On April 1, the Startup KAIST Seminar was held by the Office of University–Industry Cooperation (OUIC) at the Creative Learning Building (E11). Engineering, user experience, business, and startup experts from the Bay Area K Group, the Korean high-tech professional community, demonstrated their knowhow regarding career paths, trends, and lifestyles in Silicon Valley.
The seminar dealt with not only startups in the valley but also provided details of the working environmentand culture in firms such as Intel and Adobe. The Bay Area K Group lecturers at the seminar came from various academic backgrounds and pursued different careers; thus, they all gave unique advice. For example, lecturer Hohyun Ryu revealed himself to be an English major engineer at Twitter.
The first presentation was given by the co-representative of the Bay Area K Group, Jongyoung Yoon, who currently works as an information and technology (IT) consultant at Facebook after having worked as an IT expert for 15 years. He described Silicon Valley as the place of technology, talent, capital, and beautiful weather, and free of discrimination, stereotypes, and government intervention. However, he warned that corporate loyalty will not keep one at a company if he or she is simply not good enough.
The following presentation by Peter Bae of Cruz Inc. (his 5th startup) dealt with venture capitals. He went through the history of venture capitals, shared his experience of pitching to potential investors, and explained the managerial structure of venture capital firms. He also emphasized the importance of social skills and advised that money should not be the only thing to seek from venture capitals; they should also seek the network connections they offer as well.
The Bay Area K Group is a Korean non-profit organization comprised of 2,500 high-tech professionals working in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded by Koreans who worked or were interested in the high-tech industry, and promotes the exchange of valuable networking information and professional knowhow among members to survive and prosper in a highly competitive field.