Perry Ha and Taehee Nam, representing Korean venture capitalists in Silicon Valley
“There will always be new technologies, and the old regulation framework should not be applied to them.” (Perry Ha, the CEO of Draper Athena)
“Female golfers of Korea are leading the U.S. LPGA now. Founders of startups in Korea should also understand how to succeed in the U.S. just like the golfers” (Nam Taehee, the CEO of Storm Ventures)
Korea Development Bank (KDB) is holding a conference ‘NextRise 2019’ on July 23 and 24 for the innovative startup ecosystem and the growth of startups. There will be different startups participating and venture capitals seeking for possible investment opportunities. We have email-interviewed the keynote speakers of the event and Korean venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, Perry Ha of Draper Athena and Taehee Nam of Storm Ventures.
Ha didn’t hesitate to criticize the regulations of the Korean government. “The ICO disapproval was such a wet blanket on the fire starting blockchain technology,” said Ha. He also added, “Blockchain technology is crucial for the economy in many years to come. However, the government’s decision led much Korean business to turn their backs on the blockchain. It is such a waste in terms of intellectual property development of Korea.” The Financial Services Commission illegalized ICO on Sep, 2017. The FSC believed that ICO is a threat to consumer protection. The startup industry is pointing out that the relevant policy of the government is an obstacle for the development and innovation of domestic blockchain industry.
Ha emphasized, “There will be new technologies like virtual currency introduced to the market, and the existing regulatory framework is too old to be applied to those new technologies. The government should rather inform and educate the customers for the risks than conduct excessive regulations to prevent the damages.” He didn’t forget to mention that the role of the government in the market is not pressuring startups with regulations, but allowing them to take a risk into a new business by easing the regulations.
Two venture capitalists have advised that the weakness of the Korean startup market is the market size. Thus, Korean startups should aim for the global market. Nam said, “There is no Korean startup in the B2B section of the U.S. market. Referring to the marketing strategies of Korean game companies that had success in the U.S. market will be helpful.
Ha also suggested, “Though the limited market scale of 50 million is the weakness of the Korean market, there are a quality human resources, relatively low personnel expenses, and abundant government support. Entrepreneurs should be interested in global market expansion and make an association with Korean companies in the U.S. or China.” He added, “In the case of China, rapid technology development, the enormous size of the market and capitals, and government’s support are all concentrated to companies with technology. It will accelerate more and more,” he warned.
Ha, who moved to the U.S. in his high school days, went through MIT, Harvard MBA, and a consulting firm, to found Athena Technology Ventures which was the matrix of ‘Draper Athena.’ Nam majored in applied mathematics at Harvard and graduated from the law school of Chicago University. He then became a lawyer and founded Storm Ventures. Nam is a venture capitalist with more than 1,000 cases of startup investment experiences, including the early investment to Com2uS in Korea.
Jang Yoonjung(2019. 07. 23.) “블록체인 등 신기술 규제… 될성부른 떡잎 성장 막아”
Dong-A, retrieved from http://www.donga.com/news/article/all/20190722/96645051/1
