Konichiwa! I’m James Riney, head of 500 Startups Japan. AMA!

Konichiwa TIA community!

James Riney here, head of the recently announced 500 Startups Japan fund.

A little about myself… Prior to 500, I covered venture investments for DeNA, investing in Silicon Valley and Asia. Some of my companies in Asia include Coins.ph, Lookup, Zeemi.tv, and Blisby.

Before that, I was the founding CEO of STORYS.JP, the “Medium.com of Japan” funded by Incubate Fund. The site is the birthplace of the Amazon #1 bestseller, “The Invincible Blonde Gal,” which sold over 300,000 copies in the first 3 months. The motion picture (ビリギャル) went on to gross about $23 million at the box office.

In another life, I worked at J.P. Morgan. When I’m not glued to my laptop (or my phone), I like to scuba dive, snowboard, and discover the best food in Japan.

In a nutshell, I’ve been an employee, a founder, and an investor. So I am happy to give you candid answers based on experiences from all perspectives.

Here are some topic ideas to get you started:

• Why Japan? It is the ultimate contrarian bet.
• Questions around 500’s plans for Japan
• Founder’s dilemmas (fundraising, founder breakups, how to handle stress, etc).
• Doing business in Japan

I’m ready Tech In Asia, Ask me anything!

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. 🙂

Read more about 500 Startups here:

500 Startups returns to Japan with $30M fund

Why launch 500 Startups Japan?