The Yonsei Student Venture Center
IT IS very hard to start an enterprise with only a creative idea. For an enterprise to grow as well as succeed, it needs the government’s help, marketing strategies, and other things in addition to mere technological matters. Novice enterprises usually go through numerous trials and errors in the process, and some even fail to overcome these barriers. The Yonsei Student Venture Center (YSVC) is one of the many programs sponsored by the Yonsei Technology Business Center. It selects a few teams with concrete business plans based on creative ideas and subsidizes them. It is located on the second floor of the Yonsei Engineering Research Center. Once selected, each team can stay in the YSVC for as long as two and a half years.
How to Apply
All undergraduate and graduate students of Yonsei Univ. are welcome to apply, regardless of major and age. Currently, there are seven student teams from various majors such as Economics, Philosophy, and Industrial and Information Engineering participating in the program. However, since the competition is high (around 4:1 on average) students must be well prepared. Professors and staff evaluate students’ ideas and business plans on order to select the participants. Once a semester, teams with little or no progress are asked to leave, and new teams are chosen. Students can find out how and when to apply through advertisements in school mass media such as *Yonsei Chunchu* or posters located on bulletin boards.
Services Provided
1. A work space, usually an office.
2. Office necessities such as computers, LAN, and air conditioning.
3. Services such as legal tasks, business administration, accounting, information about policy funds, and business plan evaluation.
Benefits
1. Being provided with subsidies to help realize one’s ideas and dreams is an invaluable benefit.
2. Establishing one’s own unique business with the help of YSVC will bring him or her more success with almost no risk.
3. Receiving opportunities to discover one's potentials.
Interviews
Han Sang-kook (Prof., Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engin.): It is difficult for student ventures to be better than other small enterprises in the Yonsei Technology Business Center. However, the students have creative ideas and we consider their potentials crucial to succeed in the future. To do so, they need capital. We even intend to invest in those student venture enterprises so that a big part of their profits will eventually return to Yonsei Univ. when they become larger corporations in the future.
Park So-young (Manager, YSVC): The most difficult part of starting a business is the preparation process. I think that it is a unique experience to open and run an enterprise as a university student. As far as I know, Yonsei Univ. is the only university in Korea to have an incubating program. It is a very beneficial program and students can learn much whether they end up succeeding or not.
Charles Pyo (CEO, Wizard Works): I received substantial help from YSVC. The high quality information that I was provided with ,in a timely manner, was the most helpful. Usually, in the case of many novice enterprises, it is difficult to obtain such information without making great effort. However, with the help of YSVC, I could concentrate on what I really wanted to do and firmly establish a cornerstone for Wizard Works.