Early-stage fund Hustle Fund has completed its Founder Friends Seoul event, thanking the founders in attendance and stating they will return soon.

The main format of the event was a fireside chat followed by a Q&A session. The guest was Ian Park, founder of 주간실리콘밸리 (Weekly Silicon Valley), and the discussion partner was Hustle Fund General Partner Shiyan Koh. The registration page noted that the newsletter has tens of thousands of subscribers on Substack, focusing on Silicon Valley technology and entrepreneurship. The schedule ran from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM: starting with dinner and networking, followed by half an hour of discussion, half an hour of Q&A, and then continued networking. Ian Park is also a venture capital partner at Hustle Fund, having joined in March 2026 as announced by General Partner Eric Bahn. He previously worked as the head of a sovereign wealth fund's VC and as a partner at other funds.

The sponsors were Asan Nanum Foundation and Singapore Global Network. The former operates acceleration programs and the MARU community space under the name of the founder of the Hyundai Group, Chung Ju-yung, serving early-stage companies and social innovation; the latter is an official channel for global talent and enterprise networks in Singapore. The registration terms stated free entry, but participants agreed to receive follow-up communications from the organizers and partners.

This is not a one-off event. Hustle Fund has turned Founder Friends into a cross-city product: there are also events in Toronto, San Francisco, Singapore, and Washington during the same period, along with a Batter Up roadshow. The Seoul event can be traced back to the first session on January 20, 2026, and Founder Friends Korea appeared repeatedly in the schedules for April, October, and December of that year. The Seoul event is used to reach both Korean founders and investors moving between the Bay Area and East Asia.

The fund positions itself as an early check that "founders can come from anywhere." The event does not disclose the transaction amounts or project lists from that night; its function is to funnel Korean founders into its global activity pipeline, directing them towards membership products like Angel Squad and subsequent roadshows.

In market mechanics, the buyers are Seoul founders wanting to meet early-stage investors from Silicon Valley, while the sellers are Hustle Fund exchanging free networking events for email contacts, connections, and project flow. The event is driven by its autumn multi-city tour, not a single financing announcement. Funds were not exchanged on-site; the flow is project leads entering the fund's screening process, and local foundations gaining international exposure; the beneficiary is the sourcing density of the organizers, while the pressure is on event homogenization and the common loss of "free entry for marketing lists."

Source: Public information