Save the Date for DemoDay6!
SparkLabsโ DemoDay6 will be held on December 11th, 2015 in Seoul! ย Please save the date if you are interested in attending.
We expect the attendance to surpass the over 1,400 people who supported our last class. ย The current batch is working diligently on building their companies, products and operations. ย We look forward to their presentations on Dec. 11th!
We also have lined up for you 3 incredible entrepreneurs who will tell their stories about their roads to success:
Toni Ko, Founder & CEO ofย NYX Cosmetics
Justin Kan, Co-founder of Twitch, Partner at Y Combinator
Mike Lee, Co-founder & CEO of MyFitnessPal
Toni Ko is the founder of the multi-million dollar cosmetics brand NYX, which was recently acquired by the largest beauty company in the world, LโOreal, for a reported $500 million.ย
Discovering a gap in the cosmetics market between prestige brands sold in department stores and mass brands sold in drugstores, Ko created NYX in 1999, with the goal of delivering professional, richly pigmented products at affordable prices. Working as a one-woman show from a 600-square-foot showroom in California, Ko began selling a single item โ makeup pencils. She impressively generated two million dollars in sales during her first year, and quickly grew to become a leader in the color cosmetics industry, gaining the respect of such retail giants as Target, CVS and Ulta.
Justin Kan is an internet entrepreneur and partner at seed fund Y Combinator. Justin has founded many companies including Kiko, the first AJAX web calendar and Justin.tv, a live video streaming platform. ย His attempt to broadcast his entire life at Justin.tv popularized the term "lifecasting". ย The company decided to transition to providing a live video platform so anyone could publish a live video stream. Justin.tv, the platform, launched in 2007 and was one of the largest live video platforms in the world with more than 30 million unique users every month.
Justin also co-founded Socialcam, a mobile video sharing app (acquired for $60mm by Autodesk in 2012); Twitch, a video game streaming platform (acquired by for $970mm by Amazon in 2014); and Exec, an on demand home cleaning service (acquired by Handybook in 2014). ย Justin graduated from Yale University with a degree in Physics and Philosophy.
Mike Lee is co-founder of MyFitnessPal, the leading health and fitness platform. MyFitnessPal was acquired by Under Armour for $475 million in early 2015.ย
Prior to founding MyFitnessPal, Mike co-founded NextC, a venture-funded startup focused on building online communities., During his 20 year tenure in the technology industry, Mike has held leadership positions at several other top start-ups in Silicon Valley, including Palm, Handspring, Beyond.com, and Regis McKenna. ย Mike graduated summa cum laude from Princeton with a B.A. in economics.
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