I founded two of Japan’s most successful startup accelerators. AMA!

Hi All,

I’m Hiro Maeda of BEENEXT. A newly formed VC investing in India, SEA, Japan, and USA. The partners in the firm has invested in companies like Tokopedia, CitrusPay, Shopclues, Droom, Akakce, Instacart, Everlane, Fril, Qiita, and Grey Orange Robotics.

Prior to BEENEXT, I was with BEENOS (formerly known as netprice) to lead investments there and in 2010, I launched Japan’s first startup accelerator program “Open Network Lab” in partnership with Digital Garage and Kakaku.com.

At BEENEXT my focus is primarily on Japan and the United States. My past notable investments are Instacart, Thredup, FundersClub, Everlane, Anyperk, Virool, Skimlinks, Screenhero, Kamcord, Lob, Storefront, Fril, Voyagin, WHILL, Viibar, Giftee and Qiita.

You can ask me about anything! Fire away!

Note from Daniel, TIA’s community manager:
The host may choose at his/her preference to not answer particular questions. The AMA is moderated by the community managers, so let’s keep the questions friendly. 🙂

Here are some relevant articles:

New fund “BEENEXT” to invest in mobile/internet related businesses

Netprice rebrands as BEENOS, pivots to VC with “Inception Program”