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Tokyo Office Tour: Gengo’s Matthew Romaine talks translation

Rick Martin 2013.11.27

Back in July we mentioned that Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo would be relocating its head office to Shibuya. Today we were lucky enough to have the company’s CTO Matthew Romaine give us a brief tour of the place, as well as provide some brief updates on how business is going recently. So far Gengo has nearly 9000 translators translating content into 35 languages for both retail and enterprise customers. And while about 30 people out of their current 45 total staffers are located in the Tokyo office, Gengo has 12 people in their US office and makes use of a video ‘wormhole’ to keep in touch with them [1]. Since I visited the office just this morning, I even had a chance to chat with some Gengo folks in San Mateo. For a startup specializing in harnessing the power of remote workers, it’s not really surprising that they also appear to have no serious difficulties with working virtually within the company too. The Bridge: So how are things going here at Gengo these days? Matthew: Since we launched we have done over 120 million words of translation in the past four or five years that we have been around. And…

Back in July we mentioned that Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo would be relocating its head office to Shibuya. Today we were lucky enough to have the company’s CTO Matthew Romaine give us a brief tour of the place, as well as provide some brief updates on how business is going recently.

So far Gengo has nearly 9000 translators translating content into 35 languages for both retail and enterprise customers. And while about 30 people out of their current 45 total staffers are located in the Tokyo office, Gengo has 12 people in their US office and makes use of a video ‘wormhole’ to keep in touch with them [1]. Since I visited the office just this morning, I even had a chance to chat with some Gengo folks in San Mateo. For a startup specializing in harnessing the power of remote workers, it’s not really surprising that they also appear to have no serious difficulties with working virtually within the company too.

The Bridge: So how are things going here at Gengo these days?

Matthew: Since we launched we have done over 120 million words of translation in the past four or five years that we have been around. And every year it is more and more. And we’re doing a few million words a week now, so it’s quite exciting. Our translator pool is growing, and we’re finding interesting new ways of working with them. They love the community aspect of Gengo, and they love the tools and learning opportunities that we provide them.

We’ve been making PDFs and educational materials, because 70% to 80% of our translators are not professionals, but they are bilingual and able to pass our tests. So we have put together some materials on how to use time more efficiently, how to deal with new words in a language – because languages are always changing – and so we have a team that’s focused on creating those kinds of materials, and building that sense of community with our translators.

The Bridge: Who is a typical Gengo translator?

Matthew: It’s pretty spread out. It’s everyone from very smart college students learning a new language to retired professional translators who have a little spare time. In fact, we’re currently doing a series on our translators, the ones willing to be a little more public, on our blog. You’ll meet one translator in Africa, one in the Middle East, really all over the world. […] We plan to introduce more and more of them over time. We definitely are focused a lot on our translators because they are so core to our platform.

The Bridge: And what’s your main focus these days?

Matthew: We raised out series B funding earlier this year, so we’re currently focused on improving the product, growing the team, and building sales. […] We’re very excited about the opportunities in this space. I think it’s great that some other startups or businesses in similar industries have been raising funds very successfully, which is great for us too, because it helps build awareness and validation.

Actually yesterday, I was at an event for a crowdsourcing industry group. Crowdsourcing itself as a concept and a business is starting to build awareness, we’re obviously a very specific vertical, but there are others like Odesk, Freelancer.com, and here in Japan we have Crowdworks, Lancers, Realworld. […] And so the industry’s body’s plan is to band together to present proposals to ministries and government bodies to build valid use cases because past precedent is so important in Japan. So getting good examples of success stories to show big companies, then it’s possible to show where crowdsourcing can add value to your company.

The Bridge: Thanks Matthew!

Swag corner, to help promote other startups around town

Matt talking to US team through the wormhole

Gengo has some members in Europe and China as well. ↩

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Tokyo Office Tour: Trippiece wants you to travel differently

Masaru Ikeda 2013.11.17

Trippiece is a Tokyo-based startup that allows you to create your travel plan and then gather friends who might be likely to take the same trip. Our readers may recall the company recently fundraised $200 million yen ($2 million) from Silicon Valley-based investment firm Draper Nexus. This followed previous seed investments from Japanese internet marketing agency Opt and incubation company Movida Japan back in 2012. We heard that they recently relocated, so we visited them at their new office in Shibuya. We spoke to founder and CEO Ian Ishida and CFO Fumiaki Koizumi [1] about how they will enhance their business using these latest funds. Ishida unveiled that the company will launch its first overseas office in Singapore next February, intensifying their global marketing efforts: We currently talking to a person in Singapore, and we’ll be launching an office there early next year, naming her as its head. The new office will be located in the heart of the Asian region, which will encourage more Asian people to travel to Japan using our service. In contrast to other travel services like Meetrip or Voyagin [2], our service advises you to visit a destination you’ve never visited, instead of presenting local…

Trippiece is a Tokyo-based startup that allows you to create your travel plan and then gather friends who might be likely to take the same trip. Our readers may recall the company recently fundraised $200 million yen ($2 million) from Silicon Valley-based investment firm Draper Nexus. This followed previous seed investments from Japanese internet marketing agency Opt and incubation company Movida Japan back in 2012.

We heard that they recently relocated, so we visited them at their new office in Shibuya. We spoke to founder and CEO Ian Ishida and CFO Fumiaki Koizumi [1] about how they will enhance their business using these latest funds.

Ishida unveiled that the company will launch its first overseas office in Singapore next February, intensifying their global marketing efforts:

We currently talking to a person in Singapore, and we’ll be launching an office there early next year, naming her as its head. The new office will be located in the heart of the Asian region, which will encourage more Asian people to travel to Japan using our service. In contrast to other travel services like Meetrip or Voyagin [2], our service advises you to visit a destination you’ve never visited, instead of presenting local experiences at that destination. So in that way, we’re not competing with them.

Trippiece’s key concept is to ask locals about local business and destinations. That’s why they intend to hire local people for the new office rather than just dispatch Japanese personnel.

To help users get easy access to the service’s travel resources on mobile, the company introduced an iOS app back in August. An Android version will follow by the end of this year. The app has a feature to notify users when their favorite travel plans get a comment from other users, and it helps increases user retention.

Trippiece has also partnered with established Japanese travel agencies such as JTB and HIS to work on collaborative projects. It also recently won the Chief Secretary of Japan Tourism Agency award. According to Ishida, these results help them get their name out there and win the confidence of consumers.

As for future global expansions, they will launch an English version in February, with an interface enriched with pictures and videos to help foreign people better understand travel experiences in Japan. The Japanese government and tourism agencies are holding many showcase events around the world, such as the Japan Anime Expo, where the Trippiece will introduce their services to those who love Japanese culture and are likely to travel here.

Including Ishida and Koizumi, the company is a seven-person team in total, comprised of engineers, designers, and a certified travel service supervisor.

trippiece-10 — Plastic model airplanes in the meeting room.

trippiece-9 — CEO Ian Ishida admires Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe because of their same first names.

trippiece-6 — The commemorative shield of the Chief Secretary of Japan Tourism Agency’s award.

Fumiaki Koizumi previously worked as CFO at Japanese social network service Mixi. ↩
Meetrip was acquired by Japanese social game developer Donuts earlier this month. Voyagin is also establishing an office in Singapore. ↩

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Tokyo Office Tour: SpinningWorks wants to bring bookworms back to offline bookstores

Masaru Ikeda 2013.11.06

SpinningWorks is a Tokyo-based startup that has been involved in providing a variety of web services since 2010. Among its past services is Qlippy, an SDK for adding social functions to various e-book reader apps and platforms. It raised 41 million yen (approximately $535,000 at that time) from several Japanese investment firms in October of 2011. I recently visited to see Yoichi Shirakata, the founder/CEO of SpinningWorks, and asked him what they are working on these days [1]. In addition to providing the Qlippy SDK service, the company launched a new service called TakeStock almost one year ago. It collects inventory updates on books from major bookstores all across the country, and lets you know where you can buy your favorite book in your neighborhood. He explained: There are almost 14,000 bookstores in Japan. Our service lets you to check inventory updates from 1,400 bookstores, which accounts for almost 40% of all sales in online and offline bookstores. We know the majority of our userbase uses Internet Explorer, which indicates our service is being used by the average consumer rather than especially tech-savvy people. Some users are willing to buy online, but others want to compare with other items or…

SpinningWorks is a Tokyo-based startup that has been involved in providing a variety of web services since 2010. Among its past services is Qlippy, an SDK for adding social functions to various e-book reader apps and platforms. It raised 41 million yen (approximately $535,000 at that time) from several Japanese investment firms in October of 2011.

I recently visited to see Yoichi Shirakata, the founder/CEO of SpinningWorks, and asked him what they are working on these days [1].

In addition to providing the Qlippy SDK service, the company launched a new service called TakeStock almost one year ago. It collects inventory updates on books from major bookstores all across the country, and lets you know where you can buy your favorite book in your neighborhood. He explained:

There are almost 14,000 bookstores in Japan. Our service lets you to check inventory updates from 1,400 bookstores, which accounts for almost 40% of all sales in online and offline bookstores. We know the majority of our userbase uses Internet Explorer, which indicates our service is being used by the average consumer rather than especially tech-savvy people.

Some users are willing to buy online, but others want to compare with other items or have a look before buying.

When you look for a book to buy, our service helps you buy it online as well as offline. If you prefer not to wait for something to be delivered, our service lets you know where you can buy it right away at a place nearby. In this way, we can present consumers other retailers with e-commerce giants like Amazon or Rakuten in line as their options.

The company started its service focusing on books, since the market volume in Japan is said to be as much as 1.9 trillion yen (approximately $19 billion). Every single title has a unique code (ISBN), which makes the process easier to systemize than other markets such as fashion apparel. In Japan, almost all books are sold at the listed prices at almost all stores, so consumers can choose to buy solely based on their conveniences.

Shirakata revealed that the Japanese e-commerce market accounts for only 2.8% of all commercial activities here in the country, which indicates it still has much room to grow [2]. In the future, by enhancing the services beyond book distribution, he expects to help more offline businesses find potential customers, giving them a chance to buy things they can’t find online.

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Tokyo Office Tour: Nightley brings behavioral consumer data to geo-analytics

Masaru Ikeda 2013.11.03

Tokyo-based Nightley develops location-based analytics technologies. The startup was launched back in 2011 by CEO Yutaka Ishikawa who previously worked with Japanese web service company NetAge [1]. Nightley recently developed social media analytics engine Trexa, and started providing social media analytics to GIS service providers as part of their service Nightley GIS Mesh Data. I recently visited the company’s office near Shibuya to hear more from Ishikawa about this initiative. As some of our readers may know, several Japanese system integration companies have partnered with Twitter as a data reseller, obtaining rights to collect data using the Twitter API. Similarly Japanese big data solution provider Hottolink also partnered with US company Gnip back in October to distributing Gnip’s analytics data in Japan [2]. NTT Docomo also recently started selling mobile spatial statistics based on the usage of its mobile subscribers. I asked Ishikawa how his company differentiate from these big players. He explained: Conventional players typically give you an accumulation of longitude and latitude values with tweets or posts. These values tell you where users are or were, but they don’t give you insights about which floor or what store in a shopping mall they are in, or what they…

Tokyo-based Nightley develops location-based analytics technologies. The startup was launched back in 2011 by CEO Yutaka Ishikawa who previously worked with Japanese web service company NetAge ^[1].

Nightley recently developed social media analytics engine Trexa, and started providing social media analytics to GIS service providers as part of their service Nightley GIS Mesh Data. I recently visited the company’s office near Shibuya to hear more from Ishikawa about this initiative.

As some of our readers may know, several Japanese system integration companies have partnered with Twitter as a data reseller, obtaining rights to collect data using the Twitter API. Similarly Japanese big data solution provider Hottolink also partnered with US company Gnip back in October to distributing Gnip’s analytics data in Japan ^[2]. NTT Docomo also recently started selling mobile spatial statistics based on the usage of its mobile subscribers.

nightley-gis-mesh-data — Nightley GIS Mesh Data (visualized sample)

I asked Ishikawa how his company differentiate from these big players. He explained:

Conventional players typically give you an accumulation of longitude and latitude values with tweets or posts. These values tell you where users are or were, but they don’t give you insights about which floor or what store in a shopping mall they are in, or what they are doing.

Our solution gives you more visibility around such attributes of users, and I believe this is our advantage, helpful in creating more efficient marketing efforts or planning store roll-outs.

When Ishikawa launched the company a few years ago, he was selling location analytics data a direct sales basis. But he subsequently learned there are business opportunities only among a very niche segment of marketing people in Japan. So he changed their sales strategy to intensify partnering efforts with big GIS players or enterprise system integrators ^[3].

They already have clients in need of geographical data plentiful with various organic attributes. I thought partnering with them would be much easier. They also have geographical analytics solutions, but it’s not very organic. I realized the complementary potential of working with GIS companies.

He expects the solution to be used not only for O2O solutions but also by people and companies working on more accurate area targeting.

The company is looking for funding opportunities and more engineers to help develop further growth. If you are interested in being a part of the team, don’t hesitate to contact them via this page.

NetAge was originally launched back in 1999 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Kiyoshi Nishikawa. The company was subsequently rebranded to ngi group, and became United which is well-known for mobile app CocoPPa. Apart from the company, Nishikawa launched a new incubation company called NetAge again a couple of years ago.↩
Hottolink is a subsidiary of Internet marketing agency Opt (TSE:2389). The former recently unveiled it was approved to be listed on the TSE Mothers market, a stock market for emerging companies. The IPO is scheduled to take place on December 9th.↩
Nightley recently partnered with Japanese system integration company Fujitsu for co-developing the lattter’s location data cloud service Spatiowl, and area marketing solution provider Giken Shoji International.↩

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Tokyo Office Tour: Panoplaza has a 360-degree view of the world

Rick Martin 2013.10.28

Panoplaza, a platform created by Tokyo-based Kadinche, enables the creation of virtual spaces through the use of panoramic technology. In the past we have written about some implementations, including a number of retailers who use it to more realistically show how their store looks, all in the browser and viewable across many devices. Check out their panoramas of Daimaru department stores or Tokyu Hikarie to see what the service is capable of doing. In our latest Tokyo Office Tour, I had a chance to visit the Kadinche office. CEO Soko Aoki explained a little more about how they work, and what lies ahead for Panoplaza. I like photography, so it was really fun to see some of the gear they use on their Panoramic photo shoots. In addition to super-wide fisheye lenses, they also have some custom fabricated tools (using a Makerbot 3D printer on site) for mounting multiple GoPro cameras for 360-degree video recording. Panoplaza’s advantage, of course, lies in its software, and the end result when the images are processed into the final panoramic presentation. Soko expects that retailers and e-commerce players will make more use of these panoramic presentation, as it has high potential as an O2O…

Panoplaza, a platform created by Tokyo-based Kadinche, enables the creation of virtual spaces through the use of panoramic technology. In the past we have written about some implementations, including a number of retailers who use it to more realistically show how their store looks, all in the browser and viewable across many devices. Check out their panoramas of Daimaru department stores or Tokyu Hikarie to see what the service is capable of doing.

In our latest Tokyo Office Tour, I had a chance to visit the Kadinche office. CEO Soko Aoki explained a little more about how they work, and what lies ahead for Panoplaza.

I like photography, so it was really fun to see some of the gear they use on their Panoramic photo shoots. In addition to super-wide fisheye lenses, they also have some custom fabricated tools (using a Makerbot 3D printer on site) for mounting multiple GoPro cameras for 360-degree video recording. Panoplaza’s advantage, of course, lies in its software, and the end result when the images are processed into the final panoramic presentation.

Soko expects that retailers and e-commerce players will make more use of these panoramic presentation, as it has high potential as an O2O tool.

For users, being able to access such a virtual space online has many benefits, as you retain the sense of exploring a realistic space. But you can also benefit from supplementary info and functions, like clicking on a product to see more information or to make a purchase directly. Just recently Kadinche announced two new retailers that are using its service: Kintetsu Department Store (see their Abeno Harukas store panoramas) and Seibu Department Store in Shibuya (see their 15 panorama spots here).

Readers may recall that the company has previously partnered with Stores.jp to help small businesses create panoramic online store fronts.

Given the work required to do these photo shoots, the business does lack some scalability at present. But the company has managed to carve out a niche that appeals to big retailers, and Soko hopes they can manage to scale their operations further so they can do more. I hope they can do well, because I think the upcoming 2020 Olympics could represent an opportunity for a company like Kadinche, helping the city and its many retailers with promotion.

panoplaza-06 — Their meeting room sits just adjacent to a pedestrian street in a quiet neighborhood

panoplaza-08 — Kadinche logo signals we’re in the right spot

Fisheye lenses galore, and a fun Go Pro set-up for video

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Tokyo Office Tour: Freee takes small businesses for a walk in the cloud

Masaru Ikeda 2013.10.25

Freee is the Tokyo-based startup behind a cloud-based accounting solution. Readers may recall it has previously raised seed funding worth 50 million yen (about $523,000) back in December, and raised series A funding worth 270 million yen ($2.7 million) back in July. They recently relocated their office, and we visited the new location to speak with Freee CEO Daisuke Sasaki and COO Sumito Togo to hear about their future plans. The company recently partnered with Tokyo-based startup Ubiregi, integrating the Freee accounting platform with the latter’s cloud-based POS (point of sales) system earlier this month. For small retailers or restaurant owners, this integration lets you automate your back office tasks, ranging from daily cash to accounts. By making use of such a service, they can save a lot of time and refocus their efforts on providing a better experience for their customers. In Japan, the penetration rate of cloud services is very low, not only at big companies but also at SMEs. Cloud services can easily provide up-to-date solutions for users. In order to encourage business people to change the paradigm of the Japanese business scene, we need to provide something more than cloud services. If we can create something…

Freee is the Tokyo-based startup behind a cloud-based accounting solution. Readers may recall it has previously raised seed funding worth 50 million yen (about $523,000) back in December, and raised series A funding worth 270 million yen ($2.7 million) back in July.

They recently relocated their office, and we visited the new location to speak with Freee CEO Daisuke Sasaki and COO Sumito Togo to hear about their future plans.

The company recently partnered with Tokyo-based startup Ubiregi, integrating the Freee accounting platform with the latter’s cloud-based POS (point of sales) system earlier this month. For small retailers or restaurant owners, this integration lets you automate your back office tasks, ranging from daily cash to accounts. By making use of such a service, they can save a lot of time and refocus their efforts on providing a better experience for their customers.

In Japan, the penetration rate of cloud services is very low, not only at big companies but also at SMEs. Cloud services can easily provide up-to-date solutions for users. In order to encourage business people to change the paradigm of the Japanese business scene, we need to provide something more than cloud services. If we can create something special in the Japanese market, we can top the global market at the same time.

In the past for SME owners, when you bought software for your back office operations, you were forced to buy a cheap edition if you couldn’t pay high license fees. Many companies could not use the full features of software that enterprises were making the most of. We thought this was ridiculous and we wanted to develop solutions to help SMEs liberate themselves from routine tasks and use more time for doing creative jobs.

Their team is working on adding new features to the platform but paying attention to keeping it simple so that people who are not accounting-savvy can keep using them. In the future, they expect to add several features like an instant-submission income tax report, and automating payroll calculations.

On their 12-person team Freee has seven engineers, but is hiring new people who can work on a variety of issues ranging from mobile app development to server-side maintenance. If any of our readers are interested, feel free to contact the company via thier recruiting page.

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Tokyo Office Tour: A look at Monoco’s new showroom

Rick Martin 2013.09.30

We featured Japanese flash sales e-commerce startup Monoco recently when they announced they had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Fuji Startup Ventures. At the time it was mentioned that Monoco would be launching its Monoco Showroom in Shibuya, so we were delighted to receive an invite to swing by the opening this past Friday. The company sells items from designers around the world, their new showroom is a place where you can see some of them on display. But it also doubles as an office, and considering the beautiful furnishings there you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer place to work. Many of our readers may already be aware that Monoco was previously known as Flutterscape. I had a chance to speak to Monoco co-founder and CTO, Ari Awan, about that transition. He explains that the process was anything but simple: We started Flutterscape in February of 2011, but in February of last year we figured it wasn’t working. User growth was ok, but transactions and revenue were not growing. It was really hard to raise funds at the time, so we really had to figure out something. Flutterscape used a C2C model that let indie designers…

We featured Japanese flash sales e-commerce startup Monoco recently when they announced they had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Fuji Startup Ventures. At the time it was mentioned that Monoco would be launching its Monoco Showroom in Shibuya, so we were delighted to receive an invite to swing by the opening this past Friday. The company sells items from designers around the world, their new showroom is a place where you can see some of them on display. But it also doubles as an office, and considering the beautiful furnishings there you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer place to work.

Many of our readers may already be aware that Monoco was previously known as Flutterscape. I had a chance to speak to Monoco co-founder and CTO, Ari Awan, about that transition. He explains that the process was anything but simple:

We started Flutterscape in February of 2011, but in February of last year we figured it wasn’t working. User growth was ok, but transactions and revenue were not growing. It was really hard to raise funds at the time, so we really had to figure out something.

Flutterscape used a C2C model that let indie designers and makers export their products abroad. But this market turned out to be not especially big. Ari says one of their advisers introduced him to Fab as a possible model, and given that they had so many designers already, maybe they could go in a B2C direction.

Two weeks of sales for Monoco were the same as Flutterscape’s sales for a year.

Of course, business is rarely that simple. Ari says that he brought the idea to the board and they just didn’t want to do it. While Ari is not a particularly tall guy, he does give the distinct impression of being someone you don’t want to mess with. That turned out to be the case here, as what happens next is truly badass:

I asked our people to come in to the office on on the weekends. I said we have to do something or else we’ll go bankrupt. We started working on Monoco secretly, building it two weeks. We started selling things but no one knew it was us. Two weeks of sales for Monoco were the same as Flutterscape’s sales for a year.

From there, selling the transition to Monoco to the board was obviously not a hard sell. The site now has 87,000 members in total, with the average user falling in the 25 to 40 demographic. They have over 1100 partner designers, the vast majority (about 1000) located outside Japan. This means that many of the 50,000 items Monoco has on sale are not otherwise available for purchase in Japan, making it a great destination for design-minded consumers on the lookout for something extra special. There are now over 50,000 items available for purchase, with the most popular ones being in the categories of fashion accessories, t-shirts, posters and art, and smartphones accessories.

The Monoco event was attended by lots of folks from the design industry [1], and both Ari and CEO Takehiro Kakiyama addressed the crowd on Friday night. Ari spoke to the company’s mission statement, and what he hopes Monoco can do for the design community in general.

Monoco CTO, Ari Awan

There are some who see us as a threat disrupting traditional design retail and the supply chain. Yes definitely we cause some disruption but I think what we are trying to do is to disrupt people’s perception of design.

I think the more people talk about design the better awareness there is. And the more awareness that is spread about design, then the bigger the pie is for everyone in the industry.

Stay tuned to see how they do in fulfilling their mission. Given their progress to date, I wouldn’t bet against them.

You can find more pictures from the event below, including many of the design pieces that were spotlighted at the showroom.

monoco-showroom16 — CEO Takehiro Kakiyama

I’ve never seen so many scarves worn indoors before! ↩

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Tokyo Office Tour: Bracket, Before and After Acquisition

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.09.24

Read this article in Japanese In Japan, we have seen a lot of hype around the e-commerce sector, and one of the startups getting a lot of attention is Stores.jp. Launched almost a year ago, the service recently made headlines when it was acquired by Start Today, the company behind the mega fashion e-commerce Zozotown. We visited the very cool Shibuya office of Bracket, the company behind Stores.jp, and talked to the CEO, Yusuke Mitsumoto, about their journey to this point, and where they go from here. The Bridge: Why did you choose Shibuya as the location to set up the Bracket office? Yusuke: I graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University which is located in Shibuya, so I’m very familiar and comfortable here. I really can’t think of any other place. We moved here about three weeks ago, but it’s only a five-minute walk from our previous office. We only had five people before, but the team has grown to be more than 20. The Bridge: How did you end up starting your own company? Yusuke: I use to work for a foreign advertising agency. The ad industry was so much fun, in fact too fun that I even felt a…

Read this article in Japanese

In Japan, we have seen a lot of hype around the e-commerce sector, and one of the startups getting a lot of attention is Stores.jp. Launched almost a year ago, the service recently made headlines when it was acquired by Start Today, the company behind the mega fashion e-commerce Zozotown. We visited the very cool Shibuya office of Bracket, the company behind Stores.jp, and talked to the CEO, Yusuke Mitsumoto, about their journey to this point, and where they go from here.

The Bridge: Why did you choose Shibuya as the location to set up the Bracket office?

Yusuke: I graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University which is located in Shibuya, so I’m very familiar and comfortable here. I really can’t think of any other place. We moved here about three weeks ago, but it’s only a five-minute walk from our previous office. We only had five people before, but the team has grown to be more than 20.

The Bridge: How did you end up starting your own company?

Yusuke: I use to work for a foreign advertising agency. The ad industry was so much fun, in fact too fun that I even felt a little scared. In Japan, the job of an ad agency is to sell media space sort of similar to a realtor, but outside Japan, you are more of a partner where you charge your fee by the hour. It was interesting to be able to work for different companies in various industries, from airlines to car manufacturers to even mineral water. But at the end of the day, the final decisions are always made by the client. I wanted to drive my own business and that’s why I started my own company.

The Bridge: Can you tell us about Bracket and its current business?

Yusuke: I founded Bracket as an internet business company back in October of 2008. Five years have since passed and it feels like the blink of an eye. The first service we released was CaFoRe, a C2C car-sharing service, and we now operate five web services in total. The others are Shoes of Prey, Privaterobe, Stores.jp, and ModelTown.

The Bridge: How did you end up making those five products?

Yusuke: The first two years we focused on CaFoRe, and in the third year we released everything except Stores.jp. We launched Stores.jp almost a year ago. We’ve been bootstrapped all this time, so we had to produce more sources of income and each product made contributions to our revenue.

The Bridge: In terms of revenue, which is the biggest contributor?

Yusuke: It’s more like a little from all products, but Shoes of Prey had more impact than we had expected. E-commerce is a simple business: you sell, you get cash. C2C services on the other hand requires a lot of time to grow. Currently, we have about 30,000 registered users on Shoes of Prey.

The Bridge: So would you say that you’ve been the only captain on the boat until now?

Yusuke: Yes, I’ve been the only executive until now. However, one of the team members Aya Tukahara, joined me on the board this year. All of the business decisions have been made by me. There are a few entrepreneurs outside the company that I can talk to, but many people choose to get funded or they already have enough funds at hand, so it’s hard to find someone in the same shoes as me.

The Bridge: Tell me a little about your current team.

Yusuke: There are roughly 20 members on our team including part-timers. Of those, about half are designers and engineers, and a quarter consists of managers and business development. The rest belong to customer support. There are no divisions within these teams, designers work on designs for all five products. But this year, we’ve pretty much focused on Stores.jp and Shoes of Prey.

The Bridge: How do you recruit people?

Yusuke: That’s the hardest part, but many are through introductions. We do put out recruiting ads but it’s been difficult to find qualified people. We don’t want to rush to hire people, because it just means more work when it doesn’t work out. Recruiting takes patience.

The Bridge: Can you tell us the current status of Stores.jp?

Yusuke: Since its launch almost a year ago, we have about 50,000 stores on the platform. About half of those are individuals, and the other half are small businesses with physical stores. Many stores owned by individuals sell design products like t-shirts and handmade items.

The Bridge: Your direct competitor is BASE. Why do your users chose Stores.jp over them?

Yusuke: We make many opportunities to speak directly with our users, and many chose us for our design and usability. They feel that the Stores.jp brand is cool. I think our simple domain Stores.jp helps with that branding.

The Bridge: What do you have planned for Stores.jp in the future?

Yusuke: We’re trying to enhance the ability to sell. At the end of July we released a feature called Promotional Switch. By turning this switch on, items within your store are promoted via partner e-commerce and media sites. We want to increase the number these partners to boost Stores.jp selling power.

The Bridge: Can people sell their items abroad?

Yusuke: Yes, there is a feature to translate stores into English. Not many stores use this feature, but we want this total to increase.

The Bridge: What’s your next big goal?

Yusuke: By the end of the year, we want to double the number of stores on Stores.jp.

Working with Start Today

The Bridge: Has anything changed since you joined Start Today, the company behind Zozotown?

Yusuke: Not really. Generally, when a company is acquired by another, you start your job the next day at the new office, you’re given new business cards, and even a new team. But for us, nothing has changed. The decision to move to our current office was decided before we began talking to Start Today, and I’m still the CEO with the same team working together. But by partnering up with Start Today, we now have access to the many powerful resources that they own.

The Bridge: We heard that the acquisitions talks only took two phone calls.

Yusuke: That’s correct. I have known Mr. Maezawa, the CEO of Start Today, for a few years. Before we launched Stores.jp or Shoes of Prey, he somehow found us and contacted us through our website. Ever since then, I’ve occasionally had dinner with him. Bracket had always been bootstrapped, so it was a big decision and a scary one to get funding from outside. But it was time, and we were looking for two hundred million yen.

The Bridge: So you were already in talks with potential investors.

Yusuke: Yes. At first we were talking about a business alliance with Start Today because Zozotown and Stores.jp had the potential to work together to boost each other’s service. But if we’re doing business together, I suggested it might be best for them to invest in us so that we can really work together.

The Bridge: How do you plan to work with them?

Yusuke: This is unintentional, but almost 70% of store owners on Stores.jp are in the apparel sector. There is obviously a huge demand in the apparel industry, and to cultivate this opportunity, it is crucial that we work with Zozotown which has a big influence in that industry.

The Bridge: How many users does Zozotown have?

Yusuke: They have over five million users, and we can certainly leverage these members, maybe providing stores to these people. They also have an impressive inventory, so its possible for us to provide these services to stores owners on Stores.jp. There are so many possibilities and opportunities that come from us working together, and we want to do that to boost the power of Stores.jp by every possible way.

Check out the video below where Yusuke gives us an intro to Bracket as well as some photos from their new office.