Disrupting Japan

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Show 37: Creating Japan’s Open Internet – Kaneto Kanemoto

January 19, 2016 By Tim Romero 4 Comments

kaneto-kanemoto-startup-founder-okwaveMore than ten years before Quora and ZenDesk became famous, there was OKWave. Kaneto Kanemoto founded OKWave to address a massive problem that was unique to the Japanese internet in the mid-1990’s. Most of the country felt the situation was inevitable, even natural, but Kaneto knew it had to change.

You see, a strict code of conduct governs almost all aspects of business and social behavior in Japan, and as a result, most Japanese are exceptionally polite in day-to-day interactions. However, when the anonymity of the Internet was introduced into the mix, a very different aspect  of Japanese society came to the forefront. One that involved bullying, hostility and exclusion.

Kaneto founded OKWave to address these problems on the Internet in particular and in society in general, and has succeeded remarkably at both. The Internet is a far more helpful and much more welcoming place thanks to Kaneto and OKWave.

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

http://media.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/p/content.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/Disrupting-Japan-037-Kaneto-Kanemoto-OKWave.mp3

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Show Notes for Startups

  • What people ask when no one is watching
  • How to get Japan’s biggest companies to work together
  • Growing up Korean in Japan
  • Homelessness and waking up to what is possible
  • The most dangerous funding you can ever receive
  • What is the most important difference among the current generation of startup founders

[Continue reading]

Tagged With: founder, Japan, Kaneto Kanemoto, OKWave, startup

Show 36: The Happiest Company in the World – Yuka Fujii

January 5, 2016 By Tim Romero Leave a Comment

yuka-Ffujii-statup-founder-fammary
Yuka considers Famarry to be the happiest company in the world, and looking at who her customers are, I think she just might be right.

But behind this happy company is an aggressive plan to disrupt a cartel of photo studios that have dominated the market for decades. Changes in technology and demographics has opened up a small crack in the wall, and Famarry plans on using it to gain a foothold and then to change the entire industry for the better.

We also talk about why so many foreign startups coming into Japan fail and why sometimes a Japanese market that looks ripe for easy disruption turns out to be far more resistant to change than you would ever imagine. Even when that change would benefit almost all players in the market.

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

http://media.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/p/content.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/Disrupting-Japan-036-Yuka_Fujii-Fammary.mp3

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Show Notes for Startups

  • Breaking into the wedding business
  • From weddings to lifetime customers
  • What was the first disruption of Japan’s photography market
  • Why freelancers take better photos
  • Why Japan’s photo-studios are going out of business
  • Why rapid growth takes time
  • Why Famarry is the happiest business in the world
  • What foreigners need to know about the Japanese market
[Continue reading]

Tagged With: Famarry, founder, Japan, startup, Yuka Fujii

Show 35: How Startup Thinking is Changing the Japanese Government – William Saito

December 22, 2015 By Tim Romero 4 Comments

William SaitoIt’s hard to imagine an organization more resistant to change and disruption than the government of Japan. But today’s guest, William Saito has made it his mission to bring innovation to the way the Japanese bureaucracy operates. And more astoundingly, he’s actually having an effect.

William is in a unique situation as a special advisor to the Japanese cabinet, and brings the perspective of a successful startup founder to solving beuqacratic problems. We talk about both the challenges and the strategic advantages that Japan has in the coming decades and discuss a few areas where new Japanese technology has a real change of soon becoming the global standard.

Our discussion gives me hope that innovative change in Japan is is possible not only bottom-up from the startups but top-down from the government. And if the goals are aligned, Japanese innovation will be a truly unstoppable force.

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

http://media.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/p/content.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/Disrupting-Japan-035-William_Saito.mp3

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Show Notes for Startups

  • Starting a company in HS & running it in Med school
  • Why most companies fail
  • Why William chose Japan over Microsoft
  • Government problem solving as an entrepreneurial activity
  • How startups and government can work together
  • The importance of teamwork in Japan
  • Why women have an important role to play in Japanese startups
  • The unique opportunities in health care and elder care in Japan
  • The most important change Japan could make to improve entrepreneurship

[Continue reading]

Tagged With: founder, government, Japan, William Saito

Show 34: The Myth of the Sucessful Startup Failure – Hiroshi Nagashima

December 8, 2015 By Tim Romero 11 Comments

startup_founder_hiroshi_nagashimaStartup culture has crazy and contradictory views about failure. As founders we are told to fail fast, but also to never give up. We are told to follow our vision, but be ready to pivot.

Somehow this macho-bullshit culture of “I never really fail and ‘m not afraid of failure.” has become dominant amount founders. But it’s the result of denial. Trivializing failure is a way of not thinking about it’s effects.

The truth is that failure sucks. Failure is painful. Failure ends friendships and marriages. I suspect that most who trivialize it are eager deeply afraid of failure or have never really failed at anything important.

Today Hiroshi Nagashima tells a story of a startup gone very wrong. You’ll hear the red-flags start to appear as the story unfolds. There are important lessons to be learned here, but not just strategic ones.

Hiro’s honest story about what it really feels like to have the company you love fall apart and what t’s like to try to put your life back together in failure-phobic Japan is something all startup founders need to understand.

It’s a great story with no cliches, no feel-good rationalizations and no bullshit.

I think you’ll get a lot out of this one.

http://media.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/p/content.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/Disrupting-Japan-034-Hiroshi_Nagashima-Sharebu.mp3

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Show Notes for Startups

  • Early days and optimistic growth
  • First signs of danger come from the VCs
  • Pivots and strategic changes
  • Hiding the dangers from the employees
  • What it really means to go all-in
  • The real fear about failure
  • The reaction of Japanese companies to failure
  • Lessons learned and a new start

[Continue reading]

Tagged With: failure, founder, Japan, startup

Show 33: How Japan Can Get Her Innovation Mojo Back – Sorato Ijichi

November 24, 2015 By Tim Romero Leave a Comment

Ijichi Sorato Startup founder CrewJapan was once home to some of the most innovative companies on the planet, but those companies lost their innovate edge a long time ago. Today, many are betting on startups to change the course of the Japanese economy and to some extent, that’s already starting to happen. Ijichi Sorato of Creww, however, is betting on a different approach to win out, that of Open Innovation.

The future Ijichi envisions, involves not large, old companies being pushed aside and replaced by newer, more innovative firms, but that of innovative smaller firms being co-opted and absorbed into larger firms, either via M&A or via exclusive partnerships and supply chain integration.

We talk a lot about the challenges large Japanese companies face in working with startups and why hackathons rarely produce value for either sponsor or participant in Japan, and the one thing that needs to change before Japanese enterprises can work conformable with startups.

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

http://media.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/p/content.blubrry.com/disrupting_japan/Disrupting-Japan-033-Sorato_Ijichi-Creww.mp3

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Show Notes for Startups

  • The rise and fall of Japan’s own Angel List
  • Why angel investing is weak in Japan
  • How even startups can build long-term relationships
  • Why Japan’s traditional supply chain is breaking down
  • How startups can sell to Japanese enterprise accounts
  • What changes large companies need to make before successfully working with startups
  • Why hackathons don’t work in Japan
  • How Creww might put themselves out of a job

[Continue reading]

Tagged With: creww, founder, Japan, startup

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