A man of many talents, credited with introducing world's first 16Meg Dram memory chip, legendary, renowned semiconductor figure that also held the position of secretary of Information and Communication for South Korea longer than anyone else. The list goes on and on, all describing Mr. D.J. Chin, 'The IT tamer'. Nowadays, he is an avid global IT investor with Skylake Incuvest & Co., a principal investment and fund company.

Skylake Incuvest makes private equity investments into talented IT technology venture companies in Korea that are equipped with superior technology and competitive products and incubates ones that have high potential for globalization.

Founded in October of 2006, The Skylake under its firm portfolio has 'Olaworks(internet mobile service Co.)', 'robotever(Robotics Co.)' and 'Wide Chips(wide chip design manufacturer)' with various other venture companies it's currently bringing up to accelerate growth. ZDNet Korea met with a pivotal role player for Korean Venture Companies, CEO J.D. Chin in close up one on one interview, and heard his personal views on what it takes to succeed in a startup venture Company and his take on leading next generation technologies of future.

IT839, a core part of South Korea's IT program has made partial move toward uIT839 to meet ubiquity but beyond the current uIT839 strategy, what technologies and services do think will be profitable in the future?
During my tenure in 2005 as a minister of Communication and Information, I've dropped phasing out VoIP and IPv6 technologies and started strengthening software sector which I believe led to current uIT839.

There is no doubt that the next IT growth engine has to be sought after constantly. You can pretty much see what sector is hot by looking at the Gartner or IDC reports. However, planting for better mix of current well known technologies with next promising one is more important rather than just trying to find a new unique item.

Cyworld, a South Korean social network web community site which operates in Korea as well as overseas is making a global influence. And now, globally, others are thinking to come up with their own second life business model. And what is your thought on this?
20Mbps or higher web data transmission speed can deliver consistent moving picture images which opens up various business opportunities. Therefore Web 2.0 with WiBro or mobile or second life should be able to create many new web services and advertisement markets and bring various business opportunities.

The South Korean government also recognizes need for vitalizing the software sector and currently pushing it to help advancement toward becoming a leading nation but there is lack of visible means of success. What is needed to rev up software industry from a government level?
The software industry is one of the most competitive markets in the world. Presently, many small to medium domestic software developers are losing the steam and the Korean government needs to address this situation urgently. First, restructuring sales of software is needed. It is needed to promote a sound solid software business, to help domestic firms sharpen competitive edge and create money-making business models. To give boost to the software industry, using domestically developed software by major public sector and government organizations is must.

You were also founding President of Korean Linux Association. The Korean government is also supporting open source software industry but it's slow paced. What is lacking for the Korean open-source industry to gain a major position in the global competitions?
Currently the demand for the open source software isn't there. It is not easy or customary for anyone to migrate from existing software. In addition, government support due to other current issues wont be that simple either.

However, most open-source firms are still small. Therefore, it's crucial for these companies to support each other and government ought to support them continually to be effective.

You had mentioned that the venture firms need to restructure their ecosystem to gain edges. With countless existing venture firms, what kind of progress and preparation are needed?
Many venture capital groups think having their names in the KOSDAQ (Korean stock exchange index) is the way out. These venture firms are less appealing to bigger companies for merger and acquisition (M&A) due to perception of many failures and prior take-over. What these venture firms need is to embed perception of their rolls as ones that providing new core technology into others. Also, the government support to policy making and legal issues must be there. Recognizing all of the circumstances, I have founded an investment company to help vitalize the venture firms eco-system. In order to leap into becoming one of the leading nations, venture companies must realize and raise investments from private sector.

For selecting possible investment candidate, besides reviewing its potentials for technology, product and service many investors look at the overall sales and profit margins. In this case, the risk can be minimized but there is limit to profitability. In Skylake Incuvest's case, how do you decide and evaluate investments and what investment sectors are being considered for future?
Meeting with numerous companies naturally help to see their potentials and worth. Their ability to keep up and drive, also the roll of CEO is the key elements for the venture companies. Whether or not it requires networking or marketing tech support and success rate of incubation is a big part of consideration. The investment fund range varies from small business to large corporation M&A depend on the potentials. The investment fields include from Bio, environment to nano technologies but our main sector is in IT.

Skylake Incuvest's recent investment to Robot Company raised interest in the stock market. What do you think about the robotics and its influence in the future?
For the long run, the robot sector has the big potentials. Comparing to China or Japan, South Korea can be competitive in the laser or devices like camcorder which can be utilized with IT industry. If we are able to produce automobiles, we can certainly make robots. Ultimately, mixing cars and IT is done by robots. Therefore, possibility of seeing walking computers and rolling phones and other various products are very likely. It's in early stage but South Korea is leading the commercialization of robotic services for example, in airports or cleaning service sector. Now, these markets are brand new. It's Blue Ocean and sky is the limit!