We recently sat down with Jonathan Moore, Director at G3 Partners—a GAN Partner—to hear about G3’s unique engagement with startups as a marketing and growth agency, and through Launchpad, their pre-accelerator program in collaboration with the Korean government and SparkLabs. It was great to catch up with them after a few members of the GAN team met Jonathan and saw Launchpad in action during a regional gathering of GAN Accelerators in Seoul last year, where we heard pitches from several Korean startups before attending SparkLabs’ 10th Demo Day—the largest in the world.
What is G3 Partners?
G3 Partners helps startups succeed beyond their home markets through marketing, PR, and growth support. We were founded by Nathan Millard and Erik Cornelius in 2015 in Seoul, and have since expanded to Singapore and have become one of Asia’s largest marketing and growth agencies dedicated to startups. We’re particularly well-placed to help companies develop their brand and reach new customers overseas, secure partnerships and corporate clients, and raise investment.
Can you tell us about G3 Labs and its involvement with Launchpad?
Due to our deep ties in the Asian startup ecosystem, we are also regularly approached by large companies interested in engaging with innovation in this region. We established G3 Labs to serve the innovation needs of larger organizations.
Korea’s startup scene has exploded in recent years and—while this is amazing—it comes with challenges. For example, it’s become more difficult for corporates and accelerators to discover quality startups. At G3 Labs, we help companies cut through the noise. To give an impression of what’s going on in Korea, here are some quick facts:
While G3 Labs mostly works with corporates, one of our first clients was the Korean government. They hired us to run Launchpad, a pre-accelerator program that aims to help startups find international success by joining an overseas accelerator. We provide companies with globally focused mentoring, pitch coaching, and developing marketing materials, and then help them with applications and introductions to accelerators. Our most recent batch had a great success rate with GAN in particular, with two Launchpad startups joining GAN Accelerators.
In addition to running accelerator programs like Launchpad, we’ve helped with startup scouting, have run corporate innovation programs, and have organized seminars to help large organizations understand the startup landscape in Asia.
What does success look like for G3 when working with startups?
It’s really about what the startup defines as success. It might be sales, landing their next partner, or getting recognition in their industry. Our main goal is helping startups succeed in new markets.
What’s a specific startup success story that G3 is really proud of?
Fluenty is an AI chatbot startup that came to us for help. Their product was great, but their marketing needed an upgrade. We worked with them to develop a master messaging document, then helped them prepare marketing material. We also revamped their website and helped them secure international press coverage. This resulted in a massive jump in sales leads. They were acquired by Samsung last November.
Why did G3 decide to become a GAN Partner?
GAN’s global network was of particular interest to us, the Korean government client, and the startups in our program. We’ve been aware of the work GAN has done connecting ecosystems and providing startups with growth opportunities, and this was the perfect time to work together on a project. They’re the largest community of accelerators and have a history of success that gives us great confidence.
What are the top qualities you look for in a startup before engaging with them?
- We work best with companies that have already proven their technology in their home market and have raised funds for expansion. In most cases, early-stage companies need to focus on building a product and getting local traction before they take on the world.
- Startups need to be serving a real market with a highly relevant solution that has the potential to work outside Korea.
- Startups we work with don’t need to have their marketing figured out, but they need to be aware that products don’t sell themselves, and they have to be aggressive in their approach to international growth.
- The core team needs to be “A players.” That means a balance of technical capability and business acumen. They need to believe in what they’re doing and have the drive to execute quickly, while being aware that there will be missteps along the way to achieving success.
If you would like to be connected to the G3 team, you can email Jonathan at jonathan@g3partners.asia.