Lessons from a Korean VC Insider: An Evening with Ethan Cho at Founder Friends Seoul - 7/16

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📰 Today's Edition: Lessons from a Korean VC Insider: An Evening with Ethan Cho at Founder Friends Seoul

We recently hosted our first-ever Founder Friends event in Seoul, Korea -- an intimate gathering of local founders for a candid conversation with one of the most connected investors in the Korean startup ecosystem. Our guest was Ethan Cho, Chief Investment Officer at TheVentures, an early-stage fund headquartered in Seoul with a presence in Palo Alto. The evening was lively, honest, and at times hilariously self-aware.

WHO IS ETHAN CHO?

Ethan Cho is the Chief Investment Officer at TheVentures, one of Korea's most active early-stage venture funds with a global footprint spanning Seoul and Silicon Valley. Before TheVentures, Ethan cut his teeth at Samsung Electronics (where he worked on the Harman acquisition), Qualcomm Ventures, KB Investment, and Google. He got his MBA in New York, briefly tried public equities, quickly realized he cared more about finding great companies than cheap stocks, and has been in private investment ever since.

INSIGHT #1: KOREAN FOUNDERS ARE UNDERSELLING THEMSELVES -- AND IT'S COSTING THEM

The starkest contrast Ethan drew between Silicon Valley founders and Korean founders wasn't about ambition or intelligence. It was about communication.

"Silicon Valley founders talk too much. Korean founders don't talk enough."

Ethan was direct: Korean founders are deeply talented and often technically similar to their counterparts in the Valley. But cultural humility -- rooted in Confucianism and reinforced by a lifetime of being told to be modest -- has become a liability on the global stage. In the US, you have one shot at an elevator pitch. There's no assuming you'll bump into someone again next month. You have to show up fully, right now.

This connects to something Eric Bahn raised during the conversation: the idea of self-sabotaging voices. Many Korean founders carry a running internal monologue that says things like "I can't compete globally -- that's what Americans do." Ethan's counter: "I've seen far less smart people be more successful in the Valley than most Korean founders. It's not about English. It's about believing in yourself and not giving up."

The practical implication: if you're a Korean founder thinking about going global, the gap isn't your skills. It's your confidence in those skills.

INSIGHT #2: GOVERNMENT GRANTS MIGHT BE MAKING YOUR STARTUP WEAKER

Korea's government has invested heavily in its startup ecosystem through non-dilutive grants, and a lot of founders in the room had taken them. Ethan wasn't here to shame anyone for that -- but he was willing to name the downside that most people won't.

"I think that kind of dilutes the desperation that some startups should have."

His argument: desperation, when channeled correctly, is rocket fuel. When a startup has enough runway from a government grant to survive mediocrity, some of them do exactly that. They settle. They don't make the hard pivots. They don't push hard enough on distribution. They optimize for survival instead of breakout.

Eric echoed this with a passage from the book,

Same as Ever

, by Morgan Housel: a tree planted in an open field with all the sunshine and space it needs grows quickly -- but its wood is weak and porous. A tree in a dense forest, competing for light and nutrients, grows slowly -- but its wood is dense, hard, and can last a thousand years.

The point isn't that grants are bad. The point is that comfort can be dangerous when your goal is to build something that changes the world. Real startups run on urgency.

INSIGHT #3: WHEN ETHAN EVALUATES A STARTUP, HE'S REALLY ASKING ONE QUESTION

Ethan has a framework he uses in every pitch meeting: Why this? Why now? Why you?

But he was clear about which one matters most.

"Character seldom changes."

Products pivot. Markets shift. Timing can be wrong and then suddenly right (just ask anyone who passed on crypto in 2017). But the founder -- their grit, their judgment, their ability to adapt -- is the one constant. That's where Ethan spends most of his attention.

He also looks for something he calls a "globally native" mindset. Not an export mindset -- not "we'll do Korea first and then expand." More like: from day one, are you thinking about the whole world as your market? Do you understand what it takes to compete in Japan, Southeast Asia, the US? That distinction, he said, ends up dictating almost everything downstream about strategy, hiring, and how you spend your first dollars.

The practical version: if you're pitching Ethan (or any global investor), don't just nail your unit economics. Be able to articulate why you, specifically, are the person who can win this category at a global scale.

CONCLUSION

Founder Friends Seoul was everything this series is meant to be: real, unfiltered, and full of the kind of honesty that only happens in a small room with no cameras. Thank you to Ethan and the full team at TheVentures for the conversation, and to everyone who showed up and made it great. Seoul, we'll be back.

Until next time,

Dunky, the “global” hippocorn

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