Korean startups on the board, 2026
Product launches, hiring pages, developer previews and small-crew companies that want a week of visible attention buy the rows here. The number is a seat price: whole US dollars, paid once, holding a position until someone pays more. It is not a valuation, a round, a customer count or a signal from anybody. Every row is an advertisement and says so, and each listing gets a page in four languages that outlives the seat.
01
How to read this board
Founders read this column the wrong way round more often than anyone else, so: the ladder first. Each row carries the exact figure that takes that position — the minimum is five dollars, steps are a dollar, and a listing already on the board pays only the difference between its current seat and the target. That makes row three from row eight cheap, and row one from nothing expensive. What you get for it is measured in the clicks and seven-day clicks columns, and in days on board, which is how long anyone has actually seen the row. Divide and compare before deciding the top is worth it; a mid-board seat held for a month usually reads better than a day at the front.
02
Questions
Does a seat here say anything about our funding or traction?
Nothing at all. The board records a payment, not a raise. Investors, press and customers reading this column are looking at an advertising rate card with names on it.
Does #1 mean the best?
No. Rank measures what a company pays for visibility, not quality. A three-person team holds row one for as long as it keeps outpaying everyone else.
What does Take #3 actually charge?
The difference needed to reach that seat: the current price of row three plus one dollar, minus whatever you already pay if you hold a row. New listings pay the whole figure. Amounts are whole dollars only.