A Winning "Startup for Everyone" Business Plan — 6 Principles to Make the Top 5,000

The Startup for Everyone business plan must be written to fit the government's published 4 evaluation axes (innovativeness, feasibility, market potential, founder capability). With competition fierce enough to record 510,000 cumulative visitors and 8,720 idea submissions as of April 16, what separates the acceptance rate isn't the idea itself but how you structure and present the idea. This post lays out, step by step, the 6 principles for writing a business plan that satisfies the 4 evaluation axes (source: Ministry of SMEs and Startups press release, Newsis 2026.04.16).

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What 4 axes is the evaluation based on?

According to the government announcement, Startup for Everyone evaluates on 4 axes: innovativeness, feasibility, market potential, and founder capability (source: Korea Policy Briefing). About 100 startup incubation organizations and a 500-strong mentor pool take part in the evaluation, and idea presentations and mentor evaluation carry more weight than document screening.

Evaluation axis	What it looks at	Business plan emphasis points
Innovativeness	Newness vs. existing solutions	Differentiation keywords, comparison table
Feasibility	Achievability within 6 months–1 year	Stage-by-stage milestones, resources
Market potential	Market size and growth	Sourced figures, growth rate
Founder capability	Credibility of the person executing	Experience, career, traces of validation

(source: Ministry of SMEs and Startups press release, general government startup support program evaluation criteria)

These 4 axes are structured so that if any one axis is zero, it's hard to pass even with a perfect score on the others. If even one axis is empty, the business plan itself may be excluded from evaluation.

Principle 1 — Why is the "one-line business definition" the most important?

The first line of a business plan is the benchmark by which a mentor judges your acceptance potential within 30 seconds. A good one-line definition signals 3 of the 4 evaluation axes (innovativeness, market potential, feasibility) at once.

The format of a good one-line definition is as follows.

We solve {a measurable problem} that {target customer} faces, through {a differentiation keyword}, achieving {a quantified result}.

Poor example	Good example
"A service that lets people use offices conveniently"	"We cut the office contract—which takes a one-person business an average of 3 days—down to a 24-hour, 3-minute electronic contract system."
"An app that helps with studying using AI"	"We automate the daily 1-hour task of reviewing wrong answers for civil-service exam students in their 20s, doing it in 5 minutes with AI."

The poor examples signal none of the 4 axes. The good examples include the target, the scale of the problem, the differentiation method, and the quantified result all together, giving the evaluator a reason to read the next page.

Principle 2 — What figures should you use to prove market potential?

Market potential must be proven with 3 official figures that have sources. If you only have estimates, you lose points in the evaluation immediately.

The 3 required figures are as follows.

1. TAM — total market — public sources such as Statistics Korea KOSIS and the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade
2. SAM — serviceable market — target customer definition + official statistics
3. Market growth rate — CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the last 3–5 years

Example of writing market potential — the one-person business office market

• TAM: about 9.5 million one-person businesses in Korea (source: National Tax Service business statistics)
• SAM: about 800,000 online sellers who need a business registration address (source: Statistics Korea e-commerce statistics)
• CAGR: the virtual office market growing 15% per year (source: Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade estimate)

CoworkCity's business plan is structured to directly cite National Tax Service business statistics and Statistics Korea e-commerce statistics in its market potential section. Three sourced figures reduce the time the mentor pool spends verifying credibility.

Principle 3 — How should you demonstrate founder capability?

Founder capability evaluates whether the person who will execute this item is trustworthy. You should demonstrate it not with an abstract self-introduction but with 4 concrete traces of execution.

Trace	What to write
Experience	Job experience in the field, startup experience, years in the industry
Launch	Product/service launch history, number of users, revenue
Awards/certifications	Government/private awards, patents, certifications
Learning	Relevant certifications, bootcamps, completed training

Even if the applicant is a one-person prospective founder, they can fill at least 2 of the 4. For example, work experience as an employee counts as Experience, a toy project as a Launch, and side-project data as a trace of validation.

The principle CoworkCity laid out while reviewing government support programs in its early days was to convert every experience into concrete figures. A format like "5 years of marketing experience / 1 billion won cumulative ad spend / 350% ROAS" raises your evaluation score far more than just "5 years of marketing experience."

Principle 4 — Should differentiation be shown with a comparison table?

The innovativeness score is clearest when there's a comparison table against competitors and existing solutions. The comparison table must satisfy 3 conditions.

• Competitors must be named explicitly ("other companies" loses points)
• The comparison items must be specific, with 4–6 of them
• Your strengths should show an edge in 50–70% of the items (a 100% edge is unrealistic)

Comparison table example

Item	Company A	Company B	Our business
Price	50,000 won/month	70,000 won/month	20,000 won/month
Contract time	Business hours	Business hours	24 hours
Refund guarantee	None	30%	100%
Number of branches	30	50	250

A business plan without a comparison table tends to land below average in the innovativeness evaluation. Since a 100% edge undermines credibility, it's natural to leave some items as equal or slightly inferior.

Principle 5 — How should you show feasibility in stages?

Feasibility must be shown as execution stages within 6–12 months in milestone form. To earn points in the evaluation, it should be a structure broken down by quarter and month, not a single block of text.

Timing	Milestone	Validation metric
1–2 months	Business registration / corporation establishment	Registration complete
3–4 months	MVP development / launch	First 100 users
5–6 months	Market validation / revision	30% revisit rate
7–9 months	Monetization / revenue generation	5 million won monthly revenue
10–12 months	Growth / expansion	30 million won monthly revenue

Each stage must have a validation metric (KPI). If you have milestones but no KPIs, it looks like a mere schedule rather than feasibility.

Principle 6 — How can you create traces of validation?

Even when you satisfy the same 4 evaluation axes, the presence or absence of traces of validation separates the acceptance rate. A trace of validation is evidence that the market has already responded, and it's the signal evaluators trust most.

The types of traces of validation are as follows.

• PoC — proof of concept — results from running it on a small scale
• Prototype — a working prototype, mockup, or beta version
• Pre-applicants / waitlist — users who expressed interest before launch
• Pre-orders / crowdfunding — validation of actual willingness to pay
• Media/community response — coverage, voluntary recommendations, reviews

A business plan with zero traces of validation is classified as "feasibility unvalidated." Even just creating a pre-application form and gathering 50 people can be used as a trace of validation. Even with 19 days left, this item can still be created in time.

Wrapping up — A one-page structure applying the 6 principles

The one-page business plan structure that satisfies all 6 principles is as follows.

Position	Item	Character count
Top	One-line business definition (Principle 1)	60–80 characters
Box 1	3 market potential figures (Principle 2)	200 characters
Box 2	4 founder capability traces (Principle 3)	250 characters
Box 3	Comparison table (Principle 4)	1 comparison table
Box 4	Stage-by-stage milestones (Principle 5)	1 table
Box 5	Traces of validation (Principle 6)	150 characters
Bottom	Conclusion + funding usage plan	200 characters

Follow this structure and you can signal all 4 evaluation axes with just a single page of a business plan. The 6 principles apply equally to any additional pages, and they're the key variable that separates the acceptance rate regardless of page count.

To make it into the final 5,000, your ability to structure the idea, rather than the newness of the idea, determines acceptance. CoworkCity operates over 250 branches nationwide, from 20,000 won/month, with a 24-hour 3-minute electronic contract and a 100% refund guarantee on rejection for applicants who need a business registration address, and it becomes an option for stating a business address in your business plan.

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Official materials

• Government official announcement: Korea Policy Briefing · Ministry of SMEs and Startups press release
• Recruitment notice: Bizinfo integrated recruitment notice
• Application platform: modoo.or.kr
• Statistics: Statistics Korea KOSIS · National Tax Service
• Application status coverage: Newsis 2026.04.16

Explore CoworkCity virtual offices

Worth reading together

• Startup for Everyone 2026 complete guide — everything on selecting 5,000 people and up to 10 billion won in funding
• Startup for Everyone Local track vs. Tech track — which is more advantageous
• Startup for Everyone application deadline D-14 — 7 things to check before 4 p.m. on May 15