//

There are a lot of aerospace startups in Japan these days. We are seeing innovation in everything from component manufacturing to satellite constellations to literal moonshots.

All of those, however, depend on the ability to place new satellites in orbit, and that is getting harder and harder due to the ever-increasing amount of orbital debris. It’s simply getting too crowded up there.
Nobu Okada founded Astroscale to solve this problem. Today we sit down and talk about his solution, and we also dive into the very real political and financing challenges that have prevented this problem from being solved.

In many ways, the removal of space debris of a classic Tragedy of the Commons problem. Everyone agrees that it is an important problem that should be solved, but no one wants to spend their own money to solve it.

Well, Nobu and his team have developed a business model that they believe will be able to address this problem.  It’s an innovative and important approach. And yes, we also talk about dancing satellites.
It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

What is this Kessler Syndrome and why do we need to worry about it
Why dreams of being an astronaut did not work out
Why aerospace startups need their own manufacturing facilities
How to bring down a satellite
The trigger leading world governments to finally get serious about space clean up
What are your options when your satellite fails to launch
The single biggest risk in the space debris removal business
Why there are so many aerospace startups in Japan recently

Links from the Founder

Check out Astroscale and watch the dancing satellites for yourself
Friend them on Facebook
Follow Nobu on Twitter @nobuokada

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

There are a surprising number of new aerospace startups in Japan and today, you will be meeting the founder of one of the most innovative one. Nobu Okada founded Astroscale to solve the problem with space debris.

You see, every year, we are putting more and more satellites into orbit, and it’s gotten kind of crowded up there. There are zombie satellites that we have lost control over and there are satellites that have collided, resulting in thousands of small pieces of debris zipping around in random orbits at thousands of miles per hour, just waiting to crash into other satellites and begin a chain reaction.

Well, Nobu and the team want to do something about that. They have a plan to start de-orbiting this debris, and the technology side is fascinating. I mean, you might think that you have no real desire to know how to de-orbit a satellite, but trust me, you want to know how to de-orbit a satellite. It is really that cool.

Of course, Nobu and I cover much more than the technology. A big part of the story is how Astroscale has begun to build international recognition and consensus, and how they have actually constructed a business model around debris removal, and we also talk about the forces driving the sudden growth of aerospace startups and talk a bit about dancing satellite, but you know, Nobu tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1404″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey” ]

[Interview]

Tim: We are sitting here with Nobu Okada, the CEO and founder of Astros scale was cleaning up space, so thanks for sitting down with us.

Nobu: It is a great pleasure to meet with you and thank you for this great opportunity to be on your podcast.

Tim: I’m delighted to have you, and I’ve got to say, Astroscale is not like your typical startup. You have a really unique mission, so can you kind of explain what your vision is and what you are trying to do?

Nobu: Our mission is to secure long-term space flight safety by removing the s…

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2NS1bCs

//

There are relatively few biotech startups in Japan.

Few investors are willing to write the multi-million dollar checks and have the decades-long patience that is required to really succeed investing in this industry.

But startups find a way, and an innovative biotech ecosystem has started to develop in Japan despite the lack of traditional funding. In fact, we might be seeing a new, uniquely Japanese, model of innovation that we’ll call “the innovation supply chain”.

Today, we get a first-hand look at how this innovation supply chain functions, as we sit down with Yuki Shimahara the CEO and founder of LPixel.  LPixel uses AI image analysis to detect potential problems in patients MRI and CT scans.

The technology itself is fascinating, but Yuki and I also talk about how medical research and medical innovation might be taking a very different path in Japan than it is in the West.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll really enjoy it.

Show Notes

The real problem with using AI for medical diagnosis
AI’s deep roots in medicine
How safe is medical AI, both in theory and in practice
Are we about to see an App Store for medical devices?
Why doctors have mixed feeling about AI in medicine
How to maintain a competitive advantage in a crowded AI marketplace

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about LPixel
Connect with LPixel on LinkedIn
Friend Yuki on Facebook

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

You know, we’ve talked a lot about biotech in Japan on this show before and quite a bit, really. We have gone into the fact that the Japanese biotech venture ecosystem is really being held back by the lack of investors willing to write of the large checks required knowing that they won’t see any returns for over a decade. So, things are hard for life sciences in Japan.

However, in the words of Dr. Malcolm, “Life finds a way” or in our case today, “Life sciences find a way.”

There’s a growing number of impressive life sciences startups emerging in Japan and they are adapting it and evolving so that they can innovate within the capital constraints they find themselves in. Today, we sit down with Yuki Shimahara, founder and CEO of LPixel.

Now, LPixel applies artificial intelligence to medical imaging and detects a wide variety of conditions from CT scans and MRIs. Yuki is still a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo but he is running a company with more than 40 employees, so you can imagine, he is a pretty busy guy, but he took some time to sit down with Disrupting Japan and talk about how AI is being used in medicine, the challenges facing life sciences in Japan, and between the two of us, we sketch out a new way forward for Japanese innovation, an innovation model that is distinctly different from that in the US, but that might just be the way forward in Japan. Oh, and as you know, my goal here at Disrupting Japan is always to bring you amazing insights from Japanese entrepreneurs in their natural habitat.

This week, that habitat was a large concrete wall to conference room that makes it sound like we are talking at a vast underground cavern. It sounds a bit odd at first, but if you join us for the next 20 minutes in our underground layer, I guarantee you that you will leave thinking very differently about life sciences in Japan, but you know, Yuki tells us that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

[Interview]

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Yuki Shimahara of LPixel and things were sitting down with me today.

Yuki: Thank you.

Tim: So, LPixel is a cloud-based AI image analysis that you are using mostly for life sciences and related research,

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2LWncvf

//

There are relatively few biotech startups in Japan.

Few investors are willing to write the multi-million dollar checks and have the decades-long patience that is required to really succeed investing in this industry.

But startups find a way, and an innovative biotech ecosystem has started to develop in Japan despite the lack of traditional funding. In fact, we might be seeing a new, uniquely Japanese, model of innovation that we’ll call “the innovation supply chain”.

Today, we get a first-hand look at how this innovation supply chain functions, as we sit down with Yuki Shimahara the CEO and founder of LPixel.  LPixel uses AI image analysis to detect potential problems in patients MRI and CT scans.

The technology itself is fascinating, but Yuki and I also talk about how medical research and medical innovation might be taking a very different path in Japan than it is in the West.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll really enjoy it.

Show Notes

The real problem with using AI for medical diagnosis
AI’s deep roots in medicine
How safe is medical AI, both in theory and in practice
Are we about to see an App Store for medical devices?
Why doctors have mixed feeling about AI in medicine
How to maintain a competitive advantage in a crowded AI marketplace

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about LPixel
Connect with LPixel on LinkedIn
Friend Yuki on Facebook

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

You know, we’ve talked a lot about biotech in Japan on this show before and quite a bit, really. We have gone into the fact that the Japanese biotech venture ecosystem is really being held back by the lack of investors willing to write of the large checks required knowing that they won’t see any returns for over a decade. So, things are hard for life sciences in Japan.

However, in the words of Dr. Malcolm, “Life finds a way” or in our case today, “Life sciences find a way.”

There’s a growing number of impressive life sciences startups emerging in Japan and they are adapting it and evolving so that they can innovate within the capital constraints they find themselves in. Today, we sit down with Yuki Shimahara, founder and CEO of LPixel.

Now, LPixel applies artificial intelligence to medical imaging and detects a wide variety of conditions from CT scans and MRIs. Yuki is still a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo but he is running a company with more than 40 employees, so you can imagine, he is a pretty busy guy, but he took some time to sit down with Disrupting Japan and talk about how AI is being used in medicine, the challenges facing life sciences in Japan, and between the two of us, we sketch out a new way forward for Japanese innovation, an innovation model that is distinctly different from that in the US, but that might just be the way forward in Japan. Oh, and as you know, my goal here at Disrupting Japan is always to bring you amazing insights from Japanese entrepreneurs in their natural habitat.

This week, that habitat was a large concrete wall to conference room that makes it sound like we are talking at a vast underground cavern. It sounds a bit odd at first, but if you join us for the next 20 minutes in our underground layer, I guarantee you that you will leave thinking very differently about life sciences in Japan, but you know, Yuki tells us that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

[Interview]

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Yuki Shimahara of LPixel and things were sitting down with me today.

Yuki: Thank you.

Tim: So, LPixel is a cloud-based AI image analysis that you are using mostly for life sciences and related research,

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2LWncvf

//

Most of us don’t actually zone out in front of the TV. In fact, we give off all kinds of clues to what we really think about the shows we are watching.

Japanese startup, T-Vision Insights has come up with a way both to measure and to monetize those reactions.

Today we sit down with founder and CEO Yasushi Gunya and we talk about T-Vision’s business and the future of advertising in video.

T-Vision Insights already has 100’s of customers and is monoring thousands of housholds both in Japan and the US and we dive into some of the differences in how different kinds of people watch and react to TV.

I guarantee some of the results will surprise you.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

How AI can determine viewer engagement
Proof that women watched the super bowl more closely than men
How men and women watch TV differently

Which TV shows and commercials  are most engaging
The danger of advertising on the Walking Dead
How privacy concerns are addressed
Why it’s hard to sell genuinely new innovations
The most engaging parts of commercials
Why starting a startup is not really risky in Japan

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about T-Vision Insights
T-Vision Insight’s ranking of the most engaging commercials in Japan
Friend Yasushi on Facebook

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

This episode is a fun one. You know, I’ve always considered watching TV to be a passive activity. I mean, aside from sleeping, it seems like the most passive thing you could spend your time doing. You zone out while entertainment is poured into your brain, but it turns out, that’s not quite the case. TV watchers are a subtly active bunch and as we watch, we give off all kinds of signals to indicate our opinion of what we are being shown.

Well, Yasushi Gunya, founder and CEO of T-Vision Insights has developed an unobtrusive way to measure viewers’ reactions to TV shows and to TV commercials. It’s already deployed in thousands of homes in Japan and in the United States, and the results are remarkable. T-Vision is already showing global 100 brands how consumers react to their commercials and to the TV shows that they air in, and they provide a data-driven approach to show what content is the most engaging and what kind of response it evokes, but what I think is even more interesting is that T-Vision’s data shows that we all engage with TV differently.

Adults engage differently than children, Americans watch differently than Japanese, and men watch very differently than women do. In fact, there’s a big difference between how men and women watch sports on TV, and I guarantee you, it’s not the difference you think it is.

But Yasushi tells that story much better than I can. So, let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1404″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey” ]

 [Interview]

Tim: Cheers!

Yasushi: Cheers!

Tim: So, we are sitting here in the We Work office in this incredibly hot Tokyo afternoon with Yasushi Gunya of T-Vision Insights, so thanks for sitting down with us.

Yasushi: Thank you, Tim, and let’s cheer since we have beer here.

Tim: That tastes good on a hot day. So, T-Vision Insights measures the viewer’s reactions to TV shows and the commercials, but why don’t you explain basically how it works and what it is?

Yasushi: Okay, our core technology is AI-backed algorithm and we just inserted to a sensor and set the sensor on the top of TV. As a result, we can understand how people in front of the TV will react to the contents of TV, and actually, we have already said this kind of stuff to 3,000 households in US and Japan.

Tim: Okay, and we say ‘how they react,’ so is this a device sort of like Microsoft Kinect,

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2BtljWz

//

Most of us don’t actually zone out in front of the TV. In fact, we give off all kinds of clues to what we really think about the shows we are watching.

Japanese startup, T-Vision Insights has come up with a way both to measure and to monetize those reactions.

Today we sit down with founder and CEO Yasushi Gunya and we talk about T-Vision’s business and the future of advertising in video.

T-Vision Insights already has 100’s of customers and is monoring thousands of housholds both in Japan and the US and we dive into some of the differences in how different kinds of people watch and react to TV.

I guarantee some of the results will surprise you.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

How AI can determine viewer engagement
Proof that women watched the super bowl more closely than men
How men and women watch TV differently

Which TV shows and commercials  are most engaging
The danger of advertising on the Walking Dead
How privacy concerns are addressed
Why it’s hard to sell genuinely new innovations
The most engaging parts of commercials
Why starting a startup is not really risky in Japan

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about T-Vision Insights
T-Vision Insight’s ranking of the most engaging commercials in Japan
Friend Yasushi on Facebook

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

This episode is a fun one. You know, I’ve always considered watching TV to be a passive activity. I mean, aside from sleeping, it seems like the most passive thing you could spend your time doing. You zone out while entertainment is poured into your brain, but it turns out, that’s not quite the case. TV watchers are a subtly active bunch and as we watch, we give off all kinds of signals to indicate our opinion of what we are being shown.

Well, Yasushi Gunya, founder and CEO of T-Vision Insights has developed an unobtrusive way to measure viewers’ reactions to TV shows and to TV commercials. It’s already deployed in thousands of homes in Japan and in the United States, and the results are remarkable. T-Vision is already showing global 100 brands how consumers react to their commercials and to the TV shows that they air in, and they provide a data-driven approach to show what content is the most engaging and what kind of response it evokes, but what I think is even more interesting is that T-Vision’s data shows that we all engage with TV differently.

Adults engage differently than children, Americans watch differently than Japanese, and men watch very differently than women do. In fact, there’s a big difference between how men and women watch sports on TV, and I guarantee you, it’s not the difference you think it is.

But Yasushi tells that story much better than I can. So, let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1404″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey” ]

 [Interview]

Tim: Cheers!

Yasushi: Cheers!

Tim: So, we are sitting here in the We Work office in this incredibly hot Tokyo afternoon with Yasushi Gunya of T-Vision Insights, so thanks for sitting down with us.

Yasushi: Thank you, Tim, and let’s cheer since we have beer here.

Tim: That tastes good on a hot day. So, T-Vision Insights measures the viewer’s reactions to TV shows and the commercials, but why don’t you explain basically how it works and what it is?

Yasushi: Okay, our core technology is AI-backed algorithm and we just inserted to a sensor and set the sensor on the top of TV. As a result, we can understand how people in front of the TV will react to the contents of TV, and actually, we have already said this kind of stuff to 3,000 households in US and Japan.

Tim: Okay, and we say ‘how they react,’ so is this a device sort of like Microsoft Kinect,

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2BtljWz

//

The single most common question I get asked are variations of “How do you start a business as a foreigner in Japan?”  or “What’s it like to start a startup as a foreigner in Japan?”

It’s always been a hard question to answer simply because it is such a big one, that it can be hard to know where to start. Well, today we are going to start to answer that question, and over the next month or two, we are really going to dig into it.

Jordan Fisher is CEO and co-founder of Zehitomo, which is an online marketplace for off-line services.

This is not an easy space. There are many such sites in Japan, but Jordan explains why the fact that he and his co-founder are both foreigners has given them a competitive advantage not just in the marketplace, but in recruiting and marketing as well.

Unsurprisingly, there are a few things that are much harder for foreign startup founders than for Japanese founders, and we talk about those as well.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

Why charging commission is a losing strategy

One surprisingly popular kind of offline services
Why its hard to start a startup as a foreigner in Japan
What it’s like raising money as a foreigner in Japan
Ho to use your gaijin-ness to your business advantage
Why some Japanese have a hard time in foreign startups
How to differentiate your startup in Japan
Why the fear of failure is still holding Japan back

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about Zehitomo
Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn
Friend him on Facebook
Zehitomo is Hiring

Main recruiting page
Wantedly page

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

How do you start a business as a foreigner in Japan? What’s it like to grow a business as a foreigner in Japan?

These are the two questions I get asked the most, not only by our non-Japanese listeners who make up 80% of the Disrupting Japan’s audience but also by our Japanese fans as well. And you know, I’ve always found it hard to answer that question because it’s just such a big question that it’s hard to get your head around it. It’s hard to know how to even start to answer it.

Well, today, we’ll be talking a lot about exactly that. We’ll be sitting down with Jordan Fisher, the CEO and cofounder of Zehitomo.

Now, Zehitomo is an online marketplace for off-line services and we will dive deeper into their business model during the show, but really, we talk a lot about how Westerners or at least Jordan, this one particular Westerner approaches of doing business in Japan. Both as an individual and a company, there are certain things that you can get away with and some things that you just can’t. There are certain advantages you’ll have over your Japanese competition and there’s certain disadvantages that you might not be able to overcome.

But you know, Jordan tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Jordan Fisher, the founder and CEO of Zehitomo which is a marketplace for matching professionals with those who want to hire them, so thanks for sitting down with me.

Jordan: Yeah, great to be here, Tim, thank you.

Tim: So, I mean, I gave a really brief description of what Zehitomo is, so maybe you can explain it a little better than I did.

Jordan: Sure, sure. In a nutshell, it’s what you said, we’re a marketplace for local services. I think a lot of people don’t really immediately click when you say ‘local services,’ what that actually means, and I generally summarize it by saying that it’s the jobs that happens off-line, not the ones that happen online, so think about your photographer, your plumber, your personal trainer,

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2OIxIZz

//

The single most common question I get asked are variations of “How do you start a business as a foreigner in Japan?”  or “What’s it like to start a startup as a foreigner in Japan?”

It’s always been a hard question to answer simply because it is such a big one, that it can be hard to know where to start. Well, today we are going to start to answer that question, and over the next month or two, we are really going to dig into it.

Jordan Fisher is CEO and co-founder of Zehitomo, which is an online marketplace for off-line services.

This is not an easy space. There are many such sites in Japan, but Jordan explains why the fact that he and his co-founder are both foreigners has given them a competitive advantage not just in the marketplace, but in recruiting and marketing as well.

Unsurprisingly, there are a few things that are much harder for foreign startup founders than for Japanese founders, and we talk about those as well.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

Why charging commission is a losing strategy

One surprisingly popular kind of offline services
Why its hard to start a startup as a foreigner in Japan
What it’s like raising money as a foreigner in Japan
Ho to use your gaijin-ness to your business advantage
Why some Japanese have a hard time in foreign startups
How to differentiate your startup in Japan
Why the fear of failure is still holding Japan back

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about Zehitomo
Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn
Friend him on Facebook
Zehitomo is Hiring

Main recruiting page
Wantedly page

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

How do you start a business as a foreigner in Japan? What’s it like to grow a business as a foreigner in Japan?

These are the two questions I get asked the most, not only by our non-Japanese listeners who make up 80% of the Disrupting Japan’s audience but also by our Japanese fans as well. And you know, I’ve always found it hard to answer that question because it’s just such a big question that it’s hard to get your head around it. It’s hard to know how to even start to answer it.

Well, today, we’ll be talking a lot about exactly that. We’ll be sitting down with Jordan Fisher, the CEO and cofounder of Zehitomo.

Now, Zehitomo is an online marketplace for off-line services and we will dive deeper into their business model during the show, but really, we talk a lot about how Westerners or at least Jordan, this one particular Westerner approaches of doing business in Japan. Both as an individual and a company, there are certain things that you can get away with and some things that you just can’t. There are certain advantages you’ll have over your Japanese competition and there’s certain disadvantages that you might not be able to overcome.

But you know, Jordan tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Jordan Fisher, the founder and CEO of Zehitomo which is a marketplace for matching professionals with those who want to hire them, so thanks for sitting down with me.

Jordan: Yeah, great to be here, Tim, thank you.

Tim: So, I mean, I gave a really brief description of what Zehitomo is, so maybe you can explain it a little better than I did.

Jordan: Sure, sure. In a nutshell, it’s what you said, we’re a marketplace for local services. I think a lot of people don’t really immediately click when you say ‘local services,’ what that actually means, and I generally summarize it by saying that it’s the jobs that happens off-line, not the ones that happen online, so think about your photographer, your plumber, your personal trainer,

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2OIxIZz

//

Japan had been a global leader in robotics for decades, but recently the traditional Japanese leaders have been losing ground to the better-funded and better-publicized firms coming out of America and China.

Mujin is changing that. While iRobot and Boston Dynamics have been grabbing headlines and YouTube views, Mujin has been quietly breaking ground with a series of real-world commercial successes in deploying the next generation of industrial robots.

Perhaps Mujin’s largest achievement to date has been their project for Chinese e-commerce giant JD, in which they developed the world’s first fully-automated logistics warehouse where robots unload the trucks, stock the shelves, and them pick and pack the items for shipment without human intervention.

Today we talk with Issei Takino, who founded Mujin with his co-founder Rosen Diankov, and he explains why Japan looks at robots in a fundamentally different way than Western countries do, and how that will lead to a significant competitive advantage.

It’s an interesting conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

How to get the ecosystem to adopt your platform

Why robots have not yet taken over industry (or the world)
How to get your first customers in robotics
How to get feedback from reluctant Japanese customers
When being a Japanese startup is an advantage
How America and Japan view robotics and automation differently
Advice for starting companies with multi-cultural teams
The critical differences between Japanese and American universities

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about Mujin
Friend Issei on Facebook
See Mujin’s robots in action
Video of Mujin’s automated logistics warehouse (this is very cool)

 Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Today we’re going to talk about robots, specifically industrial robots.

Now Japan has been a global leader in robotics for decades, but in recent years, Japanese firms seem to be losing ground to the better funded and better publicized companies coming out of the US and China.

Well today we’re going to sit down with the founder of a company that is already starting to change that. Issei Takino founded Mujin with his co-founder Rosen Diankov and they have developed a kind of android for industrial robots, that is to say, it’s a generic operating system that works with almost any hardware and works far more effectively than anything else in the industry.

Issei and I go into some of the details during the interview but perhaps the clearest illustration of Mujin success was a project, they did for Chinese e-commerce giant JD. They developed the world’s first fully automated logistics warehouse. It’s a massive facility but almost no humans work there. Robots unload the trucks, stock the shelves, pick the items for delivery and then pack them and ship them out. It’s hard to explain in an audio podcast, so check out the video. We’ve got a link at the site and it’s really amazing to watch.

Issei and I also talked about how Japan and the West look at robots very differently and how that might be holding America back.

He also shares his experience and advice about founding and running a start-up as a multinational team and we talked about why these kinds of Japanese foreign partnerships are going to become more common and more important in the coming years.

But you know, Issei tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[Intrerview]

Tim: All right! So I’m sitting here with Issei Takino of Mujin, the maker of controllers for industrial robots. So thanks for sitting down with me.

Issei: Oh! It’s my pleasure, thank you, thank you for inviting.

Tim: Well I’m glad after all the technical difficulties that were finally able to sit down and talk.

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2Odhjfd

//

Twenty years ago, we all thought that starting a startup required a special and rare kind of talent. It was something you either had or you didn’t. Today, founding and running a startup is considered more of a learnable skill. It has its own best practices,  industry standards, and common knowledge.

And, in both startups and enterprises, I find it refreshing to talk to people who have succeeded by going against those industry standards.

Peter Galante started what would become the wildly successful Japanese Pod 101 with no clear idea how to monetize and no clear business plan. He did, however, have a firm conviction that what he wanted to build had value and the people would flock to it.

And he was right.

Peter and I talk about how his unconventional business plan and his rejection of VC advice and standard best practices, actually resulted in a rapidly growing startup in a market protected from even his best-funded competitors.

It’s an interesting conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

Who is really studying Japanese online
Why most Japanese language learners fail
What you need to know about turning a hobby into a business
What happens when your startup start changing for free content
Why podcasting is dying [Noooo!!!!] and video is rising
How content creators can get paid when so much content is free
How to defend your business against better-funded startups

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about Innovative Language Learning

JapanesePod 101
JapanesePod101 on YouTube

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn
Friend him on Facebook

 Leave a comment
Transcript
 Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Today, we’re going to sit down and talk with startup founder and fellow podcaster Peter Galante, founder of Japanese Pod 101, and if you study Japanese, then you’ve probably already listened to more than a few of those episodes.

When I went over to their studio for the conversation, Peter mentioned that he was actually a little bit nervous about coming on the show. That came as quite a surprise to me. I mean, I’m a friendly guy and I genuinely love learning about business models and taking them apart, you know, breaking them down into their individual movies parts, holding them up to the light to see how they work. I think that subject is endlessly fascinating and I learn something new every time I do it but that’s my approach and not everyone thinks this way.

Not everyone approaches startups as an exercise in business model design where you have a system of interacting components that need to be optimized in underserved markets that need to be served. Some people, in fact, probably more founders that are willing to admit it start out with a vision of what they want to be doing and then figure out how to backfit some kind of sustainable business model onto it.

This is exactly what Peter has done and as we’ll see during the interview, this is exactly what has not only led to the success of Japanese Pod 101 but it is also what is preventing even well-funded competition from entering this space. We also – and as a podcaster, this breaks my heart – we also talked about the ongoing and transformative shift from audio to video content.

Oh, yeah, and Peter wanted to make sure I let you know that about the same time this podcast is released, Japanese Pod 101 will exceed 1 billion downloads. That’s pretty impressive for something that started out as a hobby but you know, Peter tells that story a lot better than I can. So let’s get right to the interview.

[interview]

Tim: I’m sitting here with Peter Galante of Innovative Language Learning who is redefining online language education but is more famous and I think well known by a lot of listeners for creating Japanese Pod 101. So thanks for sitting down with me.

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2L04kij

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Twenty years ago, we all thought that starting a startup required a special and rare kind of talent. It was something you either had or you didn’t. Today, founding and running a startup is considered more of a learnable skill. It has its own best practices,  industry standards, and common knowledge.

And, in both startups and enterprises, I find it refreshing to talk to people who have succeeded by going against those industry standards.

Peter Galante started what would become the wildly successful Japanese Pod 101 with no clear idea how to monetize and no clear business plan. He did, however, have a firm conviction that what he wanted to build had value and the people would flock to it.

And he was right.

Peter and I talk about how his unconventional business plan and his rejection of VC advice and standard best practices, actually resulted in a rapidly growing startup in a market protected from even his best-funded competitors.

It’s an interesting conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

Who is really studying Japanese online
Why most Japanese language learners fail
What you need to know about turning a hobby into a business
What happens when your startup start changing for free content
Why podcasting is dying [Noooo!!!!] and video is rising
How content creators can get paid when so much content is free
How to defend your business against better-funded startups

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about Innovative Language Learning

JapanesePod 101
JapanesePod101 on YouTube

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn
Friend him on Facebook

 Leave a comment
Transcript
 Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Today, we’re going to sit down and talk with startup founder and fellow podcaster Peter Galante, founder of Japanese Pod 101, and if you study Japanese, then you’ve probably already listened to more than a few of those episodes.

When I went over to their studio for the conversation, Peter mentioned that he was actually a little bit nervous about coming on the show. That came as quite a surprise to me. I mean, I’m a friendly guy and I genuinely love learning about business models and taking them apart, you know, breaking them down into their individual movies parts, holding them up to the light to see how they work. I think that subject is endlessly fascinating and I learn something new every time I do it but that’s my approach and not everyone thinks this way.

Not everyone approaches startups as an exercise in business model design where you have a system of interacting components that need to be optimized in underserved markets that need to be served. Some people, in fact, probably more founders that are willing to admit it start out with a vision of what they want to be doing and then figure out how to backfit some kind of sustainable business model onto it.

This is exactly what Peter has done and as we’ll see during the interview, this is exactly what has not only led to the success of Japanese Pod 101 but it is also what is preventing even well-funded competition from entering this space. We also – and as a podcaster, this breaks my heart – we also talked about the ongoing and transformative shift from audio to video content.

Oh, yeah, and Peter wanted to make sure I let you know that about the same time this podcast is released, Japanese Pod 101 will exceed 1 billion downloads. That’s pretty impressive for something that started out as a hobby but you know, Peter tells that story a lot better than I can. So let’s get right to the interview.

[interview]

Tim: I’m sitting here with Peter Galante of Innovative Language Learning who is redefining online language education but is more famous and I think well known by a lot of listeners for creating Japanese Pod 101. So thanks for sitting down with me.

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2L04kij