Disrupting Japan

Disrupting Japan is two years old and ready to party.  To celebrate, we gathered the leaders of Tokyo's venture capital community together in front of a live audience of made up of the thought leaders of Japan's startup community. We all had a few drinks and talked about fundraising in Japan, the future of venture capital here, and how startups can best get in touch with and impress VCs.

Our panel included some of the top VC investors in Japan, which naturally led to an amazing discussion.

- Shinji Asada - Japan Head, Salesforce Ventures

- Hiro Maeda - Partner at BEENEXT

- James Riney - Head of 500 Startups Japan

We discuss the challenges or fundraising in Japan, growing a Japanese company as a foreigner, what Japanese VCs can learn from their foreign counterparts, and what kind of of pitch mistakes will ruin your funding chances.

On a personal note, it's hard to believe that two years have gone by already. Disrupting Japan has grown larger, faster, and with a more engaged and passionate community than I ever imagined it could.

Today, thousands of people from all over the world listen to each episode, and we are featured regularly in English-language and Japanese-language news and podcasts from all over the world.

And to keep things fresh, I have some big surprises coming up in the next few months, so stay tuned.

Disrupting Japan is two years old and ready to party.  To celebrate, we gathered the leaders of Tokyo's venture capital community together in front of a live audience of made up of the thought leaders of Japan's startup community. We all had a few drinks and talked about fundraising in Japan, the future of venture capital here, and how startups can best get in touch with and impress VCs.

Our panel included some of the top VC investors in Japan, which naturally led to an amazing discussion.

Shinji Asada (@asada23) - Japan Head, Salesforce Ventures

Hiro Maeda (@djtokyo) - Partner at BEENEXT

James Riney (@james_riney ) - Head of 500 Startups Japan

We discuss the challenges or fundraising in Japan, growing a Japanese company as a foreigner, what Japanese VCs can learn from their foreign counterparts, and what kind of of pitch mistakes will ruin your funding chances.

On a personal note, it's hard to believe that two years have gone by already. Disrupting Japan has grown larger, faster, and with a more engaged and passionate community than I ever imagined it could.

Today, thousands of people from all over the world listen to each episode, and we are featured regularly in English-language and Japanese-language news and podcasts from all over the world.

And to keep things fresh, I have some big surprises coming up in the next few months, so stay tuned.

I want to offer a sincere thank you to everyone who has pitched in to help make Disrupting Japan a success. There is no way I could have built this by myself.  I'm lucky. I have great subject matter to work with. Japanese startups and Japanese startup founders are far more innovative and far more interesting than most in the West give them credit for. I look forward to continuing to bring you their stories.

Thanks for listening!

 

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Transcript from Japan

Welcome to Disrupting Japan - straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for coming out tonight. You guys are awesome.

All right, to our listeners at home, or wherever you might be in podcast land, we’ve got a special show for you tonight. We are broadcasting live from Super Deluxe in Roppongi with the most creative and dynamic group of people in the world, which is Tokyo’s start-up community. All right, and we’ve got an astounding panel discussion for you, and before we get to that and our kampai, I’ve got to call out three members of the start-up community who really helped put this together. There is absolutely no way I could have done it without them. They are start-ups themselves and you should know a little bit about them.

So, first is Justa.io and I think Elena is here from Justa. Where are you Elena? Everyone wave at Elena. So, Justa is Japan’s, really, best start-up job board. If you’re an engineer or a programmer looking to work at a start-up, or if you’re a start-up looking to hire engineers or programmers, you want to talk to Elena. Second, I want to introduce Creww, with two W’s. And what Creww, with two W’s, does, is they run open innovation programs for Toyota, and Panasonic, and JTV. And these big companies really want to work with start-ups, but they’re bad at it. So that’s where Creww comes in to help out. They also have a start-up kit, which is a bundle of goodies from IBM and Microsoft and a bunch of big companies, that they give away for free. And Kozue is here from Creww. Kozue, where isKozue? Way in the back over there. Now,Kozue will pretend she doesn’t speak English but her English is really good so don’t be shy. And last, and certainly not least, is Digital Hub. You will see these guys running around with cameras and microphones, documenting this event for all posterity. And you want to talk to Steve, who is over there. So, these guys also do great commercial work. You can see it on the website or you can see it right now. They’re going to be producing this, you might be watching this on YouTube right no...

Ten years ago, everyone know that e-commence would drive most retail stores, especially specially stores out of business, and with the Amazon juggernaut plowing ahead, there were very few dissenters.

But something very interesting is going on right now. Many e-commerce companies are opening physical stores. Even Amazon, going against all economies of scale, is opening up brick and mortar bookstores in expensive locations with full-time staff. And there a good reason for this trend.

There is something very reassuring about holding a product in your own hands. And it’s something that can’t really be replaced with high- resolution photos and customer reviews.

Tomohiro Hagiwara of Aquabit Spirals has committed both his company and a large part of his adult life to bridging this gap between the physical and the digital world and is helping online retailers jump into the physical world.

Of course, Aquabit Spirals’ technology does much more than this, and Tomo tells an interesting story of how it took his company more than six years of work before they closed their first deal and became an overnight success.

It’s an fascinating discussion and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Ten years ago, everyone know that e-commence would drive most retail stores, especially specially stores out of business, and with the Amazon juggernaut plowing ahead, there were very few dissenters.

But something very interesting is going on right now. Many e-commerce companies are opening physical stores. Even Amazon, going against all economies of scale, is opening up brick and mortar bookstores in expensive locations with full-time staff. And there a good reason for this trend.

There is something very reassuring about holding a product in your own hands. And it’s something that can’t really be replaced with high- resolution photos and customer reviews.

Tomohiro Hagiwara of Aquabit Spirals has committed both his company and a large part of his adult life to bridging this gap between the physical and the digital world and is helping online retailers jump into the physical world.

Of course, Aquabit Spirals’ technology does much more than this, and Tomo tells an interesting story of how it took his company more than six years of work before they closed their first deal and became an overnight success.

It’s an fascinating discussion and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes for Startups

What is SmartPlate, and why is it important?

Why e-commerce offline needs to come offline

How to close global deals as a small startup

The difference between going global and being global

Why Tomo abandoned his first business to follow his dream

The value of accelerators in Japan

Why founders can't work at big companies

Links from the Founder

Learn about SmartPlate

Follow Tomo on twitter @hagi_w

Friend him on Facebook

SmartPlate pitch-deck

SmartPlate explainer video

Coverage on VentureBeat

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Transcript from Japan

 

Disrupting Japan - Episode 54

Welcome to Disrupting Japan - straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for listening.

Ten years ago, it was a common knowledge that e-commerce would drive most retail shops especially small specialty shops out of business. With the Amazon juggling up, moving it full speed, there's no reason to really doubt that opinion. But something very interesting is going on right now, many e-commerce companies are opening physical stores at expensive locations with actual products and full-time staff. Even Amazon is opening up Brick and Morter bookstores across the United States

The truth is, there's something reassuring about holding a product in your own hands. It's something that can't really be replaced by high-res photos and online reviews. Tomo Hiro Hagiwara of Aquabit Spirals has committed his company, in fact, committed a large part of his adult life to bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds. But before I'll introduce you to Tomo, let me introduce you to someone else.

Now, Tomo once had a thriving, profitable app development business that employed over 30 people, but he was committed enough to his vision of connecting the physical and digital that he turned down work and laid off most of his staff so he could focus on it. After working on it in obscurity for 6 years, he's now becoming an overnight success. But, Tomo tells the story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview.

Tomo:          Okay, cheers!

Tim:            Thank you.

Tomo:         Thank you. I'm very glad to see that you're here

Tim:                     I'm sitting here with Tomo Hagiwara, CEO of Aquabit Spirals, and thanks for sitting down with me.

Tomo:                  Yes, thank you. Nice to meet you here, and I'm very glad to meet you today.

Tim:                     Great! Now, Aquabit Spirals makes the smart play which is a physical device that allows bookmarking physical objects with your phone, I think you can explain it much better than I can. What is SmartPlate and who uses it?

Tomo:                  SmartPlate is a physical ...

Fashion is a tough business, and fashion subscription boxes are even tougher. From the top down, this seems like a great business model. Subscribers are sent a new, hand-picked box of clothes or accessories each and every month. As you’ll see ...

Fashion is a tough business, and fashion subscription boxes are even tougher. From the top down, this seems like a great business model. Subscribers are sent a new, hand-picked box of clothes or accessories each and every month. As you’ll see ...

Long before the maker movement existed, Akihabara was world famous as a destination for hardware geeks, robotics nerds, and audiophiles and tinkerers of all kinds. Hundreds of tiny specialty shops lined the areas back streets and did a surprising brisk business in items you could not find anywhere else.

The internet changed all that. The specialty electronics and computer goods could be found far more easily and for far less money. Even the maker communities began to migrate online. Over the next decade Akihabara changed from the heart of the maker community into the center of otaku culture with mama shops and maid cafes lining the streets.

Mitsuo Hashiba, the General Manager of DMM.make Akiba plans to take Akihabara back to it’s maker roots. DMM.make Akiba is the most ambitious IoT - focused maker space in Japan, and they are already attracting international attention and the community has produced some pretty innovative hardware startups.

It’s a great interview, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Long before the maker movement existed, Akihabara was world famous as a destination for hardware geeks, robotics nerds, and audiophiles and tinkerers of all kinds. Hundreds of tiny specialty shops lined the areas back streets and did a surprising brisk business in items you could not find anywhere else. The internet changed all that. ...

Uber and Airbnb represent a new very kind of startup, one that could not have existed twenty years ago, and the very thing that make these companies so transformative in the United States ensures they will never succeed in Japan. You see...

Uber and Airbnb represent a new very kind of startup, one that could not have existed twenty years ago, and the very thing that make these companies so transformative in the United States ensures they will never succeed in Japan. You see...