Training · PrincipalTrackemergingverified

AI-Agent Solo Venture Launch

also known as KAIST OverEdge, 오엣, AI 에이전트 1인 창업, AI Co-founder Solo Program

An 8-week government-backed structured program that trains solo founders to use AI agents as co-founders across every phase of company building — planning, development, marketing, and operations. Participants progress through three stages: broad agent-design education, one-on-one technical mentorship paired with business-model validation, and a hackathon-to-seed-funding sprint. It is one of the very few programs whose explicit mission is the agent-powered one-person company, not just AI tool adoption.

How the learner advances

Intent. Train a solo founder to design, deploy, and operate an AI agent stack that substitutes for a founding team across all core business functions.

When to apply. Use this track when a prospective founder has domain expertise and a business idea but lacks a technical co-founder, and when the program operator wants to produce agent-native solo companies at national scale rather than merely AI-literate individuals.

Threshold — earns the next step. The founder can demo a running agent that autonomously handles at least one complete business function (sales, support, content, or development) and can explain why the agent design choice fits the business model.

Masterpiece — the artifact that proves it. A live, revenue-seeking business operated by a single founder where an AI agent stack performs at least one full department's work, demonstrated under hackathon conditions to an investor panel.

Facets

  • Container — cohort
  • Mode — workshopmentorshiphackathon
  • Reach — national
  • Persona — founderprospective-entrepreneur
  • Craft (AI Fluency) — automationagent-designventure-build
  • Learner — human
  • Trainer — human

Inputs

  • Solo founder applicant — A motivated individual with a business idea or domain expertise who has applied and been selected nationally; no prior coding or AI background required.
  • Agent design curriculum — Faculty-authored materials covering AI agent custom design, orchestration concepts, and practical integration for business tasks.
  • Technical mentor pool — Graduate-level AI researchers (e.g., KAIST PhD and Master's students) available for one-on-one technical pairing with each cohort team.
  • Investor and expert network — VC professionals and startup experts who review business models and provide validation feedback at Stage 2.
  • Seed fund — A pool of government or institutional capital (e.g., up to 150M KRW per team) ready to deploy to the best-performing teams at Stage 3.

Outputs

  • Agent-enabled solo founder — A founder who can independently scope, build, and operate a multi-agent system covering at least one full business function.
  • Running agent-operated business — A live company with an AI agent stack handling planning, development, marketing, or operations — the masterpiece that demonstrates the principal skill was earned.
  • Validated business model — A pitch-ready business model reviewed by investors and refined through mentor feedback.
  • Seed investment — Funding awarded to the top cohort teams to commercialize their agent-powered venture.

Steps (3)

  1. Stage 1 — AI Base Camp

    Faculty deliver agent custom-design and practical application education to the full cohort of approximately 100 participants. Founders learn to identify which business functions agents can own, design agent roles, and connect agents to real business data and workflows. Selection spans both metropolitan and regional participants to ensure national breadth.

    producesagent-design literacyinitial agent prototype sketches

  2. Stage 2 — AI Working Group

    The cohort narrows to approximately 50 teams, each matched one-on-one with a KAIST AI graduate student for technical advancement. In parallel, VC and startup experts run a business-model review session for each team. Founders iterate on their agent architecture while validating the business hypothesis with external scrutiny.

    producesrefined agent architecturevalidated business model deck

  3. Stage 3 — Scale-up Hackathon and Pitch

    The top 25 teams compete in a hackathon format, then pitch to a panel. Winners receive seed investment (up to 100M KRW per founder) and commercialization support. The hackathon tests whether the agent stack actually runs under competitive, time-boxed conditions.

    producesfunded agent-powered companypitch deck with live agent demo

Principles

  • Treat AI agents as co-founders, not tools — the agent owns a role, not just a task.
  • Compress the founding team to one person by systematically replacing each team function with an agent before hiring.
  • Evidence gates advancement — each stage filters on demonstrated agent capability, not intent.
  • National reach requires geographic distribution from day one; diversity of context sharpens agent designs.

Unlocks methodologies (3)

A learner who completes this pattern is equipped to execute these methodology families:

Deployment & OperationsSafety & AlignmentLLM-App Engineering

Known uses (2)

Known failure modes (3)

  • [tool-adoption-inflation]

    The anti-pattern of rebranding AI tool adoption as agent-native founding. If founders exit knowing how to prompt ChatGPT but not how to design autonomous agent workflows, the program produced operators, not principals.

  • [stage-gate-attrition-bias]

    When selection at each stage filters out non-technical candidates rather than those with weak agent designs, the program drifts into a technical bootcamp and loses its founding mission.

  • [demo-day-theater]

    The anti-pattern of polishing a pitch rather than running a real agent stack. Hackathon pressure can push teams to demo a prototype and describe it as operational before it actually handles real business transactions.

Related trainings (3)

Sources (3)

Provenance

  • Ecosystem: Korean government / KAIST Entrepreneurship Center
  • Added to catalog:
  • Last updated:
  • Verification status: verified