Failure as a Strategy for Success: The Startup Exit Guide

Amidst the recent economic slowdown, an increasing number of startups are contemplating winding down their businesses, prompting key institutions in the startup ecosystem to provide systematic support to help founders rebound. Startup Alliance and Asan Nanum Foundation jointly published the 'Startup Closure Guidebook', offering practical information to reduce procedural errors and unnecessary costs that may arise during the difficult process of business closure. This guidebook extensively covers essential checkpoints before business closure, step-by-step procedures, and detailed response strategies for key stakeholders such as investors, employees, and customers. In particular, it specifically presents the complex differences between liquidation, bankruptcy, and rehabilitation, as well as tailored strategies for various situations like liquidation-type M&A, helping founders prepare for the next step without confusion. Law firm Mission participated in the writing, consolidating its professional experience and know-how related to startup closure and liquidation. A key feature is that it goes beyond simply guiding through legal and tax procedures, providing practical solutions for various problems founders face in reality, such as labor management, maintaining customer relationships, and investor communication. The 'Startup Closure Guidebook' is available for free to everyone through the official websites of Startup Alliance and Asan Nanum Foundation. This initiative aims to convey a positive message: that founders facing economic difficulties can easily access necessary information to ease their burden, and that business closure can be an important process not as an end, but as a new beginning. It emphasizes tackling the difficult closure process with the help of experts and peers rather than enduring it alone, and is expected to serve as a reliable guide for their next leap.