[Startup CEOs of Hannam University’s Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program] Seung Yeon Yoo, Head of the Startup Support Division at Hannam University

“Over more than 14 years, we have consistently implemented startup support programs led by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, gaining experience across the entire startup lifecycle from company discovery to growth support”

-Since 2023, has led the Entrepreneurship-Centered University program, serving as a core hub for discovering and nurturing prospective and early-stage startups within the region

-Has built strong, practical support capabilities based on a deep understanding of startup growth stages and on-the-ground demand

-Has contributed to expanding the campus-wide startup culture, with the H Startup Hub established as a representative space where any member of the university community can take on entrepreneurial challenges

-Has developed a structure to foster startups centered on information and communications technology (AI and big data) and the defense sector, selected as regional key industries in 2025

-Operates the flagship startup nurturing program ‘Startup School’, systematically strengthening entrepreneurial capabilities and business mindset among regional students and prospective founders

-A key goal is to evolve into an ‘investment-strong startup-centered university’, with a strong focus on strengthening IR capabilities, advancing business structures, and intensively operating investment linkage programs

Hannam University’s Startup Support Division was selected in February 2012 as the only university in the Daejeon region to participate in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups ‘Leading University for Startup Promotion Program’. Since its establishment, the Center has continuously implemented startup support programs led by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups without interruption through 2026. After operating the Early-Stage Startup Package Program, the Center has been carrying out the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program since 2023, playing a central role in discovering and nurturing prospective and early-stage startups within the region.

Over more than a decade, Hannam University’s Startup Support Division has operated startup support programs every year, steadily expanding both the scale of support and the range of programs. Through this process, it has produced numerous outstanding startup companies. Seung Yeon Yoo, Director of the Hannam University Startup Support Division, emphasized that “this demonstrates that beyond simply operating programs for many years, the Center has accumulated substantial practical support capabilities based on a deep understanding of startup growth stages and on-the-ground needs.” We met Director Yoo on January 19 at Hannam University in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon.

Seung Yeon Yoo, Director of Startup Support Division, Hannam University
Director of Career and Entrepreneurship Support, Hannam University (2024– )
Director of Startup Support Division, Hannam University (2024– )
Professor, Department of Nursing, Hannam University (2012– )
Assistant Professor and Director of the Military Nursing Research Center, Armed Forces Nursing Academy (2001–2012)
Head Nurse, Department of Internal Medicine and Surgery, and Head Nurse of Anesthesiology, Military Hospitals (1993–1999)

Please introduce the Hannam University Startup Support Division.
“The Hannam University Startup Support Division is not limited to operating government-funded programs but also plays a role in planning and operating the overall on-campus startup ecosystem. It manages on-campus startup infrastructure such as student startup clubs and startup club rooms, oversees university-level startup performance indicators, and systematically supports student entrepreneurship, and based on this foundation, also contributes to the expansion of a university-wide startup culture.
The representative reminder space where these roles are put into practice is the H Startup Hub. The H Startup Hub is a container-type startup space modeled after Silicon Valley in the United States. In addition to serving as a base for student startup clubs, it also operates a hands-on practice space in the form of a ‘market zone (street-level store)’ where students can sell actual products and experience entrepreneurship firsthand. Through this, the Center supports students so that their startups do not remain at the idea stage but are connected to real market experience.
Going forward, Hannam University’s Startup Support Division plans to further strengthen its role as a practical startup support organization that brings together students, faculty, and local startups, building on accumulated operational experience and infrastructure.”

How would you evaluate the results so far?
“If I were to sum up the achievements of Hannam University’s Startup Support Division in a single phrase, I would describe them as ‘capabilities built steadily over time’. Since its establishment in 2012, the Startup Support Division has continuously carried out startup support programs led by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups for more than 14 years, gaining experience across the entire startup lifecycle, from discovering startups to supporting their growth.
In the early years, the focus was on building a strong foundation centered on prospective and early-stage founders, but over time, the support system has evolved into a more sophisticated framework tailored to each stage of corporate growth, expanding all the way to investment support. As a result, we believe that the Center has moved beyond simply supporting a large number of companies and has instead built a structure capable of consistently producing startups that generate real revenue and progress toward employment creation and investment. In addition, as experience in operating government-funded programs has accumulated, the Center has developed the execution capacity to organically link and operate a wide range of programs, including commercialization funding, education, mentoring, investment linkage, and global market entry, which we consider to be one of the Startup Support Division’s key achievements. This can be seen not as the outcome of a single project, but as the result of accumulated know-how built through repeatedly operating programs over many years.
More importantly, a meaningful achievement is that over the past 14 years, the continuous operation of student startup clubs and the expansion of startup infrastructure have helped establish a culture in which entrepreneurship is no longer a choice for a select few, but something that any member of the university community can confidently pursue. With an environment now in place where students, faculty, and local startups are naturally connected, the Startup Support Division’s role has evolved beyond that of a simple support organization and has become firmly positioned as the central axis of the university’s startup ecosystem.
Building on these achievements, Hannam University’s Startup Support Division has now entered a new phase as an entrepreneurship-focused university, taking responsibility for supporting startups across the region. Going forward, we aim to expand the experience and capabilities accumulated over the years toward supporting startup growth on an even broader scale.”

What was the biggest issue in the 2025 program?
“The most significant issue of the 2025 Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program was the comprehensive revision of the startup recruitment system following policy changes by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Previously, startups were selected by categorizing them according to their stage of development, such as prospective, early-stage, and growth-stage companies. However, starting in 2025, this approach was fundamentally revised by removing these distinctions and introducing new recruitment tracks: ‘Regional General Type’, ‘Regional Key Industry Linkage Type’, and ‘First-time Youth Prospective Startup Type’.
The core of this change lies in shifting the focus away from years of operation toward a startup’s growth potential and its connection to the local region. In particular, for companies with three to seven years of operation, it was regarded as a major change in the field that, starting in 2025 with the easing of age-of-business restrictions, even those that had already received support from the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program during the growth-stage phase became eligible to receive support once again.
The ‘Regional General Type’ is a track designed to lower entry barriers by allowing any startup with up to seven years of operation and a business location in the Chungcheong region to apply, thereby establishing a foundation to broadly discover and support promising startups within the region. Through this change, companies with genuine growth potential were able to gain another opportunity to scale up, without being limited to a specific stage or age of business.
The ‘Regional Key Industry Linkage Type’ is characterized by enabling startups nationwide to choose and apply to an entrepreneurship-focused university that aligns with the regional key industries in which each university specializes. This represented a meaningful change in that it allowed startups to choose a support environment better suited to their needs, while also reflecting the distinctive characteristics of each university and its region.
Lastly, the ‘First-time Youth Prospective Startup Type’ was operated as a special recruitment track exclusively for prospective young entrepreneurs under the age of 29, with the aim of lowering entry barriers for youth entrepreneurship and actively supporting their first step into starting a business. We believe this is highly meaningful, as it created an opportunity for young people whose ideas had remained at the conceptual stage to pursue entrepreneurship in a more stable manner.
Overall, the most significant issue in 2025 was that the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program moved away from an age-of-business-centered support system and transitioned to a more flexible and open structure, thereby providing tangible opportunities to startups and prospective founders at various stages.”

What are the key strengths of Hannam University’s Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program?
“The greatest strength of Hannam University’s Entrepreneurship-Focused University program is that it focuses on fostering entrepreneurship in regions based on industry-research-government infrastructures, creating an environment where startups can thrive with high growth potential. In particular, by being selected as a regional key industry for 2025, Hannam University will have the capacity to focus on information technology (AI, big data) and national defense sectors, areas where the university has already accumulated long-term expertise in education, research, and fostering talent.
First, we focus on the information technology sector, with a focus on AI and big data for nurturing startups in this field. Hannam University integrates Smart Convergence Engineering (AI, Big Data Engineering) and Smart Convergence Research into its curriculum to provide students with the opportunity to engage in both research and entrepreneurial activities. Based on this foundation, the Center supports startup companies seeking to implement AI technologies in actual products and services, enabling them to grow step by step through product advancement, technology validation, and commercialization. In addition, through collaboration with organizations such as the Daejeon Techno Park Space and ICT Industry Center, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), and the Daejeon ICT Industry Association, the Center provides support for technology advancement, R&D linkage, and customized education and consulting, operating an entrepreneurship support system that goes beyond education to real-world application and commercialization.
The national defense sector is also one of the key strengths of Hannam University’s Entrepreneurship-Focused University program. Hannam University possesses a strong foundation for integrating technology and policy through engineering disciplines closely linked to the defense industry, including mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, and industrial management engineering, as well as through its Department of Security Policy, Department of Defense Acquisition Policy, Defense Strategy Research Institute, and Graduate School of Defense Strategy. Through this foundation, the University provides broad support for startup ideas across various defense-related fields, including defense manufacturing, defense IT and cybersecurity, and the space and satellite industries.
In particular, the close concentration of major national defense and space-related agencies and research institutes in the Daejeon region, including the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), serves as a significant strength for defense-focused startup companies. Hannam University actively leverages this regional infrastructure to provide step-by-step support ranging from defense technology advisory services and product advancement to defense standards certification (KDS), performance verification, and market linkage.
In addition, Hannam University is the only university in Korea that has signed cooperation agreements with all three branches of the armed forces, the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and since 2023 has been operating annual startup camps for active-duty military personnel, contributing to the revitalization of military entrepreneurship. This initiative plays a critical bridging role by creating a foundation in which military personnel with the strongest understanding of defense technologies and on-site needs can grow into startup founders, while enabling defense startups to validate and refine their ideas based on real military demand.
In this way, Hannam University’s Entrepreneurship-Focused University program is built around the strategic industries of information and communications technology and defense, establishing a systematic support structure that links the university’s education and research capabilities with regional industrial and defense infrastructure, as well as demonstration and market access. Through this, the greatest strength of Hannam University’s Entrepreneurship-Focused University program can be said to be its ability to help startups move beyond the idea stage and grow into competitive companies in real markets and on the ground.”

What key criteria are used to evaluate and select companies for the Entrepreneurship-Focused University program?
“For the 2025 Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program, participating companies were selected not only based on the originality of their ideas, but also on whether the proposed items could be practically implemented in the market and real-world settings, as well as whether the teams demonstrated the potential for sustainable growth. To this end, the selection process was conducted based on four core criteria. The first criterion was problem recognition. We examined why the startup began working on the item in the first place and whether the problem it seeks to solve is one that resonates sufficiently in real-world and industry settings. Rather than stopping at a simple presentation of the problem, we placed emphasis on whether the problem is clearly defined, why it matters to customers or the industry, and whether the approach to solving it is logically and concretely articulated.
The second criterion is feasibility. We evaluated whether the proposed solution is technically and commercially feasible, and whether it has the potential to stand out in a competitive environment. The key evaluation criteria were whether the development or improvement approach was clearly defined, what advantages it offered over existing methods, and whether the team possessed the technical foundation and level of readiness required to implement it in practice.
The third criterion is growth strategy. We assessed whether the startup idea would not only achieve short-term success but also how it could scale and expand its business over time. We conducted a comprehensive review of whether the initial market entry strategy, the definition of the target market, the potential for region-based growth, and the step-by-step expansion plan were realistically designed.
The final criterion is the team (company) composition. The evaluation focused on whether the team demonstrated the ability to achieve sustained success and implement the proposed idea, with a particular emphasis on the capabilities of the founder and the team members to bring the idea into reality. The evaluation also considered the team’s future technical capabilities, efforts, internal roles, and collaboration within the team, as well as the team’s cohesion and cooperation.
In the 2025 selection process, rather than focusing solely on developing these criteria, the evaluation placed particular emphasis on the idea’s direction, the team’s expertise, and the growth strategy, while also considering the team’s alignment with the established strategy. Through this process, we focused on selecting startups that go beyond the idea stage and demonstrate realistic commercialization potential and strong growth prospects.”

What benefits are provided to companies selected for the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program?
“The most fundamental benefit of the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program is, without question, commercialization funding support. While the scale of support varies slightly by track, companies can receive government funding of up to KRW 200 million per company, with an average support level of approximately KRW 77 million. This funding is particularly meaningful in that it is not limited to simple operating expenses, but can be flexibly used to cover costs directly required for startups to carry out their business activities.
Specifically, the funds can be allocated across a wide range of commercialization-related expenses, including personnel costs, material costs for prototype development, outsourced expenses for technology development, and costs for testing and certification. Through this support, startups are able to partially alleviate the financial burden that weighs most heavily on them in the early stages, allowing them to focus on improving the completeness and viability of their business.
Another important benefit is the opportunity to participate with priority in startup support programs specialized by each university. Although the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program has already established a wide range of startup support programs, separate ‘commercialization-focused programs’ are operated exclusively for companies selected under the Entrepreneurship-Focused University track. These programs are differentiated from general startup education or consulting in that they are specifically designed with the clear objective of generating tangible business outcomes and performance.
For prospective entrepreneurs and companies selected under the first-time startup track, programs focus on entrepreneurship education and business structure design, while early-stage startups that have already begun operations receive more practical support, including assistance with intellectual property filings, technology advancement consulting, and marketing and market expansion programs. In addition, for companies seeking global expansion, overseas market entry programs are provided, along with step-by-step IR enhancement and investment linkage programs designed to support fundraising efforts.
In this way, companies selected under the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program benefit not only from financial support, but also from comprehensive, customized assistance tailored to their specific stage of growth and operational needs, which can be regarded as the program’s greatest advantage. Hannam University’s Startup Support Division focuses on building a foundation that enables startups to move beyond the early stage and achieve sustained growth through these forms of support.”

What are some examples of your flagship startup incubation programs?
“Hannam University Startup Support Division’s representative startup incubation program is ‘Startup School’. As of 2026, Startup School is a long-running program entering its 10th year. It is designed for students and prospective entrepreneurs within the region, providing systematic training in entrepreneurial capability and mindset through idea validation, refinement, and hands-on proof-of-concept experiences.
Each year, the program selects startup teams primarily from partner universities within the region and operates as a joint startup camp in a consortium-based format across universities. Students form teams that go beyond their home institutions, collaborating with prospective entrepreneurs from diverse academic backgrounds and ideas, and experience the full process of developing a single startup idea into a viable business model through practice-oriented education and mentoring. This structure is evaluated as a major strength in that it goes beyond conventional classroom education by offering natural networking opportunities and real collaboration experiences.
In 2024, the program was operated as a global startup camp in collaboration with Asia Pacific University (APU) in Malaysia, providing participants with hands-on entrepreneurial experience through cooperation with overseas universities. In 2025, the focus shifted to domestic operations to further enhance the program’s completeness, and through collaboration with the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development and the Daejeon Creative Economy Innovation Center, it was developed into a results-oriented program linked to awards and prize incentives.
Students work on projects together with fellow participants, gaining experience in viewing startup ideas from multiple perspectives and developing them into more concrete concepts. One of the program’s most significant outcomes is that relationships formed during the camp naturally extend into startup club activities, with a growing number of cases continuing on to actual startup formation. In this respect, Startup School is not a one-off event, but rather a program that has served as the starting point of student entrepreneurship and the first step in its growth.”

What are some successful cases among startups selected by the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program?
“Among the many companies supported through the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program, a representative success story is Jupiter Labs Co., Ltd. Jupiter Labs is a company that developed an integrated global commerce operations solution for fashion and beauty businesses. It built G-COS (Global Commerce Operating System), a unified system that covers the entire spectrum of global business operations, including sourcing and purchasing, inbound and outbound logistics, inventory management, settlement, order collection, international shipping, and export declaration. The company’s greatest strength lies in its shift in perspective on the existing market. Traditionally, the Dongdaemun market has been centered on a distribution structure focused on ‘buying-in’, and many technology-based startups have concentrated on improving the efficiency of this process. In contrast, Jupiter Labs focused not on purchasing agents but on wholesalers, the core actors in the supply chain, redefining the Dongdaemun market as a single global supply network. Drawing on experience managing supply chain management (SCM) at large corporations and e-commerce companies, the company embedded into its business model the idea that wholesalers are the true center of supply, leading everything from product planning to the selection of manufacturing factories.
This approach went beyond the development of a simple solution and was meaningful in that it presented a structural pathway for Korea’s fashion industry to expand into global markets. In practice, Jupiter Labs has built a system tailored to the global fashion commerce environment and has rapidly expanded its collaborative partnerships with companies both in Korea and abroad. Through contracts and strategic partnerships with major fashion platforms, logistics companies, and IT firms, Jupiter Labs has continued to expand its business scope. In 2025 alone, the company achieved tangible results, including raising over KRW 10 billion in investment, surpassing KRW 12 billion in annual revenue, and maintaining a workforce of more than 20 employees.
In particular, Jupiter Labs’ achievements closely align with the direction pursued by the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program. Rather than stopping at supporting startups at the idea stage, the program has enabled companies with clear market fit and growth potential to build real competitiveness in the industrial field and grow sustainably. Through the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program, Jupiter Labs was able to systematically refine its technological capabilities, business model, and market entry strategy, which in turn laid the foundation for the company’s stable growth.
This case stands as a representative example demonstrating that the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program can successfully nurture startups that are rooted in the local region while simultaneously targeting global markets. I believe that continuously creating such success stories will be a key goal of our university’s startup support program moving forward.”

Hannam University Startup Support Division values communication with companies. Why is that? What is the unique approach of the Hannam University Startup Support Division in communicating with CEOs?
“The reason the Startup Support Division places such importance on communication with companies is quite simple. Challenges faced in the startup field can never be fully understood through documents or performance indicators alone. The difficulties companies experience vary by timing and by stage of growth, and even companies operating in the same industry can face very different realities. Rather than viewing matters solely from the ‘position of operating the program’, the Startup Support Division considers it a core principle to listen and understand from the same perspective as the companies themselves.
When members of the Startup Support Division communicate with CEOs, what I consider most important is not ‘promising to solve everything’, but ‘an attitude of listening through to the very end’. There are certainly some difficult parts to the process, but I always think about why it can’t be done and what possible solutions there might be, and try to explain them together.
Another aspect I focus on is that the communication is not just limited to formal consultations, but includes after-event discussions, and even casual conversations or feedback from informal gatherings. In these smaller conversations, I often discover the real concerns of companies and the support they truly need.
Ultimately, I believe the relationship between the Startup Support Division and the companies is not just about ‘providing support’, but about growing together as partners. Moving forward, the Startup Support Division will continue to foster an environment where companies feel comfortable to speak openly and trust that the division will always have their backs.”

What programs are available to help companies expand globally?
“Hannam University Startup Support Division has been running an annual global expansion program for startups, not just focusing on entering international markets, but also providing stage-by-stage support from initial preparations to strengthening capabilities, site inspections, and even post-launch monitoring. In 2025, the division continued to support startups through the ‘Global Scaleup Project’, which focused on seminars, capacity building, and connecting startups with global resources.
First, the program targeted companies looking to expand globally, focusing on national market characteristics and understanding the expansion process, enabling each company to identify the right target countries and markets. This approach was not about a simple plan to ‘go overseas’, but about enabling companies to set realistic market goals and guiding them through the process to make informed decisions. Afterwards, companies were matched one-on-one with experts who have global business experience to receive tailored mentoring. Through this process, practical discussions were held on market entry strategies, pricing strategies, identifying local partners, and distribution structures, tailored to each company’s product and service characteristics, enabling companies to concretely develop their own global strategies.
In addition, the program focused on strengthening the practical competencies essential for overseas expansion. Through overseas market research consulting, companies reviewed local demand and competitive environments, and by supporting the translation and design of IR materials and global landing pages, they were equipped with the fundamental readiness needed to engage with overseas buyers and investors. The goal was not short-term outcomes, but to build a solid foundation for sustainable global expansion.
Through this preparation process, in December 2025, a total of eight companies participated in the overseas exhibition TECHFEST VIETNAM 2025, focusing on entry into the Vietnamese market, which showed the highest level of demand among participating companies. Thanks to thorough preparation and mentoring in advance, companies were able to go beyond simple promotion at the exhibition site to engage in substantive consultations and assess actual market responses. Some companies also had the opportunity to directly validate their product competitiveness in the field.
Looking ahead, the Hannam University Startup Support Division plans to operate its programs with a focus not merely on participation in overseas exhibitions, but on building the capabilities companies need to independently sustain their businesses in global markets. The goal is to provide continuous support so that global expansion does not remain a one-off event, but becomes an integral stage in a company’s long-term growth trajectory.”

What are the programs for attracting investment for startups?
“Hannam University’s Startup Support Division has moved beyond one-off IR events since 2024 and has been generating tangible investment outcomes through the HIPS (Hannam Investment Partner Scale-up) program, which is designed to structurally support the entire investment attraction process for startups.
HIPS is an investment linkage program that began in 2024 as ‘Hannam Investment Partner (HIP)’ and was further refined into a more advanced model in 2025. Its key feature is the systematic support it provides for startups’ investment journeys, from the seed stage through Series rounds.
This program goes beyond simply introducing companies to investors. By planning investment forums focused on investment-linked policy programs such as LIPS, TIPS, and DIPS, as well as private investment flows, the program helps companies understand the structure of the investment market and related institutional frameworks. It then places emphasis on resolving practical challenges and real-world concerns that arise during the actual investment process through mentoring and networking with investors and companies that have successfully secured follow-on investments.
In addition to company-led pitch-style IR, Hannam University operates a phased approach that includes reverse pitching where investors directly evaluate startups, private IR sessions after advanced investor matching, and joint IR programs in collaboration with other universities and related institutions. This approach helps increase the likelihood of successful investment outcomes. Within this structure, participating startups are moving beyond simple initial contact with investors and are increasingly forming connections that lead to follow-up collaboration and actual investment.
Building on this foundation, the Hannam University Startup Support Division plans to further advance the program this year through the launch of ‘HIPS Project 2.0’, expanding the ways in which startups and investors are connected beyond 2025.”

What are the goals for the future?
“Our goal is for Hannam University’s Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program to go beyond simply producing a large number of startups and instead establish itself as a platform that helps companies grow and survive in the real market. To achieve this, we plan to further refine and advance a support structure that spans the entire journey, from the pre-startup stage to commercialization and investment linkage.
In particular, one of our key objectives is to evolve into an ‘investment-strong entrepreneurship-focused university’. Recognizing that funding and investment pose the greatest challenges once startups reach a certain stage, we intend to systematically strengthen early-stage investment readiness and fundraising capabilities. Beyond simply providing investment-related information, we plan to focus on strengthening startups’ IR capabilities so they can clearly explain and validate their businesses from an investor’s perspective, while also enhancing business structures and intensively operating investment linkage programs.
We also aim to expand collaboration with private investors, financial institutions, and regional investment networks so that startups can naturally experience external investment and market validation, and to reinforce linkage structures that connect the university’s infrastructure and programs to tangible business outcomes.
At the same time, we aim to clearly present a phased growth roadmap that enables startups to grow on a regional basis while expanding nationwide and ultimately into global markets, and to build a tailored support system aligned with this roadmap. Through this, the Entrepreneurship-Focused University Program at Hannam University will not only focus on single success-centered projects but will continue to build a sustainable startup ecosystem.
Ultimately, we will focus on providing practical support with tangible results and execution capabilities, ensuring that Hannam University establishes itself as the Entrepreneurship-Focused University trusted by startups, investors, and the region.”

reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com