Diving into the deep end with Korean startups

In 2021, Henry decided to dive into the deep end with mentoring. This involved mentoring 21 (!!!) startups in the second half of the year across three programs. During November of 2021, he mentored 17 Korean startups plus a Japanese startup simultaneously. He readily admits that he shouldn’t take on more than 12, because it drives you crazy keeping all of the balls in the air at the same time.

So why this craziness? When Henry was doing a less demanding load of mentoring and teaching tools and techniques, he might use a particular technique only once every three years. Mentoring this many companies, Henry found he was doing it several times each quarter which allowed him to really refine the lessons. Those lessons are now part of the Innovation Refinery Workshop series. And, truth be told, he really wanted a chance to live in Korea for 3 months.

The companies ranged greatly in terms of product maturity and technology base. Yes, there were many AI and blockchain inititatives, but also many materials, industrial equipment, and services companies. One of the companies that he mentored, Factogora, won first place in the Korean Global Startup Accelerator 2021 challenge! (#1 out of 60 great companies)

Henry’s 2021 Korea visit was a rewarding experience and it provided ample grist for the workshop mill. His experience has provided Innovation Refinery access to many different technologies and products that have excess use cases for potential licensing. Further, it made clear the opportunity for a third party to take raw ideas and mature them into viable business cases for transplantation.