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Japanese Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

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Courses & Events

Japanese Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

04:30 pm - 05:50 pm

This week’s panel, who are based out of the bay area, will discuss how they see the situation for entrepreneurs evolving in Japan and how they themselves approach entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.

These sessions are open to the public to attend in-person or by Zoom.

To attend by Zoom, please register at <https://stanford.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUvdOqgrTooEte626Net4f5iuR7jUH63I2p>. This will register you for the entire 8-week series and the same link will be used for all sessions. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting series. You may cancel at anytime.

To attend in-person, please visit <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/japanese-entrepreneurs-in-silicon-valley-tickets-630383011557>.

Our 8-week series on “Entrepreneurship in Asian High-Tech Industries” begins April 11, 2023 and continues weekly until May 30, 2023.

Details

Parking options:

  • Via Ortega Garage, 498 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305 [Google Map]
  • Parking Structure 5, 295 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305 [Google Map]
  • Please check parking signs carefully to ensure that permitted parking and metered spaces are free after 4:00 pm.

Session Recordings are typically posted within 3 business days after each session on our Youtube Channel and website.

Speakers

Akemi Koda

Founder & CEO, USAsia Venture Partners

Akemi Koda is an accomplished entrepreneur, angel investor and startup advisor with a passion for helping businesses grow. Akemi is a member of both the Stanford Angels and Band of Angels and has been investing in startups across the globe. As an advisor for Berkeley Skydeck and StartX, and a contributor to the Investor
Feedback sessions at Alchemist Accelerator, she provides valuable guidance to startups.

As Founder & CEO and Board of Director at USAsia Venture Partners, a premier Silicon Valley strategic consulting company, Akemi and her team help clients discover and exploit new opportunities for innovation and market disruption across various industries, from high tech to healthcare. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California. Akemi is an active volunteer for the NPO Keizai Silicon Valley as a program committee member, where she advocates for strengthening Japan-US business relations. With over 25 years of expertise in product marketing and business development, she has made a significant impact in advancing companies such as NEC, United Airlines, CWT, and Varig Airlines-Tokyo.

Ms. Koda earned a B.S. in Business Administration from SFSU and has completed the Stanford Executive Program (SEP 22) and Stanford Business Leadership Series certification.

Changhwan Lee

Founder & CEO, Firenze Inc.

Changhwan Lee received his graduate degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo and went on to become a Senio­­r Manager at DeNA, where he developed the innovative GO taxi dispatch app, and oversaw global investments in companies like Flywheel and Korea’s KIMGISA (acquired by Kakao Taxi).  Changhwan also played a pivotal role in establishing an alliance between DeNA and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. focused on autonomous driving services, an initiative that was announced by former Nissan CEO Ghosn at CES 2017.

As a Senior VP at RSI Fund of Recruit Holdings, Changhwan was responsible for M&A operations and business strategy formulation in the HR field. He later became Founder and CEO of Connective Intelligence Technology, where he developed autonomous driving services.

Changhwan is also the Founder and CEO of Firenze Inc., a company that specializes in strategic consulting and principal investments.  There he develops strategies for comprehensive business value improvement and business promotion for multiple large companies in the automotive, healthcare, AI, internet media, smart city, and entertainment fields.

Kenji Niwa

Co-Founder & CEO, Firstcard, Inc

Kenji Niwa founded Firstcard in 2020 when he was an MBA student at UC Berkeley. Firstcard is a FinTech company that launched a debit card product that gives students up to 15% cash back and will launch a credit product soon to help students to build credit. Firstcard has raised $7.7M from VCs and Angels in the US and Japan.

Before starting Firstcard, Kenji started his first company called iTank in 2007 when he was a student at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. iTank helped over 10,000 students to get internship jobs. In 2015, iTank was acquired by En Japan, a publicly traded, human resource company.

In 2017, Kenji moved to Silicon Valley as an angel investor and has invested in over 30 startups such as Substack, Odeko, and Oxygen. He was also a visiting scholar at Stanford University from 2019 to 2021.

 

Videos

Seminar Video

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