d.camp Batch 4 d.day: Seven Deep Tech Founders Share Lessons

d.camp, the startup growth partner run by the Banking Youth Founders Foundation, held the d.day event for its Batch 4 on the 29th at d.camp Mapo. Science communicator Gwedo hosted the session, where seven deep tech founders described what they learned at each stage of growth, from validating early technology to pivoting and scaling organizations.

Proving the technology

The first session, "Proof", focused on winning market trust while mass production and track record are still thin. Park Dong-ha of Cosmobee said the company concentrated on turning lab technology into products quickly. Having demonstrated its space transport capability through the Nuri rocket launch, he said, it now wants to prove practical value in the market. Kim Jung-ho of IdeaOcean said the company keeps evolving its software around customer pain points, and that the challenge is to show the product directly lifts customers' return on investment, beyond raw technical performance.

Pivots and expansion

In the "Transition" session, Park Jung-hyuk of Tepha Robotics said the company chose general-purpose technology usable across many sites rather than custom builds for individual large clients. Hwangbo Min-sung of FirstLab said it shifted from building excellent technology to understanding customers' actual purchase journey, and set up a Japanese subsidiary early to speed market entry. Yoon Hak-soon of Spacelintech said that after struggling to raise early funding for space medicine, the company ran its own in-space experiments to demonstrate viability.

The "Expansion" session turned to organizational change. Kim Eun-hak of Gaptech said the company moved away from reliance on a single CEO and gave each member authority and responsibility, adding that talent development, ethics and trust matter more as teams grow. Kim Se-kwon of Pit-in said the company is expanding battery swap stations nationwide after validating them in Anyang, and reorganized decision-making around C-level executives to scale sustainably.

Mentor roundtable

A closed Founders Roundtable followed. Seven Batch 4 mentors attended, including leaders from Ditto Partners Group, Nota, Cortt, SOS Lab, Big Bang Angels and Hanwha Asset Management's VC investment group. They examined each presenting company's bottlenecks in commercialization, global expansion and reorganization, and shared strategies drawn from their own founding experience.