This is very much not the case - Startups are quite big in SK because the government gives them lots of funding.
Source: I worked at a South Korean startup. Fair warning to other foreigners, you will have to make _a lot_ of sacrifices.
Exactly. All that funding and the associated paperwork, not to mention the adverse incentives it brings to the table, help to turn the Korean startup ecosystem into yet another old-fashioned, government-controlled economic sector.
We all call each other the same honorifics, make our offices cute and comfy, and try not to have a visible hierarchy. But at the end of the day, it's the government that tells you which projects will be funded and when you should submit screenshots of the deliverables. Angels? Yeah, they exist, but where do you think half of their money comes from?
Source: also a South Korean startup.
They need funding mainly because otherwise the govt sector and chaebol would outlive them. It greatly depends on the exact circumstances though. (Source: Had been in several startups with varying degrees of funding.)
> Fair warning to other foreigners, you will have to make _a lot_ of sacrifices.
Mainly because most if all people in Korean startups are necessarily Koreans. The same thing happens whenever many members share the same background, not just the nationality.
As a foreigner living in Seoul, working for US startups, and eyeing creating a US-styled startup in Seoul in the future, what are the sacrifices you have in mind?