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Finally Visiting Mongolia in 2024 as the Pandemic Subsides In April 2024, as the pandemic waned, I finally had the opportunity to visit Mongolia. I received a welcoming message from Bolormaa Luvsandorj, founder of KITE, Mongolia's representative social innovation accelerator. She invited me to participate this year in the Social Innovation Week, an annual event held by KITE to activate Mongolia's social innovation ecosystem. Underdogs' relationship with Mongolia dates back to 2018. From then until 2020, Underdogs introduced startup education programs to various countries including Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Mongolia. In particular, in Mongolia's case, when Underdogs conducted the 'Global Social Innovation Camping' program online in 2020, local startup coaches participated as partners. The same year, to provide youth entrepreneurship education, Underdogs established the 'Underdogs Global Coach Training' to impart its entrepreneurial methodology and coaching expertise, nurturing 6 local coaches in Mongolia. This event attendance marked a long-awaited reconnection with Mongolia's startup ecosystem after global operations were temporarily halted due to COVID-19. Mongolia may be an unfamiliar country to Korea's startup scene. However, Mongolia is one of the Asian countries rapidly emerging in the global startup ecosystem. Mongolia is a young nation with over 60% of its total population under 35 years old. With per capita GDP exceeding $10,000, the purchasing power of the domestic market is also increasing at high levels, making it an emerging country. Significant efforts are being made to activate the startup ecosystem, including in the social innovation sector. Although the startup ecosystem is still in its early stages with only about 10 accelerators, it is rapidly advancing through international exchange. The theme of KITE's 2024 Social Innovation Week was social innovation for future generations. At the event, Underdogs participated as the second speaker in the first session titled 'Social Innovation Entrepreneurship and SDGs Impact.' There are three major lessons learned from directly engaging with Mongolia's startup ecosystem. In Korea's economy, where large corporations play a central role, and in Korea's startup ecosystem, there is often a tendency to focus on the domestic market compared to other resource-scarce Asian countries. As a result, compared to other regions in Asia, including emerging nations, Korea indeed has a lower sense of belonging or affinity with the global market and ecosystem. In fact, Seoul's globalization index is shown to be lower than the stature of the Korean Wave. Surprisingly, when cooperating with other countries, institutions, or people, culture rather than language is often the factor creating barriers. This is because excellent expertise and insights within a specific culture often fail to gain significant meaning in other cultural contexts. In other words, the most important thing when collaborating in the global market is not just core business competency, but also the receptiveness to localize content. One must understand the local market and culture while maintaining a long-term perspective. The experience Underdogs gained through nationwide startup education by collaborating with diverse stakeholders proved effective in Mongolia's startup ecosystem as well. The process of repeatedly establishing and experimenting with strategies to narrow differences in fine cultural and lifestyle patterns has now provided a foundation for understanding the needs of local partners within the cultural context of various Asian countries, including Mongolia and Japan in 2024, and for cooperating with them. By attending this event in Mongolia, I was able to reconfirm the significance and potential of global expansion. There was keen interest in how Underdogs, since its founding in 2015, cultivated practical coaches with entrepreneurial experience and presented immersive entrepreneurship education as a solution; how leading large corporations and institutions subsequently connected as entrepreneurship education partners; and how it actively facilitates data platforms and investment linkages based on the know-how and data from nurturing 16,000 entrepreneurs. Moving forward, Underdogs plans to revive the 'Asia Tomorrow' brand and serve as a platform where Asia's innovation networks converge. If from 2018 onwards we contributed to developing startup coaches and entrepreneurs with partners throughout Asia, from 2024 onwards we aim to connect the ecosystem by exchanging information and insights among innovators across Asia. We look forward to Underdogs' continued efforts in promoting the strength of Korean startup education to the world. Source: [Contribution] What Korea Can Learn from Mongolia's Rapidly Growing Startup Ecosystem – Startup Story Platform 'Platum'