Zenos Schmickrath and Yoan Kamalski are the founders of Hmlet​ (pronounced Hamlet) – a housing and lifestyle service that originated in Singapore.

Zenos and Yoan discuss why services like AirBnB or regular apartment rentals fail at providing ideal living situations for today's mobile, international workforce. They share their company's origin story in Singapore, their lowest point in their business journey so far, and how they overcame financial obstacles to scale their non-tech startup.

Zenos is a tech entrepreneur who has lived and worked in Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Mexico, and the US.

Yoan is a trained civil engineer who grew up in France and Spain and studied partially at Konkuk University in Korea.

**Recommended Resources**

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (bit.ly/sk_7habits_book)

The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé (bit.ly/sk_tintin_book)

HMLET (bit.ly/sk_hmlet)

**Tell Me What You Think**

Send me your ideas, feedback, or interview requests to: [email protected]

Abel on Facebook (bit.ly/fb_abel) + Website (bit.ly/web_abel)

Startup Korea on Facebook (bit.ly/sk_fb)

If you enjoy this show: please subscribe on iTunes (bit.ly/startupkorea_itunes)

Maria Lee is CEO of Ask Ajumma, a virtual concierge service in Korea.

Maria is an American living Seoul, who jumped into her first business after realizing the daily challenges that foreigners face when living in Korea.

In this episode, Maria speaks on why she left her comfortable, well-paid government job to become a startup entrepreneur and how she was able to launch her business as a foreigner.

If you're a foreigner interested in starting a business in Korea, or if you need inspiration to follow your passion and jump into something new, this episode is for you.

**Recommended Resources**

Seoul Global Center (bit.ly/sk_seoul_global_center)

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh (bit.ly/sk_delivering_happiness)

Ask Ajumma (bit.ly/sk_ask_ajumma)

**Tell Me What You Think**

Send me your ideas, feedback, or interview requests to: [email protected]

Abel on Facebook (bit.ly/fb_abel) + Website (bit.ly/web_abel)

Startup Korea on Facebook (bit.ly/sk_fb)

If you enjoy this show: please subscribe on iTunes (bit.ly/startupkorea_itunes)

Thanks for your support and for listening!

In this extra episode, I recall a conversation that I had with a new startup founder while attending Startup Grind (hosted at Google Campus Seoul).

Rather than focusing on getting investment or building the final product, I recommend early entrepreneurs to focus on acquiring potential customers and validating the market need for your product or service before investing too much time or money into your new endeavor.

Hear the specifics and what you can do to test the market in this extra episode.

**Recommended Resources**

https://www.launchrock.com

http://www.unbounce.com

https://www.startupgrind.com

http://bit.ly/sk_leanstartup

**Tell Me What You Think**

Send me your ideas, feedback, or interview requests to: [email protected]

Abel on Facebook (bit.ly/fb_abel) + Website (bit.ly/web_abel)

Startup Korea on Facebook (bit.ly/sk_fb)

If you enjoy this show: please subscribe on iTunes (bit.ly/startupkorea_itunes)

Thanks for your support and for listening!

Dennis Lee is CEO of Pentui, a pension booking app in Korea.

In this episode, I visit Dennis at his office in Seoul to learn more about the pension business in Korea. Dennis tells how he was able to start his business while working at Hanintel and later spin it off as a separate company.

Dennis shares his advice on managing communication within a small team, and how founders should focus on only one thing at time.

**Recommended Resources**

The One Thing by Gary Kellery (bit.ly/sk_the_one_thing)

Dennis Lee on Facebook (bit.ly/dennis_lee_fb)

Pentui App (bit.ly/sk_pentui)

**Tell Me What You Think**

Send me your ideas, feedback, or interview requests to: [email protected]

Abel on Facebook (bit.ly/fb_abel) + Website (bit.ly/web_abel)

Startup Korea on Facebook (bit.ly/sk_fb)

If you enjoy this show: please subscribe on iTunes (bit.ly/startupkorea_itunes)

Thanks for your support and for listening!

Ahyrun Moon is one of the founders of Etch, a new keyboard app that was created at the popular LAUNCH hackathon is San Francisco.

Ahryun is originally from Korea, but studied and worked in the US as a financial analyst.

In this episode, Ahryun explains how she was able to pivot her career from crunching numbers in Excel to now crunching code and launching products.

Her latest project, Etch, was featured by Apple just one week after going live. Ahryun shares how this happened and how you can launch with thousands of users on day one.

Ahryun has accomplished all of this without a background in programming and as a newcomer to Silicon Valley.

**Recommended Resources**

Ahryun's meetup in SF: App-a-Month (bit.ly/sk_app-a-month)

Abel's app: PooTime (bit.ly/pootime)

Stanford Course: Developing iOS 8 Apps (bit.ly/sk_ios8)

**Tell Me What You Think**

Send me your ideas, feedback, or interview requests to: [email protected]

Abel on Facebook (bit.ly/fb_abel) + Website (bit.ly/web_abel)

Startup Korea on Facebook (bit.ly/sk_fb)

If you enjoy this show: please subscribe on iTunes (bit.ly/startupkorea_itunes)

Thanks for your support and for listening!

John S. Kim is CEO of JIVER, a Techstars London alum, and previously CEO of Paprika Lab (acquired by GREE).

In this episode, John tells what it's like being a part of Techstars London (hint: it's not all fish & chips), and how his company pivoted from providing a social network for moms to JIVER – a chat and communications framework.

As a special treat, we revisit John's earlier days as a pro gamer, when he was ranked 1st in Korea (3rd worldwide) on the hit game: Unreal Tournament.

Lastly, John shares why he founded a startup immediately after graduating from university, as well as must-have resources for new entrepreneurs.

**Recommended Resources**

Zero to One by Peter Thiel (bit.ly/sk_zero-to-one)

The Perfect Store: Inside eBay (bit.ly/sk_the-perfect-store)

Stanford Course: How to Start a Startup (bit.ly/sk_how-to-start-a-startup)

**Tell Me What You Think**

Send me your ideas, feedback, or interview requests to: [email protected]

Abel on Facebook (bit.ly/fb_abel) + Website (bit.ly/web_abel)

Startup Korea on Facebook (bit.ly/sk_fb)

If you enjoy this show: please subscribe on iTunes (bit.ly/startupkorea_itunes)

Thanks for your support and for listening!