Seven years after its founding, Natee is handing over the reins of its business.

39
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
November 4, 2025 11:00
On August 8, 2025, Natee Inc. announced that it would join the Akatsuki group. Thank you very much to everyone who congratulated us!

I have now decided to step down as Representative Director of Natee Inc., which I founded on November 1, 2018, and become Chairman of the Board of Directors. The next Representative will be Oe, who was an Executive Officer and Business Manager.

Natee Co., Ltd. transitions to new management structure in its 8th fiscal year
Natee Co., Ltd. Press Release (November 4, 2025, 10:00 AM) Natee Co., Ltd. transitions to new management structure as it enters its eighth fiscal year
prtimes.jp
It is with great emotion that I announce the transition of Natee's CEO, after seven full years since the company was founded, which have been such an intense period that seems both long and short, short and long at the same time.

We will also be writing about the background to the change in CEO, introducing the two new directors, and our future challenges, so please stay tuned!

Changes in executive structure
Starting November 1, 2025 (8th term), Natee's executive composition will be as follows:

Representative Director and CEO: Yusuke Oe;
Director and CHRO: Shota Nishibayashi
; Chairman: Ryoken Kojima
; Director: Kazuhiko Ishikura (Akatsuki Executive Vice President, CFO and CSO)

CRO Asato has become COO and director of AI Talent Force, which will be discussed later, CFO Ozawa has been transferred to Dawn Capital, the venture investment fund of parent company Akatsuki, and Natee has completely stepped down from both positions.

I will remain as Chairman of the Board and provide support, but I have no intention of ruling the company from behind the scenes, and as Natee, I will leave all final decision-making for the company to Oe.

That said, I have made very few decisions regarding the business over the past two years in particular, and Oe and Nishibayashi have essentially been running everything, so there may not have been much change in the actual business.

We have also now appointed Mr. Ishikura from Akatsuki, who has been supporting us as a shareholder since Natee invested in us six years ago, as a member of our board of directors.

He was previously CFO at 3 Minutes, so he is familiar with the advertising industry and the creator market, and Natee believes that having Mr. Ishikura on board will lead to major financial initiatives, which will be a major change for us.

Let me introduce you to Oe, the new representative, and Nishibayashi, Oe's partner who is leading the entire organization!

Yusuke Oe, the "crazy committed man"
image
Oe joined the company in February 2021.

As a top salesman who had been awarded an award by the (old) Recruit Lifestyle, which only 11 people out of 1,300 were selected for, he was naturally highly sought after and had received job offers from around 10 companies. And for some reason, he decided to join Natee, which was an apartment-style company with a salary offer that was significantly lower than other companies. Apparently, the deciding factor was that he passionately talked about Hunter x Hunter during the interview (I think).

At the time, the organization had just collapsed, so we thought thoroughly within the company about "who to get on the bus," as the book "Good to Great" says. We changed our hiring requirements to focus on strong employees who sympathize with our mission, and Oe was the first person to join us.

He's not particularly skillful, but he's one of the most tenacious and committed people I've ever met . I've seen a lot of people, including entrepreneurs, but I think he stands out among them with his exceptional level of commitment. He has an extraordinary grit that allows him to see things through once he's made a decision.

Over the past four and a half years, he has never wavered in his commitment. His obsession with client results and his love for creators are stronger than anyone else's, and he never does a quick job. He always gives his all at the time and never compromises.

Naturally, it is very difficult for those around him to work with the uncompromising Oe, but even so, as they are exposed to his earnest daily life, they come to admire and respect him (I am one of those people).

Oe is also the kind of person who makes it a part of his morning routine to recite Natee's mission and values every morning. I 'm confident that it's because of Oe, a man of such insane and crazy commitment, that Natee will become a truly strong organization, contribute even more to our clients, and create new value together with creators that doesn't exist in the world.

Please also read the article in which Oe talks with Dentsu creative director Tatara. In it, Oe passionately talks about his goal: " I want to create a world that will be perceived as 'interesting' 200 years from now, just like it is today."

Nishibayashi Shota, the "Miracle Balancer"
image
The company would not have been able to run on its own, with the clumsy Oe, but Nishibayashi, who will become Director and CHRO, keeps things in order with an exquisite sense of balance. I am truly grateful to Nishibayashi for the organization Natee has today.

Nishibayashi joined the company a year and a half after Oe, in August 2022. As a new graduate, he was seconded from D2C to Dentsu, and then served as an executive officer at Libalent, which handles Yoshimoto Kogyo's digital business, before joining Natee. I think there were about 15 employees at the time.

When he joined the company, his wife, who works in the financial industry, asked him, "If you're going to a venture, have you looked at the financial statements properly?" I remember Asato frantically explaining the company's financial situation to Nishibayashi (laughs).

Nishibayashi, who was originally a hardcore agency salesman, also set up an agency team at Natee, and grew it to a scale of about 400 million yen in sales within the second year. After that, Nishibayashi volunteered, saying, "I think what Natee lacks is organizational strength. I'd like to take a look at the organization as a human resources manager."

For a while, he was in charge of both the agency team and the HR department, but since last fiscal year, he has finally become the HR manager, and he has been working tirelessly and with great energy. By the way, he is a superman who continues to work in agency sales, generating impressive numbers.

Nishibayashi didn't start out with a career in human resources, but rather has worked hard on the front lines and achieved results, which is why I think the culture has a great balance of tightening things and livening things up .

And above all, he loves planning. I also participate in many weddings in my position, but his weddings are planned with an extremely high level of perfection and quality, and I felt that this was because of his hospitality, which is to "enjoy the people who come." All of the work he does is wrapped up in hospitality.

That's why the quality of our company events has improved dramatically since he became the head of HR (laughs). But as was the case at my previous job at Vision, company events are not to be underestimated. In fact, I think that strong companies have extremely high quality company events (a recent example is Yutori).

Thanks to Nishibayashi, I feel that Natee is becoming able to combine both strength and fun, and I look forward to seeing what happens to Natee as Nishibayashi takes the lead in creating it.

What are you doing?
Now, let me tell you about what my main focus will be after I step down as chairman.

Now that I've made some money through M&A, people often say to me, "Your life is over now!" or "Are you having fun?"

But humans are strange creatures. When I had no money, I would borrow money to spend it, but when I have money, I stop spending it. In fact, my credit card statement is decreasing every month.

So what do I do? I work pretty much from morning to night, and I'm more committed to AI Talent Force, which was launched as a subsidiary of Natee in August 2024.

From the beginning, we had planned to utilize Akatsuki's capital and assets to quickly launch the AI field on a large scale, so now that we have changed capital-wise from a subsidiary of Natee to a subsidiary of Akatsuki, and over the past year we have also assembled a team of six reliable executives in each field, it feels like we are finally at the starting line of the battle.

When I founded Natee in 2018, I started it all by myself without knowing what to do, and I researched each step and struggled along the way. I remember the days of twists and turns and it was by no means the shortest route.

But this is my second time starting a business, and with Akatsuki's capital and some confidence in my track record, I'm a little happy to see how much of a difference there is in the way you start a business. Of course, I'm sure I'll still be struggling (and actually, I still am), but it's true that the speed and accuracy of my decision-making has improved dramatically.

The creator agency WOWs has also spun out from Natee as a subsidiary of Akatsuki, so Natee Oe, WOWs Lee, and AI Talent Force Kojima are now all rivals as subsidiaries (laughs).

AI Talent Force is the latest to enter the market and has the smallest sales volume, so we feel a bit out of place. We would like to quickly get off to a rocket start in the AI field and surpass both Natee and WOWs.

Immediately after the M&A, I did my best to buy as much Akatsuki stock as possible, hoping to contribute to the company's performance enough to increase the stock price.

Conclusion
Coincidentally, I turned 33 today. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of person I will be at 40 after the next seven years of challenges.

We hope you will continue to support the new Natee, WOWs, AI Talent Force, and the Akatsuki Group!


I want to create a great company that rivals and surpasses Recruit and CyberAgent.

67
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
December 7, 2022 09:00
My name is Ryoken Kojima, and I am the representative of Natee Co., Ltd.

Today, we announced that we have raised 420 million yen in Series B funding. Benesse is the lead investor, and we welcomed new shareholders Revamp, Shizuoka Capital, GMO NIKKO, and several individual investors, and existing shareholders XTech Ventures and Cubic Ventures have also made additional investments.

In this round, we will be raising funds only from companies with which we have previously done business on projects, and from individuals with whom we have had long-term relationships. We believe this is the result of recognition not only of our business domain and performance, but also of our daily work, and we are extremely grateful and humbled by this.

I'm not particularly good at PR, and since we call ourselves a simple and robust startup, I'm aware that I don't like to make a big deal out of things that don't have substance. However, considering the golden rule of marketing that "not being recognized is the same as not existing," I believe that PR is extremely important, so I created a special website.

Go to the fundraising website
So here I am, writing this note with such an incredibly provocative title (panting since the night before the release), but because it's something I truly believe, I'm going to be bold and share it with society. I also feel like I want to follow the example of Cyber's Fujita, who has always spoken honestly and without pretense.

Message from the President | CyberAgent, Inc.
CyberAgent has a vision of "creating a company that represents the 21st century" and is providing various services in the Internet field that are in line with the changing times.
www.cyberagent.co.jp
It's well known that Fujita has been writing a blog for a long time, and you can actually read all of the articles from the company's founding in 1998 all the way through to 2022. It's a valuable asset in the IT industry that even writings that would be embarrassing to read now remain, and they give us a glimpse into what Fujita was thinking at the age of 25 (laughs).

table of contents
What kind of company is Natee?
It's just a TikTok influencer marketing company, right...?
What exactly is a Great Company?
Not every start-up business lasts for 30 years.
Business development skills are essential to creating a company that continues to grow
"Life 2.0" and new businesses in the virtual realm
Organizational strength is the source of long-term value
We are looking for colleagues to help us create a great company!
What kind of company is Natee?
First of all, let me introduce myself again, as I'm sure there are many people who don't know about Natee. Our company was founded on November 1, 2018, and for the past four years we have been running a promotional company that utilizes creators active on TikTok.

image
Monthly sales have grown to nearly 200 million yen, the number of employees has exceeded 50, and by February 12 new colleagues had joined the company, with nine new graduates set to join in April.

Natee, a company that has grown rapidly through its unique data analysis of teens and twenties, has raised 120 million yen from XTech Ventures and others. Its data platform enables effective influencer marketing...
Natee Inc. Press Release (November 9, 2020, 10:00 AM) Natee is growing rapidly through unique data analysis of teens and twenties
prtimes.jp
It's been over two years since we raised funds from XTech Ventures and others in September 2020, and I was the only one in the photo from the company, but this time I was photographed with nine people at the department manager level or above. They were all incredibly reliable, and it was a very moving experience.

image
It's just a TikTok influencer marketing company, right...?
Yes, that's right. That's exactly right. There's no doubt that TikTok is a company that we talk about everywhere, but there's a vague feeling that Natee is not just that.

One is that TikTok is not a company that just wants to sell. Well, if we can sell it, we'd love to sell it as much as we can (laughs). Natee initially started out as a creator agency, aiming to be "the TikTok version of UUUM."

We now operate more like an advertising agency, but the total amount that Natee has paid to creators so far has exceeded 600 million yen. To me, this is the same as "creating unique jobs worth 600 million yen," and this is exactly what Natee wants to do.

Through the self-expression that can be achieved through smartphones, fans gather around your personality and talent, which then becomes media value, leads to corporate opportunities, and before you know it, it becomes a way of life. I simply think this is the most exciting thing ever, so it's incredibly rewarding.

I previously wrote a note summarizing the creator economy, so if you have time, please read it (of course, there are many points where my views differ from now).

Secondly, as Nikkei has also covered in the context of data on "TikTok sales," I am using my engineering background to develop my own creator database called "Edison" in order to make this industry, which is full of black boxes, as visible as possible.

Natee, TikTok advertising effectiveness analysis
Natee (Shibuya, Tokyo), which handles marketing using the video sharing app "TikTok," has reported that advertising videos have actually generated sales.
www.nikkei.com
In a world where cookies are regulated and CPAs soar, it's certain that which tribe you belong to and who you buy from will become important, and we're working with the goal of being able to show with data that "this is definitely leading to a purchase." In the advertising domain, I think there's no other way than data assets to take on the challenge of changing the order of magnitude of tens of billions, not billions.

What exactly is a Great Company?
While expressions like "We made a killing on TikTok," "We jumped on the trend," and "We're just a typical influencer marketing company" may describe us that way at the moment, we truly want to become a "Great Company."

At Natee, we use the expression "Great Company" a lot. We use it a lot. It's a term that originally appeared in the management classic "Good to Great," and the concept comes from there.

Smart people often ask me to define a Great Company, but there is no such thing, and I don't think it's necessary. I think it's fine if you can see yourself as Great.

However, we felt that it was not good to have too many benchmarks to aim for, so the management team once sat down and discussed, "What kind of Great Company should we aim to be?"

We each wrote down what we thought were great companies, about 200 companies, on sticky notes, and then we thoroughly discussed each one, asking questions like, "What do you think of Apple?", "What about Keyence?", and "What about Nintendo?"

"I think it's amazing, but we don't want to have such a military-like culture," "It's in a domain so different from ours that I can't really imagine it," "It seems a bit unrefined," and so on. We all exchanged comments and debated from all sorts of angles, and it was a great time where we all came to a consensus on our values.

And so what remained were four companies that coincidentally have a difference of one digit each: Amazon, ByteDance, Recruit, and CyberAgent. Of course, these four companies are completely different, and that may change in the future, but I personally find these goals to be very convincing.

image
They are leading companies in their industry, they provide a large amount of value to society, they have a culture where young people thrive, and they have undergone countless changes. Natee would like to be nominated there too. So how?

Not every start-up business lasts for 30 years.
I love the company Nintendo, and there was a time when I studied them extensively. Nintendo, the creator of the Switch, which has sold over 100 million units and continues to do so at a rapid pace, was originally a Hanafuda card company.

American Express, the credit card company, was originally a delivery company. The convenience store Lawson was a milk store that prided itself on freshness, Sanrio sold silk, and SoftBank was a software distribution company.

I think business is about anticipating the gravity of the world and leading the way a little ahead of the times, rather than creating something new. The world is a complex web of things, yet it's always heading somewhere. As the world changes, business has no choice but to change as well, and this order is never reversed.

In addition to the macro perspective, when looking at individual business owners, there is the problem that their capabilities are at their lowest at the time of starting a business . They lack the ability to select a business, the ability to manage, and the mental model they have as a business owner has not been developed. Many startups create services with low market resolution and end up raising funds too quickly, which means they are unable to pivot easily and their goal is to prolong their life.

Every business has its upside. Of course, it would be best if you could select a business with no obvious upside, like Amazon, but it's extremely difficult. Even Mercari, the most successful startup of the last decade, has an upside, at least when viewed domestically, which is why they're going overseas and trying out so many new businesses at Souzo.

That's why at Natee, we call our short movie business, which is centered around TikTok, our "foundation business." We believe that the business will still be growing at a rapid pace five years from now, and we are determined to have launched multiple other businesses by then.

Business development skills are essential to creating a company that continues to grow
On the other hand, an anti-pattern for startups is often cited as "starting a new business around Series B."

VC startup investments are a model in which 2% of investments generate almost all of the returns. This means that 49 out of 50 companies either don't contribute much to returns or are in the red. Therefore, the logic holds that portfolios are created by investors, and startups should generate upside with a single product.

Also, from the perspective of resource allocation for resource-poor startups, it is necessary to win local battles, so it can be said that concentrating resources is the right thing to do. This is definitely correct.

In fact, the brain resources of the management, which are arguably the most important in a startup, are split between the existing and new businesses, and when the business is split into two, it basically makes things like sectionalism more likely to occur, which is not a good thing from the perspective of organizational management. When the business is split into two, the difficulty level doesn't just double, but increases by about 10 times.

So why did Natee start a new business knowing there were potential problems? I can only think that it's because he wants to become a great company.

Fukushima from LayerX has written a very clear article about this topic, so I recommend you read it, but I think the summary can be summed up in the following sentence: We must learn from history.

If you study these great companies, you'll see one thing they all have in common: they launched a second business before the first one was fully mature .

"Life 2.0" and new businesses in the virtual realm
So what exactly are you guys going to do with your new business? To be honest, there hasn't been much progress to write about here. We've tried a lot of different things, but nothing that we can say is taking off.

When selecting a business, I basically try to choose something that I think will generate 10 billion yen in sales. In addition, there aren't many businesses or timing that perfectly match the three elements of technological advancements, market trends, and user sensitivities.

And even if you're lucky enough to find one, there's the issue of whether you can pull it off with your own logistics. For example, even if you think, "A game that combines horse racing and beautiful girls will be popular!", it actually took five years to create Uma Musume. I wonder how much it would have cost to arrange the horse rights, produce the anime, and create a game of that quality...

However, one thing I can say is that we are not just good at anything, but we want to be involved in some way in people's lives and lifestyles . We are not a company that is particularly interested in reforming industrial structures or things like that.

What I'm doing with my short movie business is to create a world where ordinary, nameless people can be recognized by society for their individuality and talents, and turn them into money. It's like updating your life, so to speak, and I'm calling it "Life 2.0."

Of these, what I'm most excited about right now is avatars, the communication that's possible only because of them, and the communities that can be created through them. If I were to use a more elaborate term, it might be called the "metaverse," but I don't particularly see any potential in VR, and I don't really understand Web3, so maybe I shouldn't use that term too much.

The reason I chose avatars is because, although it may seem like a cliché, I feel an ecstasy in being freed from innate tags like age, gender, and appearance, and instead being given greater value by acquired tags like personality and inner self . I also think there's a connection to the kind of relationship where you can talk about anything to someone you don't know, even if you don't know their face or name. Like a nail salon or your favorite bar?

This virtual avatar field is a huge wave, and we feel it is worthwhile for us to take on this challenge, so we will continue to go through trial and error in determining the form of output, but we are determined to create a service that will blossom.

However, of course, this can only be possible with the foundation of the short movie business. If this foundation collapses, there will be no time to even think about trying something new. Naturally, I want to grow the short movie business that was founded as a company as much as possible, so that in 2-3 years people won't say, "Ah, after all, Natee shouldn't have started a new business."

And if, by any chance, the foundation were to be shaken, we would mercilessly stop any new business ventures and devote all our efforts to building the foundation. In the Edo period, when there was a plentiful harvest of rice, people would stockpile it to prepare for times of depression, so what we do now is not that different from what we did back then (laughs).

Organizational strength is the source of long-term value
I have the utmost respect for the company CyberAgent and find it extremely instructive.

Sometimes I stay alone in a hotel and have time to read a lot of books, and this time I decided to do some thorough research on CyberAgent, so I came up with this lineup (you can see a bit of Nagamori-san and Ezoe-san in it...lol).

image
CyberAgent has been growing its digital advertising since its founding, and has been able to capitalize on large-scale investment media such as Ameba and ABEMA. The reason this is possible is because of its gaming business, which has been able to create the monster IP Uma Musume. Isn't this a model of portfolio management?

image
https://www.cyberagent.co.jp/career/data/id=24407
What's even more frightening is that they manage to balance B2B and B2C businesses. The capabilities and cultures are completely different, so achieving high results in both must require no small organizational effort.

What is the reason for this careful selection of values? There are probably many reasons, but above all, I think CyberAgent's greatest competitive advantage is its unique organizational culture.

Organizational assets don't appear on financial statements. To be more precise, they are recorded as costs, such as labor costs. However, in order for a company to continue growing over the long term and reach the standard of being a Great Company, I believe that it is necessary to create a Great organization, not just a Great business .


Second Blog Example

Another example post. Replace with your actual content.

The parser also supports:
- Markdown headers (# Title) as separators
- Double blank lines between posts
- But the === BLOG START/END === format is most reliable


Thoughts on the "Startup Winter Era": The job of an entrepreneur is to interact with customers

43
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
October 28, 2022 06:00
My name is Kojima and I am the CEO of Natee Inc., which works with creators to promote short movies.

The Nikkei newspaper is currently running a series called "Winter Startups."

Winter Startups 1: The Impact of 90,000 Layoffs
"There wasn't enough time to change the direction of the company," said the CEO of CommonBond, a U.S. company that offers student loan refinancing services.
www.nikkei.com
Winter Startups 2 "We will not be investing"
"We will postpone the investment," said Isamu Nakanishi, chief financial officer of Schoo (Shibuya, Tokyo), a company that distributes educational videos, in the summer.
www.nikkei.com
Winter Startups 3: Unlisted Stocks Remain High in Japan
"The stock prices of unlisted Japanese companies remain high," said the head of Japanese equity investment at Hong Kong-based investment fund Tyborn Capital Management.
www.nikkei.com
Reading this, it seems as if the startup era is over. In fact, from my own observations, the optimistic mood that had been building up until 2021 has faded, and it seems that a great many companies are being forced to change to a management structure that prioritizes profits.

However, if you look at it from another perspective, the bonus time just ended and things settled into a normal form, so I feel like it was actually a good thing. No matter how you look at it, the 80x PSR was a world line that's a little hard to explain, that's what I understand.

table of contents
What is fundraising in the first place?
Capital markets begin to rapidly reverse
Customer needs/pains remain the same
Ultimately, it is the manager's job to make a profit.
Conclusion
What is fundraising in the first place?
Putting aside the question of what you can talk about, I will write down my thoughts to help organize my understanding.

I believe that it is best to run a company that is debt-free and 100% owned. For example, if you had 100 billion yen, would you start a business by borrowing money from a bank or getting investment from a venture capital firm? The more confident you are, the more likely you are to want to do it with your own money, right?

However, the reality is that no one has 100 billion yen, so most people start from scratch. Even if you run a debt-free company, you will never be able to create an Amazon or Mercari. To achieve overwhelming growth, you will definitely need to raise additional resources. It takes a very long time to make profits from your business and reinvest them.

In terms of difficulty, I think that the hurdle of raising 100 million yen in funds is 100 times higher than the hurdle of keeping 100 million yen in profits.

In the process of striving for rapid growth beyond one's capabilities, there will inevitably come a phase in which capital is leveraged and invested. So a good fundraising environment is fundamentally a great thing, and companies that raise capital will make bold investments and grow rapidly, and even after going public, the rate of increase or decrease in stock prices will be many times higher. They will use the money raised through IPOs to make further investments or engage in M&A, and up until 2021, many mega-sized startups were born by leveraging capital to the max.

Capital markets begin to rapidly reverse
The financial economy is several times larger than the real economy, and bubbles periodically burst. The triggers may be different from time to time, but the economy is designed to expand and burst repeatedly.

Once a bubble bursts, or even if it doesn't collapse, it enters a correction phase, and stock prices fall to unbearable levels. Amazon's stock price fell by 95% during the dot-com bubble.

The stock prices of unlisted stocks (private market) always follow the stock prices of listed stocks (public market). If the stock price of a listed company falls to one-third, it is natural that the stock price of an unlisted company will also fall to one-third.

If the stock price falls to one-third of its current value, the amount of funds raised will also fall to one-third. Since the company was seeking growth even at the expense of an abnormal burn rate, being unable to raise funds would be a major event that could threaten the survival of the company.

In an American startup, the increased staff numbers can be easily restructured, but in Japan, where dismissal regulations are strict, it is not legally or ethically permissible to suddenly cut staff numbers.

Sales are not growing enough to cover the increased fixed costs, and in many cases companies are relying on a favorable procurement environment and setting fixed costs that are unreasonable given their business model.

Customer needs/pains remain the same
So, if the market crashes and the capital market starts to reverse, of course the financial economy and the real economy are linked, so ultimately it will have a huge impact.

On the other hand, did CyberAgent's growth rate slow down after the dot-com bubble burst? What about Amazon during the Lehman Shock?

I want everyone to watch this video of Jeff Bezos, who everyone loves. It's only 5 minutes long, but it's amazing. It's electrifying.

I'm not sure if it was a reporter or an investor, but they were making fun of Amazon, which is building a lot of distribution centers, saying, "Amazon is not a purely internet company. They have warehouses, they hire a lot of people, and they're taking a huge gamble. Investors don't think highly of them."

Bezos' response to this was , "It doesn't matter whether Amazon is an Internet company or not. We are obsessed with customers. In the long run, what is in the interests of customers and what is in the interests of shareholders are no different. "

Just because the bubble has burst, it certainly won't mean that people will stop using convenient Amazon services, stop watching YouTube/TikTok/Netflix, or cancel their Microsoft Office subscriptions. Customer behavior is not going to reverse.

Ultimately, it is the manager's job to make a profit.
When I was with Mr. Saijo of XTechVentures, our main shareholder, he told me, "It's more healthy to think of a PER of around 20. If you're aiming for 100 billion yen, you'll want to have an operating profit of 8 billion yen." I found this very convincing.

Also, when I asked a shareholder for advice on how to determine the PER, he scolded me, saying, "PER is calculated by multiplying it by net profit. It's like a mirage. Net profit is the reality."

Of course, determining the PER is also an important job for managers. It's not an either/or situation. A PER of 200 is definitely better than a PER of 20.

However, if we get the order wrong—that companies survive because they ultimately make profits—we will be hit hard by the reverse rotation of the capital markets.

What is considered the most important indicator, such as market capitalization, net profit, average annual salary of employees, number of employees, or growth rate, depends on the management's thinking, and there are a wide variety of management styles.

I would like to make Natee a company that makes good use of the capital markets while steadily providing value to customers. I believe that profits will ultimately be the source of all funds, maximizing both the company's market capitalization and the average annual salary of its employees.

Of course, depending on the phase, when you are trying to gain market share you should go for it even if it means incurring losses, and when you are trying to make a profit you need to cut down on extravagant costs to the utmost, which requires completely different skills, so it's not that incurring losses is bad or anything like that, but I always think that at the very least I want to manage my business while checking the soundness of the business model and not relying too heavily on external procurement.


If you're in your 20s and struggling with your career, I've written an article that you should definitely read.

1,215
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
January 13, 2020 18:15
"In life, you have to make your own decisions and follow through." ___Taro Okamoto

What's in this article (headline)
・Adjusting prerequisites (the case of Kojima Ryoken)
・"Isn't there no point in trying so hard?"
・Inequality in Japan will definitely continue to widen
・Annual income is determined by supply and demand
・People can only make choices based on their knowledge and experience
・"External pressure" and "introspection"
・If you don't know what you want to do, think about what you want to be
・Building long-term assets rather than short-term profits
・A/B testing is not possible in life
・Conclusion (advertisement)
・(Extra: If you want to become a millionaire)
I'm really grateful that so many people have read the notes I wrote previously, and several people have even said things like, "I've read all of your notes up to now." If I added up all my previous articles, it would fill a book, so I have mixed feelings: I'm incredibly grateful, but also sorry for taking up people's precious time (laughs).

This time, I've been hearing a lot about careers lately, and I've also had some thoughts about it while experiencing a lot of things in recruitment and management, so I decided to write about careers.

I think this book will be useful not only for people in their 20s who are struggling with their careers, but also for people in management positions in their 40s and above, as it will give you an insight into the career perspectives that people in their 20s have.

Adjusting the prerequisites (Kojima Ryoken's case)
When discussing career theory, the concept of "success bias" is essential . This is the impression that comes with comments like "Well, that's just because of you" or "It just happened to work out well."

First of all, I am by no means a successful person, and I have no intention of saying that you should do things differently just because I have done them this way.

However, I am currently 27 years old and have followed a variety of paths, such as starting a business as a student, working for a venture company, being a NEET, freelancing, and starting a startup, so I think I have a broader perspective than most people, and I would like to use my meta-cognition skills (lol) to discuss careers.

This is a subjective opinion based on my extremely objective judgment, so you can have any opinion you like, but I would be happy if it can provide some useful thinking to people who are struggling with their careers.

I haven't written any nice-sounding things like "learn programming" or "study for TOEIC," and I may talk a little abstractly, but I have tried to cover the basics of your career.

"Isn't there no point in trying so hard?"
First, let's understand what kind of career concerns people in their 20s today are facing, and in order to have an aligned starting point, let's first understand what macro trends are occurring in Japanese society.

People currently aged 20-29 were born between 1990 and 1999 (Heisei 2-1999).

My recent theme of thought is "the impact of macroeconomics on individual values ," and we are the people who have been most affected by the lost 30 years of the Heisei era.

According to the National Tax Agency's "Private Sector Wages Survey" and the IMF's "World Economic Outlook Databases," we can obtain the following indicators.

Graph showing the average annual income of men in their 20s

Image 1

Graph showing the average annual income of women in their 20s

Image 2

Trends in Japan's Consumer Price Index

Screenshot 2019-10-16 23.12.36

What we can see from this is that prices are rising but incomes are falling, meaning people are becoming poorer . This generation is being hit harder than any other.

・Witnessing people in their 40s and 50s being laid off
・Understanding that wages are no longer based on seniority as they used to be
・No matter how hard you work, there is no sense of growth as a society (the news is all negative)
・In fact, it seems like it's the successful people who are suffering because they are criticized so harshly online

If I were to speak for our generation, I'd say , "Isn't there no point in trying so hard?" The risk and return don't match. That's why we at least want to live happily and be ourselves .

The gap in Japan will definitely widen
Poverty is a frequent topic of discussion on Twitter. With hashtags like #20MillionYenRetirement #140KTakeHomePay, business influencers take the high ground, and many others respond with counterarguments.

I think the current situation in Japan is becoming similar to that of the United States and the United Kingdom, and that this has led to ``BREXIT'' and the ``birth of President Trump.''

The context is one of an increase in relative poverty, a social divide between the rich and the poor, exclusivism to protect one's own country's interests, and the rise of nationalism.

In addition to this, in Japan, the national finances are collapsing due to rising social security costs, government bonds are being issued to cover the costs, and the consumption tax is being increased. The ones who are bearing the brunt of all this are the young and the poor, so the result is populism. I'm getting into some complicated topics and I think readers might want to leave, so I'll stop here lol

Remember, the following is guaranteed to happen:

・Income disparities will widen.
・Young people will shoulder an increasing burden on social security.
・The Japanese economy will decline due to a declining population.

There's no doubt about it. All of these things will 100% happen. You should understand that first. You may not have any dreams or hopes, but as long as you hold Japanese nationality and live in Japan, it's inevitable, so don't you think that knowing this situation will make a big difference in your career choices?

Salary is determined by supply and demand
Now that we understand what happens in macros, let's understand the logic behind how salaries are allocated.

The crucial thing about a capitalist economy is that the value of things is determined by supply and demand .

Each individual's career is very valuable, but if we explain it in an economic context, employees are simply supplying labor to meet the labor needs of managers who want to get their jobs done.

For example, Goldman Sachs has advanced automation of financial transactions, and as of 2017, the number of stock traders at its New York headquarters has dropped from 600 in 2000 to just two.

Traders, who made the most money in the latter half of the 20th century, have been replaced by engineers in the 21st century. This is a matter of social supply and demand and has nothing to do with individual ability.

So, you need to think critically about whether what you are doing now meets the needs of society in the long run and whether it will benefit the future. For example, even though the number of engineers has increased, there is still a shortage, and it is said that demand will continue to increase for another 10 years, so it is not too late at all.

Apart from monetary rewards, there are emotional rewards.
On the other hand, if you were to ask young people today if they were to be paid a lot of money, would it be okay to do something they don't want to do? I'm sure they wouldn't say that.

Instead, they would surely say, "I want to do what I love, even if it means I don't have any restrictions ." Even now, I think the YouTuber's catchphrase "living by doing what you love" was a destructive force.

As I wrote at the beginning, we know that no matter how hard we work, the upside of monetary rewards is limited, so we want to at least seek emotional (meaningful) rewards .

Plus, with so many subscription models like Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon Prime available, you won't be short of content for just 5,000 yen, and if you include YouTube, you can enjoy as much content as you want for free.

I think that people of the "workaholic" generation who are managing people in their 20s will find this attitude very unsatisfying and fragile (I do too lol), but individual values are basically formed by the macro economic environment, so it's not that individuals are at fault, and it's also true that even if they say something, society will tend to drift in that direction.

In Obara's "Motivation Revolution," he explains that the rewards people seek are changing dramatically from "pleasure" and "achievement" to "good relationships," "meaning," and "immersion." When I read this, I nodded so much that I thought my head would snap off (laughs).

There is no doubt that management in the Reiwa era will lean more towards emotional rewards.

Humans can only make choices based on knowledge and experience.
From here, we will drill down a little further and talk about tips on the order in which you should think about your career when job hunting or changing jobs.

I often give job-hunting advice to new graduates, but to begin with, students have no work experience and no knowledge of the industry, so to be honest, it's confusing when they're told to choose a career in that state.

For example, about 90% of the business ideas that university students who want to start their own businesses bring to the table are either "education" or "travel." Of course, there's no way that a university student would come up with a SaaS business for factory purchasing staff, like crowd factoring.

An interesting story I heard the other day was about "What is the dream of an Ainu village chief?" When I asked smart students to answer, they said things like "prosperity of the Ainu people" or "spread of the Ainu language."

The answer is "killing a bear with your bare hands ." It's something that city dwellers like us would never think of, right? Humans can only think based on their knowledge and experience, so the answers they come up with are limited.

I always explain this as if you were being asked to choose your favorite ramen without having tried it before. Can you choose? You can't.

So the first thing you should do is gather as much information as possible . Even if you can't actually eat the whole bowl, you can smell it during the company information session and taste it during the internship.

Job-hunting students who say, "I don't know what to do," should stop hesitating and go and talk to alumni from companies of various industries and scales. Read books and watch movies that will teach you about the industry. Any method of input is fine, but you won't be able to make a decision unless you have a lot of information.

"External pressure" and "introspection"
I call the intake of information from the outside world, as mentioned above, "external pressure." However, if this is all you get, you'll end up feeling full and unwell.

The important thing here is the process of "introspection ." It's something you have to do every time.

Then you gradually realize, "If I have to choose between soy sauce, miso, tonkotsu, and salt, it seems I like salt ramen." If you dig deeper, you'll realize, "It seems there are rich and light salt ramens, and I like the light ones," and your preferences will become more and more refined, like, "Among them, chewy curly noodles are the best!"

The important thing here is to verbalize it, and a great way to do so is to give it a specific score .

For example, let's say you went to hear from companies A, B, and C. You gave company A 50 points, company B 75 points, and company C 80 points. Showing the numbers makes the ranking clear. Then, you can start asking yourself questions like, "Why did I give company A these scores?" "Why is company A lower than the other two?" "I thought both companies B and C were good, so why did I give company C 5 points higher?"

This process is called "increasing the resolution ." The key to increasing the resolution is to visualize it specifically. Be conscious of thoroughly eliminating ambiguity.

If you don't know what you want to do, think about what you want to be.
By repeatedly going through the above two factors, "external pressure" and "introspection," your preferences will become sharper and sharper. Then, you will be able to see the axis of your decision-making. However, beyond that, a considerable percentage of people

"There's nothing I like or want to do."

You may be worried about this. There is nothing to worry about. You don't have to decide what you want to do.

In that case, try thinking about "the person you want to be" instead of "what you want to do." There is no one who can't think of this. Even if "becoming a kept man and being supported by a rich man" is the ideal person, it still exists.

"I want to work in an environment where laughter never stops."
"I want to be able to get work under my own name."
"I want to value my private life."

These aren't all things you want to do, but we're talking about the ideal state of being. It's very meaningful to dig deep into the ideal state of being and make decisions based on that, so don't give in to the pressure from people who are overflowing with things they want to do and tell you to "do what you love!"

Build long-term assets rather than short-term profits
Here's something a little more complicated.

Jeff Bezos, the beloved founder of Amazon, says he still includes the letter he wrote to shareholders in 1997 in his annual shareholder letter.

It's All About the Long Term

It's a simple idea that we should focus on market leadership rather than immediate profits, which will lead to long-term corporate value , and the same thing can be said about careers.

This explanation may be confusing to those who don't understand financial statements, but everyone is only concerned with the P/L (short-term salary) and is overlooking the B/S (long-term career advantages) .

Recently, I've been seeing more and more people going freelance right after graduating from university, but I'm quite negative about it. This is because, although freelancing can temporarily increase your salary, it often means selling off your skills, which can reduce your career assets .

The most important thing when making a career decision is maximizing long-term career value . Even if your annual income increases by 5 million yen, if it doesn't translate into savings in five years, it's better to quit. On the other hand, even if your annual income decreases by 5 million yen, if you can recoup the savings in five years, it's better to choose the option.

For example, taking on a hot topic or volunteering to take on a project that you think you can't carry out yourself will build long-term assets even if you fail, so it's important to gain that kind of experience. This is something that company employees are much more likely to experience.

You can't A/B test your life
I've written a lot, but now I'd like to finish by writing about the most important thing, or rather, what I most want to convey in this article.

DeNA's Akagawa: "Because life cannot be A/B tested" - A way of life that makes the path you choose the right one

In the article, Mirrativ CEO Akagawa says, "Life can't be A/B tested like a web service, so you have to make sure the path you choose is the right one!" and I think that's exactly right.

There are two types of decision-making: "judgment," which involves finding the optimal solution from past examples, and "decision," which involves moving forward resolutely in the face of an uncertain future. Both are important, but there are very few people who can make decisions.

No one else can take full responsibility for your life, so I think you shouldn't leave your decision-making up to someone else. Other people's advice is all for the sake of "judgment," but what's 100 times more important is the "decision" you make after careful consideration.

If people laugh at your decision, then cut ties with them. If you can't believe in your decision, then put in more effort. You can't make decisions because you have confidence. You can gain confidence by making decisions.

I think that no matter how many times I explain this, there are people who don't get it, and I understand because I made the decision with some degree of resolve, but to those who are determined and taking on the challenge, people who can't make decisions appear very vague and frivolous.

It doesn't matter what decision you make, whether it's to work hard, value your private life, work overseas, or be a NEET, but what's important is the sense of satisfaction that you made the decision yourself and no one else.

Take control of your own life.

Conclusion (advertisement)
Thank you very much for reading this long article to the end. If you have read this far, it means that it was worth your time, so let me make one final request.

1. Come work with us!
Things are so much fun right now, so why not join us? As an entrepreneur, I can say with confidence that nothing is more life-changing than the experience of creating a business at the center of a trend.

Natee has only been in business for a year and two months, but we already have about 10 full-time employees, and including contract and part-time workers, our team is over 20 people.

If you're looking for something exciting, or if you're even slightly interested, let's have tea together! I'm addicted to having pancake breakfasts on the weekends starting around 8am, so that's fine too lol

1. Ad sales people who want to try new media!
2. Planners who want to create buzz promotions with short movies!
3. Talent managers who love to develop people!
4. People who want to do entertainment business in China!

We're short on positions in all areas, so if you're interested, please feel free to contact us via DM or Natee's Wantedly !

2. Please follow me!
I tweet frequently, so please follow me! I mainly talk about startups, marketing, and TikTok.

Ryoken@Let's do TikTok💪 (@RyoukenK) | Twitter
The latest Tweets from Ryoken@TikTokLet's do it💪 (@RyoukenK). On TikTok
twitter.com
3. Press the ♡!
If you've come this far, why not just give up and press the ♡? See, if you press it, I'll be in high spirits and might even be more willing to carry the elderly person's luggage, and if you think about it, the world will go a little smoother just by tapping, right?

4. Please tweet your thoughts!
I'd be happy to receive your thoughts, whether they're good or bad! I have great ego-searching skills, so I'll read through them all, and I'd like to share more of the points that you're interested in in the future, so I hope you'll keep checking back.

(Extra: If you want to become a millionaire)
I'm going to write something that won't make sense to most people, but I'll write it anyway.

(I'm not particularly rich, but) if you want to become super rich in this world, you should find out how super rich people were born. Except for cheats like inheriting a fortune, most of the ways to get rich are as follows.

・A company founder
・A real estate owner
・A stock or FX trader
・A large purchaser of virtual currency

I'm sure there are many stories in this world that are beyond my reach, so I'll leave that aside (lol), but the bottom line is that the only way to become wealthy is to become the owner of financial assets.

Many people don't understand the fundamentals of financial economics, but financial assets are simply a matter of digits, so 2% of 1 million yen is 20,000 yen, but 2% of 10 billion yen is 200 million yen. The world is designed to make the rich get richer . As Piketty pointed out in his thick book. Something like r > g.

To put it more simply, in today's zero interest rate environment in Japan, 1 million yen deposited in a bank will remain at 1 million yen even after 20 years. On the other hand, if you invest in an index fund with a 4% annual yield, it will become 1.04 million yen. If you do this for 20 years, it will become 2.2 million yen.

This is the important part. What if the principal was 1 billion yen instead of 1 million yen? 20 years later, it would be 2.2 billion yen. Just because the principal is different, there is a difference of 1.1988 billion yen in profits. Of course, the labor force is 0 in both cases. That's what the number of digits is all about.

So, as long as we're talking about annual income, you can't become super rich. The upper limit of a salaryman's annual income is around 50 million yen, so you can be considered rich, but it's extremely difficult to get into and the cost performance is poor.

Recently, there have been cases where students have started their own companies, been bought out for hundreds of millions of yen while still in school, completed their coursework during the lock-up period, and then started a second company upon graduation.


[Definitive Edition] What job seekers taking new graduate job interviews absolutely need to know about their careers

101
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
June 19, 2024 13:00
"People don't travel to arrive, they travel to travel."＿＿＿I'm Kojima, the CEO of Natee, a social media marketing support company co-created with Goethe creators. I previously wrote a note about careers, and it became the note that received the most likes in my history. I'm a little biased, but it covers the very basics of careers, so I highly recommend you read it. This time, I'll write a version for new graduates looking for jobs!

Of course, this is the time when Natee is stepping up its recruitment of new graduates, so I have written this long article in the hope that job-seekers will learn a little about Natee. However, I have tried to avoid making any positional statements like "Go to a startup!", and I will do my best to write in a way that anyone who reads it will find it useful.

Mixed martial arts for working adults
First of all, you need to understand that this will completely change the life and game you have been living up to this point. It's like going from boxing, which is all about punching, to mixed martial arts, which includes punching, kicking, and ground fighting.

The items assessed before graduating from university are basically limited to academic ability, athletic ability, or artistic ability, and most of these are tied to individual ability.

However, when you enter society and start working, all of a sudden, many factors other than just personal specs come into play. Of course, generally speaking, people with higher educational backgrounds tend to perform better, but having a higher educational background does not necessarily mean you will be successful in society. If you get the right marks, you will be accepted into the University of Tokyo, but just because you are a student at the University of Tokyo does not mean you will be able to succeed in society.

Of course, it depends on the job and environment, but I think that in most cases, the latter will be more successful than the person who is not so smart but is humble and charming to those around him, rather than the person who is very smart but has a high pride and irritates others.

Until now, we have lived in a world that places too much emphasis on academic ability and IQ, but from now on, we will be fighting using everything from personality, charm, communication skills, initiative, observation skills, and creativity as weapons .

Some people may have been praised for their hard work in their studies and club activities, but then suddenly find themselves in a freestyle competition, which can be a challenge. It's like trying to swim fast in a 25m pool and then suddenly being thrown into the ocean, feeling like you have no idea where you are or where you're going. However, this vast ocean is where your life truly begins.

Will your career be decided as a new graduate?
So how should you start your career when you're thrown into such an ocean?

The common saying, "You can only use your new graduate card once, so choose carefully," is absolutely correct, and it is of course not recommended to choose a job at random. On the other hand, with the collapse of the lifetime employment system and job changes becoming the norm, it is also true that the importance of new graduate cards is steadily declining compared to before.

This is something that Minami-san from my previous company, Visional, used to say a lot, but if you compare 50 years of working life to 16 years of student life, the first five years of working life would be like being in second grade in student terms. I'm in my ninth year of working life now, but in student terms, it would be like being in the final stages of third grade in elementary school. In other words, I'm a runny-nosed kid. I have a long career.

It's not so rough that your entire career will be determined by the company you join after graduating from university. Some people are early bloomers and quickly lose momentum, while others achieve great success towards the end of their careers, so I want to make it clear that the results of your job search as a new graduate do not mean that your future is bleak.

Career is a Straw Millionaire
Some people may think, "Well, if you have a long career, why not just get serious about it halfway through?", and there is certainly some truth to that. However, this is an approach that only a few truly confident people can take, and in general, everything is judged by your track record.

I previously wrote a note titled "The Straw Millionaire's Guide to Management and Career."

This is very important to remember, but there is a rule in society that states that you are only allowed to take on challenges to the extent that you have built up trust in society .

To put it in a really easy-to-understand but boring way, if you were an investor, which one would you be more excited about: someone who graduated from the University of Tokyo, went to McKinsey, studied abroad at Harvard Business School, and can speak three languages, or someone who was a NEET for 10 years, and then started a company?

Even in interviews, I think it's much more important to consider what you thought and made decisions at turning points in your life than what you said. And the result of that is your resume.

When I was talking with a talented headhunter about executive recruitment some time ago, he was able to read a lot from a person's resume, saying things like, "This person moved to this company in this position, so they must have been thinking about these things, and as a result, this is what happened at their next company," and I thought, "I see."

It's important to understand that your resume is your proof of existence in your career .

I love hip-hop, so I think that overthrowing the underdog is the best part of life, but society isn't so simple that everyone has a chance to overthrow the underdog. Without the trust that has been built up, you're not allowed to take on a big challenge. That's why overthrowing the underdog is cool, feels good, and makes for great content.

Mountain People and River People
So how do you build trust in society, advance your career, and build your resume?

There are two main career paths: Mountain People and River People. In MBTI terms, this is the difference between J and P.

Mountain people are people who decide which mountain to climb, work single-mindedly towards it, and realize their vision.

Representative examples include Masayoshi Son and Shohei Ohtani, and I feel that many outstanding business leaders are of this type.

image
image
On the other hand, river people are people who build their careers by going with the flow of the river, "jumping into what excites them the most at the time."

Mountain people seem somehow cooler, and when you meet people like that, you might get the feeling that they haven't thought about their future at all, but in reality there are tons of successful people in both cases, so there's no need to worry (I'm pretty much a river people myself).

This has its pros and cons, with mountain people running the risk of choosing the wrong mountain to climb, and river people simply appearing to be wandering aimlessly. In reality, it's not A or B, but a gradation, so it might be good to know that there are ways of thinking like this.

Large companies vs. startups
Now, let's move on to a more specific topic. This is a topic that often comes up when talking about job hunting.

"Should I go to a large company or a startup?"

In conclusion, I think it's better to go to a large company if you're unsure. Of course, there are many different types of large companies, so there are differences, but I'll roughly summarize the characteristics of each.

Characteristics of large companies
: Large companies are strong in Japan, so you can learn how they
work. Even if you want to change jobs, it's easy because of the name value
. Work is highly specialized, so it feels like you have very little impact on the company as a whole.
While the amount of money and scale you can move to your new position is large, it takes time for your career to bear fruit.
It's all about whether you can have a time frame where you can shine from around the age of 40 onwards.

Characteristics of ventures
: ・Needless to say, there is a sense of speed compared to large companies.
・You have more discretion, so your contributions have a direct impact on the company's growth, and it's easy to find fulfillment.
・If you work hard at a good venture, you will definitely gain strength, and if you can properly talk about your experience when changing jobs, you won't have much trouble, even moving to a major company.
・However, ventures are a mixed bag, and with so many crappy companies out there, it's not easy for students to choose a good venture.

This is a question of career aspirations, so it's not a question of which is better or worse.

One story I once heard from a great business leader that really stuck in my memory was, "People of the same age gather together at the milestones of 30, 35, and 40 years old, and when they are 30, the spotlight is on the CEOs of venture companies, but when they reach 40, the focus shifts to bureaucrats, the children of wealthy people, and people who have risen through the ranks of large companies."

For example, if you have successfully advanced in the ranks at a general trading company by the age of 40, you will have a great deal of authority and discretion in the way you do business. Of course, it will be difficult to beat a venture entrepreneur in terms of personal compensation, but in terms of the impact you can have on the industry, there is a high possibility that it will be much greater.

In short, the time scales are different, so it comes down to whether you can take the path of working for one company for 20 years from graduation and working your way up the ranks. On the other hand, if you want to start making an impact earlier, don't want to be promoted by seniority, and want to push your way up in a young organization, then a venture is the only choice. Companies are also fundamentally governed by the population pyramid, so companies with a younger founding history and average age definitely have a better foundation for young people to thrive.

However, as I wrote at the beginning, there are now many paths from large companies to venture companies, and from venture companies to large companies, so I feel that the values of "going to a large company with the intention of making a living" and "if you go to a venture company as a new graduate, you won't be able to go to a large company" are becoming outdated in the first place.

Read books, meet people, and have new experiences.
How do you narrow down and select industries and companies from there?

Humans can only think within the context of their knowledge and experience. It may seem obvious, but many people don't really understand it, but we can't even think about things we don't know.

There's a lot that university students don't know about the world. Even if you think you're knowledgeable, it's better to think that you know nothing about the world! Of course, I don't know anything either. That's why you need to learn and experience as much as you can.

Have you heard of Tokyo Electron? As of June 19, 2024, it was ranked fourth in Japan by market capitalization, surpassing even the Sony Group. Do you know the top growth market company on the same day? It's Trial Holdings, which operates discount stores mainly in Kyushu.

As I've said many times before, what you don't know is outside of your life, and is the same as not existing. Naturally, the more you know about society, the more options you have. First, make an effort to learn as much as you can. Google and AI are much smarter than humans, but you can't even ask an AI about something you don't know, so it's better to have as much knowledge as possible.

And there are only a limited number of ways to learn new things. You can either read books or meet people. So read lots of books and meet people. Being a student is a huge advantage because you have time and the ability to move around recklessly. This is an extremely powerful weapon that I can't emphasize enough, but it's too late to realize it after the fact.

However, having a lot of knowledge and being all headstrong will not add depth to your life. As mentioned above, knowledge alone will not attract people. That is why you need to experience many things.

Many people avoid things they have never experienced, and yet criticize them nonetheless. There are many things in the world that you can't understand unless you experience them, so it's best to try them first without being prejudiced. Try them out, and if they don't suit you, just stop. The more new experiences you have, the richer your life will be, and the more rare and valuable they will be in society.

Eat kalbi when you're young
On a slightly off-topic note, given my position, I am often asked, "Is there anything that college students should do?" and I always answer, "Eat as much kalbi as you want."

When I was a university student, I heard a senior who was in his 30s say, "I can't eat kalbi or other fatty foods anymore these days," and I told him, "No, no, that's a bit early lol," but the truth is, I really couldn't eat kalbi after I turned 30 either.

This was quite a shock to me, and it made me feel like I would never be able to enjoy such delicious kalbi again, and that I had lost something important for the rest of my life. Well, I've been hooked on Jiro lately, so I don't eat greasy food at all.

In reality, not being able to eat kalbi isn't a big deal (because skirt steak tastes better), but there are an infinite number of things that you can only appreciate when you're young.

For example, even if you wanted to go on a budget trip now, it would be quite difficult. You would never be able to experience the sort of experience where you grab all your remaining assets, 30,000 yen, and earn enough money for a return flight at a casino in Hong Kong, even if you wanted to.

DIE WITH ZERO The ultimate rule for making life too rich
www.amazon.co.jp
1,870 yen
(As of 19:37, January 20, 2026. For details, click here.)
Buy on Amazon.co.jp
There's a book I really like called "DIE WITH ZERO." It's about leaving memories behind instead of money. There are so many experiences you can only have when you're young, so I recommend eating lots of kalbi (I'm sure you know, but it's a metaphor lol).

Interview tips
Now, as a break from the interview process, let me give you a tip on the secret to success in an interview: "If you can make the interviewer feel comfortable talking, you win . "

Basically, communication is more pleasant when you are talking. Some people try hard to promote themselves, but this is a bad move unless what they have to say has a great impact or is interesting. The key is to go into an interview with the mindset of "making the other person happy" rather than "getting the other person to acknowledge me."

Asking "Do you have any questions?" and receiving "No, nothing in particular" is the worst thing you can do. The main point of the conversation is to ask questions, so it's a real shame to do it unexpectedly. Of course, asking questions that you can find out by looking them up is also a no-no.

It depends on the position of the interviewer, but the best question to ask is something like, "I read your article, and it said the following, so I can imagine that it must have been difficult for you at the time. What was it actually like?"

It's a triple combo of (1) showing that you've prepared in advance, (2) asking questions based on hypotheses, and (3) asking about hardship stories. If you ask questions like these, the interviewer will be happy to tell you about their own hardships, and talking about past hardships will make the interviewer feel good, making it easier to pass.

On the other hand, there are some interviewers who only talk about themselves. The interview is supposed to gather facts about the candidate's likelihood of success at the company, but the criterion for passing or failing the interview is whether or not the interviewer was comfortable speaking, so there is no way they can judge that.

Apparently, when you can really enjoy a conversation,
it's proof that the other person is smarter than you.

— Chris @ The man who FIREd at 26 (@kurikurisu4410) June 5, 2024
Just as I was writing this, I came across this tweet. I don't know the facts, but the way it's put into words makes a lot of sense. The reason is that people with a high level of abstraction and understanding are basically speaking at a level that suits the other person, so they can't be serious. The fact that you can speak seriously is proof that the other person is also adapting to you.

An interview is ultimately a person-to-person interaction, so while it's good to "appeal to your usefulness," you should also approach the interview with the mindset of "building a relationship with the interviewer." Naturally, it goes without saying that it's best to greet and be clear-spoken, smile often, and use polite language.

There is no right answer in career
I've written a lot about this, but by far the most important thing in job hunting is to truly accept that there is no right answer in your career (or in life) . You don't have to accept it, but it's enough to just understand that this is the case.

There is no causal relationship between excellence and happiness, but I think that talented but unhappy people have the trait of always searching for the right answer, and whether it's a career or a relationship, people who are always searching for the right answer suffer because there are no right answers in life.

The people around me who are doing well in their careers and relationships are "people who have made the right decisions." And finally, people who take responsibility for their own lives because "it's their own decision." People who understand that "it's not the best, it's better."

No matter how much people say "it's your own fault," in life you just have to play with the cards you're dealt, and keep choosing the better option. That's the kind of game it is, so I'm not saying it's bad, but it's pointless to hold grudges against the cards you've been dealt.

Whether you call it the soul or the ego, each person has a core that they (should) value. However, that core is obscured by the opinions of many different people, and it becomes difficult to know what it is that you truly desire.

"My parents would probably be against it..."
"My friends in my club would probably make fun of me if I worked at a place like this..."
"It might be completely different from what the professor said..."

Job hunting is, so to speak, the first major decision you'll ever make in your life. Of course, it's going to be stressful. But the responsibility for your life can't be taken by anyone other than you, including your parents.

Happiness in life is determined not by status, but by your stance. Whatever job you choose, the most important thing is to be satisfied with it and face life head-on with the determination that it will be the right choice.

It's definitely more fun to be a working adult
It's often said that "college life is the summer vacation of life," and I'm sure there are many people who have negative feelings about getting a job. However, I can say with certainty that life as a working adult after graduating from university is much more enjoyable.

Content power is born from ups and downs, but if there were no ups and downs, it would be boring to just go through a long life aimlessly. Work is not easy to begin with, and there's no doubt that worrying about your career is an extremely painful time that forces you to reexamine your identity. But that's exactly why there is a reward at the end of hard work, and that's the nature of work.

And careers are very long. I always think that "a business person starts at age 35," and that's the kind of timeline you build your career on. It's not like the traditional six-year, three-year, three-year, four-year periods, but something you walk through over decades. If you have to work for a long period of time to make a living, then you might as well work as hard as you can, earn as much as you can, and enjoy your work as much as you can.

You'll have more money to spend, you'll understand yourself better, and you'll be able to do far more than you did as a student, so honestly, I can't believe I'm saying, "My student days were the best." As long as you're growing, the present should always be the most fun part of life. When you think about it like that, doesn't it make you want to get out and start working hard in society as soon as possible?

I sincerely hope that your first career will lead to a fulfilling first step in life!

(Promotional Video) Natee is currently recruiting new graduates!
Thank you for reading this long article. I hope that it has touched at least one core of your heart.

From here on, it's all about position talk and Natee's promotional time, so if you're the type of person who skips the end credits of movies, please feel free to close this section. By the way, I'm the type of person who thinks the true value of a movie lies in the end credits. So, please enjoy the end credits ().

First of all, I believe that new businesses like startups can be broadly divided into booms and trends. My definition is that booms are temporary, while trends are irreversible and unchanging. Basically, a business can grow as long as it rides the trend, so the most important point in market selection is to capitalize on trends that will likely remain unchanged for 30 years .

Natee is a company that currently collaborates with creators to support companies' social media marketing. We've grown by capitalizing on TikTok since 2018, when no one had yet realized its potential. "Isn't TikTok just a boom?" I've been asked this question 100 times since our founding, but two overwhelmingly strong and irreversible trends are (1) the videoization of online content and (2) the growing power of creators.

image
Although the company's management has had its ups and downs, it is absolutely bullish on the trend, and I am confident that this business alone can grow beyond the 10 billion yen mark. In addition, Natee does not limit himself to this business, but seeks out market opportunities and continues to develop new businesses and M&A, aiming to one day grow into a great company like Recruit or CyberAgent.

The average age is about 29 years old, and the average annual salary is 6.26 million yen. The average age of those at the department manager level and above is also about 32 years old, which is extremely young compared to other companies, and we can promise that this is an environment full of growth opportunities for those who want to work hard while they are young and in the midst of new trends.

As we begin full-scale recruitment of new graduates, we have decided to hold this summer internship with two of Japan's leading creators! The two will act as special judges and provide constant feedback on the videos you plan, making this an amazing event that no other company has ever done. What's more, there will even be a cash prize for the winner (Yay! Generous!) .

Please feel free to apply, so if you are even slightly interested in creators, TikTok, videos, advertising, startups, great companies, etc., please feel free to apply!

Enjoy the detours
Finally, let me close this long note by sharing my personal thoughts. I absolutely love "HUNTER×HUNTER" and have read it so many times I can't even count how many times I've read it, but I especially love this Gin

"Enjoy a detour.
There are surely things more important than the things you want to become lying around there."

I really love this line. It's become a guideline for my life. When I was asked to choose a license plate number for my car, I agonized over it and decided on 1784, because the height of the World Tree that Ging is telling Gon about is 1,784m. It's a young tree that has stopped growing. The World Tree that absorbs magma and grows even bigger by passing through the atmosphere. It seems like it will never stop, so I'll stop lol

image
The German poet Goethe said, "One does not travel in order to arrive, but in order to travel." I am looking for someone who can enjoy the journey itself with me.

The only truly limited asset in life is time (= life). I truly believe that spending that time working long hours with people I don't like, with dead eyes, is a waste of my life.

I would be very happy to work with friendly colleagues who are excited about the journey of providing value to society, working hard towards big goals, and enjoying their personal lives to the fullest.

I would love for you to apply for an internship!


Considering the current situation in the US and China, we reconsider the direction of social media, commerce, and creators

28
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
Kojima Ryoken_Representative of Natee
September 10, 2024 10:00
"Advertising is an extremely difficult job that requires the most brilliant minds and the most dedicated research and study." - Yoshida Hideo

Nice to meet you, I'm Kojima, the CEO of Natee Inc. Natee was founded in 2018 and was very unusual at the time in that we focused entirely on TikTok. Now, six years later, we have grown to around 80 employees and sales of nearly 2 billion yen.

TikTok has now become a major social networking site (hereafter referred to as social media, in conjunction with the American term), but in 2018, it was very rare to find someone who believed in TikTok's potential. I was an engineer at BizReach (now Visional), and when I started my own company, I suddenly found myself passionately proclaiming, "TikTok has incredible potential!", and I'm sure the people around me were wondering what I was doing (laughs).

However, it took a lot of research for me to reach this conclusion, and I take pride in being the person in Japan who knows the most about TikTok and thinks about it the most. I have summarized that story in the note below.

I wrote this note two and a half years ago, at the end of February 2022. While I'm surprised at how quickly time has passed, I hope to share my thoughts as a person involved in the current situation in August 2024, regarding social media and the creator market that I'm facing.

Drilling down into the advertising market again
First of all, advertising expenditures in Japan as of 2023 will be 7.3 trillion yen. Although it has been depressed by COVID-19, the advertising market is basically designed to grow proportionally as GDP grows, so it will have grown by 122% in 10 years.

image
Source: Telegraph
The breakdown is as follows: the four mass media (television, newspapers, magazines, and radio) account for just under 32%, internet advertising for just over 45%, and outdoor advertising and flyers for the remaining 23%.

image
Source: Telegraph
The chart below shows the breakdown over time. Around 2019, when Natee founded the company, internet advertising surpassed television advertising, and by 2021 internet advertising was larger than all four media combined. This may seem obvious, but the gap is only widening.

image
Source: CyberAgent
Next, we'll look at the growth of the market that Natee is facing amidst this rapidly growing internet advertising. The social media market, which was just under 600 billion yen in 2020, is expected to triple to nearly 1.9 trillion yen by 2027. This makes sense, as advertising dollars are concentrated in places where people spend a lot of time.

image
Source: Cyber Buzz/Digital Infact
This is the market forecast for video advertising. The video advertising market, which was worth 550 billion yen in 2022, will exceed 1 trillion yen in 2027. This will increase by approximately 500 billion yen in five years, meaning that a new market of 100 billion yen will be created each year.

image
Source: CyberAgent/Digital Infact research
Among these, the vertical video (short movie) advertising market is growing extremely strongly. Of course, it is still small so the growth rate will be high, but this too is expected to create a market of around 150 billion yen over the next five years.

image
Source: CyberAgent/Digital Infact research
Finally, a look at influencer marketing. The market was only worth 33.2 billion yen in 2020, but is predicted to quadruple to 130 billion yen in seven years.

image
Source: Cyber Buzz/Digital Infact
By drilling down from the top level, you should now have a good overview of the advertising market. Social media, video advertising, and influencer marketing, which are at the heart of Natee's business, are all experiencing a strong upward trend.

This is where it gets really important: we are still just at the beginning.

I vividly remember that around 2014, emerging media outlets like NewsPicks were constantly saying, "Television is obsolete, with only seven more years to go." However, if you actually check the answer, you'll see that television advertising spending hasn't fallen catastrophically in the 10 years since 2014, but has only been gradually declining. In particular, in a country like Japan, where the average age is high, change doesn't come drastically, but rather slowly.

However, even if it is slow, trends are irreversible, so it is unlikely that television advertising budgets will ever trend upward again. Internet advertising spending will continue to grow, and within that, social media budgets will also continue to increase. CyberAgent was founded in 1998. Even now, 26 years later, the performance of its Internet Advertising Division continues to improve.

When Visionary Minami came to give a company lecture last year, he gave us a passionate message: "It takes 10 years to take on the challenge of changing the industry, and we're just at the starting line!" It took 10 years to bring the concept of direct recruiting to Japan and get us to the starting line. I think he encouraged us, telling us that Natee hasn't even reached the starting line yet.

This is what the US and China are like
Meanwhile, let's take a look at what is happening in the United States and China, the epitome of capitalism and the forefront of innovation.

The US
is a country where internet advertising is highly developed. This shows the share of internet advertising in the US advertising market, which is expected to reach 70% of the total by 2023. In Japan, it is around 45%, so there is still room for growth.

image
Source: Meltwater
And here is a summary of the breakdown of internet advertising and its growth rate. Search advertising and social advertising are strong, just like in Japan, but what stands out is that connected TV and retail media are extremely strong. I have a feeling that retail media will also become popular in Japan, and I'm keeping a close eye on it, but I still feel that it will take some time.

image
Source: Winterberry Group
There are several megatrends in the US advertising market, but the biggest wave seems to be generative AI, which will reduce the cost of generating content such as videos and images to the utmost and make them even more personalized. The fact that things are changing so rapidly and are so unpredictable is both exciting and difficult about this industry (laughs).

In China
, e-commerce, rather than advertising, has developed to a different level. China's e-commerce market is by far the largest in the world, worth 3.4 trillion US dollars, or about 500 trillion yen. This is an astonishing figure, accounting for 52% of the world market share , and as a result, the e-commerce rate is also at a very high level.

This is a graph of the global e-commerce rate (2022). China's e-commerce rate is close to 50% (estimated to exceed 50% in 2024), while the US's is around 15%, so honestly, China, not the US, is by far the cutting edge of commerce.

image
eMarketer, June 2022
And what's particularly noteworthy is the proportion of live commerce, which is estimated to exceed $1 trillion by 2026, accounting for a staggering 25% of the e-commerce market.

image
ECDB.com
What's more, recently live commerce is no longer run by humans but by AI, so we're entering a world where it's hard to understand what's going on (laughs). The commerce scene in China is evolving in an incredible way.

AI-generated influencers continue to earn money 24 hours a day: the latest developments in China's live commerce
When watching live broadcasts in the middle of the night in China, you often see streamers enthusiastically promoting products.
www.technologyreview.jp
Of course, looking at the past, it's clear that the situations in the US and China will not necessarily be reflected in Japan. Therefore, we need to calmly consider to what extent global trends exist and to what extent local adaptations are necessary, but I still think that understanding trends in the US and China (especially China) will be extremely useful in predicting Japan's future.

Are you betting on an irreversible trend?
I always say this, but I believe that businesses should be based on trends that will not change over the medium to long term, rather than aiming for a passing fad .

"TikTok is just a fad that will die out soon, right?" I've been asked this question a hundred times since the company was founded, but everyone is confusing a fad with a trend. The trends that TikTok is based on are "AI algorithms," "the rise of individual creators," and "(mainly vertical) video content."

① AI algorithmAs
I wrote in the note I shared at the beginning, I still vividly remember the excitement I felt when I first used TikTok, thinking, "Wow, an AI-native service has finally been born!!!"

Until then, the internet was an active one, where you searched for information yourself, clicked on articles or videos, and obtained it. With algorithms, AI automatically recommends things based on your preferences, so you don't have to think about it. Passive services are obviously stronger.

Following TikTok, all social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, and X, have switched to AI algorithm feeds, no doubt because it simply delivers the content users want.

② The Rise of Individual Creators
The Internet is a history of democratization. In the world of television, a single program is produced by a wide range of professionals, including producers, directors, ADs, scriptwriters, stage directors, talent, lighting technicians, microphone technicians, and editors. YouTube made this possible with just a PC, microphone, and camera. Now, amateurs can shoot, edit, and publish videos on their own.

Justin Bieber's debut came when he was 12 years old, when his mother posted a random YouTube video to show his relatives. What was supposed to be just a home video went viral, racking up over 50 million views, and that's when his label heard about it. It's scary to think that in a time before YouTube, there could have been a time when that global superstar never even made his debut.

TikTok has democratized things even further than YouTube, allowing people to express themselves with just their smartphones.

To digress a bit, we often hear in the news that "generative AI threatens creators." However, in the long term, it will expand human creativity, and the total number of creators will undoubtedly continue to increase. It's exciting to think that the true Second Renaissance may begin after generative AI.

Once I start writing about creators, I get carried away, so I'll stop here, but I'll also include a note from 2021 in which I wrote down many of my thoughts.

3) (Mainly vertical) video content.
Considering the history of the four-digit format, video will become more and more the main form of content on the internet. This is because there are far more people who watch television than people who read newspapers. Business people who read notes like this may be accustomed to dealing with text, but the overwhelming majority of content is video.

Even I, who received books as birthday presents from the fourth grade of elementary school, have recently started watching YouTube more than reading books when studying. This goes without saying for people who don't normally read books.

It is safe to say that none of this is a passing fad, but rather an irreversible technological and social trend.

Social media is already complete
Another question I'm often asked is, "What do you think the next TikTok will be?"

I strongly believe that a new dominant social media platform will not emerge, at least not until new devices are released .

There are four types of media: text, images, audio, and video. In the past, these would have been newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Social media has already been completed with X (Twitter), Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok.

New image-free social networking site "noplace" captivates Gen Z - Nikkei
Upon its public release in early July 2024, the app rose to the top of the US App Store rankings and became a hot topic.
www.nikkei.com
I recently came across an article about how "an app that aims to create authentic connections, which young people value," has reached number one in the US App Store rankings. Of course, there are other apps like Be Real that are popular among young people, but I think they are merely derivatives of existing social media, and it is highly unlikely that they will rise to the status of mainstream media like the ones I mentioned earlier.

I think the next big thing will be social media in the 3D space of VR, but I don't think it will be widely adopted unless full-immersive devices like those in "SAO (Sword Art Online)" or "Ready Player One" cost around 10,000 to 20,000 yen.

Smartphones equipped with generative AI will soon be available, and the impact of that will be even greater, resembling the worldview of the film "Her," in which a person falls in love with an AI. However, in that case, the format of expression will remain the same as that of current smartphones, so it won't be the birth of a new social media platform.

What will happen to social commerce?
So is there no new potential in such mature social media?

This article was published on August 26, 2024, and it reported that TikTok and Amazon would officially collaborate.

TikTok partners with Amazon to make in-app shopping easier | 36Kr Japan | China's largest tech and startup media
The video-sharing app TikTok has recently partnered with Amazon.com, the world's largest e-commerce company.
36kr.jp
Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) originally only had media advertising expenses, but commerce sales have exploded in China and Southeast Asia, with GMV (gross merchandise volume) rising from $5.8 billion (approximately 820 billion yen) in 2019 to $756 billion (approximately 107 trillion yen) by 2025. The scale is so big that I had to check the numbers several times to make sure they were correct (laughs).

image
ECDM.com
As for TikTok Shop's GMV globally, Thailand takes the top share, followed by Vietnam, then Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Finally, the US and UK come in that order, so most of it is in Southeast Asia.

image
ECDM.com
I've written about the situation in China, but social commerce is still in its infancy in Japan and is struggling. As mentioned above, China's e-commerce rate is far superior, and its logistics system is so advanced that even after a social purchase, the item is delivered seamlessly to your home. To be honest, the US can't possibly catch up, and it goes without saying that Japan can't either.

However, attempts at social commerce are slowly beginning, and players such as Yutori are emerging in the apparel and cosmetics industries that are using social media to grow their brand accounts and increase sales. It's unlikely that things will turn out like China, so I think Japan will gradually develop a Japanese-style "system for increasing sales via social media."

The long-awaited OMO (online-offline fusion)
Many of Natee's clients are brand companies that are strong in retail rather than e-commerce.

When social media promotion works well, products actually sell. We work with many leading companies in Japan and around the world, and we have received feedback in many cases such as, "We've regained our No. 1 market share!" and "I never thought our POS would work like this!"

In the first place, products sell because they are good, and we are merely helping with a small part of that promotion, but it seems clear that the probability and possibility that the success or failure of social advertising will have a direct impact on in-store sales is increasing day by day.

[Kao x Don Quijote x Natee] Sales increase of up to 114%! Achieved by combining short movies with in-store announcements and signage
Press release from Natee Co., Ltd. (July 20, 2023, 10:06 AM) [Kao x Don Quijote x Natee] Sales increase by up to 114%!
prtimes.jp
For example, in this initiative, Kao's KATE teamed up with Taketaro, a well-known cosmetics creator, and Don Quijote also played Taketaro's TikTok videos and tried using Taketaro's voice recordings for in-store announcements.

Not only did they run tie-up ads on social media, but they also designed in-store panels and in-store announcements, which gave consumers a consistent purchasing experience from online to offline, resulting in a successful case.

The concept of OMO was born in China in 2017, so you might be thinking, "Why are you talking about OMO now?", but I have a feeling it's finally starting to take off in earnest in Japan.

It is extremely moving to see such a young company taking on this central challenge together with leading brand companies in Japan and around the world, and we feel that the work is both rewarding and offers great potential for growth.

We are gathering people who can create a great company together.
Natee is often seen as "a company that grew by taking advantage of TikTok from its inception" or "a typical influencer marketing agency," but I hope I have been able to convey at least some of the dynamism of this market, which is full of change and has vast upside.

In this rapidly changing market, we want to deliver value to our customers and creators, achieve phenomenal growth, and become a great company.

To achieve this, we need an overwhelming number of colleagues. If you are interested in creating a market rather than following it, and if you want to create your own work rather than being given a job, we would love to work with you.

Hideo Yoshida, a master of advertising, once said, "You should create your own work, not have it handed to you." Recruit's Ezoe also has a company motto of "Create your own opportunities and use those opportunities to change yourself."

I have personally experienced the rewarding experience of being able to compete for a long period of time in the middle of a new market, and it is difficult to put into words. The importance of being in an uptrend is also extremely important from a career perspective.

If you would like to grow together with a young and passionate organization, we have compiled a list of job openings, so please take a quick look.

Search results | AMBI is the place to go for scouting and job changes for young, high-career professionals
Search results page. AMBI is a job-hunting scouting service for young, high-career professionals. There are many jobs with an annual salary of over 5 million yen. Check your chances of success before applying.
en-ambi.com
We are also recruiting for new AI-related businesses that are not listed here, so if you contact us on X or Facebook, we will meet you in person. Please feel free to send us a DM!