017 – Ichiro! Taro Fukuyama, Co-founder of AnyPerk – Wants to Meet You!

Taro Fukuyama, came from Japan with a suitcase and a belief that the streets were lined with investors. He also believed it would be easy to get a visa. Neither of course are true, but with persistence he got both. Taro co-founded and is CEO of AnyPerk, a fast growing provider of pre-negotiated perks to over 2,500 companies. After reading about Taro in Fast Company Magazine’s “7 People Under 30 Who Are Changing Our World”, I set out to meet him. I discovered that Taro while he has achieved so much, has not fulfilled the other reason he came to America: to meet the ten time Major League Baseball All Star winner, Ichiro Suzuki.

Taro Fukuyama, came from Japan with a suitcase and a belief that the streets were lined with investors. He also believed it would be easy to get a visa. Neither of course are true, but with persistence he got both. Taro co-founded and is CEO of AnyPerk, a fast growing provider of pre-negotiated perks to over 2,500 companies. After reading about Taro in Fast Company Magazine’s 7 people under 30 who are changing our world, and set out to meet him. I discovered that Taro while he has achieved so much, has not fulfilled the other reason he came to America: to meet the ten time Major League Baseball All Star winner, Ichiro Suzuki.

Taro Fukuyama lived in America for one year, during his high school years. The other kids did not give Taro much notice, but he noticed they loved Ichiro Suzuki, the Japanese baseball player, a former Yankees outfielder, currently a right fielder for the Miami Marlins.

Taro realized that America was a country that respected accomplishment.

Taro returned to Japan, to attend law school at Keio University (which ranks third in the world in having alumni serving as CEOs of Fortune Global 500 Companies). After graduating, he wanted to return to the land of Ichiro. Because he could not get a visa, he ended up in Singapore for almost two years, but in 2011 came to San Francisco looking for investors for his new business idea.

He soon ran out of money. He lived in car in a Taco Bell parking lot. Then in a cheap $10 per night hotel in San Francisco’s Mission District. He was sad. He gave up. There was one more day before he had to return to Japan.

He hustled his way into the Disrupt Conference, put on my TechCrunch, as a translator. As YC Combinator founder Paul Grahm walked the aisle after his speech, Taro with limited English made his pitch.

With a one percent chance of success, AnyPerk ultimately received a $1.45 million investment from YC Combinator, with follow-up investments from Gary Vaynerchuk, AJ Vaynerchuk, James Lin and Tim Fong, and VC firms.

Taro talks about the challenges of coming here without a perfect plan, how his ignorance of many legal or practical obstacles proved an advantage, getting his visa, and his most important skill set. He lays out his advice for new entrepreneurs, as he was just four years ago.

Now Taro is looking forward to meet the one who inspired him to return to America – to be his best – Ichiro!

TRANSCRIPT

Kent (1:24): So Taro you are living in San Francisco now. Is that right?

Taro: Correct.

Kent: How do you like living there?

Taro: It’s alright. It’s a little expensive. I miss food in Tokyo, but I say this is one of the best places to run a company, so I am very happy to be here.

Kent: What is your best memory Taro of your hometown, Tokyo?

Taro: I would say the food is really good. Every time you go to a sushi place, the service is good and the food itself is good, the drink is good. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Kent: How are the prices for sushi in Japan compared to here?

Taro: I would say the same or a little cheaper than here. Between 50-100 bucks per person is a kind of reference to a good sushi place.

Kent (2:03): So when you were thinking about leaving Japan, where you thinking of a variety of countries or were you just thinking California?