Ahiku Corp.

Ahiku Development Room (Developers Included)

Today, January 13th 2012, I had the pleasure of meeting Ahiku (아이쿠) at their office near Hong-ik University.

Ahiku is a 14-person Korean software developer and service provider. I met mostly with Ahiku COO Ms. Is Koo (구환희). Ms. Koo, as a co-founder of Ahiku, has been with the company from its start about 2 years ago. Here is the company's website: http://ahiku.com/

Battle Plan

Ahiku main office space (CEO in the brown jacket on the left)

I talked to her and the Ahiku CEO primarily about their new app, Recood. Recood is being marketed as 'Instagram for videos'. Users can create free accounts and post 10 second videos of themselves. These videos can then be altered with certain lens and sound effects. Recood will also offer some 'fremium' content in the way of new video lenses, and also premium user accounts.

Ahiku Support Room (COO Ms. Koo on the right)

The Recood app was released last month, and already has a number of users in places like Japan and the U.S. Ahiku has put a lot of emphasis on the U.S. market with this app, and they will be taking the next step to try to increase their presence abroad. They have already received an investment from a Silicon Valley based Angel Investor, but now they are seeking to both connect with their U.S. users and and gain more connections in the U.S. IT/VC fields.

Check out Recood today!

http://recood.com/

The Ahiku team with myself

CO-UP Co-working Space

CO-UP Co-working Space

Today, January 10th 2012, I had a meeting with Seokwon Yang, founder of the Gangnam based co-working space CO-UP. CO-UP is a space where entrepreneurs can get together to work on their own projects in a work friendly environment. People can share their ideas and receive advice from like-minded individuals (http://co-up.com/).

Mr. Yang gave me some great advice on building my brand in Korea. He stressed the importance of releasing information in a specific area, instead of jumping from topic to topic. The best methods for achieving this goal include podcasts (released in a consistent format) and twitter.

Mr. Yang (이장), CO-UP Founder

Mr. Yang also had a number of good ideas for bringing entrepreneurs together. His mentioned things like hosting a startup weekend, where businesspeople, developers, and designers come together in groups and are giving 48 hours to formulate an idea and build on it. Another idea; host a startup Starcraft tournament that bridges the gap between countries. You could have matches take place between start-ups in Silicon Valley, Seoul, China, etc. This would build excitement and give entrepreneurs a great excuse to meet each other.

Some of the trends he believes are building in Korea are 'Lean Startups' and 'Collaborative Consumption'. Korean companies need a way to expose themselves and connect with these ideas, and to that end he is focusing on creating a community of 'Collaborative Consumption' centered companies and individuals.

Mr. Yang envisions Korean products and trends playing a greater role in the outside world, and he is working hard to achieve this goal.

Myself