Disrupting Japan

Tim Romero

Disrupting Japan gives you candid, in-depth insights from the startup founders, VCs, and leaders who are reshaping Japan.

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Welcome to Disrupting Japan (Podcast Trailer)
Welcome to Disrupting Japan. Straight talk from Japan’s most innovative founders and VCs. I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me. There is so much happening in Japan right now. Startups and innovation are beginning to reshape Japan with the same dynamism we saw during the post-war boom or the Meji-era re-opening. And I’ve been in the middle of this for a long time. I’m now a partner a JERA Ventures, but over the over 30 years that I’ve lived in Japan, I’ve started four startups here, worked at TEPCO Ventures, ran Google for Startups Japan, and, of course, I’ve been running the Disrupting Japan podcast for more than 10 years. Every episode, I sit down with friends, VCs, founders, and leaders who are shaping Japan’s startup ecosystem to give you an inside look at what’s really happening here in Japan. So, please subscribe and join me on this journey. I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for listening to Disrupting Japan.
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The catalyst (finally!) pulling industrial Japan into the digital age
Japanese business loves paper. From fax machines, to business cards, to massive project binders. Paper processes are slow to die in Japan, especially in industrial facilities. Today we talk with Jumpei Yoshida of Kaminashi who explains why that's finally changing and how foreign workers are driving the transformation. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes What is Kaminashi, and who is using it? Why it took Kaminashi four years to to gain traction The biggest challenge in digitizing blue-collar industries Advice for selling software to Japanese companies How foreign workers are driving digital transformation in Japan How to reach analog customers The sales cycle for SMB and enterprise software Why enterprise sales in Japan is fundamentally different from in the West Kaminashi’s global expansion plans Real innovation comes next Links from our Guest Everything you ever wanted to know about Kaminashi ... and about their products Connect with Jumpei on LinkedIn Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Japan is unquestionably one of the most advanced nations in the world, and yet corporate Japan's love of paper processes and its resistance to going digital has become kind of a running joke even within Japan. At the more traditional industries all over Japan, at corporate headquarters, regional offices and frontline facilities you'll still see people rushing about carrying thick three ring binders to prove to the rest of the office that they are busy and productive. It seems some things never change. So, why? Explaining this kind of thing is a cultural difference is a cop out. It doesn't actually explain anything. It ignores potentially valuable business opportunities. And more important, it overlooks the startups that are finally beginning to change things. And so today we sit down with Jumpei Yoshida of Kaminashi - a name that literally means paperless - and he explains how Kaminashi is pulling factories, food processing, and other critical industrial processes into the digital age. We talk frankly about why it's taken Japan so long to begin this transition and the recent trigger that has really kicked open the market. Jumpei also shares some great advice about how to sell innovation to conservative Japanese companies, the importance of foreign workforce to Japan's future prosperity and what to expect if you're a startup selling to SMBs in Japan. But, you know, Jumpei tells that story much better than I can. So let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, I'm sitting here with Jumpei Yoshida, the CFO of Kaminashi, who's digitizing frontline and field service work. So, thanks for sitting down. Jumpei: Thank you for inviting me. Tim: It's a pleasure to have you on. Now I gave a really high level explanation of what Kaminashi does, but I think you can explain it much better than I can. Jumpei: Sure. Kaminashi is a company focused on providing SaaS solutions to empower frontline workers. Our main offering include tools that digitize and streamline paper-based workflows. Tim: What is the primary focus? Is it mostly just checklists? Is it inspection comments, like approval, workflow? What kind of things does it cover? Jumpei: The application itself is checklist, but there are so many variety of usage. Tim: And what about the hardware runs on, is it iOS, Android, is it onsite terminals? Jumpei: Initially it was only for iOS and iPad, but now our products can use any devices like Windows or Android. Now it's on the web-based software. Tim: Now a bit later I want to get into more detail about the business model and the value you're providing beyond just the checklists. But tell me about your customers. Jumpei: Regarding our flagship product Kaminashi report,
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How CVCs and startups are decarbonizing energy
Most outside of the energy industry are (pleasantly) surprised to learn how aggressively startups and CVCs are pushing decarbonization forward. Decarbonization is a fascinating and incredibly important issue, so please join me on this short but special episode. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. This is a short episode. I wanted to share with you a panel discussion I moderated at the Global Corporate Venturing Asia Congress on the role that CVCs are playing in the green energy transition. It's an inside look at what some of the leaders in the field are thinking. You'll hear from Sophia Nadur, the managing director of APAC and Middle East at BP Ventures. Nicole LeBlanc, partner at Woven Capital, and Jim Aota, chairman of Yamaha Motor Ventures. You know, outside of the industry, a lot of people are surprised to learn just how active and supportive of startups global energy and transport companies can be and how they're working to push meaningful innovations into the marketplace. So here are some quick insights into how some of the world's leading energy related companies are working with startups to green our power system and transition us all to a sustainable future. We talk about the specific kinds of startups we're looking to invest in, the different ways we have to support and work with startups and what we see is the most exciting energy startup trends for the next three to five years. But you know, the panel tells that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: Okay, thank you so much. I am really looking forward. We're going to be talking about how CVCs are supporting and fueling the growth of energy startups all over the world. And to start off, I'd like to do brief, brief introductions because there's four of us here. So I'm Tim Romero, I'm a partner at JERA Ventures. JERA is a Japanese electric utility. We generate about a third of Japan's electricity. We're investing in decarbonization, new business models and energy and looking for the best companies globally to bring to Japan. I also, for the last 10 years, have been running the Disrupting Japan podcast that talks about VCs and startups in Japan. And this is important because this is being recorded to release on the podcast. So, you are all part of the show. Nicole: Hi everybody. Nicole LeBlace. I'm a partner with Woven Capital and longtime listener of Tim's podcast. So, we're the Growth Venture fund for Toyota. So, we look at growth stage companies typically that are able to work with Toyota across a number of different sectors. So energy that we're about to talk about here is certainly one, but also looking at supply chain automation. And if you think about mobility 3.0, connected cars, that sort of thing. Our team is mainly based here in Tokyo, including myself, but we also have people in the US and in the UK. Sophia: Hi, I'm Sophia Nadur, MD for Asia Pacific and Middle East at BP Ventures. BP Ventures is a global energy company. I am delighted to have Masaki Kaison, who's the head of BP Japan with me, such as the importance that we are placing on looking for investments in Japan right now. We have $850 million assets under management. We invest $150 million at least every year from our balance sheet. We invest in series A, series B, potentially series C companies who are scaling up energy transition related offers, which could include battery storage, offshore wind, solar, hydrogen, mobility, even retail and convenience. Even these areas are of interest to us and we are actively looking to invest in in Japan. We have two, nearly three investments in India, two in China, and two in Australia. Just in this region alone. Jim: Right. So, my name is Jim Aota and I am the chairman of the Yamaha Model Ventures,
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How AI startups can compete with the AI giants
Japan is lagging behind in AI, but that might not be the case for long. Today we sit down with Jad Tarifi, current founder of Integral AI and previously, founder of Google’s first Generative AI team, and we talk about some of Japan's potential advantages in AI, the most likely path to AGI, and how small AI startups can compete against the over-funded AI giants. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why Jad felt Google was not pursuing the best path toward AGI The fundamental AI scaling problem and likely solutions Why robotics is critical for the advancement of AI (and the not the other way around) Why Japan is the ideal place to build a new AI startup The reason it is so difficult for robotics startups to make money Why humanoid robots are a dead-end How AI startups can compete with the foundation-model comnpanies How we get to AGI from our current AI Solutions to the alignment problem The challenge of making AI fundamentally benevolent The biggest challenge in AI development is not technological Links from our Guest Everything you ever wanted to know about Integral AI Stream product announcement Follow Jad on X @jad_tarifi Friend him on Facebook Connect on LinkedIn Check out Jad's new book The Rise of Superintelligence ... and the companion Freedom Series website Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Japan is lagging behind in AI, but that was not always the case. And it won't necessarily be the case in the future. Today we sit down with Jad Tarifi, current founder of Integral AI, and previously founder of Google's first generative AI team. We talk about his decision to leave Google after over a decade of groundbreaking research to focus on what he sees as a better, faster path to AGI or artificial general intelligence. And then to super intelligence. It's a fascinating discussion that begins very practically and gets more and more philosophical as we go on. We talk about the key role robotics has to play in reaching AGI, how to leverage the overlooked AI development talent here in Japan, how small startups can compete against today's AI giants, and then how we can live with AI, how to keep our interest aligned. And at the end, one important thing Elon Musk shows us about our relationship to AI. And I guarantee it's not what you, and certainly not what Elon thinks it is. But you know, Jad tells that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: I am sitting here with Jad Tarifi, founder of Integral AI, so thanks for sitting down with me. Jad: Thank you. Tim: Integral AI, you guys are “unlocking, scalable, robust general intelligence.” Now that's a pretty big claim, so let's break that down. What exactly are you guys doing? Jad: So, when we look at generative AI models right now, they usually operate as a black box. And because they have minimal assumptions on the data, they have to do a lot of work and they tend to be inefficient in terms of the amount of data they need and the amount of compute. We're taking a different approach that's inspired by the architecture of the neocortex, which roughly speaking follows a hierarchical design where different layers produce abstractions and then feed into higher layers that create abstractions of abstractions and so on. Tim: Okay, so this is not an LLM architecture or is this a kind of LLM architecture? Jad: When people talk about LLM, usually they talk about auto regressive transformer networks. So this would be a different type of architecture than that. However we can use transformers or other models like diffusion models as building blocks within that overall architecture. Tim: It's interesting that you took a different path than LLMs because you're not new to AI.
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51:44
Why Japan is looking to France for startup inspiration
While the rest of the world is copying Silicon Valley, Tokyo is looking at Paris. Today we sit down with Mark Bivens and Matt Romaine, the co-founders of Shizen Capital to talk about Japan's new startup policies, the changing role of M&A, the main force behind the changing attitudes about startups in Japan. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why Japanese startups need to start buying other startups The root of Japan's odd attitudes towards M&A and the forces changing it Structuring investments into foreign startups making a Japan market entry Why the Japan's angel investing tax-break is not really about taxes What Japan plans to import from the French startup ecosystem The best way to win the hearts and minds to change startup culture What's driving the recent explosion in startup events, and will it last? The best Japanese startup ecosystems outside of Tokyo Can authenticity scale? Links from our Guest Everything you ever wanted to know about Shizen Capital Connect on LinkedIn Follow Shizen Capital on X @shizencapital I highly recommend Mark's blog Rude VC Follow Mark on X @markbivens Follow Matt on X @quanza Check out Mark's Nostr https://rude.vc/nostr Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Everybody wants to be Silicon Valley. Regional and local governments the world over proudly announced that they will be the Silicon Valley of, you know, whatever. We've seen Silicon Glen, Silicon Beach, Silicon Harbor, and countless other less publicized variations. Now, politicians calling out to Silicon Valley works fine as a metaphor, but you know, it's not really a plan. Well, the Japanese government has a plan and they are not looking to San Francisco, but to Paris. And today we're going to talk about that plan and so many other things as well. When we sit down with Mark Bivens and Matt Romaine, the co-founders of Shizen Capital, an early stage fund focused exclusively on Japanese startups. Now, Matt and Mark are both startup founders who became VCs, and that's still pretty rare in Japan. These VCs tend to be overrepresented on disrupting Japan because I don't know, it's a small group and I'm friends with a lot of them. But founders turned, investors are critical to the success of any startup ecosystem, and they're playing an outsized role in shaping what's happening in Japan right now. Mark, Matt and I talk about what's driving the changing attitude around M&A in Japan, which part of the government efforts to support startups are actually working and Japan's potential advantage in becoming a startup powerhouse in the coming years. But you know, Matt and Mark tell that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: We're sitting here with Mark Bivens and Matt Romaine, the two founding partners of Shizen Capital. So, thanks for sitting down with me. Matt: Delighted to be here. Mark: Yeah, pleasure. Tim. I think I mentioned this privately to you before, but I'm pretty still relatively new in Japan. Seven years ago I moved here and you were my first source as I wanted to learn about the Japanese startup ecosystem. Tim: Well, thank you. Mark: Somebody introducing me to your podcast, so thank you. Tim: Well, no, thank you. It's been a great project and I'm glad this has kind of come full circle and I get a chance to sit here and interview you on it. Mark: I also have to say, in a past life I was a radio DJ. You have a great radio voice, Tim. Tim: Thank you. It's funny, people tell me that all the time, but this is just the way I talk, like normally. Well, thank you. So, let's get into it. So, tell me about Shizen Capital. Who are you investing in and why? Matt: Yeah, well, so I first met Mark in 2015 at a conference in Fukuoka. It was the B dash conference.
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