Announcement date: January 20, 2026 · 2080 Ventures
We welcomed 15 student founders from Seoul National University to the Bay Area for a week inside the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem.
The program focused on the early work of building a company: defining a problem, designing a solution, speaking with customers, and developing a market perspective. Students worked with entrepreneurs and mentors to understand how founders test assumptions and move toward product-market fit.
Tristan Pollock, Dany Pollock, Nishant Aggarwal, Rowan Salama, and Christine Volden contributed to the program through mentoring and discussion.
We shared the experience on January 20, 2026, following the visit the previous week. The tour reflects our approach to university entrepreneurship programs: connecting students with the people, practices, and direct feedback that help them begin building.
What the founders worked on
- Problem definition: describe a customer’s need clearly before choosing a solution.
- Customer discovery: use interviews and direct feedback to challenge early assumptions.
- Market perspective: consider how a product and its positioning would need to adapt beyond Korea.
The visit combined group sessions, mentor conversations and time inside the Bay Area ecosystem. The photographs below document that mix of learning and relationship building.
More from the programme
Explore the organisations
Related announcements
- SNU RISE and 2080 Student Founders Showcase Eight MVPs
- 2080 Ventures and SNU RISE Sign Global Entrepreneurship MOU
- 2080 and SNU Support Korean Startups at SWITCH 2025
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