[Podcast] How to build a successful startup community ー Interview with Tim Rowe at Cambridge Innovation Center (Part 6)

Today we are going to sit down with an old friend.

It was over seven years ago when I first had Tim Rowe on the podcast, and we mapped out what we saw as the future of startup innovation in Japan.

In today’s short episode, we talk about what we got right, what surprised us, and what we think is next for Japanese startup innovation.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it. 

Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most innovative founders and VCs.

I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.I’d like to share a special short in between episode with you.

Last month I had a fireside chat with Tim Rowe, the founder and CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center at the Global Venture Cafe’s anniversary celebration in Tokyo. And I thought I would share it with you just as it happened. I first had Tim on the show about eight years ago, just before CIC opened their Big Tokyo collaboration space.

This time Tim and I talk about the changes to the Japanese startup ecosystem since then, what we are likely to see in the future, and we also discuss what might be a new model for startup ecosystems. As startups have become more and more accepted and more and more common. The old community playbook may not be as effective as it once was.

But Tim tells that story much better than I can. So, let’s get right to the interview.

(Continuation of the previous article)

Romero: But is entrepreneurship so common and well understood these days that the general hubs will be restricted to big cities and we’ll see more specialized hubs in regional areas? Is that kind of the future?

Rowe: I think it’s just a fast way to get going if you’re not currently the biggest city. Anyone can become a San Francisco, but it could take some time and you’re going to have to follow your own path, not their path. But I mean, we didn’t even have venture capital until the 1960s. The first venture capital fund was supposedly in Boston, it was the head of the MIT, the president of MIT and the head of the Harvard Business School and some dude, and they got together and they created a fund. Like this stuff it’s moving very fast. The first smartphone was in 2007. And it’s changed all our lives, and everyone in the room has one. So, this stuff moves really fast. Don’t assume that what was there before is what’s going to matter in the future. We’re just kind of taking a shortcut and saying, look, if you’re Manchester and you want to beat London or New York or Tokyo, pick something and be better at it than them. It’s that simple. And then eventually Manchester may become something entirely different. It’ll move from that to who knows what.

Romero: All right. Looking forward. So, Japan’s come a long way in the last 20 years for sure. What do you see as the most important challenge ahead for Tokyo, for Japan’s innovation and startup ecosystem?

Rowe: I think it’s actually really clear. So, you can’t be globally successful as a business and not be global. That’s obvious. And if you’re the best business in a category in just Japan, you’re probably going to get beaten out by somebody who’s the best business in that category globally. You can’t be the best coffee shop chain in Japan and win in the long run. The Starbucks is going to have more clout for reasons that are a little unclear because it’s just coffee. But yeah, look how well they’ve done in Japan. So, for any Japanese company to be globally successful, I mean, to be successful, it has to figure out how to do that thing everywhere. And Sony knew that, Honda knew that, but recent startups in Japan seemed to kind of forget that. So, you got to do that, but young Japanese’s English is actually worse than a generation before them. If I talk to senior executives at a Japanese company, their English is better than the junior executives. Kihara-san fantastic English. That’s less common in the next generation. So, this is a very simple one, but I think Japan has to rethink how it teaches global skills, starting with language. I know it’s not popular to talk about Katakana eigo but we still teach English here using Japanese script, and it comes out sounding like Japanese. If you go to Korea, their English is excellent. You go to China, their English is excellent. So, I think Japan needs to rethink how it runs its education system in this area. And I know it’s not popular to say that, but I think it’s one of the foundational things Japan needs to do.

Romero: Alright, well, Tim, it was great catching up with you again, congratulations again, and thanks for a really insightful commentary on where we are and where we’re going.

Rowe: Thank you.

And we are back.

You know, it’s always good to catch up with old friends and I’m glad that you could join me for it.

But most of all, thanks for listening and thank you for letting people interested in Japanese startups and VCs know about the show.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for listening to Disrupting Japan.

Top photo: Envato

Click here for the Japanese version of the article