The challenges undertaken by founders who started with ideas are moving into the stage of verifying products and customers. Founders who advanced to Round 2 of the first cohort of the ‘Everyone’s Startup Project’ are embarking on the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), technology validation, and customer acquisition. Unlike Round 1, which evaluated the potential of ideas, Round 2 places importance on the ability to execute—specifically, to build an actual product and verify its functionality in the market. The teams that selected Venture Square as their mentor organization are also preparing for the next round by refining their respective products and services.
The second meeting of mentor organizations for the ‘Everyone’s Startup Project’ was held on the 11th. During the meeting, the operational direction for Round 2, support programs, and schedules for future evaluations and regional auditions were shared with the mentor organizations, followed by a Q&A session and networking. The event began with preliminary announcements, followed by an 80-minute discussion session, which continued with free networking among the participating organizations.
“Startup for All” is a startup project that provides step-by-step support to enable any citizen to develop their ideas into a business. In the first cohort, 51,907 people applied nationwide, with 4,000 advancing to Round 1 and 500 selected to advance to Round 2. In the Gyeonggi region, 8,912 people applied, with 414 advancing to Round 1 and 53 making it to Round 2.
Turning ideas into products… Round 2 focuses on ‘verification’
Round 2 focuses on providing the support necessary for founders to turn their ideas into actual products and services. Support for MVP development is provided to 500 finalists, with an average of 8 million won per person and differential support ranging from 7 million to 10 million won based on evaluation rankings. The production period runs from September 7 to October 23.
Graphics processing unit (GPU) infrastructure is also provided to teams utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Up to 210 people can utilize NVIDIA B200 GPUs and access the GPU platform with designated accounts to use for technology development and service implementation without purchasing separate hardware.
Mentoring is also subdivided to align with product development and market validation. Lead mentors oversee the MVP development process and preparation for regional auditions, while technical mentoring connects founders with experts in fields such as technology, marketing, and management. Technical mentoring can be received up to four times.
It also provides support necessary for the commercialization process, ranging from investment and intellectual property to regulatory compliance. Through ‘Challenge IR,’ early-stage tech startups without prior investment experience can meet with TIPS operators to assess investment potential, while intellectual property education and consulting support the securing of rights and commercialization of ideas. Regulatory and licensing issues that may arise during the business process are reviewed in advance through regulatory screening by a legal advisory team.
Startup teams that selected Venture Square and have been receiving mentoring since Round 1 will also embark on full-scale market validation in Round 2. ‘DIT,’ which converts paper order forms between dental clinics and laboratories into digital format; ‘NOT,’ a cultural exchange service connecting foreign travelers with local university students; ‘Haru 1ru,’ which records the in-person viewing experiences of professional baseball fans; and ‘BindPass,’ which solves the problem of ticket scalping by combining mobile devices and biometric authentication, have been named as teams advancing to Round 2.
Although they target different markets, the challenges they must address in Round 2 are similar. DIT focuses on usage and operational changes in actual dental clinics and laboratories; Note focuses on actual matching and payments between university students and foreign tourists; Haru 1ru focuses on community expansion based on user records; and Bindpass concentrates on technology verification at performance and ticket venues and establishing points of contact with ticketing agencies. If the ideas and business potential were refined in Round 1, the next stage requires verifying, through numbers and on-site experience, whether the service is one that customers will actually use and pay for.
After Round 2, 200 contestants advance to Round 3 through regional auditions. This is followed by a process of selecting the Top 100, Top 10, and Top 5 through commercialization support and follow-up incubation.
Venture Square plans to continue providing mentoring and commercialization support in Round 2, tailored to the business stages and market characteristics of individual companies. The focus will be on refining each team’s key validation tasks so that they can go beyond simply creating a product to meeting actual customers and gauging market reactions.
“If we refined ideas, customers, and business models together with the founders in the first round, the second round is crucial for verifying whether they actually work in the market,” said Kim Sang-hoon, a manager at Venture Square. “We will support the advancing teams so that they do not stop at creating an MVP, but produce results tailored to their respective businesses, such as customer usage and feedback, revenue, and contracts, to move on to the next stage.”
