Tech Culture Podcast - Conversations With Successful Founders In Japan

Kaustubh (@_ofkaus) and Prashant (@primaprashant) sit down with Hazumu Yamazaki (@HazumuY), co-founder and co-CEO of Empath, to talk about challenges in building an AI product - from getting initial users to serving 3100 customers in 50 countries, from starting with zero data of their own to creating their data supply chain, and more.

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Topics:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:17 - What's Empath all about?
• 02:31 - How Hazumu's PhD research led to Empath
• 04:37 - Market research and validation for emotion recognition API
• 07:47 - Getting initial users and longer B2B sales cycle
• 09:55 - Founding team
• 11:11 - Becoming sustainable
• 12:16 - Improving productivity of online meetings with JamRoll
• 16:55 - Interesting feature requests like lie detection
• 18:15 - Problems with emotion recognition in videos
• 21:48 - Collecting data for a new AI startup
• 23:47 - Adding labels to the collected data
• 24:45 - Recognizing emotions in different languages
• 26:05 - Sarcasm and hidden contexts in conversations
• 27:49 - What distinguishes Empath from publicly available models
• 30:06 - Tech stack at Empath
• 32:02 - Adoption of AI Japan
• 33:40 - Advice for the initial stages of building an AI product
• 35:11 - Organizations that support AI startups in Japan
• 37:10 - Going global
• 38:54 - How to make a great pitch
• 41:23 - Funding rounds
• 42:00 - Biggest challenge in reaching the next milestone
• 43:46 - Long term vision for Empath

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Kaustubh (@_ofkaus) and Prashant (@primaprashant) sit down with Iqbal Abdullah (@iqbalabd), founder of Xoxzo Inc., and LaLoka Labs, to talk about:

• bootstrapping Xoxzo to >150M JPY ARR,
• uniqueness in B2B sales in Japan,
• selling 67% stake in Xoxzo,
• advice for people who want to build their own business in Japan, and more.

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Topics:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:28 - Xoxzo's pronunciation and history
• 05:05 - Beginnings of Xoxzo
• 08:25 - Evolving use-cases of Xoxzo
• 13:27 - Continuous improvement in the long-term
• 16:56 - B2B sales in Japan
• 21:30 - Selling majority stake in Xoxzo
• 25:15 - Bootstrapping Xoxzo
• 27:02 - Open-source grants
• 29:25 - Contribution to Python community
• 33:01 - Adventures at Laloka Labs
• 38:12 - Book recommendations
• 42:30 - Advice to build your own business in Japan

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Kaustubh (@_ofkaus) and Prashant (@primaprashant) sit down with Eric Turner (@_etdev), founder of Japan Dev, and VCList.jp, to talk about his transition to an IndieHacker role, common business mistakes made by engineers, getting customer feedback, sharing progress, and more.

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Topics:

• 00:32 - Intro
• 01:09 - Working full-time on JapanDev and being accountable
• 06:16 - Tasks with high ROI and impact
• 07:38 - Job market in Japan
• 15:00 - Building features that customers want
• 18:43 - How JapanDev started and early mistakes
• 26:11 - Managing side-business along with a full-time job
• 31:01 - Eric’s long term plans
• 34:20 - The technology for which Eric is most optimistic?

Sources for stats: HubSopt Backlinko MailChimp

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Discover exciting startups from the LinkedIn Top Indian Startups 2021 list.

Topics:

• 00:00 - Personal updates for last few months.
• 03:04 - Introduction to LinkedIn Top Indian Startups 2021 list.
• 03:44 - Fampay is India’s first neobank for teenagers. It allows minors to do UPI, P2P and card payments without the need to set up a bank account. Fampay YC page.
• 07:21 - ShareChat is India’s #1 social media app, with more than 160 million monthly active users.
• 10:27 - NoBroker is a real-estate platform that makes it possible to buy/sell/rent a house without paying any brokerage.
• 14:00 - Trell is the largest lifestyle social commerce platform in Indian languages.

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Discover interesting products from industrials, developer tools, wellness, and food industries from the YCombinator Winter 2021 Batch.

Topics:

• 00:00 - Introduction. YC winter 2021 batch stats.
• 00:57 - Alba Orbital makes satellites to image everywhere on Earth, every 15 minutes. They can see events within minutes such as wild fires in real time and have signed $41m of LOIs. To date they have launched 6 satellites into orbit. Alba Orbital YC page.
• 03:49 - Enode provides API for electric vehicles and other energy consumer products. Interesting use cases of Enode API. Enode YC page.
• 06:11 - Dendron - Notion for Developers. It is an scalable note taking tool that grows as you do, built on top of markdown, git, and VSCode, Dendron helps you reference all your information in seconds, regardless of how much of it you have. Dendron YC page.
• 08:43 - Chorus provides online group meditation classes led by live instructors. Chorus YC page.
• 10:20 - Mezli is building "auto-kitchens", fully autonomous shipping-container  restaurants that serve great, affordable meals for takeout and delivery. Mezli YC page.
  

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Discover interesting niche e-commerce and SaaS B2B products from the YCombinator Winter 2021 Batch.

Topics:

• 00:00 - Introduction. YC winter 2021 batch stats.
• 00:54 - Thryft - Shopify for Instagram sellers. Thryft turns a seller's Instagram page into a website in Thryft YC page.
• 03:15 - UPchieve - Connecting low-income HS students with free, 24/7 online tutoring. UPchieve is an edtech nonprofit that provides free, 24/7 online tutoring to low-income HS students. UPchieve YC page.
• 07:25 - MagicBell - The notification inbox for web/mobile applications. It offers a beautifully designed notification inbox that apps can embed  in their products in minutes. It does all the heavy lifting related to real-time delivery & syncing, web & mobile push notifications, email notifications, and even notification preference management. MagicBell YC page. Slack notification flowchart.
• 10:32 - Infracost helps engineers know cloud costs before they buy resources via infrastructure as code. They do this by mapping costs to their code directly in pull requests. Infracost YC page.
• 13:48 - Taloflow - Buying insights platform for the tech stack. They help CTOs at digital native companies pick the best cloud infrastructure and API products for their specific use case. Taloflow YC page. Golden hammer and functional fixedness.
• 16:48 - Version Story - Git for lawyers. A document comparison and version management tool for lawyers. It enables lawyers to view their document history as a visual map with  lines connecting versions that, when clicked, display a redline comparison of the changes made. Version Story YC page. Version Story demo video.

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Discover interesting marketplaces and consumer products from the YCombinator Winter 2021 Batch.

Topics:

• 00:00 - Use Newzip to get neighborhood advice from local experts. You can you connect with local experts to answer questions like what  neighborhood should I live in or what school should I send my kids to. Newzip YC page.
• 03:56 - Introduction. YC winter 2021 batch stats.
• 04:29 - Pangea.app is a platform for hiring college freelancers. It enables you to work with college freelancers who have the potential to join your full-time team and provides access to freelancers from 600+ campuses across the US. Growth stats. Pangea.app YC page.
• 09:27 - Outfit sells DIY home renovations in a box. They format their architect-designed templates to a customer's space. And then buy all the materials needed on customer's behalf, and ship it to their door for them to build. They also provide support by an app that guides from  start-to-completion of the project. Outfit YC page.
• 11:36 - Popl is the next generation business card. Business people put our NFC sticker on their phones to instantly share contact info with potential clients. Popl YC page. Popl tiktok account.

We have more new YC companies deep dive coming soon. Subscribe to us on twitter and instagram if you haven't already!

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Discover interesting fintech companies from the YCombinator Winter 2021 Batch.

Topics:

• 00:31 - Introduction. YC winter 2021 batch stats. Dropbox YC application.
• 01:39 - Kanda allows contractors to offer financing to homeowners who want to remodel but can’t pay the full price upfront. YC page for kanda. Buy now pay later market size. Octifi - Buy Now Pay Later for Southeast Asia. Atrato - Affirm for LATAM.
• 06:02 - Friz is a neobank for freelancers offering a tailored debit card, invoice financing and a credit line solution to project based workers in south-east Asia. Friz YC page.
• 08:51 - Fractional is a social platform for fractional ownership of investment properties. Fractional YC page. What are REITs?
• 12:43 - Corrily provides price optimization for subscription and usage-based companies. Corrily YC page.
• 15:54 - CashBook is a cash accounting app for small businesses in India. CashBook YC page. Udhaar App - Khatabook / OkCredit for Pakistan. GimBooks makes Bookkeeping Easy for small business owners.

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• 00:00 - Introduction
• 00:50 - Interesting trends from a16z marketplace 100: 2021 list.
• 03:50 - Collectibles: Whatnot's mission is to bring together collectors and enthusiasts to safely buy, sell and connect. 
• 06:03 - Celebrity engagement: Cameo allows you to connect, collaborate, and produce videos with a celebrity to share with your friends. It reached unicorn status with $100M raise in Series C funding.
• 09:12 - E-commerce: Offerup is the simplest, most trusted way to buy and sell locally. It acquired the competing marketplace letgo in March, 2020.
• 11:15 - Ed-tech: Varsity Tutors offers private and group tutoring, classes, test prep, and virtual learning for all students and professionals. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creative and curious people, on topics including illustration,  design, photography, video, freelancing, and more.
• 17:54 - Zola is a wedding company that provides tools for wedding website, registry, checklist, guest list, seating chart, and gift tracker.
• 19:28 - Travel: Hipcamp is the most comprehensive resource for unique outdoor stays. Discover and book tent camping, RV parks, cabins, treehouses, and glamping. Harvesthosts provides membership program that invites self-contained RVers to have unique overnight stays at 2318+ wineries, breweries, farms and more!

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• 00:00 - Introduction
• 00:23 - Updates from last episode. Grab SPAC announcement. Gojek merger with Tokopedia. Deel raised $156M in series C funding.
• 01:27 - Linktree makes your online content more discoverable, easier to manage and more likely to convert. Linktree funding rounds. All-In podcast linktree. Linkin.bio is the easy and free way to drive traffic from Instagram.
• 05:26 - Mine - Discover where your personal data is and manage your digital footprint. Have I been pawned - Check if your email or phone is in a data breach.
• 06:51 - CodeCov security issue.
• 09:00 - DoControl gives organizations the automated, self-service tools they need for  SaaS applications data access monitoring, orchestration, and  remediation.
• 12:01 - Plaid - The easiest way for people to connect their financial accounts to an app. Funding rounds. Quovo acquired by Plaid.
• 13:17 - Video search as a service.
• 16:37 - Resource recommendations.
• 17:45 - Pinterest in talks to acquire VSCO.
• 18:15 - Amazon announced $250 million venture fund for Indian startups.

Episode's recommendation:

• The Dream Team: Hipster, Hacker, and Hustler
• Crypto Canon

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• 00:00 - Introduction
• 00:59 - Remotehour - Easily connect with your clients/customer using a shared URL. You don't have to schedule meetings with them.
• 02:35 - Deel helps companies with international payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance in 150 countries.
• 03:30 - Toast empowers restaurants of all sizes to build great teams, increase revenue, improve operations, and delight guests.
• 05:11 - Superapps. Grab - Southeast Asia's leading superapp. It provides everyday services like Deliveries, Mobility, Financial Services, and More. Line services. Whatsapp payments in India. Signal testing cryptocurrency payments.
• 07:14 - Gupshup enables better customer engagement through conversational messaging.
• 08:02 - Meesho - E-commerce marketplace for resellers. Meesho valued at $2.1 billion in new $300 million fundraise. Check out funding rounds and investors in Meesho. Flipkart partners with Adani Group to enhance supply, logistics infra.
• 12:20 - Coinbase DPO. what is Direct Public Offering (DPO)?
• 14:46 - Sharing subscriptions. Netflix is testing a crackdown on password sharing
• 16:55 - Podcast episode preview generator. Google Recorder on Pixel
• 18:14 - Un-bundling of the Office. Sahil Lavingia quote.
• 19:37 - SaaS for technical design docs
• 21:44 - MrBeast working with $2 million fund to invest in up-and-coming creators
• 23:00 - Resource recommendations

Episode's recommendation:

• The a16z Marketplace 100: 2021
• Pmarchive
• Filter Coffee Newsletter

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- Kajabi - Build, market and sell your online course, membership site or coaching program with no coding, no hiring, no learning curve, no plugins and no broken integrations. Just a beautiful, professional knowledge business built with just a few clicks.

- Bitclout - Everyone gets their own coin. Your favorite creator has a coin you can buy or sell. The price goes up as more people buy. You can have your own coin too.

- Shaan's tweet about bitclout

- Admiral - Size and Solve Adblock.

- Randonautica - quantumly generated choose your own adventure reality game.

- Audm - Listen to long-form journalism you don't have time to read.

- Voices - Access the world's best professional voice actors.

- From Patrick McKenzie's newsletter - Don't End The Week With Nothing

This episode's recommendation/homework:

- YC winter 2021 batch

- State of Cloud

- Top 50 popular APIs

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