J-Startup Companies Build Bridges and Connections at SXSW in Austin

J-STARTUP TAKES OVER SXSW IN AUSTIN

Once again the 10X Innovation Lab team had the pleasure of supporting our partner NEDO (New Energy Development Organization) and the J-Startup initiative launched by METI (Ministry of Trade, Economy and Industry). This time, we trained and prepared five teams, referenced below, before the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. The training program was conducted in partnership with Aya Iwasuji from Empowered Being Global and the aim was to equip founders with tools to effectively engage and communicate with customers in the US. As an international founder, it can be daunting and challenging to present your business in a foreign language so this program centered on tackling the issues of 1) building an effective value proposition to US customers and being able to communicate in the best way possible 2) help them understand the cultural differences and nuances between conducting business in Japan and the US and 3) supporting the founders in business development activities, in which the team scheduled high-value meetings for market validation purposes.

THE PROGRAM FORMAT

Over the course of 2.5 months, the team conducted a full-scale training program which included virtual sessions such as Developing Your Business Model Canvas, How to Pitch in the US and more, as well as an intensive bootcamp where 10X worked side-by-side with the startups to better understand their current business challenges and use what we, at 10X, call “founder data” to better support them at the SXSW conference. This meant we were able to provide tailored support, helping the teams accelerate their understanding of the market and collect key industry contacts, that they could later use to build up their customer base in the US.

IN CONCLUSION

Upon completion of this program, the director of one of the startups, Life is Tech, Satoshi Miyagawa, notified us that they were convinced the next step would be to officially expand their business to the US. Next June, they will officially announce the launch of their innovative Technologia School of Magic coding platform in the US. They will spend the next few months gathering more market data to be used to narrow down their customer segment and ensure that they make a differentiated, targeted positioning for their platform. We also talked to Koharu Yanagawa who leads marketing at Unipos and her primary objective was to get product feedback from potential US customers. The conference helped her achieve this objective, as she noted, it provided her with unique insights on the market potential and how their product could meet the needs of customers.

10x Innovation Lab is proud to provide a platform that enables Japanese founders to connect more effectively with the US market. We’re delighted to support our long-standing partner, NEDO, and look forward to creating programs that help their startups validate market opportunities and accelerate their business into uncharted territory like the US. We are proud ambassadors of their work and believe that there is still much opportunity in Asia and Japan, in particular.

Finally, we would like to thank our exceptional mentors Gideon Marks and Michelle Messina as well as the attending startups, who brought an incredible work ethic and openness to the challenges they were facing. By doing so, we were able to support them to the best of our ability. It’s a collaboration effort and we’re not afraid to roll up our sleeves!