EIG is a community for producing startups that encompass local and global characteristics, building very strong teams through a long-term, organic process, and ultimately creating a sustainable business ecosystem. This goal is captured in the EIG Mission: “We learn to build sustainable business ecosystems by recognizing the inadequacy of our individualism and striking a balance between our freedom to pursue creative ideas and real-world requirements. We resonate with each other globally and support startups by our members.”

As a global group, maintaining diversity is expensive. It takes a lot of effort and time to sustain the diverse life force within and express it outwardly. For this, we have the EIG Philosophy: “We stand together on our vision and live on each other’s passion. When we recognize and share the universal source of that passion, everything will make sense, and everything will flow.”

EIG began in December 2010 with a dozen multinational young people who used to gather in front of Hongdae, a hot spot in Seoul on cold winter nights when the temperature reached minus 20 degrees Celsius. They stay up all night to burn off their passion. After thirteen years of being a heartbeat away, EIG has entered a phase where we have startups in multiple localities. We've become a truly global community connecting several cities on several continents and growing young entrepreneurs. While our outward appearance has changed, we are proud that the mission written thirteen years ago is still at the center of our hearts.

It is a common refrain from startup experts that the key to business growth is people. While it's true that skilled individuals play a critical role in driving growth, upon closer examination, the startup process is still primarily centered on technology and capital. People, as important as they are, are just one of several resources required to succeed. In contrast, EIG is dedicated to fostering startups with a truly human-centric approach. Specifically, EIG and the educator aim to create startups that prioritize building and sustaining a cohesive team.

We need to transplant the younger generation into the global ecosystem, and it would make more sense to do so organically and through various methods. We don't just need to raise one species; we need to raise a variety of species. We need to find, plant, and nurture not just the talent within our institutions but the talent hiding in plain sight.

Ultimately, innovation comes from authenticity, If you have the resources to help the younger generation, perhaps you should spend more time doing the mundane, unglamorous work of identifying who it is that needs to be helped and finding them in different ways rather than simply allocating those resources based on mere expediency. To maintain the status quo, it is enough to do your job well in your existing place, but to innovate, you need to be willing to change your mind and position. But if you are willing, there will be paths, and they will, in fact, be many.

A startup-nurturing model does not always need to follow the Silicon Valley methodology. The leading methodology will, of course, seek to generalize. Still, the diversity and unpredictability of real-world conditions will make generalization virtually impossible: there is no universal general model in entrepreneurship. We need an ecological model of diverse startups that grow in different ways. We want to slice and dice that startup market. We want the authenticity of essence rather than a style that appeals to the masses. Our attitude towards the market should be the same: we want to fragment and deconstruct the market. We want to burrow into the niches of the dinosaurs and bring new life to them.

Therefore, blending our startup germination with the partnership with international companies, EIG’s three-year strategic options for the younger generation (i.e., students) are twofold. The first is market-decoloring, where we collaborate with small red fishes to decolor the red ocean. There are several ways to innovate in an industry considered a red ocean: an industry that is highly competitive and saturated with existing players. We would dive into the red ocean and decolor it when most of them struggle to find a blue ocean. The second is market-shaping, in which we collaborate with new species and shape a market. Although some startups have great technology and a willingness to take risks, they do not know how to shape a market for their product. Market-shaping involves strategically creating demand, shaping customer behavior, and reshaping the competitive landscape.