Does anyone really like natto? — When I was young, I was never an adventurous eater. Our family didn’t eat anything that didn’t come from a cow, chicken, or stalk of wheat. Seafood was limited to an occasional tuna fish sandwich. Japanese food? It might as well have been Martian food. The only Asian food within…

Pitch me a product that solves a problem, not a technology stack — When I began investing in startups, it seemed that every pitch was a company building artificial intelligence for something or another. AI for software testing. AI for optimizing advertising spend. AI for chemical analysis. AI for monitoring toenail fungus. Then came blockchain. Suddenly, every startup was pitching blockchain for this…

Why Startups Should Avoid Raising More Than They Have To — Without a doubt, the most frequent question from early-stage startup founders preparing for their first raise is: how much money should we raise? They’ve heard the stories of startups doing huge raises before their product is even finished. Sometimes before it’s even started. My reaction when I hear their plan…

Don’t pitch investors like we’re customers — After looking at thousands of pitch decks, the most common mistake I see early-stage startup founders make is trying to adapt their customer presentation into an investor pitch deck. It’s tempting to start with the customer presentation. The graphics are beautiful. It has a flow that resonates and all the…

Don’t make the same mistakes I made during the last financial crisis — I began angel investing in 2009 during the depths of the financial meltdown. Looking back on those investments, I made some serious errors and bad investments that I want to avoid during this next downturn. With rising interest rates and falling stock markets, the anything-goes days of venture investing are…

Untangling the Connections Between the Former Japanese Prime Minister and the Korean Church — On July 8, Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan was murdered during a campaign speech by a lone gunman with a homemade weapon. Japanese news reports state that the gunman, 41 year old Tetsuya Yamagami, blamed the former prime minister after his “family disintegrated because of his mother’s…

You’re a Horse-Deer. No you’re Mr. Senile. Huh? What do these insults mean? — If you’ve spent any time in Japan, or just enjoy manga/anime, you’ve come across the word, baka, meaning stupid or foolish. Baka is, by far, the most common insult in Japanese. Like many common Japanese words, baka is eminently flexible. It can be used alone as a noun or adjective…

Mike Howard discusses his life as a Japanese salaryman in Tokyo — Japonica recently published a book review of The Salaryman, a humorous memoir by Michael Howard describing his life as an American in Tokyo working as a salaryman for a traditional Japanese company. Book Review: The Salaryman by Michael Howard A humorous guide to surviving as an American in a Japanese companymedium.com Mike is originally from Chicago and worked as a journalist-turned businessman in Los Angeles before moving to Tokyo…