“They (start-ups) have to embrace failure, I mean, literal failure, like running out of money, and losing people,” said Iseman in a press meeting held on the sidelines of the conference, adding those abject failures would be “the greatest weapons” for entrepreneurs.

He also advised that collaboration with seasoned businessmen or experts and proactive actions are also important factors when running start-ups.

As start-up scenes become more international than local, believing that basing companies in certain areas where lots of well-established tech firms are located does not necessarily guarantee the success of start-ups, but could result in disasters, he said.

Agreeing with Iseman’s ideas on the business location issue, Duncan Turner, managing director of Shenzhen-based hardware incubator Hax, said “60 percent of start-ups in Shenzhen come from America, and people from Europe and Asia begin businesses in San Francisco.”

Other prominent start-up figures present at the conference included health care start-up BBB chief executive Choi Jae-kyu, and crowdfunding firm Indiegogo’s outreach manager Andrew Song.
 

When asked about whether huge conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics were apt for nurturing and running small start-ups, Kickstarter cofounder Charles Adler said the bureaucracy and rigid corporate culture of huge conglomerates would hinder the quick, effective communication and swift action needed when running a small business.

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)