SAFE is simple but there are critical details to understand to avoid mistakes with investors — Originally, the only way to invest in a startup was to buy equity — common or preferred shares. But stock documents are complicated, and can take tens of thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees to negotiate the terms and issue. …

Understanding culture is as important as learning vocabulary and grammar — When I first moved to Japan, I was often confused. Whenever I asked anyone if they could speak English, the answer would inevitably be “Sukoshi dake” (Just a little). As we started talking, I’d find the person understood a lot more than they professed. At a minimum, everyone had 6…

There are hundreds of accelerators, but do they actually help? — There are hundreds of accelerators claiming to help startups get off the ground. Should you join one? If you’re looking for a simple yes or no answer, sorry, I don’t have a simple answer. …

A humorous guide to surviving as an American in a Japanese company — The Salaryman by Michael Howard calls itself “a memoir of how an American dude becomes a Tokyo white collar warrior.” Having made the same journey as Michael Howard, from engineer in an American company in Los Angeles to employee of a big steel manufacturer in Japan, I picked up Howard’s…

And Why I Demand Liquidation Preferences, Too — When negotiating investment terms with startups, there is nothing as contentious as the liquidation preference. And for good reason. In the vast majority of startup exits, it’s the liquidation preference that determines how much investors get, how much founders and employees get, and in many cases, whether they’ll get anything…

Japonica sits down with the author of the Inspector Inoue mysteries set in rural Kyushu — Wendy Jones Nakanishi is the author of the Inspector Inoue mysteries, set in rural Kyushu that she writes under the pen name Lea O’Harra. She lived in Takamatsu on Shikoku for 36 years and was a professor at Shikoku Gakuin before retiring to the UK. The mystery series, originally published…

You can never have too much feedback, but you can’t satisfy everyone either — Among my lawyer friends, there’s a telling joke. If you ask 5 lawyers a question, you’ll get 10 opinions. With startup advisors, mentors, and investors, it can be even worse. Startup founders expect to get consistent feedback on everything from what goes into a pitch deck to the terms of…

Medium will need to reduce expenses. That will start with writer payments — It’s no secret that Medium’s finances don’t make sense, at least from the point of view of a traditional profits-focused business. Medium gives away half its revenues in referral fees, and probably another half in payment for our content. Then they have employees to pay, a monthly payroll in the…

If you don’t understand accounting, you won’t even know if your startup is succeeding or failing — As a mentor at various accelerators and university startup programs, founders often ask me what books I recommend. Certainly, there are important books that explain fundamental concepts like The Lean Startup and Business Model Canvas. There are classics like Crossing the Chasm that define the way we analyze customers. And…