THE BRIDGE

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How venture capitalists can help entrepreneurs? [NES 2014 panel]

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This is a part of our coverage of the Japan New Economy Summit 2014. You can follow our updates on Twitter as well at @thebridge_e. On day two of the New Economy Summit here in Tokyo last week, we heard a panel about how venture capitalists can help entrepreneurs both here in Japan and abroad. Moderated by Daisuke Iwase, the president and COO of Lifenet Life Insurance Company, the session included: George Kellerman, managing partner and fire chief at 500 Startups Akio Tanaka, partner at Infinity Ventures LLP David Lee, co-founder and managing partner at SV Angel SV Angel’s David Lee kicked off the session by making a brief introduction to his firm. Since its launch back in 2009, SV Angel have been investing in tech notable startups including Twitter, Pinterest, Square, Dropbox, and Airbnb in their early stages. Akio Tanaka introduced Infinity Venture Partners’ recent activities in nurturing the start ecosystem in China. He gave us a look at the Chinese answer to Angellist, 36kr (one of their portfolio startups), as well as their recently established startup hub in Beijing, TechTemple. To accelerate the startup ecosystem in Japan, he emphasized that large companies should play a key role. In…

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From the left: David Lee (SV Angel), Akio Tanaka (Infinity Venture Partners), George Kellerman (500startups)

This is a part of our coverage of the Japan New Economy Summit 2014. You can follow our updates on Twitter as well at @thebridge_e.

On day two of the New Economy Summit here in Tokyo last week, we heard a panel about how venture capitalists can help entrepreneurs both here in Japan and abroad. Moderated by Daisuke Iwase, the president and COO of Lifenet Life Insurance Company, the session included:

  • George Kellerman, managing partner and fire chief at 500 Startups
  • Akio Tanaka, partner at Infinity Ventures LLP
  • David Lee, co-founder and managing partner at SV Angel
venture-capitalist-lee
SV Angel’s David Lee

SV Angel’s David Lee kicked off the session by making a brief introduction to his firm. Since its launch back in 2009, SV Angel have been investing in tech notable startups including Twitter, Pinterest, Square, Dropbox, and Airbnb in their early stages.

venture-capitalist-tanaka
Infinity Venture Partners’ Akio Tanaka

Akio Tanaka introduced Infinity Venture Partners’ recent activities in nurturing the start ecosystem in China. He gave us a look at the Chinese answer to Angellist, 36kr (one of their portfolio startups), as well as their recently established startup hub in Beijing, TechTemple.

To accelerate the startup ecosystem in Japan, he emphasized that large companies should play a key role. In the US, such companies have been helping startups by circulating capital and human resources around the ecosystem. Even in China, larger organizations such as Baidu and Tencent are investing in tech startups more and more rather than buying them out or copying their business models.

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500startups’ George Kellerman

500 Startups’ George Kellerman says that his firm has invested in more than 700 companies in the last four years. Noting that established companies in Japan reserve as much as 150 trillion yen (about $1.5 trillion) as their retained earnings, he insisted that they have to put at least 0.1% of it towards accelerating the startup ecosystem. That could either be by acquiring startups, forming funds, or investing in existing investment funds. Another important effort needed for the ecosystem can be made by inviting more women to the workplace, he says.

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Addressing a question about how investors can help entrepreneurs, Lee said that one of the most important roles for investors is to serve as a mentor and role model:

In addition to providing money, investors need to help entrepreneurs hire good people, and advise with their business development and overall business operations, since younger entrepreneurs typically don’t have management experience.

Kellerman added:

A lot of VC people have operating background from the tech industry. My founder Dave McClure previously worked with PayPal as head of engineering, and I also worked with Yahoo and Dell. For investors, money is the easy part. That’s a commodity. Investors have to pass on their knowledge of operational experience to startups.

Tokyo Entrepreneurs United: Upcoming event aims to bring them all together

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We get a chance to attend quite a few technology and startup related events here in Tokyo. This week TechCrunch Tokyo was the big one, and we were pleased to see many of the country’s upcoming startups in attendance. But on the horizon later this month is an evening that aspires to bring together some diverse entrepreneurial initiatives and communities. The folks from Mobile Monday are spearheading what looks to be a fun networking event dubbed Tokyo Startups United, taking place on the night of Wednesday, November 27. It comes on the heels of Startup Weekend and will be ‘the’ after-party following Global Entrepreneurship Week. Judging by the partnering groups, it looks like it’s going to be a diverse crowd, and we’re delighted to be able to come along as a media partner for such a worthwhile event. It’s especially interesting for us because I think some of the challenges facing the Japanese startup community could be remedied by more cultural cross-pollination [1]. For all the details, and advance registration, do check out the DoorKeeper announcement, or jump on over to the Facebook event page. If you have a fun startup that you’d like to tell us about, do get…

tokyo-startups-united_2

We get a chance to attend quite a few technology and startup related events here in Tokyo. This week TechCrunch Tokyo was the big one, and we were pleased to see many of the country’s upcoming startups in attendance. But on the horizon later this month is an evening that aspires to bring together some diverse entrepreneurial initiatives and communities.

The folks from Mobile Monday are spearheading what looks to be a fun networking event dubbed Tokyo Startups United, taking place on the night of Wednesday, November 27. It comes on the heels of Startup Weekend and will be ‘the’ after-party following Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Judging by the partnering groups, it looks like it’s going to be a diverse crowd, and we’re delighted to be able to come along as a media partner for such a worthwhile event. It’s especially interesting for us because I think some of the challenges facing the Japanese startup community could be remedied by more cultural cross-pollination [1].

For all the details, and advance registration, do check out the DoorKeeper announcement, or jump on over to the Facebook event page.

If you have a fun startup that you’d like to tell us about, do get in touch with us as we’d love to see you there.


  1. See our recent piece on unfortunate Japanese startup names, as well as @randomwire’s awesome piece on why Japanese web design is so different, of which we published a Japanese translation today.  ↩

6 questions entrepreneurs should prepare for before first-time media interviews

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See the original article in Japanese When I interview entrepreneurs, it’s not uncommon to hear people say: “This is my first media interview. I don’t know what to say." I think some might feel a little better by preparing for an interview beforehand. So with that in mind, here is a list of the questions that I usually ask entrepreneurs. What made you start your business? What is your product? How does your product different from others? How did you come up with this idea? How do you think your product can change the world? What is your short-term goal? These are the minimum questions I ask entrepreneurs who have just started a business. Let me explain why: What made you start your business? What I’d like to know here is the personality of the entrepreneur. Sometimes I can hear some stories of how they started their business, or they might tell anecdotes about how they came up with the idea. Those stories can help me better understanding the person. This is one of the most important questions. What is your product? In some cases, the product comes first when it comes to telling a company’s story. Perhaps they founded…

Some rights reserved by smiling_da_vinci
Some rights reserved by smiling_da_vinci

See the original article in Japanese

When I interview entrepreneurs, it’s not uncommon to hear people say: “This is my first media interview. I don’t know what to say." I think some might feel a little better by preparing for an interview beforehand. So with that in mind, here is a list of the questions that I usually ask entrepreneurs.

  • What made you start your business?
  • What is your product?
  • How does your product different from others?
  • How did you come up with this idea?
  • How do you think your product can change the world?
  • What is your short-term goal?

These are the minimum questions I ask entrepreneurs who have just started a business. Let me explain why:

What made you start your business?

What I’d like to know here is the personality of the entrepreneur. Sometimes I can hear some stories of how they started their business, or they might tell anecdotes about how they came up with the idea. Those stories can help me better understanding the person. This is one of the most important questions.

What is your product?

In some cases, the product comes first when it comes to telling a company’s story. Perhaps they founded the company to market the product, and that product is heavily intertwined with the business.
I make sure to collect some information about the product before an interview, and I try to elicit more stories from the entrepreneur. This is so I can understand the personality of the entrepreneur by seeing how passionately the person speaks.

As one of our writers mentioned in a past article, sometimes the personality of an entrepreneur has a big influence on the product.

How is your product different from others?

Based on my experiences interviewing entrepreneurs, there are rarely “brand new” products. When I hear about a product from an entrepreneur, a similar product comes to my mind in most cases.

I have to identify the originality of the product somehow, and that’s what I’m trying to figure out with this question. The answer will help me understand how well the entrepreneur knows the strengths and the originality of the product and how much he/she has researched the competition. And of course, I can understand the product better by asking this question.

How do you think your product will change the world?

This question is a minor question, one that not all reporters will ask. I ask it sometimes. Some entrepreneurs might give you an answer similar to why they started the business. But some go further, explaining what kind of impact on the world and the society their business can have. You can elicit more ambitious thoughts by asking this question.
I get excited when I hear big ambition from entrepreneurs, like Hironao Kunimitsu, the cofounder of Gumi. Entrepreneurs who have big goals and vision and are always attractive to me.

What is your short-term goal?

This is a more detailed question. I ask about a short-term goal they have set and what detailed action they plan is in place to help achieve it. By asking about both long-term and short-term goals, I can see the road map they have in mind.

They cannot disclose everything open to public. But understanding short-term goals and action plans will help me understand how much growth I can expect.

As the race for high-skilled immigrants begins, does Japan want to compete?

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If you have spent any time reading tech blogs today, you’ve likely stumbled across Mary Meeker’s/KPCB’s annual report on internet trends. It’s packed with lots of great info, and I encourage you to check it out. Or if you don’t have time for 117 slides check out this summary over on AllThingsD. But looking a little closer, I was curious to find that Meeker released another report today entitled Immigration in America and the Growing Shortage of High Skilled Workers (see the full slide deck here). I thought perhaps this might be of greater interest to readers here on SD Japan, as many of the problems faced by the US are faced by other countries too, including Japan. Readers may recall that at last week’s Infinity Ventures Summit, we heard Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani say: The Japanese market is shrinking, and you have to go compete in the international market. But because Japan’s system is so closed, many talented engineers leave Japan. In the US there are over 200,000 or 300,000 engineers. We are lacking in volume, and could bring engineers from overseas. But then there are visa issues to handle. ¶ Regarding this latter labor issue, Meeker provides a…

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Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has noted that Japan could bring more engineers from abroad

If you have spent any time reading tech blogs today, you’ve likely stumbled across Mary Meeker’s/KPCB’s annual report on internet trends. It’s packed with lots of great info, and I encourage you to check it out. Or if you don’t have time for 117 slides check out this summary over on AllThingsD.

But looking a little closer, I was curious to find that Meeker released another report today entitled Immigration in America and the Growing Shortage of High Skilled Workers (see the full slide deck here). I thought perhaps this might be of greater interest to readers here on SD Japan, as many of the problems faced by the US are faced by other countries too, including Japan.

Readers may recall that at last week’s Infinity Ventures Summit, we heard Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani say:

The Japanese market is shrinking, and you have to go compete in the international market. But because Japan’s system is so closed, many talented engineers leave Japan. In the US there are over 200,000 or 300,000 engineers. We are lacking in volume, and could bring engineers from overseas. But then there are visa issues to handle.

Regarding this latter labor issue, Meeker provides a chart that clearly projects Japan’s shrinking labor force (in green). Of course while many other countries will experience this problem too, Japan with its famously aging population is the first country where the labor force is already on a serious downslide. And as such, it will be urgently pressed to find a solution long before other nations have to. But on the other hand, given how slowly regulations change, there’s no guarantee that Japan will react any quicker than other countries.

shrinking-labor-force

Meeker’s report outlines the problem of American immigration policies, as well as the growing discrepancy between visas issued to foreign students and H–1B employment visas issued. While foreign student visas are on the rise, employment visa are not – meaning that skilled foreign workers who could contribute to the American economy are often sent back to their home country, and aren’t given a chance to contribute to the US economy. Likewise, American tech companies cannot hire the skilled workers they need to stay competitive, largely because if the cap on H–1B visas. The report notes that only 85,000 are issued annually, but there is a demand for about 150,000 each year. As a result, US companies are often forced to move overseas and hire there. Mark Pincus of Zynga is quoted a saying:

The denial of US visas has forced us to routinely apply for visas in Canada or Ireland … We prefer that talented workers be able to work in our American offices as it would be best for our company, the people and the economy.

If I think about many of the entrepreneurs I’ve met here in Japan, I think many of them still see Silicon Valley as the place to be – and indeed a few standouts with global ambitions have made the jump to Silicon Valley (see recent admissions into 500 Startups App Socially and Whill for starters) or other markets. Of course the vast majority of entrepreneurs remain here in Japan, but even for the ones who do that, a global outlook is needed. As I referenced in the Mikitani quote in my opening remarks, the Japanese market is shrinking, and companies need to look for customers and users abroad. We have already highlighted some Japanese companies who are doing this well.

To emphasize this point, lets look back to Meeker’s report to a slide on the top ten global Internet companies (see below). While 8 of the top ten are American, 81 percent of the users for those services are outside the US. It shows that if you want to be a big player, you need to think beyond your own borders. So for example, Line has the right approach with its global ambitions, while companies like Mixi have suffered because they didn’t look beyond the domestic market.

This is something that even (traditionally) insular Chinese companies like Baidu and Tencent are coming to realize. But unlike China, Japan (and Japanese companies) has a cultural, societal, and environmental advantages when it comes to attracting workers, in my view [1]. It’s an attractive destination for entrepreneurs, and many companies – particularly mobile ones – are trying to set up shop here. We know this because many of them come speak to us.

If more entrepreneurs and skilled workers were able to come here, not only would it contribute directly to the economy, but it would result in a richer, more diverse tech ecosystem, where people of many different backgrounds could learn from one another. While there is not yet any kind of visa for entrepreneurs, there is one for highly skilled workers. Governments have established some special economic zones that offer tax breaks for startups (Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka are progressing), but changes will need to be quick and drastic if Japan hopes to overcome this issue.

80-inside-81-outside


  1. I say this as someone who has lived and worked about five years in China and almost five years in Japan. Japan is still seen as a cool, clean, futuristic place, one that despite its failings is still far more culturally open. But regrettably regulations are still not changing as fast as they should. China on the other hand is a place that many people go to, but very few stay long term.  ↩

Stand up: Lessons on entrepreneurship and innovation from the Japan New Economic Summit

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Last week we live-blogged many of the sessions from the Japan New Economy Summit on disruptive innovation. Since then, we’ve had a chance to digest all the information, and our more in depth overview of the discussions is below. Admittedly it’s a little long, so we’ve made it available in ePub format which you can take for free. The Japan New Economic Summit took place on April 16th in Tokyo, where business leaders from Japan and Silicon Valley came together to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship. While the word “disruption” was peppered though the event’s agenda, the most prominent themes of the event were slightly different. In a way, the day felt like a giant collaborative diagnosis, where some of the greatest innovators in the Internet space came together to find out what ails Japan. Conversation continually returned to emphasize the importance of failure for entrepreneurs, as well as the ability to quickly recognize and rebound from that failure. Directly connected to this notion was a recurring discussion of risk, and Japan’s traditional aversion to it. And while these are not messages we haven’t heard before, it’s the first time that we have heard these ideas coming from such prominent business…

Last week we live-blogged many of the sessions from the Japan New Economy Summit on disruptive innovation. Since then, we’ve had a chance to digest all the information, and our more in depth overview of the discussions is below. Admittedly it’s a little long, so we’ve made it available in ePub format which you can take for free.


The Japan New Economic Summit took place on April 16th in Tokyo, where business leaders from Japan and Silicon Valley came together to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship. While the word “disruption” was peppered though the event’s agenda, the most prominent themes of the event were slightly different. In a way, the day felt like a giant collaborative diagnosis, where some of the greatest innovators in the Internet space came together to find out what ails Japan.

Conversation continually returned to emphasize the importance of failure for entrepreneurs, as well as the ability to quickly recognize and rebound from that failure. Directly connected to this notion was a recurring discussion of risk, and Japan’s traditional aversion to it. And while these are not messages we haven’t heard before, it’s the first time that we have heard these ideas coming from such prominent business leaders in Japan and Silicon Valley.

Success is not a straight line

During the conference, a number of speakers mentioned a lack of agility that exists in companies in Japan, or a need to always plan for everything. Joichi Ito, the director of MIT’s Media Lab, drove this point home in the context of how internet technologies have drastically changed the rules of the game:

Everything was moving slow before and that’s when Japan was strong. … But after the internet, the rules that everyone anticipated [changed everything]. When there is a concentrated control, Japan excels. But with the internet, this has changed.

L to R: Masatoshi Kumagai, GMO Internet Group; Yukihiro Matsumoto, Ruby Association; Yoshikazu Tanaka, GREE; Akira Morikawa, Line Corporation; Joichi Ito, MIT Media Lab
L to R: Masatoshi Kumagai, GMO Internet Group; Yukihiro Matsumoto, Ruby Association; Yoshikazu Tanaka, GREE; Akira Morikawa, Line Corporation; Joichi Ito, MIT Media Lab

The notion of creative freedom is one that Joi promotes at MIT Media Lab, explaining that members of the lab are completely free to study what they want without his approval. He emphasized that “it’s not about profitability or outcomes, because if you know this in advance, then it’s not disruptive.” As many others noted during the conference, there should be a basic direction, but the minor details can be decided along the way.

While most traditional Japanese companies lack this sort of agility, recently we have seen one very notable exception. Line Corporation, headed up by Akira Morikawa, has developed its Line chat application with a decision-making strategy that I suspect involves a dart board of some kind. Since announcing back in the middle of 2012 that Line would be a platform for other services like games, coupons, and other things, the service’s user base has ballooned to 140 million around the world, and more than 45 million in its home market of Japan. He notes that at Line, their priority is not to innovate, but rather to provide customers with what they need as quickly as possible. Morikawa elaborated on his company’s improvisational philosophy in very simple terms:

Japanese people love plans. But I thought it would be good to not announce our strategy. Japanese companies love to announce strategies. We don’t. People get concerned because we don’t have any plans, but from that vagueness we can create a tension that in order to survive we have to do something.

Line Corporations CEO Akira Morikawa echoed these sentiments again at B Dash Camp in Fukuoka
Line Corporations CEO Akira Morikawa echoed these sentiments again at B Dash Camp in Fukuoka

But is this top-speed philosophy really sound? I’m sure that much of Line’s success to date is largely attributable to timing and luck. And I’m sure that their big ad spending hasn’t hurt either. But at the summit, there were a number of other success entrepreneurs – both foreign and domestic – who echoed this notion of working as fast as possible. George Kellerman, partner at 500 Startups, explained that it’s all about the accelerating speed of technological development. “You have to speed up,” he asserted. “If you don’t speed up you will lose.”

But Japanese corporate culture is notoriously slow, and it remains to be seen whether the messages expressed during this conference will leave any lasting impact. Programming legend Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, the chairman of the Ruby Association, underscored that slow-moving corporate culture can often stand in the way of those who have true vision:

We are living in an era where it could take only one or two years to change the world. […] We should let these people move from the company working style, so we don’t impose an obstacle to those who want to change the world.

Failing fast

But when companies move at such a rapid pace, it’s critical to identify when corrections need to be made, so that you can change direction if you have to. Niklas Zennström, the CEO of Atomico and co-founder of Skype, expressed this sentiment in the conference’s opening session, saying that creating a disruptive service is seldom just simple execution of a business plan:

[M]any times, the road is just not a straight line and you need to iterate and fail fast. If something is not working, do a course correction and make another iteration. But as long as you have a long term vision you can be successful. If an idea doesn’t work out it doesn’t mean that you have failed.

Likewise former Google SVP Andy Rubin opened the conference by relating the early days of Android, when their product was pitches as a platform for digital cameras. But as everyone knows, Android had a far different fate in store, and their second VC presentation was Android for cell phones. It was this willingness to stray from the original plan that led to the company’s subsequent acquisition by Google. Andy added:

You have to be flexible, and if your business doesn’t work, you have to change. You have to make decisions quickly, and change direction instantly.

Former Google SVP Andy Rubin emphasized the importance of agility
Former Google SVP Andy Rubin emphasized the importance of agility

While most of the speakers appeared to agree that failing fast and making speedy corrections is an essential component to success, the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have a much more forgiving environment in which to operate than their Japanese counterparts. Japan, of course, is typically far less accepting of failure, and this is a heavy burden that the nation’s entrepreneurs have to carry.

Safety and support

Imagine if people said to [aspiring] doctors “Oh my god, but what if you fail?!”

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann posed this hypothetical to the audience in the second morning session, saying that if you meet an entrepreneur trying to do something, you should do your best to support and encourage them. And as we heard from many of the speakers, one of the beautiful things about Silicon Valley is that it offers exactly this type of support.

Derek Collison, the founder and CEO of Apcera, put it best when he said that the valley is a unique environment “where you have more reasons to try something than not.”

In contrast, Domo’s Josh James spoke of how hard it was to build a Silicon Valley-like company when he was in Utah, and he figures Tokyo might be much the same. He reflected back on those difficult days:

The VCs [there] thought of themselves as better than the entrepreneurs. That made things very challenging, because it felt like they were taking advantage of you. Silicon Valley is great because everyone is respected and viewed the same.

Perhaps the most moving moment of the conference came when George Kellerman, partner at 500 Startups, asked all the entrepreneurs in the audience to stand up, so the audience could give them a round of applause in support. “These people are the future of Japan,” George declared, “you must really celebrate them!”

The symbolism of this exercise wasn’t lost on the Japanese audience, as these entrepreneurs are precisely the proverbial nails that stick out in Japanese society; the passionate risk-takers in a country where passion and risk are not exactly embraced when it comes to business. Speaking briefly with George after the conference, he told me that one of the event staffers was even in tears as he came off stage. Cool moment.

500 Startups partner George Kellerman requests a round of applause for the Japanese nails who stand up
500 Startups partner George Kellerman requests a round of applause for the Japanese nails who stand up

A call to action

But as beautiful this moment was, CyberAgent’s founder and president Susumu Fujita reminded us that the country’s entrepreneurs are going to need more than just warm fuzzies in order to thrive. Government, he says, will have to play a role as well:

[W]e need to see actions, such as changes in policies. Startups bring new ideas, new hires. […] The government should act upon their messages – so for example making an entrepreneurship center for Asia in Tokyo, or a place where engineers can be educated, or something like that.

The notion of an entrepreneurship center is an interesting one. There are are number of seed accelerators and incubators in the Tokyo area (we’ve mapped them here if you’d like an overview), but there isn’t really a prominent focal point to speak of. But I don’t think it would really take much to establish such a hub near Shibuya or Roppongi; some sort of special area that could attract both companies and entrepreneurs from at home and abroad. Joi Ito pointed to the example of Singapore, which is “very proactive in issuing visas to talented people” from other countries.

Get out of the way

In addition to helping out in this way, governors and lawmakers need to stop hindering promising new startups through regulations that protect legacy businesses. It’s truly a shame to hear about great services like Uber that can’t enter the market due to unneceessarily complex laws designed to protect the taxi industry. At the summit, Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanik lamented the obstacles he’s up against in bringing his luxury car service to Japan:

In Tokyo they fix the prices on private car services at 5540 yen. There are something like 90 different zones with different minimum fares, different rules. We are in cities all over the world and we haven’t seen anything like this. The government has essentially said that only rich people are able to get car service. […] These laws are set up to protect the taxis and your city is worse off because of it. In order for us to connect you to a car service through an app, we have to become a licensed travel guide. We have to hire certified travel guides. I don’t know why. They’re just trying to make it hard.

Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani also noted that there are a lot of regulations in place in Japan that have to be overcome when creating a disruptive internet business. But whether anyone in government will take action on the messages expressed during this conference remains to be seen. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did swing by on the evening before the summit, and we hope that it wasn’t just a photo opportunity.

On the verge of a renaissance?

While this conference included much talk of the problems facing Japan, there were many more optimistic voices during the day as well. When it comes to the potential of Japan, perhaps no one was more complimentary than Evernote’s CEO Phil Libin. He explained a little about why he’s so positive:

I’m super optimistic about Japan, it’s why I’m here, it’s why we invested in Japan. Japan has a giant disconnect between how the country perceives itself and how outside Japan sees the country. Everyone outside Japan, everyone thinks Japan is a magical place. I come to Japan, and all the conversation is about ‘What’s wrong with Japan’ — and there’s a big mismatch between that and how the world sees it. When people talk about China, there’s some good and some bad, but when you go there, everyone is positive. For whatever reason, Japan is more negative about themselves than other people are.

I think Japan is on the verge of an entrepreneurial renaissance. You don’t need so much money to startup these days. The most important thing is attention to design and details, and Japan does that well. The boundaries to export to the rest of the world are lower than ever before, so I think Japan is on the verge of a major renaissance, and that’s why we’re here — we’re betting on it.

L to R: George Kellerman, 500 Startups; David Chao, DCM; Derek Collison, Apcera; Josh James, Domo; Phil Libin, Evernote
L to R: George Kellerman, 500 Startups; David Chao, DCM; Derek Collison, Apcera; Josh James, Domo; Phil Libin, Evernote

However, Phil did note that he thought people in Japan aren’t quite as willing to express their passion in business. And this is something that entrepreneurs need to do in order to get people to get behind them on their journey. He said with a smile that Japan should treat entrepreneurship with the same passion that it shows to food, fashion, and culture.

This sentiment, combined with George’s grand gesture of recognition to entrepreneurs in attendance, ended the summit on a high note. But as an observer, I was perhaps more impressed by something that Matz mentioned earlier in the day. When a Japanese panel was discussing how Japan can create disruptive innovation, he made what I thought was a very disruptive comment that threw the raison d’etre of the entire conversation into question:

Is it really necessary to have disruptive innovation from Japan? If we have innovation from Google that makes our lives better, isn’t that good? If we talk about globalization, why focus on having it from Japan. Is it loyalty?

Matz appears to see things through a truly global lens. And where everyone else sees borders, language obstacles, and a country falling behind, those things don’t even appear to register with him. I get the impression that he sees the internet as a great enabler, where a rising tide floats all boats regardless of location.

So maybe the true root of the problem is that many Japanese entrepreneurs and companies don’t really think on a global level, or see themselves as a part of a larger world community together on the web. Because if they did, maybe there wouldn’t be a problem at all.