This semester, undergraduate students Shiban Atif Khan (SAK), and Cheyenne Knijnenburg (CK) became members of one of the first international startups being supported by Startup KAIST.  Working on their startup, iBora, since mid-February with guidance and office space in W8 provided by the institute, they shared their experiences with The KAIST Herald.

Please briefly introduce yourselves to our readers.

CK: I’m a fifth year student in biological science and business and technology management (BTM), and I'm planning to graduate next semester. 

SAK: Hi, my name is Atif and I am in my sixth semester. I double major in material science and BTM.

How did you get the idea for your startup? What are your current plans, and what are you hoping to achieve?

SAK: It started, I think in 2020 Fall. I was taking a course called Operations Management from BTM on how to organize supply chains and how anything related to business works from a standpoint of [the processes involved]. It's called supply chain management. 

I remembered, when I’m in India, every time I go to buy vegetables, I don’t want to go because it’s too much of a hassle. There are no supermarkets. You have to go and be in the sun for quite some time, and bargain with multiple vendors. And apart from that issue, food wastage is huge. It’s around 40%, and is costing India around 13 billion USD. As you know, we are working towards the sustainable development goals to reduce hunger and also make industries more sustainable. So I felt like something had to be done to make it more efficient.

That was the motivation. We [had] the idea of making a farm to fork model. Basically we are picking up from the farmer and then giving it to people directly. We [act as] the intermediate rather than having the complex cycle we have currently. But there are some problems. First of all, in general there are more big farmers than small farmers in India. 60% of the Indian population is in the farming industry. And India stands at 1.7 billion, so you can imagine... 

Inefficiency is high, so we thought of this [farm-to-fork] model. When I got the idea, I pitched it to Cheyenne and my roommate Manoj, [who is] currently in Nepal. [Together,] we discussed what to do. Instead of launching a big e-commerce platform where we gather all the food materials from different places, which is highly capital-intensive and incurs a lot of risk, we will start in small cities, and we’ll gather what we have around the city. We can create small models all over India, and then connect them. Within this, our technology will be different to a standard setup. We are using blockchain and [things like] RFID tags to better track the product, understand how fresh it is, and how long it will last to reduce wastage. Also, we are developing products to increase the shelf life of products. 

CK: Yes, post-harvest technology should be able to be applied in poor areas, not the more expensive ones we see in the Western countries. The first thing is innovation. 

SAK: Currently our idea is at the stage where we are ready to go to the market itself. But we are facing problems with the Indian startup ecosystem, because due to the pandemic everything is very stagnated. So, we are going to pause for now.

In the time that you’ve been working on this, what support or activities are you gaining from Startup KAIST?

SAK: First of all, I was a part of BizWorld, and through that I was interacting with the director of K-school, Steve Ahn, so I had some kind of networking. When it comes to getting support, as the market was in India, I was not sure of applying to a lot of things, but [we did need] some guidance, and a space to work from. So I applied for a competition, but all the programs at the KAIST Startup school used to be in Korean, even the applications. So I asked the staff member Seunghun Choi to make sure every application was translated so we were able to pursue that. 

What is the most helpful guidance that you have received so far?

SAK: The most important guidance so far has been about the pitch deck itself. But that’s from a class. We have gotten help from BTM professors who I met personally: Tom Steinberger, who has recently joined KAIST, and Prof. Chulho Lee. I took a class from him and he was also very open to talk with me. The particular guidance, I think, is about how to go forward. For example, if you start something new, there are so many things you have to think of, especially when starting a company. They were giving me directions like, okay, decide this, go with this, then do that. That kind of guidance was really crucial.

As an international student, it is hard to find information in English about applying to the KAIST Startup programs such as the E*5 LabStartup. How were you able to apply, and what was the process? Are there specific requirements to be considered?

SAK: So, I want to go back a little bit back to 2019 Fall, when there was a Startup course in the HSS department that I wanted to join, but it was in Korean. I [joined the class and asked] the professor, can you please have it in English? Because I was really, really interested. Unfortunately that couldn’t happen, but just the way of having a positive approach really affects the people [involved]. So this kind of small thing, like going to events even if they were in Korean just showed them that I was interested. I think because of that, they were more lenient towards me, and tried to change things [to help]. But, it's still very difficult [for international students] and I hope that changes in future.  For the E*5 program, although the applications are in English now, the whole program is still in Korean.

CK: It's about mentorship. If you show good commitment and you execute tasks, well, you get some extra funding to help you along the way. Even though the applications have been translated, the programs are still in Korean, but the mentor will try to speak in English. [About the specific requirements], it's paper-based; you have to [describe] your plans with your startup, and you have to make a schedule specifying how you want to use the space. 

Do you know if Startup KAIST has any future plans to provide more programs in English?

SAK: I think some professors are not comfortable enough. That's the problem. Also, this is a Korean ecosystem, and because the economy is saturating, they need to focus upon building new ideas very intensely. From that perspective, I can see them not being able to afford to make it in English, [since] Koreans would have to adjust just for the sake of including us.

But at the same time, I feel that as we are [also] KAIST students, it should be an equal opportunity. Not the same program, but we should have something. For example, one program that’s run in English for international students. We shouldn’t be [blocked] from the opportunity, but we should also be understanding of their perspective.

Would you recommend getting involved with KAIST’s Startup programs to other students? 

SAK: I think if your target market is Korea, then definitely you should go for it. They will provide you great resources — they have networks and are very experienced professors. Steve Ahn himself has a company, which he IPOed in 2002 in the US. Startups targeting foreign markets are very different, though. And, is it an IT company or is it something else? For example, we are doing operations, so it was totally different. 

CK: Most of the people [in Startup KAIST] are actually doing programming. Apps and self-driving cars, things like that. 

Do you have any advice for other international students who are interested in joining?

SAK: Network with professors who are willing to help you and speak in English. One important thing is to have a positive approach, since you will try [many times]. Talking from an international perspective, it’s difficult when you receive so many rejections. Anything you want to do here will be difficult though, and you should embrace it more than complaining about it.

I think people should definitely try; if they have an idea, I would say, just go for it. There are videos on YouTube, for example Y Combinator, that they should definitely watch. They have a set of lectures, just go through it. Even if the programs here are in Korean, get what you can get from there. The whole point is get what you want! So you have to make it happen.