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.