The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 19th that it will recruit challengers for the second round of the “Everyone’s Startup Project” from the 20th until the 17th of next month.
“Everyone’s Startup” is a talent development program that supports the entrepreneurial challenges of people with innovative ideas. The first round, launched in March, attracted more than 63,000 applicants, the largest number ever for a government startup or idea competition.
◆ Expanded to twice the size, with lower barriers
The second phase will select 10,000 participants, twice as many as the first round. Of these, 8,000 will be chosen for the general and technology tracks, and 2,000 for the local track, which utilizes regional resources.
Eligibility has also been broadened. Existing founders who want to start in a new field can now participate if their business age is within 7 years, up from the previous limit of 3 years. This opens the door for people who have started a business before to try again in a different direction. However, more than 80% of all those selected will still be reserved for prospective founders. This is seen as a measure to allow experienced participants while preserving the program’s original purpose of supporting first-time startups.
Regional allocation standards have also been specified. More than 70% of participants will be selected from outside the Seoul metropolitan area. This appears to be a policy measure aimed at correcting the concentration of startup opportunities in the capital region at the planning stage.
To match the expanded selection, the number of incubating institutions that will support participants will increase to about 170. New partners include private companies such as Hana Bank and Shinhan Square Bridge, as well as public institutions such as the Korea Water Resources Corporation.
◆ Screening will weed out AI-written applications … review process revised
Changes to the screening process stand out. A multi-review system will be introduced in which three mentors evaluate applications together, helping reduce the variation that can arise when judgments depend on a single reviewer’s perspective.
An AI verification model will also be applied to check the AI-generation rate and plagiarism rate of the application form. As chatbots can now produce a plausible application in minutes, the need to identify the true owner of an idea has emerged as a new challenge in competition screening.
The opinions of first-round participants were also reflected in the design. A new question has been added to the application form asking about the applicant’s capabilities and startup preparation process. For repeat challengers, how they revised and improved the idea submitted in the first round will be reflected in the evaluation, and participation in repeat-challenger mentoring will also receive preferential treatment. The direction is to regard the process of failing and challenging again as growth.
Support has also been expanded. The range of places where startup operating funds can be used has been extended to include online payment gateway (PG) businesses, and around 50 AI solutions selected by experts in AI and science and technology will be provided. This is designed so that prospective founders can immediately use AI tools for tasks such as prototyping and market research.
◆ Things to check before applying: the answer lies in the changed evaluation criteria
Applications will be accepted on the Everyone’s Startup platform from 9 a.m. on the 20th until 4 p.m. on September 17. Starting with an information session at KT&G Sangsang Planet in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, on the 20th, offline information sessions will continue in 17 regions nationwide from the 21st.
Cho Kyung-won, director-general for startup policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “The second project has incorporated voices from the field to further widen the door to challenge and advance the support system,” adding, “We hope for the active challenge and participation of those who want to bring their ideas to the world.”
The changed evaluation criteria also offer hints for application strategy. Since the application now asks about capabilities and preparation, it is said to be advantageous to include concrete details not only about the idea itself but also about what has been done to develop it.
With AI verification introduced, pasting in text written by a chatbot exactly as is could become a negative factor. In other words, AI should be used as a drafting tool, but the final version should be rewritten in one’s own voice.
For those who were rejected in the first round, the preference given to repeat challengers is a new opportunity. Even the same idea can receive credit if the improvements made during the revision process are shown in the evaluation.
With competition that drew more than 63,000 applicants now reopening through a door that is twice as wide, a well-prepared application is expected to be the key to getting through.