Korean American Society of Entrepreneurs

What: KASE/KAPS Speaker Series
When: Wed, March 3rd, 2010, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Where: Computer History Museum
1401 N Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
Cost: $10
Snacks and refreshments provided

Sponsored by Royse Law Firm

Whether you have a job or are looking for one, starting your own company should always be an option. You may have a completely novel idea or an existing one, but with a passionate belief that you can do it better. However, an idea by itself gets you no where…you are still at your old job or perhaps still looking for a new one.  Come to The Entreprenurship FAQ and learn how turn that something into a new Product, a new Service–a new Company!

The Panelists

Charles Mi

Before Opinmind, Charles spent several years working at the IBM Almaden Research Group focusing on information extraction, data modeling, and text analytics. Charles earned an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University and a BS in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill where he graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Paul Kim

Paul Kim is a passionate entrepreneur and founding CEO of Danal, Inc. who orchestrated the company’s $9.5 million Series-A fundraising in May 2007 in a rare transaction that married top-tier U.S. venture capital with a public, Asian company that pioneered the business of charging online transactions to the mobile phone bill. As chief executive, Paul strives to instill the company with his passion for success and vision for innovating the payment industry.

Prior to founding Danal in the U.S., Paul worked at Samsung’s

corporate venture capital group where he performed technology business development and investments on behalf of Samsung in the digital media, telecom, semiconductor, and internet sectors. Before Samsung, Paul worked in various capacities as a management consultant, consulting to both Fortune 100 companies in the high-tech and energy sectors, as well as for technology startups in the U.S. and Asia focusing on online gaming, eCommerce, and the internet. He also worked directly at several U.S. technology startups in eCommerce, online payments, and VOIP. Paul received his M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth as an Edward Tuck Scholar. Prior to that, he earned dual B.A. degrees in Economics and Political Science with honors from the University of California at Los Angeles as an Alumni Scholar. Paul is a member of American Mensa.

Paul has a unique background: he was raised in three countries (South Korea, Philippines, and the U.S.), and his father was a prominent opposition leader who fought for South Korean democracy during the country’s military rule in the 1960’s. He enjoys traveling to exotic countries and experiencing different world cultures, and he is an avid sports enthusiast who has been involved with soccer & martial arts since childhood and was once runner-up in the Mr. Korea Bodybuilding Competition. Paul has deep humanitarian ambitions and has been involved with numerous volunteer activities, including spending time in schools & refugee camps in post-war Afghanistan. He lives by the motto, “I would rather live one day and change the world than 100 years anonymously.”

Ken Ryu

Ken Ryu is CEO and Founder of GetQuik.  GetQuik, www.getquik.com, is a leading online marketplace for restaurant ordering with over 500 participating restaurants.  Prior to GetQuik, Ken served as Division Director for Robert Half Technology, a division of Robert Half International, a Fortune 1000 Staffing and Consulting Firm (NYSE:  RHI).  Ken earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Dan Yoo

Dan Yoo is currently the Director of Business Operations at LinkedIn where he helps support the monetization efforts of the company.  He was previously SVP of Corporate Development and Finance at Rhythm NewMedia, the leader in ad supported mobile videos, which is backed by Morgenthaler and Lightspeed Ventures .  Dan was also the CFO at Parature, an Inc. 5000 Software-as-a-Service company, which is backed by Accel Parters, Sierra Ventures and Valhalla Partners. Prior to Parature, Dan co-founded ReliaQuote, a leading Internet insurance brokerage firm, which was acquired by Fiserv Inc. in 2003. ReliaQuote was ranked as the #1 life insurance site on the web by Forbes and SmartMoney, and named “One of the Top 50 Financial Websites” by Money Magazine. Dan has also worked on numerous technology financings and acquisitions as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch’s Technology Investment Banking Group and with Epoch Partners, a technology focused investment bank that was acquired by Goldman Sachs.  Dan also recently opened a Korean restaurant in San Francisco called Stone Korean Kitchen.

Dan earned his M.B.A. at The Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, and graduated with a Business Administration degree from Georgetown University.

You’re invited to the next KASE event, sponsored by Morgan Lewis.  Jay Chang, President of Samsung Information Systems will be joining us for an evening of food, drinks and candid discussion.  Jay will be discussing his role at Samsung as well as the current economic climate and how that has affected the divisions he oversees which include R&D and investments.  I believe we all can benefit from the insight and experience that Jay brings.  Hope to see you there.  Big thanks to John Park of Morgan Lewis for introducing me to Jay and for sponsoring the event.

What: KASE Speaker Series featuring Jay Chang, President of Samsung Information Systems.
When: Thurs. Nov 5th, 6:30 - 8:30pm
Where: Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius LLP
2 Palo Alto Square, 3000 El Camino Real Suite 700, Palo Alto, CA
Cost: $10 at door

Food and Drinks will be provided.

Jay’s Bio:
Jay (Jaesoo) Chang joined Samsung Information Systems America, the U.S. R&D center of Samsung Electronics Co., in February 2009 as President. Mr. Chang also serves as Chairman of Samsung Technology Sourcing Collaboration (STSC), a local committee in Silicon Valley dedicated to encouraging innovation and developing new and efficient technologies through partnerships with third-party companies. Mr. Chang has worked for Samsung in various positions for over 20 years. Prior to joining SISA, Mr. Chang served as Vice President of Samsung Electronics Co. in South Korea, taking charge of R&D strategy and new business development. From 1998-2002, Mr. Chang served in a similar capacity as Director and Head of R&D Planning and Administration at Samsung Telecommunications America in Dallas, TX. Mr. Chang’s expertise in new business development began during his tenure at Samsung Group Chairman’s Office from 1994-1997. Mr. Chang earned a B.S. degree in Electronics Engineering from Korea University and a M.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.

For the past five years, various Korean American organizations in the Bay Area have put together a free wine tasting event at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco called BAKAs (Bay Area Korean Americans) Wine Tasting. We invite the greater Bay Area community to meet, network, and learn about various professional and civic Korean American and Asian American organizations.

This year?s BAKAs wine tasting will be hosted by the Korean American Professional Society (KAPS), Korean American Bar Association (KABA), Korea Information Technology Network (KIN), Korean American Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco (KACC) and Korean American Society of Entrepreneurs (KASE).

Last year’s BAKAs Wine Tasting event was a great success with over 400 people and 15 organizations in attendance. We anticipate a turnout of 500 or more this year with even more Korean-American and Asian-American organizations involved. The various community organizations participate to help raise awareness for various causes and to foster involvement in the community through this event.

This year?s event will be held on Friday, September 18th at 6:30 pm. It will be free to paid members of the host organizations and $10 to the general public.

BAKAs is currently looking for corporate and personal sponsors, donations from wineries and wine distributors, and donations for raffle prizes. As a non-profit organization, all donations will be tax deductible.

This is a great event that promises to bring visibility and awareness to the diverse number of KA organizations in the Bay Area.

If you would like additional information, please contact Andrew Ko at andrew@kaps.org or (408) 203-6507. Thank you.

Evite: http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=EODRKQGNIOVGMAABUVBC

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/editevent.php?success=1&picture&eid=111943482685#/event.php?eid=111943482685&ref=nf

One of the most interesting questions entrepreneurs have asked me recently is “Should I start my company now, or wait until the economy picks up?” A perfectly valid question to which there is no definitive answer to. Even in a healthy economy, factors such as access to capital, connections with big players in the market, skill and dedication of the founding team, revenue model, etc should all be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to pursue an idea. If these and many other variables are always present, what makes the current economic climate so different? In my opinion there are three primary differences in starting a company in a down economy.

1. Less competition. Starting a company is hard. The wanna-be’s will likely give up, if they get started at all. This is a plus in my book.

2. Less money. Yes, October 2008 was real and VC money is now twice as expensive as it was last year. Anecdotally, I heard from a very prominent early stage investor that about 1 in 100 ideas are being funded right now, and deal flow is down 50%. Depending on the founder’s financial situation this could be good or bad. If you have enough savings to boot strap a while, you’ll get a big head start on competitors and be in a great position once money starts flowing again.

3. Business models. Even existing, proven business models are struggling, as we know. As a new startup, I believe your model must cater in some way to the current macro-economic situation. Personally, I believe there is a lot to be done within education, recruiting, and performance marketing that could prove very interesting.

Obviously, existing companies, large and small are also affected. I had the pleasure of attending a round table event by Dealmaker.com called When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Change Their Business Model. During this event, four experienced startup founders (one of whom I work for) discussed how their respective companies shifted strategies in the past. It turns out two of the founders changed strategies due to last year’s economic breakdown and are now doing quite well. This should also apply to companies that don’t exist yet, right?

KASE / KIN Open House (RSVP to rsvp@kase.org)

Who:        KASE & KIN
When:      Thursday March 19th @ 6:30pm
Where:     Wilson Sonsini
950 Page Mill Rd, Room Terrace 2D
Palo Alto, CA
Cost:        Free
RSVP:      rsvp@kase.org

KASE is teaming up with KIN for our 2009 Open House event!  Please join us for a relaxing evening with Korean food, wine, networking, and a special guest speaker(TBD).  Looking forward to seeing you there!

PS. Please RSVP to rsvp@kase.org.  First 50 replies get a special gift!

This Thursday Paul Kim (CEO) and David Cho (VP Tech) of Danal Corp will be joining us for a candid discussion on entrepreneurship and startups.  Paul is a natural entrepreneur who brings a very unique experience to the mix.  He grew up in the Phillipines, did his college and post-grad work in the US and also worked in Korea for several years.  He’s a fascinating and inspiring guy.  You can read his full bio here.  I have yet to meet David but from what Paul tells me, he’s a great guy as well.

Paul Kim and David Cho

Full event details here:

Profile of a Startup Speaker Series

featuring Paul Kim (CEO) and David Cho (VP Tech) of Danal Corp

Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 @ 6:30

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
2 Palo Alto Square, 3000 El Camino Real, Suite 700 | Palo Alto, CA 94306-2122

Korean food and refreshments will be served.  ($10 admission)

Apologies for the delay everyone.  Here’s the public link to the photo album on facebook.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36769&l=549b8&id=607037522

Special thanks to Louis Hong of KACSF for organizing.

What: BAKAs 5th Annual Wine Tasting
When: Friday, September 5th, 6:30pm - 9:00pm
Where: Fort Mason (Golden Gate Room)
MacArthur Ave, San Francisco, CA

BAKAs is a virtual community of 1st and 2nd generation Korean American (KA) organizations. We are committed to bringing visibility and awareness to the diverse number of KA
organizations in the Bay Area.

The purpose of the wine tasting event is to allow members of the Bay Area KA public to learn about various organizations in the Bay Area. This gathering allows both organizations and individuals to network and learn about each other.

Each year, about 10-15 KA non-profit and community organizations participate to help raise awareness for various causes and to foster involvement in the community through this event. Attendance has also been growing each year reaching our apex of over 400 attendees in 2007.

UPDATE 1: Confirmed special guest speaker Yul Kwon (winner of CBS Survivor)!!!

UPDATE 2: Thanks to generous contributions, the first 300 guests will receive a gift certificate from Bottle Notes!!!

KASE Family and Friends,

I’m pleased to announce the launch of our new kase.org website.  The website has a new logo and fresh look/feel.  It is also powered by Wordpress so that we can easily add new content.  I’ve always been a huge fan of Wordpress and I believe structuring the KASE site in this manner is more conducive to community participation.  I will personally update the site with the latest happenings within KASE but I will also use this as an outlet to blog about my experiences in personal and professional settings as they would relate to our members’ interests.  Our KASE Directors (Keibock, Brendon, and Perry) have agreed to also blog on this site, and from time to time I will invite outside guests to contribute as well.

Special thanks to Hoa Nguyen for designing the site.

Ben Mappen
President, KASE