5 Entrepreneurial Inspirations
from Japan
Last month I was asked by Sunbridge Global Ventures to kick off their Innovation Weekend global rollout as their inaugural speaker. The request included that I speak to the following two questions:
What kind of Japanese entrepreneurs can be successful in Silicon Valley?
How can Japanese entrepreneurs globalize their business, from Tokyo?
Achieving success as an entrepreneur anywhere is a challenge, so while I could understand the appeal of targeting Silicon Valley, there are enough factors to consider that are agnostic to location. Rather than suggest I had solutions to these broad, abstract questions I decided to have a bit of fun. I chose 5 qualities I felt were important as an entrepreneur, then reached back into my childhood era living in Japan and tied each quality with a bit of Japanese culture.
First, the five qualities — which are important together; see if you can spot why without scrolling down!
Ambitious /am’biSHəs/, adjective
Having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed.
Nimble /’nimbəl/, adjective
Quick and light in movement or action; agile.
International /,inter’naSHəәnl/, adjective
Existing, occurring, or carried on between two or more nations.
Mature /məә’Choor,-’t(y)oor/, adjective
Fully developed physically; full-grown.
Experimental /ik,sperəә’men(t)l/, adjective
Based on untested ideas or techniques and not yet established or finalized.
Now, why these 5? Well, if you take the first letter of each one, you get
ANIME :)
For each quality, I reflected back on my time in Japan as a kid attending international school and selected one well-known anime or manga character who I felt exhibited the selected quality, and related a story about Gengo and how we, too, exhibited that quality. Now, as this was more a fun rather than academic exercise, you may need to use your imagination and stretch it a bit at times :) Here goes!
For ambitious, I chose Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsu-jo — otherwise known as Kochikame. This manga, from 1976, is about neighborhood policeman Ryo-san and his entrepreneurial, often scheming ways. In each episode, Ryo-san is attempting some new money-making scheme with which he usually achieves some level of success. But as his key motivations are money and power, each episode inevitably ends with his downfall; he gets greedy and fails, and becomes an example of caution for his readership. (Bear in mind particularly for this generation of Japanese, manga was used either as an escape or to educate on do’s and don’ts).
The important point though is that Ryo-san never ceased in seizing opportunities — he always had the courage to try something new, and this ambition is important in every entrepreneur. If Ryo-san had exhibited the other qualities I’ll share below — especially maturity — he could very well have been successful.
Let me share a story from a very early part of Gengo, when we were very ambitious. Back in 2009 we were finding it a challenge to raise capital in Japan for a seed round. I learned that Dave McClure was coming to Tokyo with his family for the winter holidays, and he graciously agreed to hear our pitch. By the end of the meeting, he wired us funds with the stipulation that we fly to the Bay Area the following month to meet with angels and VCs he would introduce. Despite never having pitched to anyone in the Bay Area nor having any idea whether we would leave with seed funding, we jumped at the opportunity and packed over 30 meetings with angels and VCs into a 10 day trip. There was hardly a moment we weren’t discussing a prior pitch meeting or planning for the next; often times my co-founder Rob would be updating the pitch-deck while I drove to the next meeting.
Fortunately the trip was a success and the rest, well, I’ll get into some more details shortly, but if there’s a lesson on ambition somewhere — it’s that sometimes there are moments where you just have to go and try something out, or you’ll just never know. Which leads me to the next quality …
For nimble, I chose Lupin III, a manga character from 1967. The backstory is that Lupin III is the grandson of the gentleman thief Arsene Lupin from Maurice Leblanc’s novels. (Incidentally, the entire Lupin ecosystem is a good example of how Japan tweaks, perfects, and capitalizes on a foreign asset.) Lupin III is a master thief, and in cahoots with him are an expert marksman named Jigen and a master swordsman named Goemon. Lupin’s love interest is Fujiko, who sometimes helps / sometimes distracts him from his mission. Lupin and his gang are always chased by Inspector Zenigata, who has made it his life’s work to arrest Lupin.
Throughout the manga and anime series, Lupin III appears very agile — he moves quickly, albeit often clumsily, putting himself in difficult situations (like in jail). But his friends always come to his rescue, and after they free him he immediately resumes his original mission, never stopping from pursuing his goal (usually some treasure). Lupin III is a very clever character, and in many episodes he deftly uses his nemesis Zenigata to his advantage, usually as a distraction.
One such example is in a movie-version of Lupin III called Castle of Cagliostro (the only Lupin series directed by Miyazaki Hayao). In this story a Count captures a princess, whom Lupin wants to save. Now, Lupin has this habit of sending a “calling card” to a perpetrator or owner of his target pursuit, with the intent of freaking out the person through a warning of his impending presence. So Lupin sends the Count his signature calling card, which we later realize was also a way to ensure Zenigata would also be present as there were some challenges in the castle that required the two enemies to actually collaborate to escape situations.
Incidentally, in doing this research I discovered that Lupin’s author Monkey Punch (aka Kazuhiko Kato) did not originally seek permission to use the Lupin name. So in a way, even the author was “nimble” ☺ Of course, if you know the Lupin series by no means am I condoning theft. The focus is on being resourceful and clever!
Let me share two stories from Gengo’s early days, when we had to be nimble. The original version of Gengo was launched from Rob’s apartment, where there was enough room for the 3 of us developing the service. We eventually wanted to hire an intern to handle community & support, which triggered the search for a larger working area. We managed to find a shared-office space called Co-lab near (the controversial) Yasukuni shrine; Co-lab had two seating options — a fixed cubicle that could fit two bodies, and a “roaming desk” area of tables. We signed up for one cubicle and 2 roaming seats, figuring we could just keep adding (or subtracting) roaming seats as needed. Well, as we hired more freelance developers and interns, we quickly grew to about 8 members, with around 3 of them part-time. Thing is, we could only afford 5 seats … so we had to discretely rotate key-cards among the non-holders. It was easy to hear people outside the secured enclosed space, so we sometimes used a ‘secret whistle’ or covert knock to let those inside know someone outside needed to be let in. Despite others (unrelated to Gengo) using the shared-office space, we nimbly got through this episode for a few months before eventually moving into a proper office.
The second story of being nimble was a period when I slept on an inflatable mattress in a spare room at my parents’ place for 8 months. This was a period when I essentially dropped any responsibility not related to developing Gengo. Shedding personal possessions down to what could fit in a single 3’x3’ box and sleeping on the floor of a spare room all in the name of reducing financial burden and as a 28 year old, required a certain level of mental nimbleness. On most days I would walk the 45 minute commute to the office, saving an additional few dollars per day. Walking to work turned out to have three essential upsides — 1) it enforced an exercise regimen during a lifestyle that was 99% sitting and coding in front of a laptop, 2) it helped save some money, and 3) it gave me time to think and solve problems — time that could easily have been usurped by other company-building needs. If there’s a lesson here on being nimble, it’s around identifying the upside of working with limited resources.
For international, I chose Captain Tsubasa — a manga from the early 1980s about a young football prodigy (that’s “soccer” for Americans) named Tsubasa Oozora. Tsubasa has a dream of winning the FIFA World Cup for Japan, and the series shows numerous incredible — often unrealistic, but still very cool — football shots on goal.
Early in the series Tsubasa meets Roberto Hongo, a Brazilian footballer who eventually comes to live with Tsubasa and his family. Another character named Taro Misaki, who traveled around Japan at a young age because of his father’s job, becomes Tsubasa’s best friend. What I like and found interesting in the Captain Tsubasa anime is that not only does Tsubasa have a global dream, he surrounds himself with people who are either international — like Roberto — or who have been exposed to different subcultures — like Taro in his adventures around remote parts of Japan.
Throughout the series, Tsubasa continues to surround himself with international players, both as teammates and competitors. For example, in the World Youth edition Tsubasa leaves Japan for Sao Paolo, Brazil, and meets talented Brazilian players like Pepe and Carlos Santana. When the AFC Youth Championships begin, Tsubasa returns to Japan and joins the national team, competing against teams from around the world including Thailand, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden.
Our team at Gengo is incredibly diverse — possibly the highest ratio of nationalities per headcount you’ll find for a company in Japan, with an office in the US. Among the approximately 45 people who make up Gengo, at least 12 nationalities are represented, including US, Japan, UK, Kazakstan, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Italy, India, Australia, Philippines, Russia, and Singapore. Each and every hire is interested in different cultures and languages; some are obviously better than others at speaking a second (or third!) language, but the interest and passion for learning and trying is what’s most important to us. We have found that building an international team early in a company’s growth is a clear way to show both internally and externally (i.e. publicly) that diversity is incredibly valuable to us. A philosophy like this on company culture becomes particularly helpful when recruiting for talent.
Thanks to the Internet’s inherent global reach, an “international mindset” is now less about physical location and more about valuing diversity and having a global outlook. That said if you’ve never lived overseas, get moving ASAP!
For mature, I knew I had to go with Golgo 13, a manga from 1968 about a professional assassin who also goes by the pseudonym Duke Togo. This guy is a badass — a pro among pros. Golgo 13’s past is a mystery, but throughout the series he’s known as a guy who just gets shit done. He’s calculating and methodical, and is never known to fail a mission as a hired gun.
Okay, so he doesn’t always kill someone in every episode. In the episode “Sharp Shoot on a G-String”, which is about two rival violinists, one of them has a meltdown during a solo performance when the G string on his violin snaps and he can’t continue performing. The incident becomes global news, and he withdraws from the public. But the show must go on so his agent retains his key rival to continue in his place. This selection enrages the original violinist, who decides to hire Golgo 13 to shoot and snap the same G string at the rival violinist’s next performance (Golgo 13 is that good ☺. The original violinist wants his rival to endure the same meltdown and humiliation he’s undergone, and is willing to go to quite an extreme to make it happen.
Golgo 13 completes his mission successfully, snapping the G string mid-performance. The rival violinist pauses, and a tense air fills the auditorium as everyone watches to see what happens next. To the original violinists dismay, the rival retunes his D string on stage, and completes the rest of his performance. Golgo 13 obviously knows what would ultimately satisfy his client — to cause complete and utter humiliation in the performer — but he’s done his job, so he packs up his rifle and leaves the venue. Goglo 13 doesn’t let himself get sucked into the negativity of his client; instead he keeps his cool and professionalism. He’s mature like that.
At Gengo we’ve seen our share of nonsense clearly targeted at us with the intent to humiliate and distract. Being mature as an entrepreneur means not letting the bullshit bother you. There will always be people who try to waste your time, so it’s important to recognize when that’s happening and not get sucked-in.
When we received our first serious coverage in online media, we were elated — only to read through the comments and find tons of vitriol and negative feedback about our business model. It would have been easy to take it as a setback — but instead it thickened our skin and proved to us that we were on to something, something clearly disruptive and upsetting because at the least we were reallocating value to different parties.
We’ve seen our share of trolls on other social media platforms, and as we grew we established a company policy on how to respond — maturely and professionally, no matter what. Never let yourself get sucked down to another’s level. We’ve done such a good job at this that our fans — our customers and translators — often rebut complaints, false claims, and trolling activity on our behalf!
If you focus on adding value and block out the noise — you’ll be just fine.
For the final quality — experimental — I chose Yatta-man, a relatively niche manga (at least among the ones above) from 1977. Yatta-man (or “Yatterman” according to English distributors) is about two young tinkerers, a boy named Gan-chan and his girlfriend Ai-chan. They exist to protect a magical stone called the Skull Stone from a gang of three villains called the Doronbo. To do this, they’ve modified a large rescue robot in the shape of a dog into having weapons and called it Yatta-wan. As the series progresses, Gan-chan and Ai-chan experiment and iterate on their choice of weapons by building different robots, or mechas, for special occasions and changes in environment — such as Yatta-pelican for airborne needs, Yatta-angler for underwater activities, and Yatta-bull for drilling underground.
When the Yatta-man duo encounter the Doronbo, they engage by triggering one of their mechas to deploy an army of little robots. But the Doronbo also have their own mechas that pack weapons, and usually defeat Yatta-man at the beginning of the fight with their own army of mini-robots. Gan-chan and Ai-chan again experiment and iterate on their original mini-robot army though, and ultimately defeat the Doronbo.
At Gengo, experimentation and iteration is a core part of our product development and company growth philosophy. One of our five core values is kaizen, which essentially means “improvement through iteration”. Throughout the five years we’ve been growing as a business, here are a few “experiments” we’ve done for the purposes of improving the product and how we operate:
- used 4 different video conferencing services,
- changed our total office layout twice in only 8 months,
- completely changed our online order-form UI/X 4 times,
- experimented with all-hands stand-ups to be Japanese-only
Some of these might seem trivial — but if you’ve ever worked in an environment with some history you know how cliche yet frequent the answer “well, that’s how it’s always been done” is, especially in a Japanese work environment. So we try to never let this mindset get in our way. Getting into a habit of iterating and tweaking is important as teams and environments grow because there is never one-size that’s fits all.
So that’s ANIME — my take on a Japanese, entrepreneurial way to succeed globally. Thanks for reading this far; I’d like to close with one of my favorite quotes by George Bernard Shaw:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
So go out and be unreasonable!
