【EN | JP字幕】スタートアップに「国際線」を。Angry Birdsを1億DLを牽引した起業家の物語／Antti Sonninen, Takeoff Tokyo CEO

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Hi.

[00:00:04]So, let me switch to the English. Let's get started.

[00:00:07]>> Start the Japan office of Angry Birds the game. 100 million downloads instead of 1 million. In Finland, there's this new student startup boom happening.

[00:00:17]Then, Slush was one of those projects.

[00:00:19]Japan needs this. I ended up when Corona happened. So, the project went on a break. I feel like if I don't do something now, I'm going to think for the rest of my lifetime. Why didn't I do it?

[00:00:29]Why did you decide the name of the takeoff Tokyo?

[00:00:34]>> Where is the next like global success story? So it felt like >> this is like somebody built like a new airport, like a new brand new Haneda airport, but there's no international terminal. Nobody's building the international terminal startups. A lot of the talented startup entrepreneurs in Japan, they're just >> moving to San Francisco >> and that's fine and that's great. They should do that. However, if all the smartest people move away from Japan to San Francisco, that means that Japan is going to be a colony. not going in the San Francisco or international country.

[00:01:09]Japan is enough to launch their new business.

[00:01:28]So, let me switch to the English. Let's get started.

[00:01:32]Welcome to Startup Now. I'm your host Kazaya Inarida. People call me Oari.

[00:01:39]Today I invite the special guest, Auntie Sanin, CEO of Takeoff Tokyo. Thank you for coming today, Auntie Son.

[00:01:49]>> Thank you so much. Very excited to be here.

[00:01:51]>> Yeah, I'm so honored to invite you.

[00:01:53]Could you introduce a bit yourself and take off Tokyo also? Yeah. So, I'm uh originally from Finland, but I've been living in Tokyo for over 10 years. I came here in 2013 to start the Japan office of Angry Birds, the game. And through that, I got connected with Japanese startup ecosystem and then uh I noticed that uh foreign and and or the international and the Japanese ecosystem is not always talking to each other. So I hosted some meetups and and uh and opportunities for both sides to connect and that led into me organizing a conference. Uh I'm organizing a conference called take off Tokyo right now which is >> um we're making it into a place where the next Sony or uh Sony or Toyota could be started.

[00:02:49]>> So wonderful. And you said that you've been living Japan over 10 years. So you must speak in uh Japanese also.

[00:03:02]I heard that. But I will try in English please.

[00:03:05]>> Yeah, let's do in English.

[00:03:07]>> Yeah, thanks so much. And so before we dive into the takeoff, I would love to know get to know about yourself more. So please tell me the So I heard that you're from Finland and in old days uh you've you've been in California also.

[00:03:27]>> So please let me know about this story.

[00:03:30]So yes, I was uh born and and uh initially living in Finland and uh because of my family's situation, we also lived in uh Menllo Park in uh in Silicon Valley when uh I was small and through that I was exposed to a lot of English uh already before I went to school and um I wasn't living there um permanently for a long time but it was a few long business trips that my family was taking there. The other interesting thing about my childhood is that most of my family speaks Finnish but uh one part of my family also speaks Swedish. So >> uh because of that I was surrounded by three languages already before I was in school and there was lots of situation where I was thinking like what are these people saying? So but uh I then started picking up >> those those languages.

[00:04:24]>> M so you also speak those of their language. Yes.

[00:04:28]>> Wow. Wonderful. And Japanese also. So super multilingual. So how how many languages you you speak?

[00:04:36]>> I've studied maybe nine in total but uh like I I can hold a conversation in four.

[00:04:42]>> Wow. So international. So >> and you said that not so long time you stayed in California, right? But how long you stayed in?

[00:04:51]>> Uh it was maybe three different trips but in total uh a year and a half.

[00:04:56]>> Wow. So when did you back to Finland?

[00:05:00]>> Uh it was in elementary school.

[00:05:02]>> Elementary school.

[00:05:03]>> So and uh uh yeah but uh I've gone on shorter trips not like several months but a few weeks trips um for many years even after that. So it's I have a strong connection with with uh California also.

[00:05:19]>> Mhm. And I want to know your past character when you were a kid. So let me know uh what why did you absorb in like play or like so on.

[00:05:32]>> Yeah, it's it's a very nice question. I don't think I've ever answered this kind of question in in a interview but um so in uh school um I was I usually had very good grades in mathematics, physics, >> uh chemistry and also foreign languages.

[00:05:54]>> Wow. Cool. And uh in in the subjects where you needed to read a lot of books >> uh I wasn't bad but I was more like average in those like for example history or geography or biology and um >> maybe there's also like some entrepreneurs in my family. They're not nobody is like um building like a tech company but for example my most of my dad has a dad's family has like real estate businesses and like uh >> in in um my mom's family several uh people have had like for example >> video studios or graphics design studios. Um, so dad's family is kind of very sales type of entrepreneur family and mom's family is kind of like an artist family.

[00:06:42]>> Much talent. So your family is the entrepreneur. So you mean business owner but not tech tech industry?

[00:06:51]>> Yeah. So for example, my dad and my grandfather like they they both have been running like a real estate company.

[00:06:58]>> Mhm. And uh and now days uh have you play any sports or that kind of >> I did multiple um I didn't do one sport for like uh whole my childhood but I was doing um some basketball uh also kung fu martial arts and uh but yeah once I got into university uh I started u running swimming and hitting the gym quite a lot so It's recently when I do sports it's more gym running and swimming >> for what >> uh to stay healthy and uh and uh and fit. Um we're just uh two days after the takeoff Tokyo conference. So in the last >> last two three months maybe my sports uh hasn't been that >> regular but now I have hopefully some more time to continue that.

[00:07:54]>> Thank you. And uh so jump into the university era. So I heard that you uh you can you came to Japan as a exchange student.

[00:08:05]>> Yeah.

[00:08:05]>> To the the University of Tokyo. So why did you choose this university?

[00:08:11]So when I went to university, I I it was a whole new world after high school and uh I thought that I want some working experience in another country and I wanted to go to a country where not everybody speaks English. Wanted to pick learn a new language >> and and be able to work in that language. So >> I went backpacking in the first summer vacation of university and um I decided to backpack as long as I find a country where I want to study and then first went to Germany >> and Germany was nice but it was kind of similar to Finland.

[00:08:49]>> Then we went >> here and there similar culture.

[00:08:51]>> Yeah. Then we went to Spain.

[00:08:53]>> Uh I was traveling with some friends and Spain was a little bit more different.

[00:08:58]uh but maybe it's not different enough and the third country was Japan. My friend was watching anime and wanted to go to Japan and uh once we came here everything was so different that uh we just decided both actually on the spot that we're going to study here. So one year year later I came to uh to and and my friend friend came to Wasida. So that was >> uh how I ended up here. I knew nothing about uh Japan before that but I thought like wow this is such a new world and and so interesting.

[00:09:32]>> So you mean you couldn't speak Japanese at all?

[00:09:36]>> Yeah. So when I came like university second year university student I I spoke zero.

[00:09:42]>> Zero.

[00:09:42]>> Yeah. Zero. And then uh I I studied it a little bit in school and tried to speak and write it as much as I could and just made like a ton of mistakes and then uh through that could speak a bit more.

[00:09:56]>> How did you try practicing speaking Japanese?

[00:10:01]>> So uh my phone and my computer I just changed all the settings into Japanese and if somebody tried to speak to me in English I ignored them and spoke back I spoke back in Japanese. everywhere. So it might have been a little bit annoying for some people to be around me, but like this kind of approach allowed me to to improve quite fast.

[00:10:24]>> Is there uh is that need any courage or confidence or like that if I were you, it's difficult to uh act like you? So >> maybe I I speak English the mother tongue like that. So is there no fear to about that fear to act like this? Well, in the beginning it felt a little bit painful because like I was going into many rooms and I felt like I'm looking like an idiot again. And then like for example when I my first career after graduating from university I came to um start the Japan office of Angry Birds the game >> and uh uh I remember when we did like a press conference with that and I needed to give a statement to press in Japanese or write very important business emails and I and then once I look at my emails later like oh this is so embarrassing mistake. So it's it was quite painful in the beginning but uh uh I decided like I'm not going to give up until I can do it and uh now yeah no now no problem >> no problem. Thank you. I was encouraged to speak English also and uh yeah until your you were study in university you started your own business I heard that.

[00:11:52]>> Yeah. So I didn't start a company during my university time but uh uh I started a company uh when I left uh uh Angry Birds and uh >> that was uh 2014 >> uh there was a company here in in in Japan and it it wasn't really uh the goal wasn't yet to build something huge but uh for example me as a foreigner I needed a visa in Japan so to do that as an entrepreneur you need to have a company first and So I did u some smaller consulting projects and and things like that but uh it was mostly just a way for me to stay here and so I could do the other things that I wanted to and uh >> yeah my first career was the Angry Birds game company and then later I was for example >> uh I was in a in a Japanese hardware startup for half a year and then I was also building this slush Tokyo conference where I which uh I learned a lot of about events during that time. So when I was doing many projects um because I had my own company was that was the simple way to keep a visa.

[00:13:02]>> I got it. But I I heard that before joining the company of uh Angry Birds you started the own business that like >> uh provide the SN SNS platform so for social area.

[00:13:18]>> Yes. Tell me more about this.

[00:13:20]>> Yeah. So uh this was a um a short project I did in 201 I think uh 12 one year before coming to Japan.

[00:13:29]>> We went to this hackathon in Alto University. It was hosted by Garage 48 which is a famous Estonian hackathon organizer. They visited Finland to host Garage 48 hackathon and my team we won the prize for that. there was this uh one lady who had studied um development aid uh in Japanese you say kahhatu enjo uh she had found out that there's a lot of like projects that overlap and like for example if one uh one group brings malaria uh vaccine then next year you don't need to bring the same vaccine again necessarily but >> most countries for example Japanese NGO and French NGO they don't always know what each other is doing. So we were building this kind of u social media kind of like a Twitter on the map where you can see that hey we already did malaria vaccination here so you don't need to do it next year anymore. So we won the hackathon. We also got I think 20,000 euros. So that's yo hakumay in Japanese money.

[00:14:42]>> 4 million.

[00:14:43]>> 4 million.

[00:14:44]>> 4 million yen. So we got that kind of like uh the university gave us uh like a grant. It was free money for us to build that.

[00:14:52]>> I was doing that at the same time when when like Angry Bird started like inviting me there in the in the middle.

[00:14:59]I wasn't the CEO of that project but I was working on on the product design then and then when the Angry Birds opportunity came up I just went all into that.

[00:15:10]>> So was that project succeed in?

[00:15:13]>> So uh I've checked the project that doesn't seem active right now.

[00:15:19]>> Uh I also see that the CEO at the time is now uh has a different company right now. uh still an entrepreneur but it looks like it's not not active right now.

[00:15:31]>> I got it. So why why did the why did the company of Angry Birds invite you as a head of Japan?

[00:15:39]>> So uh I was just uh like a market research intern first >> um and that was when Angry Birds was maybe 50 people and it had maybe 1 million downloads. It was still quite a lot but it was starting to grow lot really fast. And then once it just started growing and growing and there was like suddenly 100 million downloads instead of one million and uh the company needed several different offices around the world to do business development.

[00:16:09]>> There was one in Shanghai and Los Angeles for example. And then um the management thought that we need an office in in Tokyo as well. And then um uh they thought that hey you speak Japanese right?

[00:16:24]>> Mhm. Can you move there please and build the office? So that was the start.

[00:16:30]>> But it was so huge the big challenge for you.

[00:16:35]>> Mhm.

[00:16:35]>> But so is there any difficulty to own the Japanese branch? No owner run the business. There was many interesting moments for example the the uh when I moved there I was asking the legal department that can you help me arrange an apartment and can you help me arrange a visa and then they were saying that you are the Japan expert we don't know you tell us what we should do and also we're so busy now making the contract about the Angry Birds movie that they just said that hey >> you're a smart person you'll figure it out so yourself just go and tell us what to do. So I came to Japan and uh first I was in a hotel then I realized that hey hotel is a bit expensive so I went to like a service apartment because after that I tried to get a visa and a resident card. when I was asking for a visa, they said that please show us your address uh like of a real apartment, not like service department. And then um I said that I don't have an apartment yet. Then they're like, "Well, go get one." And then I went to rent an apartment and then they said that show me your visa. I said that I don't have a visa because I don't have an apartment.

[00:17:54]>> So first yeah. So I thought like this is very weird like which came first the chicken or the egg. So >> what I did in the end is I found like a rich friend and I convinced them to buy an apartment in Ebisu.

[00:18:09]>> Wow.

[00:18:09]>> Saying that like >> Japanese friend or >> uh foreign friend >> like an investment banker friend and I said that the Olympics are probably coming to Tokyo so you should buy real estate right now.

[00:18:21]And then they're like really okay.

[00:18:23]>> And then they bought the house and then like after buying it you should you know rent it to someone like really trustworthy person like and by the way I'm looking for a house.

[00:18:34]So then they said that like okay so maybe 3 4 weeks after that discussion I was living in the house that they bought.

[00:18:42]>> Wow.

[00:18:43]>> Amazing.

[00:18:43]>> And then I happily got the visa but there's like there's no correct answer how to solve that. So like when I came here uh there's so many situations like that.

[00:18:53]>> Mhm. And through the experience of running the uh Angry Birds company, what what did you learn?

[00:18:59]>> Um there's there's many things I guess.

[00:19:02]Um I had done some sales before in my career but like uh I started doing a little bit more sales during that time and I noticed that selling things is not easy in the beginning. uh but it can be easy with the right approach. Um so I learned a lot about that. It was also the first time that I was recruiting a team. We recruited uh a team of five uh to work on the Japan market. Um marketing people, account management people, game producer people, social media and uh learned a little bit about that. Um, one thing also to build my network because I could speak some Japanese because of studying and learning. Yeah. But I noticed that to sell you need a lot of important friends.

[00:19:56]>> So to get important friends, I just started going to every single event I could find. And I noticed that if you go to an event that is happening in English, there's usually no Japanese there.

[00:20:08]>> Yeah. And if you go to an event in Japanese, I'm usually the only foreigner.

[00:20:14]>> Mhm.

[00:20:15]>> So, and the funny thing was that because I was bringing Angry Birds to Japan and then at the same time, like for example, Supercell, Clash of Clans, uh that game company, their CEO called me like, "Hey, can you can you teach me how to go to the Japanese market? I want to learn from Angry Birds." And >> and that was um very interesting. And also like Candy Crush King, the Swedish company, they were also like, "Hey, how are you doing it?" and and there's all these foreign game companies who are like, "How can we be big in Japan?"

[00:20:43]>> Yeah.

[00:20:44]>> And I remember going to this u this isakaya meeting where there's so many foreign game companies.

[00:20:52]>> I think it was in Meuro and uh when I went there, they were all saying like it's too hard to enter Japan. And I noticed that there's not many Japanese people in the room.

[00:21:01]>> Mhm.

[00:21:02]>> I thought like hm maybe it's easier if you have some Japanese friends. And then I went to this uh separately to this Japanese game industry year end party like Da Bonkai they were calling it.

[00:21:17]>> I met the producer of Puzzle and Dragons Hazidora and so famous.

[00:21:22]>> Yeah. They they booked a meeting with us and they was like can you teach us how to be big in USA or Europe?

[00:21:28]>> We have a team in US but we are we don't have much sales in USA. How does Angry Bird do it? And then I we went to meet them >> and I just noticed that their approach was like too difficult. I felt like they had a completely different team making a new game and the original team had no contact with the US game and they were translating everything and then it just felt too difficult. So, I thought that those foreign game companies trying to come to Japan and those Japanese game companies going abroad >> Mhm.

[00:22:03]>> I felt it's so silly that they don't talk to each other. They're both like, "What can we do? What can we do?" And then >> because they were so stuck, there was this kind of market entry consultant or global expansion consultant who were like charging lots of money from both companies like yeah we will teach you how to do other countries or how to do Japan. And I thought like well if you just stop being afraid of each other and hang out in the same room you don't have to pay these consultants so much. So that's the moment when I started getting more interested in in organizing events because I felt that it's it's this necessary infrastructure for the future of Japan.

[00:22:44]>> If you don't have that like how are you going to build the next Nintendo in the game industry. But then after I noticed that this problem exists also outside the game industry. It's like in every industry in Japan.

[00:22:55]>> Yeah. Great. And maybe those of the company wanted to hire you, isn't it?

[00:23:01]>> Yeah. There's there's many many kind of opportunities like that. And I noticed that if you're a bilingual foreigner or Japanese in Japan, you you can easily do this uh head of something Japan kind of.

[00:23:14]I became friends with the country manager of Uber or >> Airbnb or or like Coinbase or or companies like that. And I noticed that it's >> it's the same group of people that goes around in those jobs. And >> Mhm.

[00:23:29]>> I was also thinking that what happened if this kind of talent was also building I don't know something like Japan originating companies also like I felt like the >> Japanese-based startups were usually like not having as globally skillful people working for them.

[00:23:51]>> Yeah. After that you quit the the company of uh Angry Birds and started to work for the hardware company. The I think that software company and the hardware company is so different. So is there any tough situation you felt?

[00:24:09]>> Yeah. So um during Angry Birds I learned how to sell a foreign stuff in Japan >> and then and it was this Japanese company called Beachrobo. Uh they had just raised a series A. Mhm.

[00:24:22]>> from Lawson. And uh they were making this hardware gadget that allows you to store like Spotify playlists. It's like a USB for the phone.

[00:24:33]>> Yeah.

[00:24:34]>> And uh >> uh those guys they wanted to sell it abroad and uh when they were selling it abroad they thought that okay they need to have some some people working who have been with an international company.

[00:24:47]So that's how I ended up there. Mhm.

[00:24:50]>> Um, yeah, hardware was one thing, but like I think it was the biggest difference for me was like selling something Japanese to the world this time as like I was the first non-Japanese employee there.

[00:25:02]>> Mhm.

[00:25:03]>> After that you uh you start to work for the slasher.

[00:25:10]>> Mhm.

[00:25:10]>> Yeah. Tell me more about this.

[00:25:12]So in uh 2013 when I was uh came to Japan I noticed that there's in Finland there's this new student startup boom happening that was started in my university Alto University and it was happening basically this company called Nokia that used to have half of the phones in the whole world were made made by Nokia and after iPhone came out >> Nokia Nokia's market share went down and uh because at one point u GDP of Finland like 3% of that was Nokia or something like crazy number >> crazy >> and uh so when it started having trouble uh like the country got very negative and my parents and my grandparents generation they were like oh this is like game over for the country but then young people felt that that hey we need to change this and especially in my university alto university. Um students thought that hey crying is not going to help.

[00:26:14]>> Mhm.

[00:26:15]>> You need to do something and um uh there's many things that started through that and Slush was one of those projects. It was a conference that aimed to bring all the important investors and entrepreneurs from other countries to to Finland and >> that will help create the next Nokia at the time. and and students were so determined to build that. And when that was like starting to grow, I had just moved to Japan uh to build Angry Birds.

[00:26:45]So >> I felt that hey, Japan needs this kind of young energy as well. And when I went to these all these events, I found that foreigners and Japanese are not talking.

[00:26:55]But I also found out that there's no events organized by young people.

[00:27:00]>> Yeah.

[00:27:00]>> And I went to some events with some um like student organization as well. And I felt like they were treated a little bit like kids. So I thought that there should be some organization where young young people are building the future of Japan. And that's how um I ended up then uh working on this Slush Tokyo project.

[00:27:21]I was just on a business trip to Finland with some uh Japanese entrepreneurs >> and they seem to like it and then I suggested them like hey let's build something like Tokyo and uh many of them were like really supportive and uh and one of the people who was supportive at that time when I told it to like for example Sonadan the founder of Kurabu the game company I was also talking about it to Mikitanisan the founder of Raken and um Nambatosan DNA andosan >> and out of these uh people he said that hey I will help you >> wow >> let's let's work on it together so that's how Tokyo started >> so why Tao son helped a lot >> uh it's uh maybe his personality he was he also felt very moved by what he saw in Finland he was a speaker there and we were having dinner in Helsinki at the time But uh um I think he was he really enjoyed the energy there and maybe he was also looking for a place where there could be like braver young people in Japan. Mhm.

[00:28:33]>> I have a feeling like he was searching for something like that for a long time, but he thought that it's maybe impossible or it can't be done and then he felt like a lot of hope I guess through seeing that in Finland and then me suggesting that to him and uh I think that's why he got interested.

[00:28:53]>> How many people did it come the first SL Asia in Japan?

[00:29:00]>> Uh around 2,000.

[00:29:01]>> Wow. So many >> how did it >> how did how did it invite so many person >> we had just returned from uh Helsinki from the slush event and there was so many people interested in what is happening in Finland and then because both I had been talking about it online and Tao and like many others have been talking about it online then once we made the announcement >> it was uh very exciting news for a minute like oh wow so now that thing is coming here that's so exciting exciting and then I was also able to I called student CEO of Slush that hey why don't you come here and he came here and uh through him we were able to get some of the speakers in Helsinki also because I was friends with the supercell CEO I also called him that hey why don't you fly to Tokyo and one reason why Taiso liked Slush is because uh he had invested into Supercell >> so I just uh I told Tao that hey I can bring the Supercell CEO here and Then I told the super like hey you can meet Taiso there.

[00:30:04]>> They already knew each other.

[00:30:06]>> Yeah, >> but they thought it was a nice uh thing and then uh they both wanted to do it and suddenly there was like so so much momentum on both Finland and Japan side.

[00:30:19]>> Okay. And how many times did you held and did you hold the SL Asia in Japan?

[00:30:26]>> Slash Asia and later it changed name to SL Tokyo. It was organized last time 2019 >> 19. Yeah.

[00:30:33]>> And uh the it basically during corona the project went on a were on a break.

[00:30:40]>> Uh it was a very unique organization.

[00:30:43]uh like in the end uh most of the organizers were students also I was CEO for the first four events until 2018 and 2019 I picked one of my core team members who was a student to become like a successor CEO >> and she was able to do the 2019 event as well and uh we were like still too young of an organization to figure out how to go do coron when corona happened so the project went on a break and uh yeah in 2022 2023 I and we got active again in >> community building.

[00:31:23]>> Yeah. So after finish the holiday slash Jap/Japan there there's many maybe there are three or four years so before you started take off Tokyo. So what did you do in the >> in this?

[00:31:41]Yeah. So during during Corona >> uh there's a lot of foreign startups and companies that really wanted to be in Japan but there was uh the border was closed so you can't go. So they were like hey we need some help in Japan.

[00:31:56]>> Can you help us and uh so I brought maybe three four different SAS companies to Japan during Corona. Um also some non-SAS company I also helped bring for example a company called Vault. Um we were started by the Slo founders um this food delivery company but yeah I brought several European companies to Japan because they couldn't come here.

[00:32:20]>> Mhm. Even in this time you keep having a passion to conference where startup exist.

[00:32:28]>> Uh kind of yes. Uh I was also at the same time thinking like what what is the calling or what what should I do with my career >> and I noticed that during corona there's also a lot of people saying like I hope something like that can come back again and actually even some of our sponsors who had paid us money they were saying like hey do something again we're going to pay you >> wow who said that >> yeah I guess we don't have any NDS so I can I can say but uh like for example >> the CEO of Stripe Japan Daniel he said that like you need to do this again but yeah he's just one and uh he did actually sponsor take off Tokyo when we started and uh but yeah there was quite many people also like Shibuya startup support they were saying like hey can you do something again please we're all waiting and and >> yeah I just kept be kept thinking like what if what if what if and I said like I feel like if I don't do something now I'm going to think for the rest of my life like why didn't I do it kind of kind of a thing.

[00:33:33]It wasn't like obvious like how things are going to play out but >> somehow a lot of people wanted me to do it so I'm like let's do it.

[00:33:40]>> I want to know why you why did you decide to launch take off Tokyo not slash Japan again.

[00:33:50]So we learned so much through slush.

[00:33:54]Yeah. Um we organized all of our events in English.

[00:34:00]So we learned how that works. We also got students in the organizing.

[00:34:05]>> Um we got so many great experience through that. Um one thing in the end the last event was 6,000 people and the sales was maybe I don't know $2 million.

[00:34:18]>> Wow.

[00:34:20]And uh we got so far, but we noticed also that um we were not free to do what we want with the brand because it was owned by the original Helsinki event owner only rights.

[00:34:35]>> They were very flexible and friendly to us. So >> they um let us do quite many things.

[00:34:43]Um but like for example one I I haven't said this in public many times but the original reason why Slush Asia name was changed to Slush Tokyo >> is because one morning we just wake up and look at our own website and it says Slush Tokyo instead of Slush. We were like what is happening? Did somebody hack us?

[00:35:01]>> And then we noticed that the marketing team in Helsinki somebody had just decided that hey that's a good idea. So we just called we were like some of my sponsors were asking like why are you changing the name without telling us for example. So uh they were very nice but it they kind of treated it as their own thing. Mhm.

[00:35:21]>> And uh so we thought that going with something original if it's going to be big again it's like it helps having a like a famous name in the beginning but if you grow big then it's actually more better to have something independent >> but I think it is very easy to re retry to hold a conference as a slash Japan.

[00:35:45]So maybe I I I what I want to say is it's very difficult to build a new brand from scratch. So how how do you think this?

[00:35:57]>> There's also another thing that we were saying we were we were looking at like some of the people who graduated from Sloki. were thinking that we want to have more entrepreneurs in the alumni >> and uh I was telling like some of the bilingual talent that we had raised that hey don't go work in the Japan office of a famous foreign company you should start a uh instead of starting the Japan branch of something famous you should start a new company in Japan and make that into the next Sony and Toyota >> and then people looked at me with like a smile and said like Why do you say that to me? Mr. SL Tokyo.

[00:36:36]>> Mr. SL Tokyo.

[00:36:37]>> So, we brought something from Finland.

[00:36:39]Like, we were we thought that we're building something original from Japan, but people thought it like, oh, it's like something uh from Finland in Japan.

[00:36:50]And so, we thought like, okay, if we really want to see the next Sony's and Toyotas out of Japan, >> we need to do the same ourselves.

[00:36:58]>> Wow.

[00:36:59]>> So, that was like a big aha moment also.

[00:37:02]Wow, so inspiring. And so I want to know the origin like like the the why did you decide the name of the takeoff Tokyo? So we were when we in 2022 when we started thinking about it uh when for example Daniel from stripe said that hey please do something or many things we were thinking like what is the problem and we thought that um when I came to Japan for example the government didn't care about startups but suddenly after corona I felt like all governments local governments everybody cares about startups now and everyone needs to have a startup strategy and all uh every large company now has a CVC and it's kind of when I came to Japan nobody cared about startups and I felt like after corona everybody cares about startups >> but I thought also like I was looked at this um Japan uh fundraising ranking how much money all startups in Japan >> got each year and it's going up every year >> until 22 and when I was looking at it 22 it's going up but then there's this uh this graph where you look at like the top 100 companies in the world and if you look at the first year of HES 89 uh 50% of the top 100 companies were Japanese >> but in 2023 when we started take off Tokyo there's only Toyota and another company too so it used to be 50 companies in top 100 and then it was suddenly only two So we thought that if people are just looking at the fundraising fundraising graph, yeah, it's going up, but the global standing is going down. Like it looks like this ship is sinking. I felt like >> everyone who's celebrating on social media like yeah, Japan ecosystem is doing it like I thought like where is the next like global success story? So it felt like >> this is like somebody built like a new airport, like a new brand new Haneda airport, but there's no international terminal.

[00:39:15]>> Wow.

[00:39:16]>> I said like why why do you celebrate like yeah we have the best airport but you can only fly to another city in Japan like what's cool about that like nobody's building the international terminal startups. So then we're like okay so we are the international terminal startups and then we thought of a few different patterns and then and we we realized that there should be a place where people get the skills and the courage to uh challenge for the whole world not only Japan and the thing is that Japan is included in the whole world so it doesn't mean to doesn't mean that you need to abandon Japan >> yeah so interesting and uh yeah in this year I I went Today I attended the take of Tokyo for two or three days including opening party. Yeah, that was so amazing. Uh there are many famous and popular capitalists and entrepreneurs uh international entrepreneurs came to Japan. The I don't I I want to know why what what they accept expect Japan. So what what why didn't did you come to Japan? So what what is their aim for?

[00:40:29]>> So during Corona in 2022, Japan became the number one popular uh tourist destination in the world.

[00:40:37]>> Why? Well, food quality is really good.

[00:40:41]>> Um it's safe, it's clean, >> things just work in Japan. And uh that has been true for a long time. But uh for example during corona or after corona for example I started seeing a lot of uh investors coming from USA to Japan for example and they were saying that like politics is going crazy and like there's like riots there's like wars and like people are um playing all kinds of like social games and then like Japan seemed like more down to earth and like uh like common sense Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:20]>> So, and you know, safe, clean, and like tasty. So, there's so many things to like about Japan, I guess. Also, um I think the yen is a little bit weak recently. So, it also Japan was more affordable than before. But I think I've been here for more than 10 years and there's many things I like about Japan. And I think a lot of other people are just starting to realize that, hey, Japan is pretty cool. So that's one reason why they're coming. But it's been more like a tourist trip here and like people have been the reason why we also organized this business conference or startup conference is because if you want to beat Silicon Valley at its own game, you need to have a place where all the smartest people want to be and not only on a vacation but also work.

[00:42:10]>> Mhm.

[00:42:10]>> So if you want to work and build like the next world conquering company from here, you need to have ambition.

[00:42:17]Everybody in Silicon Valley believes that they are best in the world and like if you walk around in in Tokyo or other cities in Tokyo, not everybody thinks like that. So we want to build a place where it's okay to think that you can be number one in the world.

[00:42:31]>> It's not going to be easy but like the first step is like thinking you can do it. Then two um there's so much funding money in Silicon Valley that the startups get. for example, Open I or Open AI or XAI.

[00:42:48]I think they both raised over $10 billion.

[00:42:50]>> Yeah. Incredible.

[00:42:52]>> In uh just one funding round.

[00:42:54]>> And I think the all of Japanese uh startup ecosystem fundraising last year was maybe 6 billion or 5 billion. So one company with one round raised more than all startups in a year combined. So to build legendary companies from Japan, there needs to be a lot more money here.

[00:43:14]U but it starts with ambition. If there's ambitious founders here, then all the all the money in the world is going to come here. You can't bring money first if there's nothing interesting to invest in. So um yeah, and and thirdly, you need talent.

[00:43:30]You need you need like >> people who can build the next legendary company. uh you need great product builders but also great marketers and sellers.

[00:43:41]>> I love to hear that and uh I saw in the conference so many there are many student frontier.

[00:43:49]>> Yeah.

[00:43:50]>> How many volunteer you involved?

[00:43:53]>> I think we had 250 applications and uh out of those maybe we worked together with 150.

[00:44:00]>> So >> that's so many.

[00:44:01]>> Yeah.

[00:44:02]>> How to involve and manage them and motivate them. So how to motivate one you need to have like uh something worth working on. So that if the vision is interesting uh then that's the first step. Um and like for example saying that like it's okay to be ambitious in Japan. Young people love it the most because they're like, "I'm tired that my parents' generation is like giving up on Japan or something."

[00:44:33]And and if they feel like that, they're just going to move into another country.

[00:44:37]Like also like a lot of the talented startup entrepreneurs in Japan, they're just moving to San Francisco >> and that's fine and that's great. They should do that. However, if all the smartest people move away from Japan to San Francisco, that means that Japan is going to be a colony basically.

[00:44:57]>> Yeah.

[00:44:57]>> Uh and uh so there somebody needs to build some great companies here as well.

[00:45:03]Uh I guess sending the great people to San Francisco is a first step because some of them will come back, not everybody, but it also helps to have friends there. But um like younger pe young people understand this better than anyone and they're like I want to have a like a life worth living like they don't want to waste their life in a place where there's no ambition.

[00:45:26]>> Mhm.

[00:45:27]>> So that's why they can't get enough of that like hey finally someone who believes in Japan kind of a thing.

[00:45:35]>> Yeah.

[00:45:35]>> And uh that motivates >> them I think. So you think that the most of the entrepreneurs uh build uh started start their business in Japan enough. So not not go not not going there San Francisco or international country. So Japan is enough to launch their new business.

[00:45:59]So like my first job was at Angry Birds company, Roio and it was number one in like the game was number one in most of the world and the headquarters was in Finland.

[00:46:10]>> Yeah.

[00:46:11]>> But we were all the people were on the airplane all the time. All the CXOs were flying. I was flying and like HQ headquarters was in Finland but we were everywhere.

[00:46:24]>> Silicon Valley, Asia, everything. And that's the kind of star companies I want to increase here. Headquarters is here, but you it's okay to be on the airplane all the time.

[00:46:35]>> Mhm.

[00:46:36]>> Not it's it's like I'm not trying to start a travel agency or anything like that, but uh it's kind of oh, I can't build an ambitious company in in Tokyo.

[00:46:46]It's an excuse. Of course, it's a it's it's um uh many times it of course um it's the fastest way. Um if everyone else is not ambitious around you, if you're like the most ambitious person in Tokyo and like you're surrounded by people who are totally non ambitious, you're just wasting your time. But if every all the talented people do that, there isn't much future. So I'm trying to build a reason for the most talented people to build from here as well.

[00:47:20]>> Yeah. Maybe everyone want to know why you have so ambitious to Japan and the startup ecosystem. So why why do you have so much passion to the startup or Japan?

[00:47:35]>> I think I feel like I have like X X-ray glasses.

[00:47:41]>> What do you mean? uh and then me kind of I feel like I can see some things that other people don't.

[00:47:48]>> Mhm.

[00:47:49]>> Um I saw for example how this kind of young people's uh startup mindset changed. M >> it created this revolution in Finland and I see the same things possible in Japan >> and I feel like a lot of people have kind of given I feel both the young people and the old people have kind of given up on young people in Japan and I feel like >> I saw how it did works in Finland and how it can change the whole society and it can go go through a project like this. Um yeah, I feel like I'm traveling from the future and I see what is going to happen anyway at some point and I just want to make it happen. It feels almost like a responsibility to do it if you're like the only one who can see it.

[00:48:39]>> Yeah. Interesting. And but is there any problem Japanese ecosystem have?

[00:48:47]So I what I mean is the Yeah.

[00:48:52]So in the decade you you you saw the many scene in the Japanese EOS Japanese start ecosystem >> but yeah the situation is rapidly changed and even now there are many problem in this ecosystem.

[00:49:07]>> Uh what do you think about this?

[00:49:10]>> Yeah I think we just need more ambition.

[00:49:12]It's I keep saying the same word but it's um there's a lot more startup support and attention recently but it's mostly like governments are putting more tax money like governments are like handing out so much tax money to all these uh these different uh consulting companies and many other companies that will help a little bit. Um but also like for example the government and consulting companies they are they're not uh they're not going to start companies. So the the focus needs to be on people who are ambitious and are actually going to start companies and that's why um that's one of the things uh that is very much needed. Um giving more tax money is is not the answer I think.

[00:50:02]>> Mhm. So, so this is the exact role of take of Tokyo. So, inspire many young founders, >> right?

[00:50:12]>> Yeah, exactly.

[00:50:13]>> And uh Yeah. And but so I want to know more about uh so this is the first time to how to hold a take of stock in Japan, right? No.

[00:50:26]>> Uh we did the first one in 23. This is so this is the we did the first one three years ago.

[00:50:31]>> Oh yeah. Yeah. And uh so third time first time >> yes uh fourth time >> first time so so what's the difference the first time and now so do you have any progress or do you have many challenges until now? So the progress we've made in this time is that uh we're starting to have uh uh a little bit of a community and little bit of like different generations in the organization team. For example, um when we did our event this week, a lot of the people who used to be in the team came to help us. for example and uh >> and uh if you look at also not only inside but also the outside um the startups and investors um for example we've been able to help more and more uh investment deals happen each year. Let's see how many deals we're we'll be able to make through this one. It's still too early to say, but >> for example, in the past years, every year the amount of investment deals that happened through us has increased. And I think, yeah, there was several deals last year, um, I'd like to 10x or maybe 20x that.

[00:51:44]We should have like 100 new deals happening at our event.

[00:51:48]>> And, uh, but but yeah, we're not we're not the most famous startup event in the world yet. And there's no next Sony or Toyota. So it's >> we were not >> we're maybe 2% done >> still 98% to go.

[00:52:08]>> So how to break the world the the how to become the word world word popular conference the take off Tokyo.

[00:52:19]We just need to have the the best people in the startup world joining us each year and uh we should make the experience also so that it's better than they've ever seen. Um >> Japan during cherry blossom time is a really nice place to be. There's a lot of people who come here anyway >> and uh um we like organizing something in the Japanese march. uh springtime.

[00:52:50]It's a time of change. And I I think for example, if you go to Singapore, >> yeah, >> in September when they have Formula 1, they have F1. During that, they have like so many different business events uh as well. Um, we want to build like a series of all of these uh startup world uh happenings around the the March season with the cherry blossoms and everything like that.

[00:53:19]>> Um, I think the whole world should visit here at during that time.

[00:53:23]>> Mhm. I want to know more about uh what take of Tokyo M4. the vision and uh what will you what will you do in the future to this data ecosystem?

[00:53:37]>> So uh me personally I'm I'm doing this so that I can build something that helps the ecosystem and um when the timing is right I'd like to be building one of those companies myself. Uh we're still too early right now, but uh sometime hopefully hopefully soon like uh I could be also also like contributing as an entrepreneur building one of the next Sony's or Toyotas. But um yeah, I want this team to be a launchpad where like all the legendary companies uh are somehow people can start the legendary company elsewhere. doesn't have to be in our team, but uh I'd like this team to create a lot of legendary stories like that. Um >> there's another school in history of Japan called Shoka Sonjuku.

[00:54:30]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:54:31]>> And uh the that school created the first four prime ministers of Japan.

[00:54:36]>> Mhm.

[00:54:37]>> And it also opened up the borders during Sakoku. So, and all of those uh people who studied in that school, they also studied in Europe when it was still banned. There's this Japanese word called Miko, like traveling secretly when nobody knows >> during sakoku to travel to Europe and learn from the best. And that's why, for example, the first prime minister of Japan um he spoke okay English because of that because he secretly went to Europe. But uh the funny thing is those people became the first prime ministers of Japan and they also built all these legendary companies like Mitsubishi and all the other trade companies. So if we're able to somehow open up the physical borders of >> Japan already opened, but the mental borders, if we can open the mental borders, that's going to create the next Mitsubishi of this country.

[00:55:36]>> And I think the people who build take of Tokyo will have a front row seat in building all of those.

[00:55:42]>> So maybe everyone think that think like that. But but still uh couldn't can't open their their mind. How to open the mind. So relieve the mental block.

[00:55:56]So seeing is believing. It's very it takes a long time to explain stuff but if you just see something you can immediately understand that hey that's why it's so good or important. So that's one reason why we're organizing a physical event. Mhm.

[00:56:11]>> And the physical event should be like even even a lot better and and like uh greater quality and like bigger and many ways and it should be just like such a strong experience that uh you immediately believe after that it like for example when you have Japanese university students uh showing you around or helping you with the event all like for example salary men who are worried about their English once they see like a young Japanese person speaking English then they they're a little bit embarrassed like if the younger people can do it like why is it so hard for me and then like okay I'll try my best from tomorrow. So that's what we hope to create like >> this perfect two three four days like this short period when everything is perfect and everything works and then it gives hope to people for another whole year. Yeah, exactly. That that was what I happened to in this take of Tokyo.

[00:57:11]Yeah, if there is the uh you you don't hold take off Tokyo, maybe I will never try the English interview.

[00:57:17]>> Mhm.

[00:57:18]>> So, thank you so much.

[00:57:21]>> Happy to hear it worked.

[00:57:22]>> Yeah, I want you to ask more uh much question but time has come. So, there any message to the uh listeners?

[00:57:32]So especially for the yeah younger generation who build the next era >> uh it's okay to be ambitious so let's build the best place to start a company.

[00:57:45]>> Mhm. That's all.

[00:57:47]>> That's the most important part of my message. Yeah.

[00:57:50]>> Um we can't do all of this alone. So we want everybody to join us.

[00:57:57]>> Yes. I hope there people who watch this video or listen to the podcast, I will meet them. Yeah. In the next next next take of Tokyo.

[00:58:09]>> Yes.

[00:58:09]>> Next year. Yeah. And I I put the links of Antisan or the Take of Tokyo on the YouTube.

[00:58:24]>> Yeah. our you YouTube out page.

[00:58:28]>> Yeah. Out page. I put that link. So you you should check it out. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:58:32]Yeah. Yeah. And follow the ext movie. Yeah. Yeah. You made you made it.

[00:58:39]>> And uh yeah. If you are if you're satisfied enjoy this video, please subscribe the YouTube account in this startup now. and for and this is my first time to release the English content so I would love to get many feedback. Yeah. If there is a good I want to try more. Yeah. And I believe the English content is necessary for the English start of scene.

[00:59:13]>> Yeah.

[00:59:13]>> Yeah. So yeah, I'm very honored to invite as a first guest.

[00:59:17]>> Yeah. I'm very honored that you wanted to have us. So thank you so much.

[00:59:21]>> Yeah. Thank you so much. And thank you to the listeners also.

[00:59:46]interview. Yeah.

[01:00:26]interview, Right.

[01:00:30]Mhm.

[01:00:46]Mhm.

[01:01:26]Yeah.

[01:02:08]Oh, man.

[01:02:45]Okay.

[01:02:49]Sorry. Sorry.

[01:03:03]I don't know.

[01:03:13]foreign.

[01:03:36]generation.

[01:03:50]Watch the whole Yeah.

[01:04:48]Mhm. More.

[01:04:57]Yeah.

[01:06:01]Yeah. Yeah.

[01:06:06]organiz Is there Yeah. Yeah.

[01:07:29]I don't know.

[01:07:59]That is That's okay.

[01:08:38]Yeah.

[01:08:58]Open.che.

[01:09:40]weekend.

[01:10:08]moto one Hi. Hi.