OFFRE D'UNE DURÉE LIMITÉE. Obtenez 3 mois à 0,99 $/mois. Profiter de l'offre.
Page de couverture de Disrupting Japan

Disrupting Japan

Disrupting Japan

Auteur(s): Tim Romero
Écouter gratuitement

À propos de cet audio

 Disrupting Japan gives you candid, in-depth insights from the startup founders, VCs, and leaders who are reshaping Japan.Tim Romero Essais et carnets de voyage Gestion et leadership Politique Sciences sociales Économie
Épisodes
  • Why so many Japanese VCs won’t invest in Japan

    Why so many Japanese VCs won’t invest in Japan
    Oct 13 2025
    Japanese startups is hot right now, and more and more foreign money is flowing in. But many Japanese VCs remain stubbornly outward-looking. Today we sit down with Shri Dodani, who after a series of highly successful American startups, decided that Japan is the best place to invest right now, and co-founded of Global Hands-On VC, to make those investments. We talk about the unique advantages startups have in Japan and why Japanese founders often have trouble leveraging those advantages. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes The unique potential Shri first saw in the Japanese market How Japanese buying patterns help Japanese startups Japan's transition from VC 1.0 to VC 2.0 Are Japanese startups really becoming more globally minded? Why the large global VCs seem to have so little interest in Japan How Japanese VCs and corporates are more supportive of startups than in other markets Why it's important to invest in Japanese founders "with a bit of an attitude” What's holding Japanese founders back today What actually stops Japanese founders from going global? The importance of role models and for Japanese founders to mentor The most promising startup sectors in Japan How recent immigration tightening will affect innovation in both the US and Japan Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about GHOVC Follow them on Note Connect with Shri on LinkedIn Check out an interview with him on YouTube Follow (GHOVC co-founder) Ken Yasunaga on Twitter @ken_yasunaga Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Longtime listeners of Disrupting Japan know that I'm extremely bullish about Japanese startups. In fact, most of us on the ground here are pretty optimistic about the whole situation. And yet a surprising number of Japanese LPs and VCs seem to have little interest in investing in Japan preferring to focus on high profile San Francisco. Today we sit down with Shri Dodani and we look into exactly why that is. Now Shri is a successful American founder with multiple exits, totaling well over $1.5 billion. And when he transitioned from startup to VC and put his first fund together, he decided to focus exclusively on Japan in order to take advantage of what he thought Japanese and foreign VCs alike were overlooking. Shri and I talk about Japan's transition from VC 1.0 to VC 2.0, the aspects of the Japanese market that give it a unique advantage over Silicon Valley in some areas, the one thing that's holding Japanese founders back the most and why it's important to invest in founders who have a bit of an attitude. But, you know, Shri tells that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, I'm sitting here with Shri Ddani of Global Hands-on VC, a serial entrepreneur and founder and managing partner at Global Hands-on VC. So, thanks for sitting down with me. Shri: Thank you, Tim. It’s an honor. Tim: I'm glad we've got a chance to talk because I think you really do have a different perspective on what's going on in the Japanese market today. And just to give our listeners a bit of a background, so before moving into VC, you had a remarkable string of successes. As a founder, as an operator, you had six startups and six exits, including one that was a $550 million acquisition and IPO that was worth over a billion. I don't want to dig too much into that because we could be here all day talking about it and it'd be a worthwhile conversation. But after being such a successful operator for so many different types of startups, why the move to VC? Shri: A good question. So sometime I do one day even after became a VC, that should I continue doing my own companies because I'm good at that. Having done company in different field,
    Voir plus Voir moins
    37 min
  • Can startups save Japan’s logistics industry?

    Can startups save Japan’s logistics industry?
    Sep 15 2025
    According to Taro, Japan's logistics industry is on the brink of collapse, and it's hard to argue that he's wrong. Taro Sasaki founded Hacobu with the goal of modernizing Japan's logistics industry. He found few takers for the first few years, and then a new law changed everything. We talk about how Japan's demographic and economic challenges, why some industries simply refuse to invest in themselves, and how to sell to them anyway. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why Japanese logistics is on the brink of collapse The factors pushing demand for trucking higher in Japan What's preventing Japan's logistics industry from modernizing How to sell digital products to skeptical analog industries A new Japanese law mandating business efficiency How to bootstrap a complex application ecosystem from scratch The huge value hiding inside Japanese logistics data Hacobu's global expansion plans Taro’s best advice to founders wanting to sell into traditional, blue collar industries The importance of dreaming big -- even in Japan Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Hacobu Keep up with the latest on Hacobu [Japanese] Hacobu's survey of 1271 Japanese truck drivers [Japanese] Friend Taro on Facebook Connect with him on LinkedIn Follow him on Twitter @tarosasaki Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today we are going to talk about how to drive innovation into traditional, conservative, low margin blue collar industries. Now, that might sound hard to do, but it's actually even harder than it sounds. And, you know, that's why so few startups seriously attempt it and why it's extremely profitable for the few founders who manage to get it right. Today we sit down with Taro Sasaki, the founder of Hacobu, a startup that is finally, finally bringing digital transformation and automation to Japan's logistics industry. Taro’s constant refinement and testing of his ideal customer profile and go to market is a story that all founders can learn a lot from. Taro and I talk about the best path for founders to take when trying to sell to industries that are resisting digitization, how a lack of regulation can sometimes actually lead to less innovation. Why the logistics market is so hard to crack globally, and the two big factors that led to Hacobu’s sudden change of fortune. But, you know, Taro tells that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, I am sitting here with Taro Sasaki, the founder of Hacobu, who is reinventing Trucking Logistics in Japan. So thanks for sitting down with us Taro: Thank you too. Tim: So, MOVO is a suite of SaaS tools that handle fleet tracking vehicle dispatch loading, unloading. I gave a brief explanation in the intro, but I think you can explain it much better than I can. So, what is MOVO? Taro: So, Japanese logistics infrastructure is collapsing. Tim: What do you mean collapsing? Taro: So, the number of truck drivers is decreasing. The government estimates that in 2030, 25% of truck driver will short to the demand. Tim: So, what's causing it? It's a lower paying job that younger people just don't want to get into? Taro: Yeah, yeah. That's one of the reasons. And also the business process in the infra is very outdated and very analog, there are many inefficient things going on. So, the demand for the truck driver is increasing, but actually the supply of the truck driver is decreasing. So, the gap is going to increase. Tim: That's interesting. So, the demand for trucking is actually increasing recently? Taro: Yes. Because of the development EC, we want to get things, for example, at the supermarket, we want the commercial goods on demand so that the suppliers have to deliver the products o...
    Voir plus Voir moins
    35 min
  • How to start an AI Startup in late 2025

    How to start an AI Startup in late 2025
    Sep 1 2025
    Last month I gave lecture at Globis University on what it takes to build an AI startup today. It's no longer early days for AI, and most founders don't have the connections and resources that drive toady's multi-billion dollar seed rounds. However, as I detail, they still have several paths to success. After the lecture I am joined on stage for a panel discussion by Reiji Yamanaka, the managing director of the Kibo Impact Investment Fund, and Kelvin Song, the program director of the Globis MBA program. It's a fascinating discussion, and I think you'll enjoy it. Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me. I have a special in-between episode for you today. A few weeks back at Globis University, I gave a lecture to aspiring founders on the best way to start a generative AI startup right now in this time of intense AI competition and funding levels. I cover the different AI business models, promising application spaces, and how to know if you've got an AI startup idea with a good chance of success. Now, the first 30 minutes of this episode is the lecture itself, and then I'm joined on stage by Reiji Yamanaka, the managing director of the Kibo Impact Investment Fund, and Kelvin Song, the program director of the Globis MBA program. And we dive even deeper into these ideas and also talk about how generative AI is likely to affect us all. I hope you enjoy it. So let's get right to the presentation. Presentation Today we're going to talk about how to build a generative AI startup and some important things to keep in mind if you actually decide to do that. Now, before I tell you what we're going to cover, I want to kind of tell you what we are explicitly not going to cover. So first, we're not going to talk about the transformative nature of AI in general, the explosive growth of the market. There's already way too much chatter about that, and I assume if you're even thinking about starting an AI startup, you already know it. Second, I'm not going to offer general advice about starting and growing a startups, although this is a topic that's very close to my heart. I want to focus on what can add the most value to you in this particular seminar. If you want to talk about general start advice, talk to me later. I'll point you in the right direction or ask questions afterwards or during the panel discussion. We'll begin today by talking about four common exit and growth strategies. This is a bit unusual. I don't normally recommend that seed or pre-seed companies focus too much on exit strategy, but these are not normal times. With generative AI, you need to plan your end game from the very beginning. We'll spend the bulk of our time talking about actually building your AI startup. We'll cover some key strategic considerations, and also talk about a few of the most promising targets for AI disruption. Does that sound good? Well, before we get to it, why should you listen to me? And that's a totally reasonable question. So, I've been in Japan for, wow, over 30 years now. Currently a partner at Jira Ventures. It's $300 million corporate venture capital firm that invests in green energy, next generation energy, generation technologies. But in my time here, I've started four of my own startups I've sold two, bankrupted two. So, 50 50, not too bad as far as startups go. I've done a lot of angel investing. I've taught entrepreneurship and corporate innovation at New York University's, Tokyo Campus. I've brought foreign startups into Japan as a country manager. I was tapped by TEPCO to come in and help them spin up TEPCO Ventures. I left TEPCO to run Google for Startups, Japan, swearing I would never go back to energy CVC. After four years at Google, I decided to go back to energy CVC because right now what's happening in energy is just fantastically exciting. Oh,
    Voir plus Voir moins
    1 h et 16 min
Pas encore de commentaire