NFM Live: Korean VC duo launches TBPN-inspired tech podcast in Seoul, aims to cover Korean and global startup markets
Aug 15, 2025
Key Points
- Korean VC duo launches NFM Live, a TBPN-inspired podcast in Seoul publishing three times weekly with plans to reach daily frequency within six months.
- The founders acknowledge Korea lacks a homegrown AI or software company at OpenAI's scale, with the tech ecosystem dominated by semiconductor hardware players like SK Hynix and Samsung.
- NFM Live positions mandatory military service and Korea's defense tech sector as distinct coverage angles unavailable to U.S. tech podcasts.
Summary
Two Korean venture capitalists launched NFM Live, a tech and startup podcast based in Seoul that covers both Korean and global startup markets. The founders modeled the show after TBPN after discovering the format on a podcast feed. Both come from VC backgrounds and have lived in Seoul for four to five years. One runs one of Korea's largest VC newsletters; the other maintains a personal blog on venture and tech topics.
NFM Live publishes three times per week and plans to increase frequency to daily within six months. The show already features engineers, venture capitalists, authors, and analysts as guests, with ambitions to book major figures. The founders want to build their own distinct brand and ecosystem rather than simply replicate TBPN.
On Korea's tech landscape, the founders identified SK Hynix and Samsung Semiconductor as dominant players in semiconductors and noted that Korea has produced strong engineers now working at OpenAI. When asked about a homegrown "OpenAI of Korea"—a frontier AI or software company comparable to that scale—they acknowledged it is difficult to name one. Korea's tech ecosystem remains weighted toward hardware and semiconductor manufacturing rather than AI-first software companies.
Korea's mandatory military service and defense tech sector could give NFM Live unique coverage angles that U.S. podcasts would miss.