A large number of young people are showing interest in start-ups due to the chronic low employment rate. According to the survey, 1 in 3 people aged in their twenties and thirties have considered starting up their own business. Many celebrities with experience in successful start-ups positively recommend young people to found a company. One of the remarkable examples is the story of Mark Zukerberg, the CEO of Facebook, who made a website on which his colleagues could easily manage their personal connections and interact with people. He made it while in Harvard, and the site has grown and become the existing Facebook. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, recommended for young people to try a start-up in a lecture in Seoul National Univ. in 2013, saying, “Now is the time to try it. When you are older and you have other family and traditional job commitments, you just may have no energy.”
  In this respect, the Foundation Club program of our school is opportune and worthwhile. This program helps a selected 26 groups made up of 3~5 students to start their own businesses. Start-up Support Group, which maintains this program, is giving its best support compared to past years. It classifies the teams into 3 groups and supports production costs and item planning expenses (maximum of 7 million won) according to their progress. In addition, it not only has a mentoring system that matches 6 mentors apiece to 4~5 teams but also gives them the expenses. Also, it has a ‘foundation mileage’ system and gives a reward to students who have a large accumulated mileage. Therefore, it is advantageous to participate in many activities related to their start-up.
  There are also many upcoming opportunities to accumulate points. If you get plenty of points, you can receive a maximum of 200 million won and get a chance to participate in an overseas training program in Silicon Valley. It is better to join in the activities since you can take a benefit with a mileage of more than 200. There are still various ways to get the points even if you are not a member of the Foundation Club. Taking classes about founding a company gives you 30 points, participating in a founding competition, camp, campaign, or internship gives you 20~100 points, and attaining a result such as founding a company gives you 50~150 points.
  The Foundation Club has discovered a valuable company, ‘Twim’ which started as one of the teams of the program. This company donated 100 million won to the school. Jeong Han-seop (’00, Department of Electronic Engineering) founded it during his school days. The success of this company is a novel stimulant for every team and an innovative precedent to start-up groups. The present groups in the Foundation Club can also grow as triumphant teams if they establish concrete objectives and wise strategies.

By Lee Sang-yi
sy36@cbnu.ac.kr