Building prototypes

Startup Weekend is being held in Tokyo, Japan right now, and we’re delighted to attend and report what we see.

On the first day, entrepreneurs were given a chance to pitch their ideas. I managed to take some notes on the ideas that were pitched in English, and many of these proposals seemed pretty solid. Note that some of the ideas aren’t explained in full, as requested by some of the entrepreneurs.

#1

Problem: Most people can’t buy products made in Japan because they don’t understand the language. This hampers overseas sales growth for Japanese companies.

Solution: Build an e-commerce platform for non-Japanese speakers to buy made-in-Japan products. It’s simple but solves an imminent problem in japan if the idea can come to fruition.

#2

Problem: It is tough for startups to find an investor in Japan.

Solution: One entrepreneur plans to build an Angel List(ish) site in Japan. The list will include both Japanese and overseas investors.

#3

Problem: Each telco in Japan has its own Android “app store” and it is tough for developers to market their apps to the Japanese.

Solution: Be the middleman.

#4

Problem: There are too many songs in our hard drive without an easy interface to play them and access them anywhere.