Startup Asia has landed in the Land of the Rising Sun! Our inaugural event in Tokyo kicked off with a welcome address by Andrew Wang, Tech in Asia’s head of Japan. He expressed the team’s dedication to covering the domestic ecosystem and assured the audience that our first local event is definitely not the last.
Here we go! Our Head of Japan, Andrew, opens the event. #StartupAsia pic.twitter.com/01h2sYYum6
— Daniel Tay (@legendt) September 3, 2014
Keynote by DeNA’s Tomoko Namba – Building a global business from Japan
Namba-san opened her keynote speech by talking about DeNA’s roots – as an auction company. After Yahoo Japan entered the market, she was forced to change her game plan, which eventually landed on mobile gaming.
Namba also talked about difficulty in building her “dream team” at DeNA due to Japan’s conservative ideas about working for established firms versus startups:
When recruiting, sometimes a candidate’s parents would come to me and say, ‘Your company is too small, so I don’t want [my son or daughter] to work for you.’ Their child graduates college and comes up to mom or dad and says, ‘I wanna work for a startup.’ The parents get angry and are surprised to hear that the name of the company is funny and the CEO is a woman! We had to do more than just recruiting – we had to convince families to let their children work for us.
Namba’s advice to would-be entrepreneurs? When it comes to hardships – competitors, hiring hurdles, even personal issues – prepare yourself for the unexpected and find a trustworthy partner to lean on when the going gets tough.
As for the future, outside of the gaming industry, Namba is serious about providing DNA testing as a preventative healthcare measure.
Fireside chat with Tomoko Namba about DeNA’s founding story and challenges ahead
Tech in Asia’s David Corbin joined Namba on stage to learn more about what attracted her to entrepreneurship. She told the audience that she didn’t imagine becoming a company founder when she was growing up. However, after founding DeNA and ending up in the red early on, she similarly couldn’t imagine doing anything but moving forward.
.@tomochinski: Everyone felt we were losers. But I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel. I never thought of quitting. #StartupAsia
— Tech in Asia (@Techinasia) September 3, 2014
Namba talked extensively about her company’s 23andMe-esque DNA testing service – a partnership with Tokyo University called Mycode that was sparked by an illness in her own family.
“Health is something that you don’t realize is so important until you lose it,” Namba said.
She said that the service, unlike the US competitor, is fully compliant with Japanese regulations – so she’s not worried about being shut down as a consumer service. Namba said the service is specifically targeting Japan and the Asian market due to similarities in Asian genes.
Our first fireside chat of the day. Here’s DeNA’s Tomoko Namba with our Japan-based writer, David Corbin!#startupasia pic.twitter.com/ijZkmgV3wZ
— Tech in Asia (@Techinasia) September 3, 2014
Asked if DeNA is shifting away from gaming to more of a consumer healthcare company – after previously shifting from auctions and ecommerce to gaming – Nambda replied:
We’ve never shifted, but we add business models. We may still be known as a gaming and entertainment company, but of course we have ecommerce and now healthcare. Depending on what you’re interested in, you may view DeNA differently.
Keynote by Fenox Venture Capital’s Anis Uzzaman – Why Southeast Asia is the next hot spot for Japanese businesses
Uzzaman talked about opportunities for Japanese companies to expand into Southeast Asia – made possible largely due to the rapid growth of internet and mobile phone users. Because of Japan’s demographics crunch – the country is both aging and shrinking simultaneously – Japanese companies have no choice but to look overseas for growth.
.@anis_uzzaman talks bout how to work close with emerging tech companies to access South Eastern market #StartupAsia pic.twitter.com/PquWgVbRF4
— Hiroki Watanabe (@hirokibacardi) September 3, 2014
He pointed to Indonesia as a shining example of where to scale out, thanks to a youthful, tech-obsessed population with a favorable view of Japan. He also stressed the importance of hiring locals who understand the market instead of filling an office with Japanese staff.
(Disclosure: Fenox is an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information.)
Asia startup showcase – Luxola
Why enter the beauty space? It’s huge and financially lucrative, but underserved in Southeast Asia says Luxola co-founder Alexis Horowitz-Burdick. The company – with warehouses in SIngapore, Indonesia, and Thailand – is on track to quadruple last year’s sales figures.
Luxola sees more than four million pageviews a month and is the only service that offers same-day delivery in Singapore, Jakarta, and Bangkok.
“The customer lifestyle for beauty in Southeast Asia has moved online,” Horowitz-Burdick said.
Asia startup showcase – Touchten
Touchten co-founder Anton Soeharyo talked about how his company zeroed in on popular culture – like the Japanese love of sushi and soccer – to find success in the crowded mobile gaming space. The Indonesian indie game studio has seen more than 10 million downloads since launching in 2009.
.@antonsoeharyo on stage now! Talks about TouchTen’s path and Indonesian gaming market. #StartupAsia pic.twitter.com/Wgmg39AKS5
— 大日方祐介 /Obi (@obnty) September 3, 2014
Fireside chat – Building a Silicon Valley style startup in Tokyo, the Gengo way
Gengo is a rarity in Japan as a Tokyo-based startup run by foreigners.Robert Laing, Gengo CEO and co-founder, talked with Tech in Asia’s Paul Bischoff about how the company found success in a country that isn’t always the most welcoming to outsiders and where Gengo is headed down the road.
“Consumer startups are risky, but enterprise B2B businesses are very lucrative,” Laing said. “That’s where I want to take Gengo.”
When asked if any bootstrapping bilingual entrepreneurs can make some side income by translating for Gengo, Laing said that they absolutely could – but only if they pass the notoriously difficult Gengo test.
.@Robert_Laing CEO http://t.co/Fnbmy0TH4F: “Launching a new market is like launching a new startup.” #StartupAsia pic.twitter.com/0w7nJX2uWx
— Dave McClure (@davemcclure) September 3, 2014
Most Gengo translations are under 500 words. Add that to the fact that the company employs more than 12,000 translators globally and turnaround time is often less than an hour.
“Some clients order a translation before lunch, then find it completed when they get back to the office,” Laing said.
How much money is Gengo raking in? Laing wouldn’t share a hard number, but did say that revenue has been doubling every year.
Laing said that he supports domestic companies like Rakuten that place a strong emphasis on doing business in English.
Discussion – Japanese corporate involvement in the startup scene
A group representing corporate Japan (and the government) took the stage for a discussion on how Japan Inc. can support startups. In conservative Japan, where new employees are hired through post-graduation entrance exams and lifetime employment still exists, acceptance of rough-and-tumble entrepreneurs still has a long way to go – but the tides may be turning.
“I founded my company 15 years ago, but haven’t seen too much change in the attitudes of big companies since then,” said Infoteria founder and CEO Pina Hirano. “Now, we see a lot of startups in Japan – but not much of an increase in support for them. Big companies are hard to access and their decision-making processes are very complicated.”
Hirano, who was recently profiled by Tech in Asia, said that startups need to find the person within a large firm, like Sony for example, who is genuinely interested in supporting entrepreneurs. Once that relationship is solidified, they can gain access to the important people in those firms for potential collaboration or investment.
Representatives from major Japanese corporations give their take on the local startup scene. #StartupAsia pic.twitter.com/IZhFFHocYe
— Tech in Asia (@Techinasia) September 3, 2014
Yoshihiko Kawamura, a senior vice president at financial behemoth Mitsubishi Corporation, insisted that his company is becoming more “venture friendly.” (You can read an in-depth interview with Kawamura here).
Yoshiaki Ishii of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) discussed ongoing changes in line with Abenomics and its “third arrow” of regulatory reforms – which place a strong emphasis on boosting the domestic startup ecosystem. He revealed that a METI survey of listed companies found that 70 percent were not satisfied with the current system for creating new businesses.
That wraps up the morning sessions for day one here at Startup Asia Tokyo. After a lunch and networking break, we’ll be back with more. Check back later for a summary of the afternoon’s happenings. You can also follow the action on Twitter by searching for the #StartupAsia hashtag.
The post Highlights from day 1 morning sessions at Startup Asia Tokyo 2014 appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Highlights from day 1 morning sessions at Startup Asia Tokyo 2014
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