Disrupting Japan

We are about to start seeing more cars but fewer drivers on the road. Self-driving vehicles are already moving out of the labs and onto the roads world-wide, and Yuki Saji thinks Japan has a unique competitive advantage in the space.

Yuki is CEO of SB Drive, Softbank’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary which was recently spun out. We talk a lot about the future of driverless cars, of course, but also look into what Softbank, one of Japan’s largest and most valuable companies. is doing to ensure that it can continue to innovate and to also make sure the innovators within the company connect with each other and stay part of the corporate group.

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

We are about to start seeing more cars but fewer drivers on the road. Self-driving vehicles are already moving out of the labs and onto the roads world-wide, and Yuki Saji thinks Japan has a unique competitive advantage in the space.

Yuki is CEO of SB Drive, Softbank’s...

Japan could be, and perhaps should be, a BioTech startup powerhouse. The size of the market, the aging population and the depth and quality of the fundamental research being done here should make Japan a global player.

But something is holding her back.

Today we talk to Yutaro Kyono and Yoichiro Hara, two of the co-founders of Molcure about the challenges facing BioTech in Japan and how they have managed to get around them.

The Molcure system greatly reduces the time and resources to develop anti-body based drugs by identifying candidate gene sequences and automating the testing of those candidates. But Molcure's vision is bigger than that. They envision a system so automated and complete they refer to it as “Sample in. Cure Out"

It’s an amazingly ambitious plan, even in the startup world, and they have some big challenges ahead of them. It’s a great story from an ambitious team, and I think you’ll enjoy the conversation.

Japan could be, and perhaps should be, a BioTech startup powerhouse. The size of the market, the aging population and the depth and quality of the fundamental research being done here should make Japan a global player.

But something is holding her back.

Everyone talks about the importance of international markets and how startups need to think globally from day one. Few companies, however, build that goal into their DNA as completely as Miku Hirano’s Cinnamon.

Cinnamon’s core product, Tuya is a micro-video sharing platform where users share four-second clips about their daily lives. The visual nature gives Tuya obvious international appeal. However, Cinnamon has a core team of Japanese founders, with primarily Japanese backers, and they founded their company in Singapore, hired staff in Vietnam, and then moved to Tawain to launch the product.

These days language barriers are easily crossed and relocating the company for product launch is just part of the go-to-market strategy.

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

Everyone talks about the importance of international markets and how startups need to think globally from day one. Few companies, however, build that goal into their DNA as completely as Miku Hirano’s Cinnamon.

Cinnamon’s core product, Tuya is a micro-video sharing platform...

Japanese banking is one of the most conservative industries in one of the most conservative countries in the world. That’s what makes it both so difficult and so profitable to disrupt.

Today, Paul Chapman talks to us about the founding and growth of Moneytree, a personal finance app that is quickly growing into something much bigger and more important.

Japan still has a reputation as being a closed market, and it is harder than many, but if Paul and his two Western co-foudners can make this big an impact in such a traditional and conservative industry, it seems that things are opening up here.

Paul also gives some practical advice for foreigners, or anyone else, who is thinking of starting a startup in Japan.

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

Japanese banking is one of the most conservative industries in one of the most conservative countries in the world. That’s what makes it both so difficult and so profitable to disrupt.

Today, Paul Chapman talks to us about the founding and growth of Moneytree, a personal finance app that is quickly growing into something much bigger and more important.

Over the last 25 years, both Zest and Yuki Ito have been through several different incarnations. Interestingly, these incarnations perfectly mirror the changes we have seen in Japan’s startup scene in that time.

Today Zest makes cloud-based, field-service software, which is used to dispatch expensive resources for complex jobs, but they started out years ago as a software outsourcer when that was almost the only option for a small technology startup.

We talk about Zest's products and plans, of course, but Yuki’s own story of becoming a programer when Japanese girls simply did not do that kind of thing, and how she grew her business even in a time when Japanese women simply did not make sales calls, is an amazing one.

It’s a great conversation with an incredibly resilient entrepreneur, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Over the last 25 years, both Zest and Yuki Ito have been through several different incarnations. Interestingly, these incarnations perfectly mirror the changes we have seen in Japan’s startup scene in that time.

Today Zest makes cloud-based, field-service software, which ...