Cultivating Successful Startups Online: CLASSUM x KAIST’s E*5
KAIST’s E*5 Program x CLASSUM
KAIST’s E*5 program provides support for emerging startups in three main categories: funds, location, and advice/mentorship. The program is structured like a competition, offering practical assistance to winning startup ideas in order to turn them into functioning businesses. As experienced by many others, the pandemic brought on challenges for E*5 regarding how to actively engage participants and translate the previous in-person experience into a virtual format.
KAIST’s E*5 program used CLASSUM to operate its program online and observed several key features that helped boost overall participation rates and maximize the growth of participating teams.
Increased Participation
Programs like KAIST’s E*5 program involve a countless number of announcements and information, and naturally, it is not always easy for participants to respond to each post via writing comments. CLASSUM’s various reaction options, such as “Clap” and “Like,” allowed E*5 participants to quickly and easily respond to posts without using up considerable amounts of time and effort. These reaction features also enabled users to communicate with others in a fun and engaging way. Reactions such as “Curious” or “Interested” served as methods for participants to casually interact with other participants, just like social media!
In addition, the questions and answers exchanged within the program’s CLASSUM space could be viewed transparently by all participating startups, allowing for a unified and singular channel of communication.
Initially, E*5 experienced difficulty garnering participant interest for events during the program without having to execute continuous promotions over a span of 1 to 2 weeks. However, with CLASSUM’s push notifications, participation and awareness naturally increased.
Just like how social media platforms direct users to the app via push notifications, participants could easily launch and access CLASSUM to receive alerts for questions raised by other students, changes to deadlines, and additional important updates or information. These notifications kept the participants engaged and aligned with the program’s pace.
Convenient and Friendly Communication
E*5 noted that CLASSUM’s social media-like user interface allowed for ease in navigating and utilizing the platform. Unlike other platforms that have a rigid design and layout, CLASSUM is much friendlier and more visually welcoming to users. Participants freely posted questions, wrote comments, and completed surveys with less pressure and more excitement. The easygoing, welcoming atmosphere of the program resulted in greater interaction within teams as well as between participants and mentors.
Other organizational aspects, such as the categorization and sectioning of CLASSUM content, made it easier for each participating team in the E*5 program to utilize the platform. These features allowed E*5 administrators to organize program materials easily and allowed participants to maneuver between announcements, notes, questions, feedback, and more effortlessly.
CLASSUM: A New Way to Incubate
KAIST’s E*5 program’s use of CLASSUM allowed for smoother operations and facilitated communication among participants and administrators in a novel, engaging way. Despite not being able to meet in person, CLASSUM’s communication-centered features allowed participants to connect and interact with ease and efficiency.
The case of KAIST’s E*5 program demonstrates how CLASSUM truly replicates the power of learning together, even in an online environment, thus proving to be a desirable way to incubate startups in the status quo.
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