Gangnam-gu (district mayor Kim Hyun-ki) is recruiting early-stage founders for a program designed to help them use AI to improve business operations and prepare for actual investment.
The district is running the "2026 AX Utilization and Investment Strategy Course for Early-Stage Founders," targeting companies within three years of establishment, and is accepting applications for 30 participants through Friday.
The program runs every Tuesday from Sept. 29 through Dec. 1, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., at the below-ground first floor of Tipstown S6 (168 Yeoksam-ro, Gangnam-gu) — a total of 10 weekly sessions. Participation is free.
The core focus of the course is learning to treat AI not merely as a question-answering tool but as a teammate and operational system. Participants will learn how to automate workflows, accumulate and leverage data, and develop products and services with a lean team — then translate those capabilities into business plans and investment proposals that resonate with investors.
Weeks 1 through 6 make up the "AX Entrepreneur Course," which walks participants through applying AI to real company operations step by step. Week 1 opens with a mindset shift — reorienting existing work practices around AI — followed by data loading in week 2, building the company's "brain" in week 3, designing an operating model in week 4, product development in week 5, and commercialization and investment preparation in week 6.
Weeks 7 through 10 focus intensively on what it takes to secure investment: investment strategy in week 7, structuring an investment proposal in week 8, leveraging government and private support programs in week 9, and understanding the investment ecosystem in week 10.
Active investors will also participate as mentors, reviewing and refining participants' business models and investment materials throughout the course. After the 10-week program concludes, an IR Day will be held on Dec. 15, giving participants the opportunity to pitch their businesses directly to real investors.
The selection process is designed to assess practical readiness. Document screening runs from Aug. 31 through Sept. 4, followed by an AI competency assessment from Sept. 7 through Sept. 11 and interviews from Sept. 14 through Sept. 18. Final results will be announced Sept. 22–23.
Applications are open through Friday via the Gangnam-gu district office website. For more information, contact the Gangnam-gu Employment Policy Division or the Korea Business Angel Association's education operations team.
"For early-stage startups that must simultaneously handle product development, company operations and investment outreach with limited staff and resources, how effectively they use AI is becoming a key competitive edge," district mayor Kim said. "We will continue to provide practice-oriented support so that founders can apply AI directly to their work, strengthen their company's execution capabilities, and connect that to commercialization and investment."
seouldream01@heraldcorp.com
