K-culture wave: the key to make your dreams come true

Daniel Shin

The Korean wave, also known as hallyu, is one of the most powerful cultural movements of the 21st century, spreading Korean pop culture, media, fashion and values across the world. Its strength comes from a combination of creative power, strategic government support, cultural appeal, digital innovation and emotional universality. It shouldn’t be a single wave. Strong waves should continue building on a strong cultural ecosystem, supported by a likeminded community.

Here in New York, the United Korean Founders (UKF) successfully launched the first KOOM ("dream" in Korean) Festival in 2025, running for a full three days and covering extensive cultural domains. The driving force behind the success of KOOM 2025 is K-entrepreneurship, led by a new troop of Korean tech entrepreneurs who have accumulated sufficient resources to support this cause.

Korean tech entrepreneurs have been thriving in recent years and this success isn’t accidental. It comes from a mix of cultural mindset, global exposure and a uniquely adaptive innovation style that blends Korean discipline with Silicon Valley speed. The Korean Wave opened cultural doors, and tech entrepreneurs — especially in content, fashion tech and K-beauty — now benefit from Korea’s “cool nation” image. High English proficiency among Korean startup founders also makes it easier to raise capital and scale globally.

The fusion of culture and technology gives Korean startups a unique edge that’s hard to replicate. Korean entrepreneurs have inherited the nation's “ppalli-ppalli” (quickly, quickly) culture of fast execution and relentless improvement regardless of their age. However, young Korean entrepreneurs tend to reject the hierarchical norms of major corporations and embrace innovation, flat organizational culture and global collaboration.

Korean tech entrepreneurs thrive today because they combine speed, a global mindset, creativity and strategic thinking. Korean entrepreneurs no longer just follow Silicon Valley. Instead, they’re creating their own version of it, powered by culture, design and digital mastery.

The UKF KOOM Festival is a great example to illustrate this trend. Saeju Jeong, a UKF co-founder who also helped found the unicorn health and wellness app NOOM, has a vision to make the KOOM Festival into the biggest Korean culture gathering in New York, a center of global trends, similar to the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival.

SXSW has become not just a festival, but a global phenomenon. The secret of SXSW’s success lies in its cross-pollination of culture, technology and creativity. It’s the rare event that connects musicians, filmmakers, startup founders and thinkers in one living, breathing network of ideas. The UKF KOOM Festival has benchmarked SXSW, building on the momentum of recent K-content successes in drama, music, beauty and fashion.

To sustain this success and thrive, more Korean founders and culture creators should be united in strategically aligning with Korea’s cultural momentum, connecting their brands and businesses to the values and aesthetics that the Korean Wave embodies. Its emotional core should be kept to embrace creativity, ambition, authenticity and community. The goal isn’t to imitate existing successes, but to connect to what K-culture really means, emotionally and symbolically.

We should also allow international partners to co-brand with K-culture, not just borrow K-pop's sparkle. When the German luxury fashion brand MCM was acquired by prominent Korean entrepreneur Sungjoo Kim, who had a proven track record in the industry, the Korean Wave was about to take off in a more modern and appealing way than in the past. After 20 years under Korean ownership. MCM is still deeply rooted in its German heritage, while growing to become a global powerhouse alongside K-culture’s success. Many next generation Korean entrepreneurs feel a resonance with Kim's story.

We have a lot of homework to do. K-culture has reached another global peak and the key challenge now is sustaining its success. In the long-term, Korea and its creative industries must move from a trend-driven phenomenon to a resilient cultural ecosystem that continues to innovate, localize and inspire even when global attention shifts. Hallyu must move beyond K-pop and K-drama to become a broader creative and intellectual experiment.

We still have room to grow. However, over-commercialization sometimes risks fatigue. When every brand uses K-pop, authenticity may suffer. We can sustain Hallyu by returning to what has made it so meaningful to many, such as emotional storytelling, humanity and artistry. We can also prolong K-entrepreneurship’s success by building solidarity and paying it forward. We can tactically use tech not to replace artistry, but to enhance global accessibility and personalization. Many new Korean tech entrepreneurs should be able to support and capitalize on this.

Daniel Shin is a venture capitalist and senior luxury fashion executive.