The Startup Junkies Podcast

What does it take for a startup from Korea to break into the US market? Four founders share how they're doing it.

Recorded live at Startup Crawl in Fayetteville, Arkansas, this episode features founders from the Korea Global Expansion Accelerator. They build AI companion robots for isolated seniors, AI-powered lead generation, classroom analytics for early childhood education, and hotel operations software. We also go inside RISE Arkansas, a no-cost program for tech and tech-enabled startups. The episode closes with a look at how Startup Crawl grew from one building to a downtown-wide event.

In this episode:
✅ AI companionship for aging populations
✅ Selling without a network in relationship-driven markets
✅ Asian business data for US brands
✅ AI insights into how young kids play and learn
✅ Tech vs. tech-enabled startups
✅ Why staying power matters in entrepreneurial support

⏱️Chapters:
 0:00 Introduction
 0:20 Live from Startup Crawl 2024
 0:55 From Hong Kong IT to senior care
 2:24 AI companion robots for isolated seniors
 5:05 Selling in Asia without connections
 7:45 How AI lead generation works
 9:32 Asian business data for US brands
 13:10 AI that tracks how preschoolers play and learn
 15:08 From Hasbro toy designer to edtech founder
 17:40 RISE Arkansas: free support for tech startups
 18:30 Tech vs. tech-enabled startups
 20:02 109 startups in 101 days
 27:58 Hotel operations tech from Korea
 33:58 How Startup Crawl grew from 2019 to 2024
 36:55 Why staying power matters

Featured guests:
Louis Lee, CMO, Wonderful Platform: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisleedonguk/
Jay Lee, Co-founder & CSO, DeepSales: https://deepsales.com/
Sarah No, Head of Product, PlayTag: https://playtag.ai/
Stephen Park, Do What
Chris Adams & Kate Lockridge, RISE Arkansas: risearkansas.org

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The Startup Junkies Podcast is brought to you in part by RISE, helping Arkansas tech and tech-enabled startups grow with no-cost coaching, capital navigation, and expert connections.

What is The Startup Junkies Podcast?

Candid conversations with the founders, operators, and investors building companies in Northwest Arkansas and beyond.

The Startup Junkies Podcast is hosted by Jeff Amerine, founder of Startup Junkie, a Northwest Arkansas organization that has provided no-cost consulting, programs, and events to entrepreneurs for more than 15 years. Each week Jeff and the Startup Junkie team sit down with people who have actually done it: first-time and serial founders, small business owners, investors, accelerator alumni, and the ecosystem builders working alongside them.

Expect real stories, not lectures. How they got started, how they found their first customers, how they raised money or chose not to, what nearly broke them, and what they would do differently. Topics range from validating an idea and finding capital to hiring, marketing, leadership, scaling, and selling the business.

With more than 450 episodes since 2015, the back catalog covers nearly every stage of building a company in Arkansas and the Mid-South. If you are starting something, growing something, or helping founders do either, this show is for you.

This feed also carries Querido Emprendedor, our Spanish-language founder series, and the Fuel Podcast, featuring companies from Startup Junkie's Fuel Accelerator.

New episodes weekly. Show notes, transcripts, and the full archive at startupjunkie.org/podcast.

Startup Junkie's mission: improving lives through innovation and entrepreneurship, from Northwest Arkansas around the globe.