Disrupting Japan

IPO of Realcom was just a milestone in a longer journey to change the way people work together and share information. Now, I realise, that sounds like a typical committee-written and board-approved mission statement from any number of enterprise software companies. But as you get to know Tadashi, you begin to understand that he not only means it, but lives it.

Tadashi started Realcom at the worst possible time - just as the Internet bubble was breaking, and he set about selling a knowledge information product and service package that his customers did not even know they needed -- at first. Many were not optimistic about his prospects early on, but hundreds of customers and a successful IPO has proven the critics wrong.

These days, Tadashi is spending a lot of time on his new Tenex project in which he is investing in and mentoring the current generation of Japanese startup founders.

Show Notes

- How the encourage effective information sharing

- The true startup talent shortage in Japan is not engineers

- The key difference between networking in San Francisco and Tokyo

- What's driving the recent growth in M&A in Japan

- Why international experience is essential to understanding your own country

- The secret to successful communicating & networking in a foreign language

- What Japanese startups need to change to go global

- Why American companies make better customers for startups

- The question every new founder needs to ask themselves

Tadashi Tanimoto is a man with a big successes behind him and a big dream ahead of him. The IPO of Realcom was just a milestone in a longer journey to change the way people work together and share information. Now, I realize, that sounds like a typical committee-written and board-approved mission statement from any number of enterprise software companies. But as you get to know Tadashi, you begin to understand that he not only means it, but lives it.

Jason came to Japan from Australia to study martial arts, and his company MakeLeaps is now kicking ass in online invoicing. Jason bootstrapped MakeLeaps himself and he and his partner, Paul Oswald grew the company organically, acquired two of their domestic competitors, and recently became the first Japanese company to receive funding from an AngelList syndicate.

Jason and I sat down over way too many beers and talk about what life is like for foreigners who start and grow a companies in Japan.

Show Notes

- How to identify a promising niche market in Japan

- Japanese "invoice culture"

- Fundraising strategies for Japanese startups

- How to buy-out your competition even with limited funds

- The best way for foreigners to sell effectively in Japan

- How to turn a terrible work situation into a successful company

Jason came to Japan from Australia to study martial arts, and his company MakeLeaps is now kicking ass in online invoicing. Jason bootstrapped MakeLeaps himself and he and his partner, Paul Oswald grew the company organically, acquired two of their domestic competitors, and recently became the first Japanese company to receive funding from an AngelList syndicate.

The startup ecosystems in America and Europe are built around people like Ikuo, but men like him are still quite rare in Japan. After founding a series of successful (and a few less than successful) startups, Ikuo moved to the other side of the table and begin investing and mentoring.

Japanese venture capital firms are still dominated by bankers and MBAs, but the situation is starting to change as more and more successful Japanese entrepreneurs begin investing in the next generation of Japanese startups.

Show Notes

- Who are the new Japanese angel investors, and why they are important

- How Japanese attitudes towards failure are beginning to change

New hiring patterns for startup employees and founders in Japan

- Why insiders are optimistic about the future of Japanese startups

- Why venture capital funds should be run like startup ventures

- Osaka's unique startup challenges and solutions

The startup ecosystems in America and Europe are built around people like Ikuo, but men like him are still quite rare in Japan. After founding a series of successful (and a few less than successful) startups, Ikuo moved to the other side of the table and begin investing and mentoring.

It was a unique combination of Naoki's adventure driving through the US, his ongoing frustration in working for a large Japanese firm, and his love of an anime character from his childhood that inspired him to start his own venture and to try to change the way we communicate with each other via translation. Conyac is a collaborative translation platform with an innovative approach to ensuring product quality and customer satisfaction.

At the end of the interview he manages to turn the mic back on me and we talk about the challenges of achieving some semblance of a work-life balance while running a startup in Japan.

==Show Notes

Naoki explains how Conyac is finding a niche in the hyper-competitive space of crowdsourced translation, their innovative approach to ensuring quality, and how they plan to expand internationally from their current beachhead. We talk about...

- Pivoting his company from a B2C to a B2B focus

- The Japanese view failure, risk and startups

- Raising venture money in Japan. Are we seeing the start of a bubble?

- How to get large Japanese firms to work with startups

- The value of Japanese incubation programs

- Regulations that make things hard for Japanese startups

- Trying to achieve a work-life balance in Japan

It was a unique combination of Naoki's adventure driving through the US, his ongoing frustration in working for a large Japanese firm, and his love of an anime character from his childhood that inspired him to start his own venture and to try to change the way we communicate with each other via translation. Conyac is a collaborative translation platform with an innovative approach to ensuring product quality and customer satisfaction.

Business cards are far more important in Asia than they are in the West. Business cards command the same level of respect and deference as the person they belong to. Here in Japan, there are many times when a business conversation cannot get underway until all cards have been exchanged and everyone knows exactly who they are dealing with.

It's really no surprise then that Japan's fastest-growing business-networking and CRM platform, Sansan, uses business cards as their model. While LinkedIn, based on the Western notion of business networking, has been slow to gain traction in Japan Sansan has been growing at an amazing pace, and they are now expanding into the US and southeast Asia.

Chiaka and I sit down for a frank talk about business card culture and the challenges in moving into overseas markets.

Show Notes

- Today's Japanese business card etiquette, and how it is changing

Achieving a good product fit across multiple markets

- Why Chika's decision to start Sansan in Japan rather than America helped him grow

- Practical advice for big-company employees who want to start their own venture

- How to get large companies to work with small startups

- Some positive government efforts to promote entrepreneurship in Japan

- Japan's new angel investors and how they are changing the venture capital game

Business cards are far more important in Asia than they are in the West. Business cards command the same level of respect and deference as the person they belong to. Here in Japan, there are many times when a business conversation cannot get underway until all cards have been exchanged and everyone knows exactly ...