"Focusing on Solo Founders"... Accelerators Ramp Up Discovery of 'Solopreneurs' in the AI Era

With AI Adoption, Costs for MVP Development and Market Validation Decrease
Average Sales of One-Person Creative Enterprises Surpass Industry Average
"Fostering Solo Founders Will Drive Future Growth for the Accelerator Industry"

Kwon Hyunju, CEO of the HMR (Home Meal Replacement) specialized platform 'Repac', launched her business alone in Daejeon in October last year without any employees. She was able to solve challenges related to business planning and overall operations by actively utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and Gamma. Successful overseas examples of small-scale entrepreneurship also reinforced her confidence in starting solo. Even if she later strengthens key personnel in sales & marketing (CMO) and technology (CTO), she plans to maintain an efficient, small-scale organizational structure.

The accelerator (AC) industry has recently been accelerating efforts to discover AI-based 'solopreneurs' like CEO Kwon. The term 'solopreneur' is a portmanteau of 'solo', meaning one person, and 'entrepreneur', referring to a business founder; it describes a one-person entrepreneur who operates a business alone. As AI increasingly takes over significant portions of business operations such as planning, marketing, and development, the AC sector is now putting more emphasis on programs that foster entrepreneurs with strong AI utilization capabilities.

According to the industry on May 13, SparkLabs recently introduced its new acceleration program 'Sparkclo'. This program aims to discover and nurture 'AI native' entrepreneurs who utilize AI as if it were an actual team member. Kim Homin, Co-CEO of SparkLabs, stated, "In Silicon Valley, startups have emerged one after another that have proven their competitiveness through small-scale ventures utilizing AI tools such as Midjourney and Cursor," adding, "Fostering one-person entrepreneurs will become a behind-the-scenes effort to secure new growth drivers."

Mark & Company held an information session for the 'AI Native Team Scale-up' program on May 6 in collaboration with Samil PwC, and began recruiting participating companies until May 25. The core of this program is to support the entire process, from designing an AI-based management structure to connecting with investment, in order to foster 'ultra-small, high-growth companies'. Mark & Company is responsible for discovering and supporting the growth of startups, while Samil PwC provides consulting in areas such as accounting, taxation, finance, and HR, as well as business process outsourcing (BPO) and designing AI agent-based operational systems.

CNT Tech is also actively seeking to discover one-person founders with AI expertise. They do so by giving lectures on entrepreneurship and investment at domestic graduate schools, identifying and nurturing prospective entrepreneurs with strong AI utilization capabilities. In particular, graduate students with professional work experience are said to commercialize their ideas more quickly when using AI, because they have a high level of industry understanding and can clearly define problems. This year, CNT Tech was selected as the operator for the 'Startup for All Project' in the Seoul area, a program promoted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, thereby strengthening its efforts to foster entrepreneurs in line with government policy.

The industry cites the creation of an environment where a small number of people can take on large markets as the biggest change brought about by AI. By leveraging AI, even solo founders can significantly accelerate the production of minimum viable products (MVPs) and market validation. The costs of content development and data analysis are also rapidly decreasing, creating an environment that is favorable for early-stage founders with limited capital and manpower. This is the backdrop for the industry's introduction of related support programs.

Jeon Hwaseong, President of the Korea Early Stage Investment Accelerator Association, said, "In the past, team size was the main focus, but now the trend is shifting toward valuing AI utilization capabilities and problem-solving skills more highly," adding, "In fact, there are increasing cases where a single outstanding entrepreneur rapidly proves market viability by leveraging AI."

The trend of small-scale startups is spreading rapidly. According to the '2023 Survey on One-person Creative Enterprises' announced by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups last month, the number of one-person creative enterprises in 2023 reached 1,162,529, a 15.4% increase from the previous year. Average sales per company also rose 11.3% year-on-year, maintaining a level above the average sales of all creative enterprises.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.