Korea University Business School will launch the tentatively named “KUBS Startup Station” in KUBS Main Building located at Korea University Anam Campus in September.
▲ Interior perspective view of the KUBS Startup Station
The KUBS Startup Station is not just a place for starting business but also a “platform for entrepreneurship and innovation.” KUBS students, graduates, and students from other universities have an opportunity to participate in the program. In other words, it is a channel where future entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds share ideas, collaborate, and fulfill their ambitions. The KUBS Startup Station will be offering a wide range of support, such as △venture incubator, △networking for startup business, and △systematic startup education, for free.
KUBS raised a total of 3.5 billion won in startup support donations, thanks to the KUBS donors who sympathized with the creative educational system for startup. Alumnus Sang Il Lee (’57), president of Iljin Group, and Alumnus Myung Ho Seung (’74), president of Dongwha Group, donated 2 billion won and 1.5 billion won, respectively. The “Iljin Startup Incubation Center” and “Seung Myung Ho Entrepreneurship Education Center” will be built following the principles of the donors.
▲ Interior perspective view of the Iljin Startup Incubation Center
The Iljin Startup Incubation Center is a foothold of the business incubator, networking, and startup competition, which selects business with a high-potential. Winners of the competition have an opportunity to move into the Iljin Startup Incubation Center. In addition to that, persons interested in startup business will be recruited through the official website. The center is capable of accepting up to 14 teams of 4 members each. Approximately 20 persons, who plan to develop a small sized startup business with one or two entrepreneurs, will be recruited as well. The participating startup companies with great potential can be selected as participants for the intensive business incubating program, which an organization outside the campus invests its shares to the chosen startup company as their subsidiary company. Moreover, continuous advice, support, and professional networks will be provided by mentors with various experiences, including entrepreneurs, industrial experts, venture capitalists, etc.
▲Interior perspective view of the Seung Myung Ho Entrepreneurship Education Center
The Seung Myung Ho Entrepreneurship Education Center aims to provide integrated startup education. It will also actively encourage students to create new business models by combining their business mindset with various fields of study, such as engineering, life sciences, humanities, and arts. The ultimate goal of the center is to instill an entrepreneurship in students by offering them a systematic startup education that extends to the regular curriculum.
“We aim to help students achieve fruitful results of converting their ideas into reality by providing systematic mentoring services and collaborating with experts, while the KUBS Startup Station bears risks of startup business,” Dean Dong-One Kim said. “We have made a commitment to nurture future entrepreneurs who have great potential to establish a creative enterprise, such as Google, Facebook, and Alibaba, by shifting the existing paradigm of business education.”