Partnership Announcement between KIC and GW

Korea Innovation Center (KIC) in Washington D.C. and The George Washington University (GW) Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) have entered into a two-year agreement to partner on the KIC Tech Frontier program. 60 teams of Korean university and government institute researchers with commercializable technologies will be trained in customer discovery techniques at GW each summer. These teams will apply Lean Startup methodologies to develop their business models through interviews over a 3-week period with potential customers and partners in the United States. They will be guided in the process by instructors from the highly regarded National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) program and experienced startup mentors. The goal is to create innovative Korean ventures for global markets that have been properly validated in competitive U.S. markets from the earliest stages of commercialization.

“This agreement reflects the shared belief by GW and KIC that both the U.S. and Korea benefit from increased dissemination of innovations across borders based on the identification of real customer needs and value propositions,” said Jim Chung, associate vice president for research, innovation and entrepreneurship at GW.

“We are thrilled to announce we have teamed up with GW to provide KIC Tech Frontier Program for two years. Through the partnership with GW, KIC Washington D.C. expects to continuously develop and enhance our summer program to support Korean students to learn how to transform their ideas into real businesses. We have proudly prepared the well-designed program for our students and early-stage startups in collaboration with the George Washington Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” said Jung Moon, managing director at KIC.

KIC is funded by the Korean government with a mission to create a global startup ecosystem through its four locations: Washington D.C., Silicon Valley, Berlin and Beijing. The organization discovers and incubates promising Korean technology startups by providing connections to market enablers, accelerators and training programs.

GWOIE provides programming and resources for innovation, education, venture creation, and connections at GW and the rest of the world. By leveraging the unique strengths of the university’s ten schools in the nation’s capital, it promotes technology commercialization and the launch of successful startups founded by students, faculty, and the broader GW community. GW is a node university within the NSF I-Corps, and runs extensive Lean Startup training programs with partners in the U.S. and internationally.