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Inside L-CAMP Silicon Valley 2025 with AlpacaX

Fresh off an intensive week at L-CAMP Silicon Valley 2025, we’re sharing the insights, energy, and momentum—fueling our next chapter in the U.S. and on the global stage.

30 April 2025

Back in March, we announced AlpacaX’s selection for L-CAMP Silicon Valley 2025. Now that the program has wrapped, we’re excited to share what we learned—and where we’re headed next.

From Seoul to Silicon Valley: Our Journey Begins with L-CAMP

As AlpacaX sets its sights on the global DevOps market, 2025 marks a pivotal year—we’re taking our first steps into the U.S. market. With plans to scale internationally by 2027, we’re laying the groundwork through a strategic soft launch, beginning with our participation in L-CAMP Silicon Valley 2025.

This global edition of L-CAMP builds on the proven success of Lotte Ventures’ domestic accelerator, which has supported 135 startups across 11 cohorts, more than tripling their combined valuations to approximately £620 million.

The program offers tailored seminars, mentorship, and direct access to the U.S. startup ecosystem. Co-hosted by The Miilk, a Silicon Valley-based innovation media company, it connects participating startups with investors, founders, and operators on the ground.

During the intensive seven-day program, Eunyoung Jeong and Jeeun Lee, our CEO and CTO, immersed themselves in Silicon Valley’s vibrant innovation landscape.

Korean Founders & VC Mixer @ Canopy Jackson Square

On the first day of the program, we joined the Korean Founders & VC Mixer at Canopy Jackson Square in San Francisco. The event brought together Korean entrepreneurs, VCs, and ecosystem leaders from Silicon Valley to exchange insights on U.S. expansion, showcase innovation, and build meaningful connections.

A key highlight for us was pitching Alpacon—our next-generation secure access platform for DevSecOps—directly to U.S. investors. As we continue to fine-tune Alpacon based on early user feedback, this was a timely opportunity to test our messaging, articulate our vision, and receive actionable input from seasoned investors. Their feedback helped validate our direction and sharpen our positioning for the U.S. market.

The event also featured a panel discussion, “Investing in Innovation Beyond Borders,” where partners from LFX Venture Partners, Broadway Venture Partners, and Cathay Innovation shared candid insights on entering the U.S. market and building sustainable global growth. The evening wrapped with a vibrant networking reception, where we connected with fellow founders and investors who generously shared their journeys and advice.

You can check out the full event schedule, panelists, and participating startups here.

Voices from the Room: Founders, Insights, and Aha Moments

We spent the week learning from seasoned founders, investors, professors, and executives from Silicon Valley and beyond. Sessions took place at some of the region’s most relevant venues—including Stanford University, Moloco’s HQ, KIC Silicon Valley, and our hotel’s meeting room.

Each session offered a distinct lens into scaling startups, navigating U.S. entry, and building long-term resilience. At Stanford, we heard from former Blind co-founder Kyum Kim on customer-driven growth, and from Liner’s Luke Jinu Kim on survival strategies in the U.S. market. Joseph D. Lee of Syncly shared his Y Combinator experience, followed by a panel with Professors Keeyong Han and Soh Kim.

We dove deeper into sessions focused on breakout growth and navigating the U.S. startup landscape. Moloco co-founder David Sehyuk Park walked us through the company’s path from startup to unicorn, while Storm Ventures’ Tae Hea Nahm outlined what it takes to go from surviving to thriving. At KIC Silicon Valley, we spoke with NVIDIA senior designer Heidi HyoJi Lim and also gained legal insights from attorney Youn Soo Lee. Earlier in the week, Yura Isabel Hwang of Perplexity offered a brief look at how they’re scaling in the AI-driven search space.

Toward the end of the program, we took part in a hands-on workshop led by Jae Kwon Son of The Miilk, where we received real-time feedback on our U.S. market onboarding strategy. The program wrapped with a reflective session from Professor Keeyong Han, who drew on decades of experience in Silicon Valley to offer personal stories and lessons learned.

From aha moments to hard-earned lessons, every session helped sharpen our thinking and strengthen our strategy for U.S. expansion.

Deep Konnect 2025 @ Canopy Menlo Park

Capping off the week, we joined Deep Konnect 2025, a networking event co-hosted by KIC Silicon Valley and Lotte Ventures at Canopy Menlo Park. Held as the finale of Korea Investment Week, the event brought together Korean startups, Silicon Valley VCs, and industry experts for candid conversations on innovation and investment.

As part of the event, we were grateful to be selected for two exclusive one-on-one meetings with Silicon Valley VCs—each a 45-minute deep dive into Alpacon’s positioning and our U.S. market entry plans. These extended, face-to-face conversations aren’t offered to every early-stage startup, and we saw them as a rare opportunity to test our thinking, refine our narrative, and better understand what investors look for in security and DevOps. The insights we gained will be instrumental as we refine our go-to-market approach in the U.S.

The afternoon concluded with a relaxed networking reception, where we reconnected with peers from previous days and forged new relationships in the Bay Area startup community.

You can learn more about Deep Konnect 2025 here.

Unfiltered Moments

Here are a few memorable moments from the week—from a drizzly afternoon at the Golden Gate Bridge and strolling through Stanford’s campus, to swinging by Google in Mountain View, and sharing laughs with fellow founders.

Sometimes it’s the little detours that remind us why we build.

Our Journey Forward

One clear takeaway from the week: breaking into the U.S. market takes more than a great product. It requires sharp localisation, early conversations with the right partners, and the humility to listen and adapt. These lessons pushed us to revisit how we tell Alpacon’s story—refining not just what we say, but how we say it to resonate with U.S. customers and investors.

L-CAMP Silicon Valley gave us the perspective and momentum we needed at just the right time. Also, with our recent acceptance into KIC Silicon Valley—a stepping stone backed by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) to help South Korean ICT startups enter the U.S.—we’re doubling down on our efforts to make Alpacon truly global.

We're energised by what's ahead and always open to new conversations. If you're building toward the future of secure infrastructure access, we'd love to connect. Say hello at contact@alpacax.com.