SARAM Entertainment CEO Lee So-young offered candid advice to founders eyeing the U.S. market.
Lee took the stage at KOOM Startup Festival 2025, held Oct. 16-18 at the Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn, New York.
Organized by UKF (United Korean Founders) and powered entirely by donations and volunteers, KOOM blends performance, hands-on experiences, food and brand showcases to connect Korean creativity with global ambition. As a featured global speaker, Lee brought extra star power to the program.
Speaking under the theme “An Ecosystem Builder Connecting People Through Imagination,” Lee said her north star has always been people―an unchanging core value that’s driven standout results in the fast-evolving K-content space.
Reflecting on SARAM Entertainment’s 20-year journey, she described the company’s work as “branding artists’ values and worldviews, and turning human emotion, intuition, curiosity and imagination into source IP that plugs into industry.”
Lee added that SARAM has codified this approach into two pillars―“Branding Imagination” and “Branding Insight”―expanding artists’ imaginations and worlds into tangible assets, or what the company calls “Human IP.”
Looking ahead, she outlined a clear roadmap: in step with the Web3 era, SARAM will build a Human IP tech stack grounded in AI and emerging technologies, evolving into a Human IP platform that unites art, data and tech.
“Art is rooted in people, and the future of industry should be built on a human-first philosophy,” Lee said, pledging to foster “a truly creative ecosystem driven by people-centered art.”
SARAM Entertainment’s roster includes Gong Myoung, Park Gyu-young, Claudia Kim, Lee Soo-hyuk, Cho Jin-woong and Sooyoung (Girls’ Generation).
(SBS Entertainment News | Kim Ji-hye)