[Video] How Samsung Helped a Promising Startup Find New Life

A lot can change in a year and a half. Just ask NaHyeon Lee, CEO of the groundbreaking pharmacy management platform eBlue Channel. Eighteen months after a shortage of funds had pushed eBlue Channel to the brink of closure, the startup was reborn as one of the most promising venture companies in South Korea’s Gyeongsangbuk-do Province.

When she established eBlue Channel in 2016, Lee’s biggest concern was her lack of experience. Before starting her startup, she was the owner of a “gukbap” (rice soup) restaurant, and later, a convenience store. Even with a brilliant idea for streamlining the management of pharmacies’ drug inventories, not to mention boundless passion, for Lee, getting the business off the ground was an exercise in trial and error.

Facing increasing expenses and stagnant sales, the firm was nearly on the verge of emptying its office when G-Star Dreamers, a Samsung C-lab Outside program run by the Gyeongbuk Center for Creative Economy & Innovation (CCEI), caught Lee’s eye. Created specifically to discover and nurture startups, the program provides promising businesses with necessary funding from both Gyeongsangbuk-do’s provincial government and Samsung.

Through its participation in the program, eBlue Channel received six months of one-on-one training with Samsung experts, as well as a year of follow-up consultations covering everything from software development to on-site and organizational management. The program ultimately enabled eBlue Channel to increase its customer base by 15 times, and boost its projected sales figure to KRW 1.4 billion – 10 times higher than last year.

Check out the video below to see how Samsung and CCEI helped a passionate entrepreneur make her brilliant idea a reality.