Ran a workshop at a high school where students built a business plan in a single day The other day, I ran a workshop at a high school where the task was to…
Ran a workshop at a high school where students built a business plan in a single day The other day, I ran a workshop at a high school where the task was to…
Pricing a company turns out to be a surprisingly satisfying thing to do. After all, "one multiplication gives you a share price." Take EBITDA, slap on 10x.…
Starlink's adjusted EBITDA runs at roughly $7.2 billion a year. The IPO's assumed valuation is $1.77 trillion. Divide one by the other and you get roughly…
"So in the end, isn't this just converting labor costs into revenue?" If you run a contract development business, you've probably felt this unease at least…
The other day, I came across a comment from the executive of a listed company. He said something like, "Among the X thousand listed companies, someone with a…
Recently there was a story that left me thinking. An acquaintance had been involved in a startup as one of its earliest members. He was a total rookie, only…
【Objection ①】 You should start a company with members who fill in the gaps you lack. If you are the engineer, find someone who can sell it. If you are good at…
I envy that. lol Actually, I have a very distant relative—my wife's cousin's husband's sister's husband (basically a stranger at this point, lol)—let's call…
That is true, but I think it is a "speed" choice reached after everyone worked backward, and backward again, and backward again, from several surrounding…
There seem to be as many answers to this question as there are people asked. ① When you step down as CEO ② When your shareholding ratio drops below the veto…
Yes, go ahead and start a company. The people around you will say all kinds of things. Even so, please start a company. Someone with deep knowledge and…
In the early stage of a startup, almost everything is missing. So think about how to make maximum use of the few things you do have. The simplest approach here…
It doesn't necessarily always work out that way, but I hope it does. Here I want to explain why. First, there has never been a moment in human history when…
As you can tell, this isn't a question. It's a message from me. Please, readers, don't aim to be a "smart-looking person." Become an idiot instead. One wall…
Technical skill, a name known in the field, business acumen, charisma, and the ability to draw people in... isn't that basically a superman!? Actually, I hold…
Actually, this isn't something that can be answered easily, and several angles need to be considered. As a starting point, let me lay out the common objections…
It's worth considering this by looking at how you would answer the "common questions thrown at startups." 【Question 1】Why do you think you (or your team) can…
If you were hoping for the answer "There's no such thing as a right age," I'm sorry to disappoint. There is one. It's "late thirties and beyond." This is only…
On this question, I think there are two separate discussions: what "should" be the case, and what actually happens in practice. First, the "should" discussion.…
One of the rankings published in various places is the "Ranking of Unicorn Companies by City." In 2020, Beijing was apparently 1, San Francisco 2, and Shanghai…
I feel like I've mostly been writing about my own thoughts lately, so it's been a while since I've written about something someone asked me. Why do investors,…
My own story is fairly one-sided, so I want to start with the overall picture as I see it. Needless to say, everyone has different motivations for starting a…
Product planning can broadly be organized into two approaches: the "market analysis type" and the "needs-first type." <Market Analysis Type This method…
Do whatever you like. There are two perspectives here. First, nobody knows whether a market everyone currently thinks is big enough will still be big ten years…
I keep thinking of strange ideas and acting on them, and I have to admit it again this time. In August I started a new company with a friend, and with that…
Most people build a persona as a foundation for planning. Persona is the Latin root of the English word personal. (Most Western languages trace back to Latin.)…
I'd like to focus on just this one contrast between the two. First, let me say this up front: "technology-driven approaches rarely turn out well." This isn't…
Being global isn't necessarily important, but securing the possibility of horizontal expansion is very important. Growing a business properly on a single,…
Let me introduce the episode with J, the Canadian entrepreneur I mentioned earlier. One day, after J set up an office in the Bay Area, I stopped by to catch…
A case like this. When you actually run into it yourself, your first reaction is "why me, are you kidding me!" But objectively speaking, this is one of the…
What first drew me to America was the market for the products I was working on at the time. Yamaha mainly develops, manufactures, and sells musical instruments…
There are various definitions of angel investors, but here I'll try to define a true angel investor by looking at it from the angle of "don't team up with…
Something a friend of mine, an MBA-holding executive in Silicon Valley, once said made me stop and think. "Taking investment is the worst-case scenario."…
"It was $3 million for a single sheet of acrylic," entrepreneur I laughs, joking. When he took the stage at TechCrunch, he used a small sheet of acrylic to…
I am Kuzuryu. I serve as a director at several companies, and I maintain relationships with many others as an advisor, a consultant, and sometimes as a…
Actually, I was writing a book I'm publishing a book, scheduled for release on May 18, 2022. (Amazon has it listed for 5/20. Bookstores will follow.) I want to…
The sample copies arrived today. The book goes on sale at bookstores nationwide and on Amazon starting 5/18. This book brings together answers to the typical…
When forming partnerships between companies, or collaborations between business companies and academia, the boundary between joint development and contracted…
This is, in a way, a discussion of technique. Here I'll write down some things to keep in mind when making presentation materials. <Polished materials only…
Let's proceed here assuming a presentation in the early stages of product planning. This is a setting where you explain to senior decision-makers and get their…
There is more than one way to approach planning. Here I'll just write about my own personal stance. First, accumulating knowledge is essential for anything.…
This is also a consultation I get often. First, this kind of consultation only ever comes from large companies. That's because in most cases startups know…
1. Nothing 2. A few thousand dollars 3. At least $9,100 The answer is 2, a few thousand dollars. People often say "you can start a corporation for nothing…
People in their 20s tell me, with the best of intentions, "This really is the decade for it, isn't it!" So let me push back here too: "No, no, that's not…
I read Bad Blood. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup It's the book by the Wall Street Journal reporter who exposed Theranos, once one of…
I had the opportunity to serve as a judge at the Monozukuri Hardware Cup (held online) on 2/25. <https://hardwarecup.monozukuri-startup.jp/ It's positioned as…
Whatever the case — product planning, business planning, promotional strategy — one thing holds true across all of them: you should think about the method…
Let me write about something few people say out loud, though everyone in the industry already knows it. Bad rumors about startups spread fast. "So-and-so is…
I recently made my print debut in "Nikkei Business" and "Nikkei Computer." Yay. It's a report on a conference I spoke at last year, and I'm deeply grateful to…
I'm Kuzuryu. My self-introduction has gotten complicated lately, so I've decided to put it all together here. This is a fairly abbreviated self-introduction…
To do or not to do, that is the question As long as you live as a working adult, you inevitably deal with all kinds of external worlds — other people, other…
Some people treat risk assessment and risk management as if they were the same thing, but their meanings differ. Let me put it in textbook terms for now. Risk…
As a textbook approach to writing business plans, the pattern of "operational efficiency improvement" → "efficiency gains and headcount reduction" → "and…
A common pattern among early-stage companies built around a technology seed: I frequently run into a situation where, listening to the discussion, it's unclear…
You have an idea. You're torn on whether to launch a startup. You want to try some prototyping and experiments. If that's your situation, incorporate for now…
There was a post I wrote a while back Akira Kobayashi once said "most music is basically ripped off anyway," and in a certain sense that's true —…
Equity ratios matter enormously to the management of every stock corporation, not just startups. Even an elementary school student knows that much, but the…
On the category "Things worth knowing if you're even considering starting a company." The trigger for writing this has been building quietly for a while now.…
"ClayTech" is a tech company located in Japan. Founded by skillful engineer Yuichiro Kuzuryu(Kuz) in 2018. Has plenty of experience especially – hardware…
What people usually mean by "the woke-conscious type" is someone who fusses over every little detail, picks brand-name or fashionable items even for trivial or…
When you start a startup, the thing that tortures you most in the early stage is probably fundraising. Something like "Company XX raised $ZZ million through a…
It's been a while since I wrote in this series, but the other day I felt like I saw the "fruit of years of accumulation," so I'm writing this. By way of…
<https://www.slideshare.net/qzuryu/ss-44468259 ＊＊＊ The following are 7 items summarizing, from my experience moving back and forth between "big companies" and…
The era is defined by "IoT (Internet of Things)." "Makers" is changing the world. I agree with both statements. But when words start walking on their own, it's…
Let me pull out the parts of an email to a friend that seem worth sharing. Let me be clear up front: I'm just an engineer, not a politician or a policy…
This article is a reprint of a previous post. Whether this is a culture unique to Silicon Valley, or whether I just happen to keep running into the same kind…
Let's talk about a signature move in business. Today happens to be the day a world-famous figure passed away. Someone once said this. "What Jobs does has never…