It’s been 3.5 years since I moved to Silicon Valley. The journey in the VC space in most crowded area in the world has been teaching me countless “hard things” from just surviving here and capturing opportunities while handling stability financially and juggling multiple projects at the same time. People call a person like me “first generation” who moves here to build up a new life in the U.S. If you ask me, my home country where I came from is Japan which is a wonderful place to grow up and live. Moving out from the comfort zone required me to downgrade many things such as housing, safety, job opportunities, recognition of education level, background or language barriers; almost resetting all of stuff I’ve built in my life. If you met me 10 years ago, my language capabilities were limited. My experiences was almost none. I came from a humble family, small town in Japan. My parents invested all for me while they were saving the most to spend everything for education for me and my siblings. Furthermore, my dream at the time was to be an English teacher who is like my father and to get married to a boyfriend who will work at public city hall in my hometown. Then what happened after 10 years? It’s totally different landscape. I never majored in business, but I somehow ended up working for a startup from the U.S. Why? It’s because my curiosity didn’t fit in a traditional big corporation where people kept asking me why I didn’t pick to be a sales assistant. Well, I just liked to be outgoing and speak with external clients and partners. I never ever imagined to be working in office to do admin tasks and get paid less just because of my gender. Although I have to say, the new graduate training at Japanese corps taught me a lot from business manners to mindset. They take things seriously to train new people just like a family which is very unique aspect compared to other countries as you almost don’t need any experience as long as you have motivation to learn. When I tried to change my job for the first time, I thought about moving to San Francisco. But then, I didn’t want to downgrade the level of work. I mean I could work at Japanese restaurants, but in a reality, the cost of living is quite high. Also, I really wanted to earn some experience to be competitive enough even among the local so that hiring reason doesn’t need to be associated with only my expertise just because I’m Japanese. Although this means, the path I choose would be much harder. In Japan, the startup I worked for eventually became unicorn in the U.S. I was fortunate to meet many US startup founders and some VCs based in the U.S. even while I was working in Tokyo. I was the third member of the team in Japan. Gladly the company is still alive @noom After that, a person from a company reached out to me on Linkedin, looking for a person to found the team in Japan. At the time I thought the message is scam and didn’t care too much about it. I replied back to the message just in case, and briefly looked up the company. This is back in early 2017. I started helping them, and got asked to be a part of team. Although they didn’t have any corporate structure in Japan, so this is how I became a self employed. Apparently the company ranked as the best company to work in Canada in that year, and it made me feel good to work for a Canadian company after you saw how US society behaved when Trump was elected for the first time. That company I started working was @Shopify. In the U.S. contexts, it was probably more known, but in Japan back in 2017? None. Nobody knew. My friends disagreed the idea to change job or started asking me for concert tickets since they thought I was working for @Spotify. I mean close enough. Their logos are green, and founded in the same year. I don’t know how many times I corrected the company name every time my clients called me Spotify. Throughout the years I was working for Shopify, we moved to different offices four times in Tokyo.

Sushi in the US, but it’s tempura to me

Cute cafe in sf☕️🌳✨

Boardy is here, anywhere, anytime and anything for you! @boardyai

Our latest research paper explores the growing connection between AI and digital assets and explains why broad AI adoption may drive new demand, utility and applications across the digital asset economy. blackrock.com/us/individual/…

Imagine going to school and this is who you get to learn from

A16Z School run by co-founder of @udemy, opening applications soon. Open to anyone before college, free fellowship program. No grade needed. It doesn’t need to be in the US when you apply as long as you can make it to SF eventually. It reminds me of the day I bumped into former co-founder of Udemy in Tokyo one time.

While many people are zooming in their career into AI, but not that many people are imagining how the entire fintech is going to be change once agentic economics are applied. And it’s already happening.

The fear losing your own voice cannot be imaginable. Although this is one of the hope which exists today. Technology is supposed to be there for us to improve our life better.

Abundance, is the keyword you keep hearing again and again especially in this AI era.

Lately supporting some startups in food, beauty and entertainment in gaming (IP businesses) industries individually, and meeting people collaborating with brands, IPs. Some are from LA, working with movie IP or artist like The Weekend. Some are creators, builders, YouTubers, streamers, brand marketers or CEOs. Then somehow end up attending invite-only conferences and events. Today I joined this exclusive beauty event along with influencers..! Thanks for the invite✨CEO / founder #SundayRiley

Thank YOU all for joining WAKA x @worldbuildersmt Mixer last night🐝✨The venue was packed! Our team has been working everyday to onboard anime titles on Roblox on the top of Gintama and Black Clover. Let’s connect if you LOVE anime! Lets collaborate! More exciting news is on the way. @noda_fn @YukiHaragu42446 #RDC26

Day 2 #RDC26☀️Who’s already at the venue?🍳✨