Jason Reacts To Japanese Founder Pitches + Fireside Chat With Yuki Shirato

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield: https://lightfield.app/ Rippling: https://Rippling.ai/twist Upwork: http://upwork.com Today’s show: AssetHub built an AI agent that recreates licensed characters in 3D while respecting copyright rules... But Jason says he needs to think BIGGER. 11 founders pitched their companies to Jason and Yuki Shirato of Techstars Tokyo at our Osaka event this week, and neither investor held back. Find out why Jason says Seekr feels more like a vitamin than a painkiller, and needs to ditch the press mentions from their deck. Plus, a vital lesson for founders: if everyone already knows about the problem you're solving, investors expect a tight solution and business plan. Truly novel business ideas get more leeway. Japan's startup community is booming, with many recent grads bailing on lifelong gigs at major corporations to start companies. But here's why Yuki says the fear of failure is still holding back progress. Guests: Yuki Shirato on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuki-shirato Techstars Tokyo: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/tokyo Founder Pitches: Seekr: https://seekrai.global/product Arabat: https://arabat.it/ AssetHub: https://assethub.io/ CRAZIA: https://crazia.co/ JuJuJuu: https://jujujuu.com/ JAPANMEDIA: https://lp.japanmedia.ai/ Tsuin AI: https://www.tsuin.ai Rumi Light: https://www.rumilight.jp/ GENCHI: https://www.toraru.me/en TattvaSilicon: https://tattvasilicon.com/ Mimi AI: https://nihongo-chat-ruby.vercel.app/onboarding Relevant Links: Founder University Japan, Jason's pre-accelerator program with JETRO → https://japan.founder.university/ Techstars Tokyo announces its Class of 2026 → https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/techstars-tokyo-accelerator-announces-class-of-2026 Yuki Shirato on why Japan should be on every founder's radar (Techstars) → https://www.techstars.com/blog/insights-and-trends/should-japan-be-on-your-radar-as-a-founder How Techstars Tokyo is helping make Japan a global startup hub (The Japan Times) → https://www.japantimes.co.jp/2025/12/25/special-supplements/accelerating-business-ambitions-global-scale-techstars-tokyo/ VidiLabs, maker of the Seekr indoor positioning platform → https://seekrai.global/ Density, the people-counting sensor company Jason has backed for a decade → https://www.density.io Arabat, recovering critical minerals from batteries with citrus and farm waste → https://arabat.it/ AssetHub raises a $2M seed for its AI 3D platform (The Bridge) → https://thebridge.jp/en/2025/08/aix3d-production-platform-assethub-raises-approximately-¥300-million-in-seed-funding Seedance 2.0, the ByteDance AI video model Jason says fans are using to make Marvel shorts → https://seed.bytedance.com/en/blog/seedance-2-0-official-launch Bending Spoons, the company Jason cites for buying apps and running them with tiny AI-powered teams (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/what-is-bending-spoons-everything-to-know-about-aols-acquirer/ Burning Chrome by William Gibson, the source of “the street finds its own uses for things” → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICMWZH4/ Timestamps: 0:00 Jason's first trip to Japan and the food crawl 3:07 Why everyone in Japan acts like a founder 3:42 Founder University comes to Japan 8:44 Techstars Tokyo and Japan's push for global founders 10:28 Why Japanese startups stay on the island 12:44 Parents, lifetime jobs, and the fear of failure 15:13 How Japan mastered product market fit 18:43 Lightfield: Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app/ 20:10 The white lab coat and the man who named his daughter Cinnamon 25:05 Seekr: centimeter-precise indoor navigation 27:38 Why investors want the business case, not the press 28:21 Rippling: Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 34:54 Arabat: recovering rare earths with orange peels 38:26 Getting from free pilots to paid pilots 38:38 Upwork: Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at http://upwork.com 43:57 AssetHub: AI 3D models for anime and game IP 52:40 Come for the tool, stay for the marketplace 54:35 CRAZIA: turning customer conversations into growth 56:42 JuJuJuu: giving alternative protein the structure of steak 59:02 JAPANMEDIA: AI manga and anime at a fifth of the cost 1:01:24 Tsuin AI: AI twins that think and act like you 1:03:15 Picking the layup and the wild card 1:09:29 Rumi Light: faster data paths inside AI servers 1:11:40 GENCHI: a local avatar that shops Japan for you 1:13:51 TattvaSilicon: analog circuit design in a day 1:15:36 Mimi AI: learning to actually speak Japanese 1:17:51 Why a live shopping avatar is Jason's wild card Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack: TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/ TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/ Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

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