"We'll go bankrupt in six months..." Now, two years have passed since that moment of despair, and I look back on it frankly.

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Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
November 6, 2024 10:00
Natee celebrated her 6th anniversary on November 1, 2024.

The cumulative amount of creator rebates announced annually has reached 2.2 billion yen, nearly double the amount in the fourth quarter of the sixth fiscal year. As a result, sales also significantly surpassed the previous Guinness World Record.

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Two years ago, we announced a cumulative return of 500 million yen, so this is more than four times the amount in two years. It's still not a large amount, but we are proud that we have promoted a society where people can live based on their individuality and talents.

However, the road has not always been smooth and has been full of thorns. Let me briefly look back on these two tumultuous years for Natee.

The fifth period in which the company announced that it would go bankrupt in six months.
Natee completed its Series B round exactly two years ago in November, announcing that it had raised a total of 420 million yen in equity and debt.

Natee raises approximately 420 million yen from Benesse Holdings and others. Leveraging its track record of supporting TikTok creators, it enters the virtual business.
Natee Co., Ltd. Press Release (December 7, 2022, 9:00 AM): Natee receives approximately 4.5 billion yen in funding from Benesse Holdings and others.
prtimes.jp
At the time, there was a high-energy atmosphere, with people saying things like, "We'll grow three times as much next fiscal year! We'll also be aggressively pursuing new businesses!" and I was sending out very aggressive messages both inside and outside the company.

However, we only had a crude business plan and were unable to manage our finances, and it took about two months for the monthly accounting to be completed before we could see our business figures. Despite this, we were still able to hire around 6-8 people each month, start two new businesses, and assign our top sales executives to cross-departmental projects.

As a result, we made a clear management error that resulted in huge losses, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy within six months, even though we had just raised funds. I still vividly remember how my blood ran cold when I saw the monthly trial balance sheet that was presented to me right after the department heads took a photo of the fundraising.

After explaining the situation to the entire company, we were determined to make every possible cost cut. We even gave up on moving to a new office, which we had just applied for, and ended up canceling the water server that we had in the office. When I asked employees about this later, they told me things like, "At the time, we even withheld train fares from our expense claims..." I was a little happy that they had acted with the company in mind, but I also felt a great sense of guilt.

Both the avatar live streaming app and the publicly managed VTuber racing business that I was working on at the time were going to be shut down, so I struggled desperately to make every last yen in sales. It was all for the sake of survival.

The rule of coming to the office two days a week was changed to five days a week, and in addition, department managers and above held meetings on the weekends almost every week, and everyone fought together as one every day, just as if under a state of emergency. Naturally, everyone was exhausted, wondering when we would emerge from this long, dark tunnel, and a tense atmosphere pervaded the entire company, with many people becoming unwell. This situation continued for several months.

However, thanks to our employees who persevered and continued to fight, the light at the end of the tunnel gradually began to appear, and within four months we were able to achieve a monthly profit.

Although we incurred a 100 million yen deficit in the first quarter, we were able to recover the entire deficit in the second through fourth quarters and ultimately end the year in the black, all thanks to the members at the time. I am truly grateful.

However, the price was very high. The sense of organizational effectiveness disappeared, and trust in management hit rock bottom. I also lost confidence as a manager, and to be honest, it was an incredibly difficult year. The period of recovery was nothing short of desperate, but once we got out of the tunnel, the days were emotionally hellish.

I would ask myself, "Why am I running a company when it's so painful?" and turn a blind eye to reality. Every time I opened my mouth, I'd blame external factors, saying things like, "The market environment is..." Every time I think back, I fall into self-loathing for the lame things I said and the way I lived. Now I understand how you feel, Mitsui.

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Slam Dunk
The 6th term under the motto "Stay Positive"
In the midst of all this, several events occurred that made me realize that I was the one who needed to change the most (I may be able to write about this drama someday, once Natee is a little older), and with a renewed sense of determination, I was ready to fight again when the sixth season kicked off.

At that time, for some reason, the words "Stay Positive" just kept coming to mind, and although I'm not the type to have a slogan, I decided to announce it as the motto for the year at the kick-off of the 6th term.

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Only about 1% of work is fun or goes well, and about 99% is annoying and difficult. But if you get discouraged, then the game is over. No matter what the situation, you should continue to take a stance that looks forward.

The word "positive" is completely different from "optimistic." It originally comes from a Latin legal term meaning "something definite decided by consensus," which was used in the opposite sense of "natural." From there, it evolved to mean "absolute," "confident," and "focused on constructive, positive things."

Being positive means taking an active and proactive stance towards your life. "Stay Positive" was a warning to myself that I would run my business with that stance.

The "Stay Positive Committee" was formed voluntarily by members who responded to the message, and they made a tremendous contribution to bringing the company to a positive mood. They created stay positive stamps, stickers, and trainers, and also put up stay positive posters all over the company. They also created a new annual award, the "Best Stay Positive Award."

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I myself have also made a conscious effort to increase the number of drinking parties with employees, something I had almost never done before, so that as many people as possible can approach their work with a positive attitude (I ignore comments from employees that I'm just drinking). I think that by continuing to communicate like this for a year, the "Stay Positive" attitude has become quite widespread within the company.

My advisor, who has been helping me, has also started saying to me, "For the past few months you've looked listless and dead, but now you've grown a lot. You look really good."

As a result, we were able to achieve Guinness records for both sales and profits in the sixth fiscal year.

And I think the biggest change in the 6th term was not just the results, but also the emergence of new initiatives. At the beginning of the year, we launched an agency called WOWs, which brought in artists such as the Oompa Loompas, who are hugely popular among junior and senior high school students, and YUMEKI, who is well-known from Nihon Project, and we were able to significantly exceed the goals of our initial business plan.

Some creators have even seen their monthly income increase 370 times, so I'm very happy to be able to work closely with them again, and I would like to create even more creator-driven initiatives in the future.

Although it has not been announced yet, we have also launched an AI subsidiary with a very small team consisting of myself, Director Asato, new graduates, and contract staff, and both of our founding executives are committed to the project.

There are voices asking, "Are you sure it's okay to start another new business?" (I certainly have those voices in my mind), but although we still have a long way to go, our budget management system is pretty well put together and cash is steadily building up, so we're going to take on the challenge while controlling the risks so as not to repeat the same mistake again.

The 7th term will be a "solid"
Now that the 7th term has become an organization with a Stay Positive mindset, we have decided to adopt the slogan "United."

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As the number of people, departments, businesses, and companies increased, it felt like everyone was working separately and trying to optimize things individually. Information sharing was not working well, and communication costs were increasing. At this point, we started holding "unified meetings" for department managers and above in September.

When Mr. Soyama from CyberAgent came to Natee to give a lecture some time ago, he said, "As long as an organization is growing, there will never be an end to organizational troubles! In fact, they will only get bigger. But that's normal!!"

As multiple movements emerge, many conflicts like the ones listed below will inevitably arise.

Sales vs. Delivery

Division vs. Corporate

Management vs. Business

Existing business vs. new business

Veterans vs. Newbies

The old way vs. a better way

History vs. Future

We make mistakes in decision-making, the number of people increases and it becomes chaotic, and individual optimization also increases, which puts stress on the whole. At times like these, we are "united" in the sense that we should look outward and become a team rather than looking inward and becoming conflicted.

And yesterday, we announced that Azumaya-san, the youngest acting director at Hakuhodo, has joined us as COO. He has steadily grown his department while cultivating new clients from scratch within Hakuhodo, and he has significantly expanded Natee's capabilities, which were previously only seen as a "TikTok shop" and "a company that specializes in short movies."

Former Hakuhodo employee Mitsutoshi Higashitani appointed COO of Natee
Natee Inc. Press Release (November 5, 2024, 10:00 AM): Former Hakuhodo employee Mitsutoshi Higashitani appointed COO of Natee
prtimes.jp
Natee's greatest feature is that we do business directly with leading brand companies in Japan and around the world. Because we do business directly, we can make proposals that take the brand and end user into serious consideration, and we believe that because we do business directly, we can fully convey the appeal of creators. Naturally, the level of proposals and delivery required is high, and we are working hard to return value, but we will continue to contribute even more to our results, led by Azumaya.

In addition to Azumaya, many other department managers from listed companies and startups, as well as enthusiastic and committed young people, have joined the company, further deepening its talent base.

For the sake of our customers, creators, and society, we will unite and return value to the world, not just within the company.

Look forward and commit
I still feel sad and sorry for the employees, prospective employees, and contract workers who were inconvenienced during the management crisis. I don't intend to end this as a heroic story of how we bounced back from that. That experience still pierces my heart, but I will continue to look forward and grow Natee.

Natee will be taking on many challenges in the 7th term. However, we are extremely short on team members to do so. If you are even slightly interested in "startups," "creators," "social media marketing," "AI mutants," "great companies," "making humanity talented," or any of these, please let us know!

We look forward to seeing Natee in the 7th term. Go for Great Company!


The story of how WOWs, a new type of agency that doesn't restrict creators, was launched

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Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
January 30, 2024 05:00
Natee Inc. announced today the establishment of the creator agency WOWs.

Natee Inc. Establishes WOWs, a New Type of Agency that Doesn't Bind Creators
Natee Inc. Press Release (January 30, 2024, 10:00 AM) Natee Inc., "A new way to create content that doesn't restrict creators"
prtimes.jp
Our company was originally founded five years ago as a TikTok creator agency, but we actually closed the agency three years ago, and now we are a company that acts as an intermediary between advertisers and creators and engages in creator co-creation marketing.

This will be a bit of a long story, including some old stories, about why Natee is reopening his agency and what kind of agency he wants to make it, but I hope that it will convey to everyone in the creative industry the reality of a startup that has been pursuing its mission of ``turning humanity into talent'' for five years, as well as Natee's new challenge.

"We're making a TikTok version of UUUM"
Natee was founded in November 2018.

Ever since my university days, I have wanted to create a society where individuality and talent can thrive, and YouTubers, who pursue what they love and what they're good at and share that, have gained many fans, are the perfect embodiment of that way of life.

As proof of this, UUUM, which created a network of YouTubers, experienced rapid growth and was one of the top five startups between 2013 and 2018, with a market capitalization exceeding 100 billion yen. As MCNs (multi-channel networks) became a major global trend, UUUM was at the forefront of this trend.

However, when I started Natee, I felt it was too late to get into YouTube, and since the time would surely come when the next platform would be born, I spent a lot of time researching what that would be. By closely watching the trends in technology and users, it became clear to me that TikTok would become popular in Japan as well.

Things moved quickly from there, and we decided on our target: "We're going to create a TikTok version of UUUM." We studied UUUM, thinking that we wanted to be like UUUM, and we wanted to trace what UUUM had done on TikTok.

One of the reasons UUUM was the sole winner in the YouTube world is that they built a creator network with overwhelming speed in the early days. We followed their example and aimed to become the largest agency in Japan, so we reached out to creators with large followings on TikTok.

Although TikTok's demographic has expanded, at the time, its creators were mostly teenagers. Creating at a sensitive age meant all sorts of worries, and those worries always came at night. Until I was able to hire a creator manager, I spent my days talking on the phone with creators at night in a rundown apartment that didn't even have a shower head.

Thanks to the hard work of our scouting team, we were able to successfully sign around 150 creators and issue a press release on January 10, 2020, announcing that we were the largest TikTok agency in Japan. That was exactly four years ago.

Natee Co., Ltd., which operates an agency with a total of approximately 15 million followers, has signed an official MCN contract with TikTok!
Press release from Natee Co., Ltd. (January 10, 2020, 11:01 AM) A company that operates an office with a total of approximately 15 million followers.
prtimes.jp
The agency had some pretty well-known creators on its roster, and it got off to a spectacular start, hosting in-house events with hundreds of people, such as the Natee Xmas Collection.

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"When will I receive the project?"
On the other hand, at that time, advertisers still had a strong view of TikTok as a medium, thinking, "It's just a video with high school girls dancing, right?"

Although there were more opportunities for people to listen to my story in order to gather information, it was extremely rare for it to actually progress to a project, and we went through a period of about a year and a half where we had no projects and no sales.

Starting a B2B business comes with a double whammy: not being able to get leads and not having any examples. It's simply impossible to get an appointment with an unknown company offering an obscure service. Even if you do get an appointment, you can't get an order because there are no examples.

As a result, creators started asking me every day, "Don't you have any projects?"

Another problem was that creators had a wide range of interests. Many of the creators at the time were young, and many were amateurs who found TikTok fun and ended up growing their accounts more than they expected.

As a result, we received a lot of requests from people who wanted to be models, people who wanted to be comedians, people who just wanted to do it as a hobby, people who wanted to make money, people who wanted to walk the runway, people who wanted to become artists, and so on, but at the time, Natee, which was a fledgling startup, had very little to offer.

Although it got off to a spectacular start, it was unable to provide any value to creators, and the frustration of not only the creators but also the managers who worked with them only grew with each passing day.

"If we continue running the office like this, no one will be happy."

With this in mind, I decided to leave the office. I felt extremely guilty about closing down the office that I started, talked about my dreams, and invited people to join. The employees had all gathered because they wanted to run the office, so they only had negative reactions to my decision, and the atmosphere in the office felt like a funeral.

However, if I believe that going in this direction is the right direction, it is the job of a leader to put aside personal feelings and move towards the destination. I decided that I couldn't look back, so I trusted my own decision and moved forward.

Three years ago, I focused on working with clients.
Looking back at that time, I always had this thought in my mind: "I never thought TikTok's advertising use would not progress this much." No matter how you look at it, smartphone content is shifting to short movies, and I couldn't shake the frustration of wondering why it wasn't happening when users were actually so enthusiastic about it.

As an aside, there is an anecdote about how after developing the DSP, FreakOut's Honda realized that he had to do the SSP side as well, so he personally invested in the SSP and improved it as well.

"Because the DSP business cannot be run on its own, Honda proposed to several advertising companies in which he had personal investments that they start an SSP. FreakOut developed and provided Japan's first DSP, and by collaborating with SSP operators, Japan's RTB market was launched."

From the history of FreakOut Holdings Inc.
The chicken-and-egg problem of demand and supply is extremely difficult, but at the time I believed that focusing on the supply side (advertisers) was the best way to give back to creators.

Despite the double whammy of having no leads and no case studies, we were blessed with one connection after another, and case studies were born. One of the most epoch-making cases was a TikTok promotion handled by Natee, where we were able to clear out three years' worth of inventory. The success of "selling shelves with TikTok" gave us a huge boost of confidence.

Once we have a number of examples, the chances of success in business negotiations increase dramatically. It is extremely difficult to get to this point, but we have been blessed with clients who are willing to take on the challenge with us, which has allowed us to get this far.

Three years have passed since we left the agency, and we have given back a total of about 1.4 billion yen to creators. In the past year alone, that amounted to 760 million yen. Of course, this is a very small amount compared to our ideal goal, but we are also proud that it is proof of our unique way of life, which has earned us 1.4 billion yen that would not have been possible without us.

It's an undeniable fact that this is a way to give back to creators that was only possible because we've been working directly with clients. However, we still wanted to restart an agency that thinks from the creator's perspective, and after several discussions, we thought there might be something we could do now, so we launched WOWs, a "new type of agency that doesn't restrict creators . "

What kind of office will it be?
Having been involved in this creator market for a little over five years, I have come to see many things, and many things have changed in those five years.

The biggest change is that the momentum for creators to go independent is reaching new record highs every year. In the past, agencies had a very strong influence over the media (TV), so you had to join an agency to appear in the media, but now that individuals have their own media outlets on social media, there is less need to join an agency.

In addition, there have been a series of scandals involving large agencies that have been in the news recently, and from the creator's perspective, the past few years have seen not only the benefits of joining a large agency, but also the risk of being caught up in the consequences.

However, it is also true that there are limits to what an individual can do. Creators who are particularly not good at dealing with companies have no choice but to join an agency for projects and support, as they find it difficult to respond to the large number of inquiries from companies, unable to negotiate because they don't know the appropriate price, and unable to manage schedules even if they receive an order, and unable to resolve problems on their own when they arise.

Once they joined the agency, we heard from creators that they were being charged YouTube AdSense even though they didn't get many projects or support, that they had to check with the agency more often and that their activities were restricted, and that the contents of the contract were different from the reality and that they were being charged a large commission on projects.

The basic concept of WOWs is "a new type of agency that doesn't restrict creators ." We intend to eliminate all restrictions that are out of date, avoid overly expanding the agency's functions, and limit the value we can provide.

Specifically, we act as a point of contact for projects, support the production of project videos, and handle tedious back-office tasks like taxes and contracts. In other words, don't expect much else from us at the moment. But I think that's how creators and agencies can build a healthy relationship as business partners.

We also believe that Natee running an agency will be of great significance not only to creators, but also to advertisers and casting agencies, as we are a company that has worked with advertisers with the goal of "projects that actually generate sales," and we believe that we can create an agency with a high level of understanding and progress regarding projects.

Talent humanity.
Natee recently released a generative AI development support service for contact centers, but generative AI is currently primarily used in the context of improving productivity. In Japan, where there will be a severe labor shortage in the future, improving corporate productivity using AI is essential, and I believe it has great social significance.

Natee Inc. launches "Generative AI Development Support Service" specializing in contact centers
Natee Co., Ltd. Press Release (January 25, 2024, 10:00 AM) Natee Co., Ltd. Launches "Generation" Service, Specializing in Contact Centers
prtimes.jp
On the other hand, it is not at all likely that creators will be replaced by generative AI any time soon. Rather, technology will undoubtedly give birth to new creative ideas and further accelerate the creator economy. This is because the history of the internet is one of empowering individuals.

The name of our agency, WOWs, was chosen with the intention of bringing lots of WOWs (surprises) to the world, as the name suggests.

I think creators are a bundle of WOW. They create content with originality that ordinary people would never think of, and they captivate people. Personally, I have always admired creators, and naturally, I respect them.

I don't want creators, who are a bundle of potential, to waste their precious time on such troublesome things. I want them to spend more time interacting with their viewers and fans, and with their content. And I want them to deliver lots of WOW to the world. Natee's new agency is committed to supporting such creators!


The vivid frustration and chaos of a startup COO whose pride as a "reputable person at Recruit" was completely shattered and who had to start from scratch

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Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
December 7, 2022 04:00
My name is Kojima and I am the representative of Natee Co., Ltd.

Today, we announced that we have raised 420 million yen in Series B funding.

We have also launched a special website that contains our thoughts, but we also wanted to share the honest opinions of the management team, so we are bringing you an interview with Asato, Natee's co-founder, current COO, and a friend of mine from college.

Go to the fundraising website
I was actually planning to publish an article he wrote, but it didn't turn out very well (lol), so I thought I'd present it in the form of an interview.

I believe this is an excellent article for people who think things like, "I work hard, but I still feel frustrated," "I want to take on challenges with more passionate colleagues," or "I want to break out of my shell and devote myself more seriously to my work."

No matter how it looks from the outside, it's always muddy and chaotic inside the frenzy of startups, and I hope to give you a glimpse of that. It's a whopping 10,000 characters long, but I'm sure you'll find yourself reading all the way to the end before you know it!

table of contents
Why did you decide to join Natee?
What was it like after you joined?
How did you grow it from there?
What are your thoughts on this funding and announcement?
Is there anything you would say to yourself four years ago?
Editor's Note
Why did you decide to join Natee?
I joined Recruit Career as a new graduate, and my first and second years were tough, lacking in merit and frustration. But in my third year, I was able to shed some steam. For example, I created an overseas internship for a client that had never been done before, providing students with an opportunity to experience the thrill of the experience. It was a time when I was able to work on a broader scope than I had in the previous two years.

Even within the company, I felt that my performance, work attitude, and my message had a positive influence on my department, which consisted of 70 people at the time. I sent messages to all 70 people every day, encouraging them to work hard on their tasks. My juniors followed suit, and seeing this motivated my more senior colleagues to work harder in sales. I felt like I was at the center of the business and organization, not just as a group, but as a division in the Kansai region. I

saw my job as a way to give back to the department that nurtured me and improve the atmosphere and perspective of the department. That was my mission, and it was during my third year. As a result, I became a regular recipient of in-house awards and was even nominated for national awards. I received company recognition, with people saying, "You've become quite a notable presence among your peers." I was definitely on a winning streak.

As mentioned above, October 2018 to March 2019 was the period when I was at my peak. It was during this time that I received an invitation from my friend from college, Kojima, to join me in starting a startup. I think it was February 2019. Honestly, I had no intention of changing jobs when I received the call.

That said, I'd objectively made a leap forward in my third year, after two years of struggling to do the work I was facing due to a lack of skill. I was beginning to feel conflicted about my career: should I continue on this path and become a manager early, or take on a new challenge?

Amidst these worries, I read Son's book, and I immediately felt a difference in my standards when I saw how he ran his company from a 300-year-old perspective. I also picked up a book about Sakamoto Ryoma, whom Son admired, and stayed up all night over the New Year's holiday, engrossed in "Ryoma ga Yuku." Watching the life of Sakamoto Ryoma, who fled his domain at age 26 to try to change Japan, I, a 25-year-old at the time, remember thinking, "I want to gain more experience in making decisions in life!" I still remember how I spent the New Year thinking about this. I

decided to broaden my horizons by traveling overseas once a month, and then I received a message from Kojima: "Natee has firmly established its direction, and after just a 15-minute teleconference, we've secured procurement." In 2019, I began to consider three options: aim for promotion at Recruit with standards that would earn me a company-wide award, start my own business, or work with Kojima.

Until around March 2019, my strongest desire was to rebuild our Kansai sales department. While my mentor was still with the company, I decided, "I want to make this guy a man," and our team's performance rose to the top of the nation, and we entered April of my fourth year. As I mentioned earlier, the owner, who operates globally, told me, "I want to make a bold global hiring move, even assigning new graduates to India, to revitalize the company and drive its next growth." If I committed myself to this job, I could make a huge impact on the client, and it would also be a global-scale project for me, so I was incredibly excited about it. I proposed,

"I want to see for myself whether people who want to gain real-world experience really want to go to India," negotiated with the owner and the company, and secured a ticket to travel to India during Golden Week. At the time, I was determined to stay at Recruit and work on this global hiring project and shape the growth of young employees.

But I always had a sense of unease about myself, wondering, "Is that really enough?" Even though I was working at Recruit, I wasn't 100% satisfied. While I was certainly happy to receive recognition, I didn't feel particularly happy, and I still felt a sense of discomfort about my career.

Meanwhile, I wholeheartedly sympathized with Natee's mission to "Talent Humanity!" and thought it was a great idea. I also knew I didn't have the skills to build a business, so starting my own business would just be like being an independent contractor. Various options were circling my mind.

Then, on a plane to India, I happened to see "The Greatest Showman," a film about the founder of the circus. I was so moved, it's a silly story, but that's what made me decide to join Natee. The main character, Barnum, puts people like "bearded women" and "little men," who were looked down upon by society, on stage and turns them into big stars. Seeing him and hearing the song "This Is Me" from the film made me truly realize, " I want to create an explosion of individuality and talent." Also, this incident after I arrived in India didn't necessarily confirm my decision to change jobs, but I was riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by a random, mild-Dekina-like student intern who said things like, "I graduated from college among a billion people in India. I have the right to use a billion resources." It made me realize how vast the world is, even though I was doing a job with a little influence on society at Recruit. Asking about my peers' grades and all that kind of stuff makes me realize how self-determined my own meaning is. Also, when I visited another slum, I saw a child from a poor community wearing a TikTok T-shirt. Even if I indulge in self-satisfaction as a Recruit employee media representative, I have little influence on major trends in the world. On the other hand, seeing a child from an Indian slum wearing a TikTok T-shirt really made me realize the difference in influence. In short, I was freed from the spell of meaning imposed by large corporations. It made me realize how pathetic it was to think about what was going on among my peers. I even asked about their grades and things like that. So I decided to join Natee, returned to Japan, and told my manager I was quitting on the first day after the Golden Week holidays. After that, reality and everyday life awaited me, but I had weekly interviews with the executive officer, the department manager two days after that, and then another department manager.

I was constantly being told, "The landscape you see is completely different depending on whether you make it to managerial status at Recruit," "Can you really say you've done your best? There's a difference between realizing your goals and dreaming about them." "Side hustles are commonplace these days, so why not start with a side hustle?" "I understand you want to create a world where individuals thrive, but is TikTok the right way to climb the ladder for you?" To top it off, my manager asked me, "Why don't you stay and work with me, even if it's just for the global recruitment project?

" Every time we talked, I would sometimes think, "Maybe I should try my hand at Recruit after all," or, "If I work hard this year, can't I change roles and do something more akin to management?" I also had a huge sense of obligation, like, "Am I really going to turn my back on the people who've helped me so much and make them cry?" To be honest, I was really wavering.

I was frankly talking to Kojima about this, and he told me , "If you're going to try your hand at management, your job is to make decisions without knowing what the right answer is. It's your life, so you should make those kinds of decisions for yourself."

When I returned from India, I thought I could move forward as long as I made the decision, but when I returned to Japan, some people were forced to break promises they'd made before, and some even cried because they thought it was the wrong timing. Looking back, I realized that I was able to make the decision, but not be able to turn it down.

So, when I reconsidered what was better, I realized that the world was changing, I had a vision of the world I wanted to live in, and Natee offered an environment where I could achieve that. (If I tried and failed, that was fine, but) I couldn't just not try. I

made up my mind again, and told the people who had been negotiating my resignation, "I can't do it after all. I'm incredibly happy, but I'm getting off the ship now." Honestly, things went pretty quickly from there. Finally, the executive who'd been looking after me since I graduated came from Tokyo to Osaka on his day off for a meeting. He said, "Six months ago, you said you wanted to do this kind of work," but I told him, "I've decided anyway," and the hour-long meeting ended in less than 40 minutes, and I decided to resign.

Even now, there are executives I can't face, as if we had parted ways on bad terms. Honestly, it's painful to think about it sometimes, but I've now come to accept that this is what a decision is. Make a decision and then cut it off. You can't always live your own life, and I've often thought recently that living your own life means accepting all obligations, both obligations and omissions. We were

finally ready to start Natee, and Kojima and I decided on the stock ratio. Rather than just splitting it evenly, we looked at various examples and consulted with Kaneko-san of East Ventures, who had decided to invest at the time, and we started with a clear difference between our shares. At the time, we had absolutely no money to invest, so after we reached a final agreement over the phone, I immediately borrowed 1 million yen from Aiful and transferred it directly to the company. I felt like this is what it feels like to have no way out. All that was left was to get going.

What was it like after you joined?
Before I left Recruit, I worked at Recruit in Osaka on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and at Natee in Tokyo on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. When I came to Tokyo, I would stay at Kojima's house or a super public bathhouse, then take the last train on Sundays or the first train on Mondays back to Osaka to work at Recruit. I was pretty exhausted.

It's a funny story, but during that time, I didn't have anyone on my side (laughs). At Recruit, people would half-jokingly say, "You're still here!" and at Natee, they'd ask me, "When are you starting?" I felt like I didn't belong for several months.

First, I decided to talk to various people about how to move the business forward. I looked through my acquaintances in Tokyo, their business cards, and Facebook pages to make appointments and spend time figuring out what I needed to do to make this business profitable. Since it was in the advertising domain, I went to visit some of my friends from university who had gone to Dentsu. I also made appointments with people in high positions, like Morichi (Chikako Morimoto), who still supports me today.

To be honest, I was proud of the fact that "I was someone who was highly evaluated at Recruit." I had an amazing impression that venture company managers and BizDev people were able to work as jacks of all trades. I thought I could be like that too, so I thought I would try anything, but in reality, the market wasn't warmed up and there were hardly any projects available. When I had a one-on-one with a talent manager from when I was working at an agency at the time, he would always ask me, "When are you going to get work?" and while I thought, "You should get some too," I couldn't bring myself to say it, so I just decided to guarantee the amount of work for the time being.

In my second term, I hired more people and for the first time had my own team under my command. At the time, I made a huge mistake with my management style, which assumed everyone should do what I told them to do and that my path was always the right one.

In reality, what I did at Recruit was figure out how to run on the rails laid out for me. I had a wealth of knowledge and a reliable network, and I was playing a game where I was told to use those resources to achieve 120% more than the previous year. Even though the rules were completely different, I often thought I was better than the average venture company, that I could do it.

In reality, all I could do was go and meet people and sell, but I misjudged my own abilities, which ultimately led to the exhaustion of the entire organization. I realized that it was all down to pride. At the same time, I didn't want to expose myself like that. I thought that if I, who was far from a jack-of-all-trades and actually couldn't do anything, was at the top of the company, my colleagues wouldn't follow me and we wouldn't be able to hire anyone. Even though I was the leader, I tried to make myself look bigger. As expected, the results weren't coming.

The gap between me and the people who joined Natee just kept getting wider. When I stubbornly stuck to my own way and found that others couldn't keep up and results weren't improving, I couldn't acknowledge my shortcomings and work together to resolve them. Concerned about what would happen if I did the same thing again, I distanced myself, leaving the business operations to others and deciding to focus on sales to feed the company. I didn't meet with my team members and just kept creating work. It was a difficult time.

As a result, a major organizational problem arose at the end of the fiscal year, and the organization lost trust in Asato Taisho. All the things I had been ignoring became apparent, revealing a huge gap between me and my team members. I often wondered, "Can this really be fixed?" The end of the second fiscal year was when I was faced with the reality that rather than trying to fix things, I would have to start the company over from scratch.

There are two things I clearly remember being told by Mr. Kumagai of Akatsuki Heart Driven Fund, who had invested in Natee since its first year. First, he told me, "We'll put entrepreneurs first and be on your side," which really saved me and reminded me that it's ultimately the management that should be steering the company forward. Second, he

pointed out, "If a big problem occurs in an organization of this size, isn't it because there wasn't enough dialogue at the core?" This made me realize that I wasn't having enough conversations with my coworkers and that I wasn't having enough opportunities to talk about myself. This was an important realization for me as I rebuild the company from scratch.

How did you grow it from there?
My third term was a year in which I truly felt the organization was revitalized through delegation of authority, dialogue, and recruitment. Together with Kojima, I held two-on-one meetings with all employees, explaining, "I'm determined to rebuild the company once again. If you still want to stay, please do so." To those who stayed, I apologized for the mistakes of my previous approach and promised to change my ways. I also appointed members who were around 23-25 years old at the time as managers, and changed my approach so that I could spend more time on top appointments and leveraging my strengths.

Once I changed my approach, I felt the business and organization gradually become more united. Up until my second term, I didn't spend much time interacting with everyone, but in my third term, I made a conscious effort to speak up, with the motto "If in doubt, speak up." We spent time sharing everyone's backgrounds and thoughts as team building, sharing what kind of lives they had lived and what kind of lives they wanted to live, so that we could compete based on our strengths. By repeating this process every day, we gradually came to understand each other, built trust, and created a system in which we could leverage each other's strengths.

Just as positive results began to emerge, new members joined the team, able to communicate with others while considering overall optimization and understanding management's intentions. This improved the organization and relationships, resulting in more stable growth than before. This led to the creation of deep relationships with customers, a major turning point in TikTok's popularity, and ultimately a year of recovery for the company. However,

that's all in hindsight; there were many challenges along the way. One thing I realized again was the difficulty of running the entire business through conversations with my manager. Throughout my second year, my activities were sales-focused, focused more on securing work than on overseeing the business. In my third year, I did a lot of sales, but when I looked at the business and considered how to bring together a dozen or so people, I realized I wasn't very good at strategy, and my manager sometimes gave me feedback like, "So you're asking me to do everything?" I

was often forced to make decisions involving others, such as what to keep and what to discard. Honestly, I had no idea how to grow the business as an organization. Because I had no idea, I had no choice but to think about it together with everyone, but ultimately, I had no choice but to make decisions based on my own ignorance. Becoming an entrepreneur faced huge obstacles. Also,

I'm not naturally the type to take a deep interest in people and engage in dialogue, so I had a lot of conflicts. I clashed with people with completely different strengths, and I experienced the difficulties of interpersonal relationships, discussing each other's strengths and weaknesses and methods, and trying to understand each other. There were many junior members, so I wondered how much I should ask of them. My manager, who had promised to "take it all on!", collapsed from overwork. My poor management skills caused trouble for the team.

Even in such situations, I couldn't turn a blind eye, so it was a year that forced me to accept them as they were and think about what I should do next. "I'm so clumsy," I thought every day, every day. It was frustrating. I constantly felt that I couldn't improve the company unless I overcame that. I also

felt incredibly frustrated. I constantly realized that improving performance was so difficult. We want to "Turn Humanity into Talent" and make a world-changing impact, but it's been so difficult and slow to grow our business, and yet I can't do anything alone, so I wonder how to work with others, and I'm constantly tormented by the gap between what I want to be and what is actually happening.

But it was around this time that I realized that our business is truly a solution, and that the power of creators is connected to the business growth of the brand, and that this is connected to value for creators. While I felt that my own abilities were lacking, I was glad that we finished in the black, and we were on trend with our business plan until the first half of the fourth fiscal year, so I felt like I passed the mark and that we weren't going in the wrong direction.

On the other hand, in the second half of the fourth fiscal year, it became clear that I was agonizing over whether my approach was right, and the P/L showed my business owner's report card. In reality, I was slow to delegate authority, but more fundamentally, it was due to my hesitation. I hadn't made decisions that would move the entire company forward, and I was hesitant.

Because of various management failures in the second fiscal year, I wanted to make the most of everyone and ensure their motivation. I didn't realize it in the third fiscal year because performance was going well with that approach, but in order to achieve our target growth rate, I should have asked everyone to make a daily commitment, setting standards for each individual, praising and scolding certain people, and so on. Instead, I thought I'd have to shoulder the hardships myself in the end, not making requests, being hesitant, and not making the same mistakes I made in the second fiscal year. I regret not making any major decisions, and I deeply regret that.

Even though we had talented people on the team, we weren't able to fully utilize them. We were more focused on their condition and motivation than results, which delayed the operations and service development necessary to produce results. The business didn't grow as expected, but everyone was still pushing themselves to their limits, and a vicious spiral began. I couldn't properly understand reality, and in my own final attempt to do something, I narrowed my perspective on the ground. It took me a long time to face the reality of what was happening, and I ended up spending a painful six months. I

was too lenient, which was the flip side of making huge management mistakes by making demands in the second term. When you start worrying about how people will react rather than results, everything becomes rigid. It was only by confronting the fact that the business wasn't growing and experiencing the pain that I was able to properly reject myself.

What are your thoughts on this funding and announcement?
Typically, when a company raises funds, it's confident in its growth potential and needs to use cool PR phrases to attract more people. However, to be honest, I can't get into that kind of festive mood.

The market is growing, and I'm proud to have talented colleagues within the company, but there's a sense of stagnation within the company. I want to break through this. To do so, I need to discard all thoughts about the company growing, becoming more like a company, or having routine operations. Instead, I recognize that this is the time to take the necessary steps to maximize the company's overall results for the long term and break through with my colleagues so that we can make an impact. I'm

not simply looking to hire more people; I'm prepared to start a startup from scratch with colleagues who are serious about working with me to bring the company to a breakthrough toward its mission. Regardless of whether we raise funds or not, I believe the most important thing for this company to achieve its mission is to gather colleagues who are serious about taking on the challenge.

Our current business lacks appropriate strategic planning, organizational structure, and systems, which is why I want to recruit people who can make the company their own and overcome these challenges together. My colleagues are also in the midst of reform, making requests to each other for the sake of overall company results and realizing our mission. I want to work with people who are excited about this growth plateau and are willing to put their heart and soul into it, and I think this will be quite refreshing for people from large companies. Even if you have experience in management or pride yourself on growing the business, I think this will be a very refreshing environment.

I want to once again delegate authority, demand results, and create a great company together. If you're ready to devote your life to revolutionizing your career, why not join us?