Five Tips From Investors To Help Your Startup Kickoff!
Are you looking for advises on how to start, manage or fund your startup? We asked two investment experts, Tsuyoshi Taira and Arnon Kohavi, to share their tips and essential growth strategies for business success. Watch the full interview on our Facebook!
Tsuyoshi Taira, CEO of Tazan Internationals has an extensive background in the semiconductor industry. Prior to becoming an international investor, he spent most of his career at Sanyo Corporation coordinating the Sanyo’s marketing strategy. Mr Taira has invested a number of Silicon Valley startups and gained a valuable experience in providing seed stage financing and marketing for numerous startups.
Tips from Tsuyoshi Taira
If you cannot develop something by yourself, search for a genius who would do it.
Seeking a help from outside may help you to grow your business. Back in the day, I went to USA for marketing Sanyo products, but nobody would buy it. Our engineers couldn’t develop the commodity I needed so I started to search for the outsider who would tackle the problem. Eventually, I found a brilliant engineer in the Silicon Valley and asked him to develop a new product for Sanyo. That’s how I started the business in USA.
Take up the challenges to move on.
Many young entrepreneurs are bright and promising, but they don’t rise to the challenges. Of course, those who take up the challenges may fail. However, if you keep moving on you will finally find the right market. There are many opportunities and ways to kickstart the new services in Japan, such as taxi app industry, however strict social policies are holding many aspiring minds back from entering the competitive market.
Arnon Kohavi, an Israeli-born investor and entrepreneur, served as an executive in a leading hardware companies and founded several Silicon Valley-based startups. After exploring the international investment opportunities in Chile and Singapore, he decided to test waters in Japan.
Tips from Arnon Kohavi
Think out of box
It is extremely difficult to start a business because there are many big companies like Google and Apple who monolopise the industry. But on the other side, the enterprises often forget how to innovate themselves. That creates an advantage for startups who can go crazy in their inventions. If you are smart and young hardware engineer, you can make a better computer than MacBook which is not that good as 10 years ago when Steve Jobs was alive. Sure, you will go against the odds but if you succeed, it is going to be rewarding.
Simplify your product
The less buttons users need to press the better device is. Too many buttons on a product would puzzle anyone. If choosing, I would prefer the simple design with a good functionality to the complex one.
Step out of your comfort zone
I encourage people to travel a lot and get out their comfort zone. Choose India over the Silicon valley and spend some time in this tough, but incredibly fashinating country. If you survive out there, you are ready to launch your startup otherwise it’s not for you to become an entrepreneur. You better go to the big corporation and earn money there.
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