10/08/2024
🤯 A masterclass on how startups should think about the Japanese market, and how to become a global category leader via international expansion to Japan and the world. Read below 👇
In this episode of 🦄 Next Unicorn Podcast, I interviewed Phil Wickham, Executive Managing Director at Sozo Ventures, a Silicon Valley VC firm specializing in helping startups become global category leaders by expanding to Asia and the world via Japan. 🇯🇵
Sozo Ventures has been an investor in many successful startups, including Twitter, Square, Palantir, Coinbase, and Zoom, helping them navigate expansion into the Japanese market. 🚀
💡 This Episode Includes:
-Why certain early-stage startups should consider the Japanese market sooner than expected
-Why successful expansion to Japan is the key to expanding to Asia and the world
-Super important concepts that most startup founders don’t understand about the Japanese market
-Why many attempts to expand to Japan end in disaster — and how to avoid that!
-How startups can successfully expand to the Japanese market
-Understanding the unique structure of Japanese corporations (Keiretsu)
-How Sozo Ventures has managed to bring large competing Japanese corporations into its funds as LP investors
-Top advice for founders entering the Japanese market
-Examples of successful expansions to Japan
-AI applications particularly relevant for Japan
-The current state of the Japanese startup ecosystem — and predictions for the future
🎧 Listen to this Next Unicorn Podcast interview on 🍎 Apple Podcasts, 🎙️ Spotify, or any other podcast platform. The video version is also available on 🎥 YouTube!
👉 Just search for “Next Unicorn” on any platform.
