SAN DIEGO — For 19 years, Kento Matsuba worked at two of Tokyo’s biggest corporations: Mitsubishi Corporation and Google.
Like many others, he reached a tipping point during the pandemic. He got tired of working in large organizations, thought “life is short” and joined a life science startup called Citadel AI to check the reliability of artificial intelligence applications for making medical diagnoses.
That decision two years ago led him to experience an intensive crash course abroad in what it takes to grow a biotech company in the United States.
Citadel AI was one of seven Japan-based startups brought together at the University of California, San Diego, where they spent several weeks learning from local entrepreneurs, honing their pitch, and networking with venture capital firms. I built it.
San Diego was one of three U.S. cities chosen by the Japanese government to host a new program called Beyond Japan. Other Japanese startups participated in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.
This is part of Japan’s five-year plan to increase investment in startups tenfold, or $72 billion. Its ambitious goals include creating 100 unicorns (private startups valued at $1 billion or more) and creating 100,000 Japanese startups.
Although Japan is known for cutting-edge technology, the startup scene is still relatively new and has room for growth. That’s where our multi-year partnership with the University of California, San Diego’s Institute for Global Entrepreneurship comes in.
This summer, the university worked virtually with 35 Japanese startups, pairing them with mentors, and then selected seven to travel to the United States for first-hand experience. Mr. Matsuba’s mentor was Mr. Robert Hill, who recently retired after his 32 years of service around the world with Deloitte Consulting.
Yoshiko Tsuwaki, executive director of the Japan External Trade Organization, who spearheaded the Beyond Japan program, said the group chose a specific focus for each host city, rather than sending startups to Silicon Valley. said. As one of the nation’s leading life science hubs, San Diego has hosted startup companies focused on biotechnology, medical devices, and other life science applications.
“When it comes to American startups, Japanese people only think of Silicon Valley and not other cities, so I want to change that perception,” she said.
Dennis Abremski, executive director of the Global Entrepreneurial Institute, said Silicon Valley is all about venture capital money, but San Diego’s strength is its wealth of life sciences knowledge. The new program allows UCSD to build on past interactions with Japanese universities.
Instead of parachuting a team into San Diego to promote itself, Abremski said UCSD spent a lot of time preparing the young life sciences company on Zoom in advance. It also helped us create personalized support tailored to each company’s goals.
“Once they get here, we do a lot of concept work on how entrepreneurs in the United States think about the health care system, especially how the FDA works, how the health care system works. , I learned how different it is from Japan and other parts of the world,” he said.
Mr. Tsuwaki said that the government’s recent push to expand Japanese startups stems from increased interest from investors around the world. They realized that the company was too small and wanted to expand overseas.” However, they have no experience in expanding their business overseas. ”
One of the major hurdles for Japanese startups aiming to expand globally is the language barrier. The University of California, San Diego program addressed this issue by conducting all sessions (some from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) in English only.
Yoji Otsuki, an executive at CubicStars, also pointed out the differences in communication styles in the United States. The group spent four hours at Petco’s Innovation Day, an annual event at his park that introduces his community of San Diego startups. Japanese management was encouraged to stand at the front and just sell, rather than sitting at the back of the table and waiting for customers as usual.
Otsuki’s company has developed technology that allows researchers to examine three-dimensional images of organs such as the brain and track how efficiently drugs move through the system. The Tokyo-based startup was founded in 2019 and has agreements with seven of Japan’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies.
Otsuki, who speaks three languages and has 12 years of management experience at Panasonic and consulting companies, said the immersive experience and professional networking in San Diego was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. said.
From conversations with industry lawyers to one-on-one meetings with Bay Area venture capitalists, he said, “These are opportunities that wouldn’t be possible in Japan.”
Jun Baek, chief operating officer of Abrax Japan, was amazed at the willingness of his mentors to spend time answering questions and helping the business grow.
Baek’s biotechnology company is developing topical products based on the potential of an immunomodulatory protein called thymic stromal lymphopoietin to treat eczema, dry eye disease, obesity, and obesity-related metabolic complications. There is.One of the company’s goals is to start operations in the United States
“The culture here is very different,” Baek said. “I’d say the Bay Area is more cutthroat and competitive. But here it’s more of a collaboration and cooperation. Those two C’s have very different connotations.”
Mr. Paek grew up in the United States and has decades of global business experience, including working at a venture capital firm before joining Abrax Japan. One of his challenges to encouraging more startup activity in Japan goes back to traditional ideas about taking risks in business.
After graduating from university, many young people choose stable jobs at large companies. Venture capital firms are less common than large institutional finance companies, so investors tend to be risk averse.
“Here in America, we often say fail early, fail often, right? But that’s the opposite of Japanese culture, where we don’t want to fail,” he said.
However, the idea of sticking to one job is gradually changing, Baek said.