell Labs. After the visit, the group visited Bell Works in Holmdel, NJ that had accommodated more than 5000 innovators of Bell Laboratories but now is used for offices for IT startups and shops and a park for local community. Photos are shown in Figures 1 and 2.
After the visits, the group enjoyed the networking dinner at Pine Plaza in Palisades Park, NJ. This program was aimed to help student entrepreneurs from Korea and the US expand their business landscape and offer the teams the chance to enhance the success potential of startup development through meeting with true innovators and peer entrepreneurs from different countries.
2. KITEE Entrepreneurship Forum 2024
On December 7, 2024, the 2nd KITEE Entrepreneurship Forum was held to provide a cooperative environment for current and future aspiring technology entrepreneurs in the US and Korea to network with high-profile entrepreneurs and investors, listen to the stories of those who have successfully run their startups, and learn about the best practices of startups, from protecting your intellectual property and assets to securing funding from venture capitalists and government agencies. Nine (9) young startups also had a chance to pitch to potential investors at the Startup Pitch Competition about how their solution seeks to improve people’s lives in the world and the synergy of the Korean and Korean-American entrepreneurs in the global market. Certificates and cash awards were given to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners – Dentronic, Cell&Matter, and Appbuildchat, respectively.
At a Glance of the forum program is as the following:
Registration & Networking w/ Refreshments (12:00 – 13:00)
Opening (13:00 – 13:15)
Session 1: Sharing Startup Experiences (13:15 ~ 14:15)
- Lawfully Inc. (Joon Wook Ahn, Co-founder & CEO)
- Osteogene Tech Corp. (Daniel Sunho Oh, Co-founder & CSO)
Session 2: Startup Pitch Competition (14:15 ~ 15:30)
- 9 startups
- 5-minute pitch followed by a 2-min Q&A
Break (15:30 – 15:45)
Session 3: Startups 101 (15:45 ~ 17:45)
- Intellectual properties for startups (Frank Hwang, Dechert LLP)
- FDA process for software and devices in biotech and healthcare
(Sung Won Park, Reed Smith LLP)
- Fundraising for startups (Jae H. Jang, Deutsche Bank)
- M&A and Exit of tech startups (Jeongseok Jay Yu, Foley Hoag LLP)
- Panel Discussion
Award Ceremony & Closing (17:45 ~ 18:15)
KITEE Year-end Party & Networking Dinner (18:15 – 21:00)
The event started with a light lunch with drinks at 12:00 PM and had the main event from 13:00 till 9:00 PM, consisting of (1) Opening, (2) Session 1: Sharing of Startup Experiences, (3) Session 2: Startup Pitch Competition, (4) Session 3: Startups 101, (5) Award Ceremony & Closing , and (6) Year-end Party & Networking Dinner.
At the KITEE Year-end Party, Dr. Kyeong Ho Yang, KITEE President, summarized KITEE’s activities in 2024, as follows:
- Supported the KSEA Northeast Regional Conference (NRC) 2022
- Supported the KSEA STEP-UP 2024 (Chair)
- Three member meetings
- Mentored more than 20 Korean startup founders
- Supported the Scale-up TIPS Meetup in Boston, MA
President Yang also thanked sponsors and supporters (SK, Samsung, KITA, KOSME, KUSCO, KSEA, KOFST, SV Bio Ventures, KoAm Partners, and the Consulate General in New York) for their continued support in 2024. Photos from the forum are shown in Figures 3 and 4.
This event was prepared by a committee consisting of Chair (Kyeong Ho Yang), Program Chair (Kooksang Moon), Program Director (Wookjin Choi), Treasurer (Hyun Chung Kim), General Director (Jiyoon Kang), and other positions.
KITEE was established in May 2015 to help transform technologists to technology entrepreneurs by offering professional services in technical, business development, marketing, legal, and financial areas, and grew to become a premier startup ecosystem for Korean-Americans in the greater NY metropolitan area. KITEE expanded its membership coverage to include other states during the COVID-19 pandemic when it hosted and co-hosted many virtual events. The KITEE’s business ecosystem features essential entrepreneurial components to startups: human capital in innovative IT, BT, FT, and other technologies, finance, legal, business service, education, consulting/mentoring, startup incubation, and collaboration with Korea.
KITEE is open to anyone who is interested in the entrepreneurship. You, a KSEA member, can join KITEE by simply adding KITEE to your APS list in your KSEA member profile page (KSEA Information tab) after signing in or by sending an email to KITEE at member@kitee.org. We look forward to seeing you at the next KITEE event – virtual or in-person.
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