Building Startup

At Kyoto University, 19 December 2013

Kenshin Fujiwara

About Me

•  Cal-State University graduate.

•  Co-founder & CTO at many startups.

•  Few exits & lots of failures.

•  Venture Partner at Miyako Capital

•  Trying to turn Kyoto into a world class startup incubator.

My first job.  

Before talking about ‘grown-up’ staff...

Let’s Talk About Difference Between Universities in US and Japan

Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital: "Target Big Markets” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw

Some People Started Their Business While in University And Become World Class

How AAA Students Behave Differently (Not Always True, But Mostly True in West)

US Japan

AAA Students Drop out, startup, create world class companies.

Get job at well-known companies.

AA Students Get job at well-known companies. Some eventually startup.

Get job at ordinary companies.

A Students Get job at ordinary companies. Some eventually startup.

Still get job at ordinary companies.

Resulting in Difference in Startup Rate

United States: 12% Japan: 5%  

Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) in 54 Economies, by Phase of Economic Development, 2011 http://www.gemconsortium.org/docs/download/2409

My Case

Startup  

5 years   3 years   Currently  

Then, there is a famous advice for students & entrepreneurs.

“Go to Silicon Valley.”

My advice is….

No, you don’t have to.

People will find you no matter where you are if you are doing well.

Examples

Denmark  

Singapore (Acquired by Rakuten for $200M)  

Australia (Soon to IPO)  

Australia  

Finland (Acquired by SoftBank for $1.5B)  

Finland  

In other words, you will fail no matter where you are if you are not doing well.

So what is a Startup?

Startup is not a smaller version of a large company.

Steve Blank: A Startup is Not a Smaller Version of a Large Company http://steveblank.com/2010/01/14/a-startup-is-not-a-smaller-version-of-a-large-company/

I wish I knew this before my first startup so let me explain a bit.

Startup

What We Now Know

Large Company

•  Search

•  No Customer

•  New or Existing Market

•  No Business Model

•  Execute

•  Existing Customer

•  Existing Market

•  Existing Business Model

Therefore, Lean Startup was born.

In Silicon Valley, no one tells you

what Lean Startup is because…

People assume not only you know about

it but also you already exercised it.

A word about Lean Canvas.

Lean Canvas

If You Want To Study By Yourself

Lean Canvas is not just for

web/mobile startups.

Web/Mobile & Physical Channels

As a student how do I exercise Lean Startup

and Lean Canvas without being drop-out?

My story of winning a grand prize at

Startup Weekend Kyoto in 2011.

Moment of Victory

Initial Prototype

What We Tested

•  Is there really a paying customer?

•  What is total addressable market (TAM)?

•  What is a minimal team to sustain ourselves?

•  Is there any chance investor would be interested?

•  And most importantly, are we solving a problem that people care about?

Got Green Light, Moving On

•  Launched web version of app.

•  Attended a couple of more pitch events. (Demo Asia in Singapore, SF NewTech in San Francisco, etc.)

•  Registered a company in Delaware, United States.

•  Adjust direction a bit. (a.k.a. pivot)

What We Are Now

As you can see, you may create a

company by joining Startup Weekend.

Actual Startups Born Out of Startup Weekend

•  Startup Weekend Los Angeles. •  Raised $1M right after the event. •  Raised $15M in total.  

•  Women 2.0 Startup Weekend. •  Raised $3.75M in total. •  Acquired by OpenTable for $10M.  

•  Four of teammates joined the company full-time in the following week.  

Act now, or you’ll never change.

http://kenshinfujiwara.com

https://www.facebook.com/kenshin.fujiwara

https://twitter.com/ensnk

Places Where Reach Out to Me

Thank you.