"Any Tech for Hair Loss?"... VCs Reveal the Startups They're Looking For [VCs Now]

Interview with The Ventures Partner Cho Yeojun on Introducing RFS
Sharing Startup Ideas for Offline Content Through RFS
"Helps Founders Identify 'Gaps' in the Market for New Businesses"

On the website of venture capital firm The Ventures, there is a category you won't find on the websites of other VCs: “Requests For Startups” (RFS, or open investment requests). With RFS, a VC publicly shares business ideas that few founders are pursuing and expresses its interest in investing in them. The approach is familiar around the world but relatively new to Korea's startup ecosystem.

The Ventures is the first VC in Korea to introduce RFS. It has shared four ideas and is looking for founders to lead businesses related to them. Cho Yeojun, chief investment officer (CIO) and partner at The Ventures, said of RFS, “It can help founders by showing them where there are gaps in the market, while VCs at the forefront of new technologies can share trends with them.”

The Ventures Partner Cho Yeojoon is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily at the firm's office in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. 2026.10.13. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

Using RFS to Find Founders for ‘Offline Content’

Through RFS, The Ventures is looking for consumer goods founders with experience at tech startups, as well as founders working on K-brands targeting Muslim women, IRL (In Real Life, or offline content), and scalp care. Since making the RFS requests public, the firm has met with founders interested in these fields and is looking for suitable investment opportunities.

IRL is a field of particular interest to Cho. The idea came from changes he observed in American society and the belief that they could also apply to Korea. “Over the past decade or so, people have focused on building networks online. Paradoxically, however, there is now a growing movement to prioritize in-person connections again, especially in San Francisco and Los Angeles,” Cho said. “I proposed this idea based on the belief that we could create many similar opportunities in Korea.”

There may also be opportunities to connect this kind of content with regional areas that have a lot of unused land. It could also have a positive impact by encouraging foreign visitors who have been to Korea several times to explore places beyond Seoul. “Matcha is famous in the United States, and, interestingly, foreigners know about Boseong and want to visit it,” Cho said. “Infrastructure is relatively less developed in regional areas, and that creates more business opportunities.”

“Even on Jeju Island, tourist attractions are not evenly distributed, so there is great potential in letting visitors experience everyday life in Korea,” he added. “For example, we may think of a hanok as our grandparents’ home, but foreigners may find it fantastic. That could create opportunities.”

The most important consideration, he said, is sustainability. “One specific idea I imagined was holding content based on the online game PUBG: Battlegrounds in Cheongpyeong, which is famous for paragliding,” Cho said. “If people could gather in different regions of Korea every year or each season, in the home country of PUBG: Battlegrounds, Korea could become a hub for this kind of content.” He added, “I used a game as an example, but it would be interesting to turn Korea’s storytelling-rich content into a global platform over the long term.”

For RFS to Take Root: “Trying Matters More Than Getting It Perfect”

RFS has long been a way for global VCs to find founders. Global startup accelerator Y Combinator has been publishing RFS requests since 2009, and global VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) also shares startup ideas through RFS. In Korea, however, the approach only drew attention last November, after The Ventures became the first in the industry to introduce it.

“Korea’s startup market is still relatively young, and there were certainly areas where people could start a business without giving much thought to megatrends. But the market is becoming more mature and growing,” Cho said. “It is difficult for individual founders to identify megatrends. We started RFS because we thought it could help founders if VCs, who meet many founders and can quickly sense these trends, shared them.”

Jo Yeojun, a partner at The Ventures, is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily at the firm's office in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. 2026.10.13 Photo by Kim Hyunmin

Cho emphasized that a culture encouraging people to try many things is needed for RFS to become an important part of Korea’s startup ecosystem. “In the United States, people tend to be more accepting of someone stopping a business midway, while in Korea, people worry about too many things even before starting a business,” he said. “If you have an interesting idea, you need a culture that makes it easier to try things out more often: gathering people, thinking about how to develop it into a business, and pivoting to something else.”

The Ventures plans to continue finding and sharing ideas through RFS. It has not yet settled on a specific topic for its next request, but it is keeping an eye on trends around the world. “It may be difficult, but personally, I would like to find founders who can create an environment in Korea where AI agents can operate,” Cho said. “The legal status of AI agents is currently ambiguous, but in a sandbox environment, startups—not just large corporations—could experiment with them.”

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