The JNU Startup Support Division runs three core centers: the Entrepreneurship Education Center, the Startup Incubation Center, and the Startup Support Center. The Entrepreneurship Education Center nurtures entrepreneurial spirit in students and provides essential management knowledge, values, and founder-ready attitudes. The Startup Incubation Center supports early-stage startups by providing space and facilities, enabling stable technology development and prototyping. The Startup Support Center helps students and faculty transform laboratory research into viable startup items and successful business ventures.
Director Seolwoo Park emphasized, “We play a central role in fostering and energizing Jeju’s creative and innovative startup culture. As the managing institution for the Early-Stage Startup Package, Jeju National University supports the commercialization of promising early-stage companies, ensuring their stable market entry and continued growth.” We met with Director Park on September 2 at the Jeju National University Startup Support Center office in Jeju City.
Seolwoo Park, Director of the JNU Startup Support Division
Ph.D. in Business Administration (Marketing), Yonsei University
Professor, Department of Business Administration, Jeju National University
Director, JNU Startup Support Division
Director, JNU Startup Incubation Center & Startup Support Center
Deputy Director, Office of Research Promotion, JNU
Member, Distribution Coexistence Development Council, Seogwipo City, Jeju
Member, Distribution Dispute Mediation Committee, Seogwipo City, Jeju
Board Member, Korean Distribution Association; Korea Strategic Marketing Association; Service Marketing Association
Former Advisor, Korea Health Industry Development Institute
Former Visiting Researcher, Kyobo Life Noblier Center
Former Research Fellow, Business Research Institute, Yonsei University
Former Visiting Professor, College of Arts, Yanbian University, China
How would you assess your achievements to date?
“As the sole managing institution for the Early-Stage Startup Package in Jeju, we selected 22 promising domestic startups this year. We support their growth by operating diverse programs, including ‘Market Frontier’ for market entry, investor relations (IR) support, mentoring to solve challenges, and customized certification programs. Notably, last year’s cohort achieved KRW 72.93 billion in domestic sales, KRW 14.3 billion in exports, created 115 new jobs, attracted KRW 2.541 billion in investments, and filed 49 intellectual property applications. This year, drawing on our two years of experience, we aim to deliver even greater outcomes by tailoring programs to meet the needs of participating companies and providing them with meaningful, practical support for growth.”
What is the main focus for this year’s program?
“The biggest development this year is the additional selection of companies in the deep tech sector. Our strength in deep tech, particularly in bio and health, comes from our infrastructure of 24 related research centers and labs — such as the Joint Laboratory Practice Center and the Life Science Technology Innovation Center — and our 450 research personnel, including over 250 full-time faculty and 200 researchers. We provide support through technology commercialization and on-site linkage with local research institutions. For this track, we recruited 11 highly capable companies in the bio and health fields.”
What are the key strengths of the JNU Startup Support Division?
“First, Jeju offers a natural environment and geography optimized for workations and business test-beds. Accordingly, we leverage JNU’s human and material resources and networks to support corporate partnerships in the bio-health, green mobility, and intelligent service sectors.
Second, we provide demand-driven, customized support for corporate growth. Dedicated staff are assigned to each selected company to listen to their challenges directly on-site and actively support their growth by providing tailored programs.”
How are the companies evaluated and selected?
“The Early-Stage Startup Package recruits companies nationwide that are less than three years old, without regional restrictions. The call for applications is posted every February on the K-Startup website. Applicants submit a formatted business plan, which is followed by a document review, an in-depth interview, and a presentation evaluation before final selection. For this year’s selection criteria—something founders are always most curious about—a panel of judges evaluates four key areas fairly and transparently as outlined in the official announcement: problem recognition, feasibility, growth strategy, and team composition.”
What are your flagship startup development programs?
“The startup development programs operated by the JNU Startup Support Division can be broadly categorized into market development and investment attraction. First, ‘Market Frontier (Domestic)’ is designed for market entry. It matches startups that are struggling with marketing due to limited manpower with supporter groups to discuss promotional strategies and create tailored content for their products.
Second is ‘IR-Value Up,’ which supports investment attraction. IR-Value Up is operated in three stages: Start, Develop, and Final. The ‘Start’ phase focuses on educating startups about investor relations (IR), while the ‘Develop’ phase runs mock demo days and provides support with IR deck redesign and pitching consulting. Finally, the ‘Final’ phase holds an integrated demo day, with all of Jeju’s startup support institutions participating, to help connect companies with actual investment opportunities.”
What are some notable success stories among the supported or incubated startups?
"Among last year’s cohort, Withlike and Shinji Games stood out as impressive success cases. Withlike popularized Jeju brands by leveraging K-content and influencers, launching a co-brand with influencer Heebab and driving remarkable growth—KRW 3.375 billion in sales, 9 new hires, KRW 300 million in investment, and recognition as a TOP10 brand at the Korea Shopping Festa Awards. Shinji Games garnered significant investor interest with its project, ‘developing an alpha version of an MMORPG using the Yulhyul Gangho IP.’ They maximized the thrilling martial arts action with beautiful, evocative graphics that immerse players in the world of Yulhyul Gangho. The company secured KRW 16.2 billion in investment, generated KRW 268 million in sales, and created 28 jobs. Thus, the JNU Startup Support Division believes it is vital to create more success stories for startups across diverse sectors, and we actively support them from the companies’ perspective.”
JNU Startup Support Division values communication. What is your unique approach to communicating with company founders at the JNU Startup Support Division?
“Our communication philosophy is best captured by our motto, ‘The answer is on-site.’ Dedicated staff personally visit each selected startup, engaging with them directly in the field to understand and address real challenges. By actively incorporating founders’ feedback into our programs, we achieve high levels of satisfaction. Each selected startup is assigned a dedicated staff member who maintains frequent communication with the founder, providing demand-driven information and personalized support for growth. Thanks to these efforts, we maintain ongoing communication channels with founders from our 2023 and 2024 Early-Stage Startup Package cohorts. This has enabled senior founders to share their success know-how with newly selected companies, and together we are discovering new opportunities for collaboration."
What programs support global expansion for participating companies?
“The “Market Frontier (Global)” program supports business development for companies planning overseas market entry. Rather than just trade show participation or running export booths, we pursue practical results by conducting local market research and strategy seminars in advance, followed by export consulting with pre-matched local buyers. This year, in partnership with the Jeju government, we are running a Singapore-focused IR investment program with participation from startups in three countries, including Malaysia. Activities will include an IR demo day and networking events to foster exchange.”
What programs are available for investment and market development for startups?
“Our investment support program “IR Value Up” operates in three phases: Start, Develop, and Final. The Start phase offers IR investment training, while Develop provides pitch deck redesign and pitching consulting through mock demo days. The Final phase consists of an integrated demo day involving Jeju support organizations, with professional ACs and VCs invited to create real investment opportunities. Our market development programs are run under the ‘Market Frontier’ brand (Domestic & Global). The domestic program includes supporter initiatives, features in business magazines, and promotional booths at various fairs and events. The Global program expands to include exchanges, exhibitions, and matching programs to drive overseas expansion and global market entry. We further support company growth through partnerships with Jeju-based funds. Significantly, JNU helped launch the Korea-Japan Jeju Startup Fund, a 10-billion-won investment fund designed to give local startups a growth ladder from the early stage to global markets.
On future goals
“As the sole national hub university in Jeju, JNU’s Startup Support Division provides research, education, and facility infrastructure to students and faculty dreaming of launching a business, aiming to nurture entrepreneurship within the university. Our broader vision is to leverage this infrastructure to revitalize the entire startup ecosystem throughout Jeju. To achieve this, we are taking the lead in building networks with Jeju’s startup-related organizations and actively securing practical growth resources such as investment funds, aiming to create a virtuous cycle of investment, growth, and global expansion for local companies. While Jeju is the southernmost point from Seoul, on a world map it is a strategic hub for global entrepreneurship, connected to China, Japan, Eurasia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. “Moving forward, the JNU Startup Support Division will continue to leverage Jeju’s geographic and cultural strengths to develop it as a global startup hub, remaining at the core of this vision.”
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com
