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<a href="https://www.voox.me/">VOOX</a> is a platform that offers a curated collection of bite-sized audio content for lifelong learning. Content is narrated by the author in order to accurately convey and express what they intend. This can sometimes be quite difficult to achieve when read by someone other than the author themselves. Founder Hong Guihua shares why she decided to create VOOX and the impact her company is looking to create.<h3>In this blog:</h3><ul><li>“I like books but I’m unable to read them.”</li><li>Right plan, wrong content</li><li>Keeping authors authentic</li><li>Connecting authors, editors, and publishers</li><li>Bringing authors and readers together</li></ul><hr><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_2b52554b2b.jpg" alt="image1.jpg"><figcaption>Hong Guihua launched VOOX in May 2020 and released the application in 2021. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><h3>“I like books but I’m unable to read them.”</h3>I have always been interested in audio services for two main reasons:<ol><li>While I like books and think they are important, I found myself unable to read them. Especially difficult books; if it is a classic or a book with complex content, it is very difficult to read, let alone understand.</li><li>When I was stationed in Indonesia back in 2016, I had to drive to work for two years. I had spent a lot of time driving and audio content was a crucial means of consuming information for me. I had always used different forms of audio content, including radio, and I had a strong interest in audio services such as audiobooks, news delivered by voice, audio lectures on economics at Peking University, and so on. &nbsp;</li></ol>However, compared to the U.S. and China, Japan had hardly any audio content other than radio. The only thing that existed were podcasts for learning English. There were so few options!&nbsp; I thought that offering a variety of audio content in a different format would grow in Japan. When I had learned about Moon's open call for new business ideas, I started thinking about my idea and how I might commercialize it. I refined my idea, pitched it to Moon and upon acceptance was transferred to Moon where I had launched the VOOX website in the summer of 2020.&nbsp;<h3>Right plan, wrong content</h3>At first, there were only three people on the VOOX team and we didn't have any background knowledge on how to create content. But the important things we wanted to do back then are the same as what we want to do now: provide content that could be listened to within 10-minutes, organize the information so that it’s easy to navigate, and make learning easier and more accessible to everyone.&nbsp; Initially, we tried to create 100 10-minute segments of content focused on the theme of economics, something we thought everyone would like to learn more about. But it turned out that it wasn't interesting content for listeners. Our planning was right, but the content itself just wasn’t interesting enough. It proved impossible to listen to such long content all the way through. I decided to look for an editor. Then I met Fumio Iwasa, the current editor-in-chief of VOOX, who has 30 years of experience in book editing and is also a former editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review. Together, we reviewed the world view and editorial policy at VOOX and arrived at the current format, a series of six 10-minute episodes, which allows us to offer a variety of topics.&nbsp;<h3>Keeping authors authentic</h3>At first, we tried to make 100 episodes, but we soon learned that even if we divided the episodes into 10 series, the content would start to overlap in the middle of the series. For this reason, we decided to limit the number of episodes to six.&nbsp; We prepared a landing page and recruited about 120 users to test it out. On that page, we provided three recorded samples:&nbsp;<ol><li>A narrator reads the trend summary articles published by VC.</li><li>A narrator reads their own summary of the book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/Blitzscaling-Lightning-Fast-Building-Massively-Companies-ebook/dp/B0791239V7/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&amp;crid=3D4QYFT3EFJB2&amp;keywords=blitz+scaling&amp;qid=1695110423&amp;sprefix=blitzscaling%2Caps%2C151&amp;sr=8-2">BLITZSCALING</a>.</li><li>The book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%B5%B7%E6%A5%AD%E3%81%AE%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6-%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%82%B5%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9-%E7%94%B0%E6%89%80-%E9%9B%85%E4%B9%8B/dp/4822259757">The Science of Entrepreneurship: Startup Science</a> is explained by the author himself.</li></ol>The recordings with commentary by the authors themselves achieved the best results, much more than the others.&nbsp; Option 3 was originally listed as "commentary by the author," whether the content was read by a third-party narrator or by the author. But after qualitative interviews with users about their impressions and the extent to which they remembered the audio content, we learned that the users who chose “commentary by the author themself" were the ones who reportedly retained the most information. When creating audio content, our goal is to try and preserve the author's authenticity as much as possible. We prepare a simple bulleted list of questions for the author to address at the time of recording instead of providing a script for them to read. We don’t edit the recordings, although we sometimes re-record any mistakes. This method seems to work well for not only the user, but also the author.&nbsp; It really helps the authors to organize their thoughts. As a matter of fact, there is even a newly published book based on the content of a VOOX talk. The author, who had no intention of writing a book, realized that he could turn his audio content into a book after talking about it at VOOX. We connected the author with a publishing company, which eventually led to the publication of his book. With an increase in such cases, we have come to realize that VOOX is beginning to produce new benefits not just for authors and listeners, but also for editors and publishers.&nbsp;<h3>Connecting authors, editors, and publishers</h3>Originally, the main objective of VOOX was to have authors read and comment on their own content in audio form. However, every time we spoke with the authors, they would digress and tell stories that went beyond the books in discussion. Then I tried asking authors to not only talk about the applicable book, but also about the entire topic or subject. By doing so, we developed brand-new audio content, which further developed into new publications. One time, an author was writing a book and got a little stumped, so he decided to try and overcome his writer’s block by talking about it on VOOX. That author happened to be our editor-in-chief, but we used VOOX as a place to reinvigorate his inspiration and perspective.&nbsp; Sometimes an author will use it in that way, and other times, they'll have a topic that they've been trying to write a book on, but have neglected it for a long time. So, they'll talk about it on VOOX as a way to refresh their ideas.&nbsp; When you think about it, there are a number of advantages for editors to work with VOOX – it’s a place to learn about authors who are not yet widely known. It’s a place to relieve authors of stumbling blocks and dead-ends and a place to stimulate planning and ideas. It’s a place to discover new authors. And, of course, a place to promote books. In fact, more and more people are contacting us organically. When we find a good book and contact the publisher, the publisher, in turn, contacts us to ask what we think about the book. We are also hearing more from people who are interested in the books that have been published on VOOX. I am very happy to say that in our third year, we are gradually expanding our relationships not only with authors and editors, but with publishers as well.I was happy to hear one of our editors say, "I wasn't sure where I could transfer my book editing skills, but now I know that I can use them in this kind of situation.” I was excited to hear that he thought VOOX could be a new way to apply his skills.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://vimeo.com/859211849"></oembed></figure><h3>Bringing authors and readers together</h3>Nowadays, the number of people who read books is decreasing rapidly. I don't want this to continue, so I hope VOOX can become a service that can create synergy with books. We did not set out to replace books, but to introduce them. On top of that, we are trying to create a deeper connection between readers and authors. We are currently reaching more people by making VOOX content available on Amazon’s Audible. On the other hand, we think that for fans and listeners of a particular author, even 60 minutes of content isn’t enough, so we are trying to create more ways to deepen the communication between authors and readers. The "pre-publication book club" was one of the ideas we came up with to address that issue. Learn more in the video below (in Japanese).<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://vimeo.com/859212188"></oembed></figure>Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we had never been able to hold an offline event before. But when we held our first in-person event to meet authors, it was more exciting than we had ever imagined. I remember that the authors were very lively because readers came to the events. We plan to do more of these events in the future. Since audio content is a niche market, we are always thinking about ways to make it more widely known. With a Japanese magazine, if 50,000 people know about your business, you can say that everyone knows about it to some extent. Or if the book is on the shelves of a bookstore, you can feel a sense of response. We are still creating content one by one, thinking about how we can create a similar outcome with VOOX.&nbsp;*This article was originally written in Japanese and has been translated and edited for clarity.<hr>VOOX launched its <a href="https://www.voox.me/">website</a> in 2020, followed by its app (<a href="https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/voox/id1546175303">iOS</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.voox&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=US&amp;pli=1">Android</a>) in 2021. A book’s worth of knowledge is narrated directly from leading experts from various fields, including Taizo Son, Dai Tamesue, Ken Kusunoki, Shu Yamaguchi, and others. New series are available for free for two weeks after its release. In June 2023, VOOX began providing content to Audible, the world's largest audiobook and audio content production and distribution service. On June 27, an event was held to celebrate the publication of Surrender Theory with former professional baseball player and current business coach, Yuhki Takamori. In July, VOOX also held a pre-publication reading of Maturity Theory with Dai Tamesue. Follow VOOX on <a href="https://twitter.com/VOOX_jp">X (formerly Twitter)</a> for the latest news and useful knowledge from each series. &nbsp;

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Lullaby is a personalized sleep training service and platform for parents and their newborns.In this article, hear from founder Yukari Tago on how cultural differences and an unfortunate accident inspired her to create Lullaby.&nbsp;<h3> Key Learnings&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Different countries, different childbirth experiences&nbsp;</li><li>An accidental wake-up call</li><li>Better sleep becomes more than a dream</li><li>Global effects of sleep deprivation</li></ul><hr><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_74171e0d92.jpg" alt="image1.jpg"><figcaption>Yukari Tago, founder of Lullaby</figcaption></figure><h3>Different countries, different childbirth experiences&nbsp;</h3>The launch of Lullaby was greatly influenced by my experience giving birth in the United States. While the procedures and preparations were more inconvenient and difficult than in Japan, I was surprised at the high level of child-rearing literacy that mothers had in the U.S.Japan is safe and well insured. With an infant medical care card, you can receive free medical care throughout the country. But the situation is quite different in the United States.One time I was at a friend of mine’s US-based home and I had noticed her thick medical dictionaries covered in sticky notes. She told me that she went through every detail of a recent doctor visit’s recommendation, such as whether there is a generic version of a recommended drug, if there is a cheaper alternative, what tests were recommended, etc. She even had suggested options that differed from her doctor's opinion!&nbsp;There were also differences in the birthing process. I had to choose the hospital where I would give birth and also make an appointment with an obstetrician that was covered under my medical insurance. Immediately after birth, I was assigned a pediatrician, and I needed to make an appointment with that doctor in advance. Making separate appointments for the hospital and the doctor was a big difference in itself, but I was indeed surprised when I asked an acquaintance for a hospital recommendation, he replied, "X hospital won't rip you off.”Since I did not have many local acquaintances I decided on a hospital on my own after gathering information using classified websites and other resources. Other mothers I had met were so skilled in gathering such information, which was quite impressive to me. Also, in California, it was not unusual for mothers to return to work three months after childbirth, and it seemed normal for them to invest time and money in preparing for this.One of the things I learned through my experience giving birth in the U.S. was sleep training, which helps babies develop the habit of falling asleep on their own rather than being put to sleep by co-sleeping or being held, as is typical in Japan. My obstetrician told me about the importance of sleep training and how proper sleep health, for both child and parent, is essential. After all, “you can't raise a healthy child if you are exhausted,” as she said.I still wasn't sure whether or not to actually seek sleep training consulting, but an unforeseen event occurred when my child was six months old which drove my need for it. &nbsp;<h3>An accidental wake-up call</h3>My baby was continuously crying at night, leaving me so exhausted that it was hard for me to function throughout the day.When my baby was six months old, he was still crying throughout the night, and I started noticing how constantly foggy my mind was during the day. One day, while he was sleeping on the couch, I took my eyes off of him for just a moment, but when he woke up he fell right off the couch. Had I not been sleep deprived, I probably would have kept a closer eye on him or noticed the moment he woke up.Fortunately, it was nothing too serious. But I remember panicking and rushing to call a cab to take him to the hospital. I was terrified that I might have caused serious injuries. After that scary accident, I decided to seek consulting for sleep training.<blockquote>"You can't raise a healthy child if you are exhausted.”</blockquote><h3>Better sleep becomes more than a dream</h3>Before that incident, I had only considered sleep training. In California, where I had given birth, mothers often returned to work three months postpartum. It was common practice to work with a sleep consultant – a professional that handles sleep training and nighttime crying – to prepare a baby’s sleep environment, allowing the mother to return to work fully equipped to handle nighttime crying and sleep training on her own.At the time I had been reading The Happiest Baby on the Block, a well-known book about parenting and increasing a baby’s sleep, since my son was three months old. But just reading about it didn’t really help the problem I was facing. I still wasn’t sure what to do.The couch incident showed me that I had not been thinking clearly thanks to my baby’s continued night time crying and my own unwavering sleep deprivation. I decided to seek help right away. After receiving consultation and working on sleep training with my husband, I saw a change in my baby’s sleep pattern after just three days.We would leave the room after putting my baby to sleep and watch him through the monitor to measure the time from the start of crying to the end of crying, and we would let him cry for about five minutes, then have contact with him for two minutes, and leave again for a short while, following a time chart. If I had been alone without my husband’s support, I would have broken down when I heard my baby crying.The first few days were pretty rough but to my surprise he quickly began to adapt. After a few weeks, I was actually able to sleep through the night on my own as if by magic. I was so happy about it that when I shared it on Instagram, I was inundated with questions from my friends in Japan, "What is sleep training!?"I received the same response from other people who used sleep training with their infants using the same method as I did. To this day, I still receive comments from users of the Lullaby app saying that they start to see changes in their infants after about the third day. Of course, there are individual differences, but that is the magic of sleep training! You can see improvement almost immediately.For me, the change was drastic. I had read some papers with scientific evidence at the time, but I felt that perhaps if I had the knowledge, parenting would be much easier.I was finally able to get more sleep and I even had enough time to myself that I could take night classes at UCLA Extension. Looking back, the first three to four months after giving birth are a hurdle for just about anyone looking to sleep train because it is a time when the baby does not yet have the strength to sleep through the night. With such knowledge, I would have felt more relaxed about the position I was in.<h3> Global effects of sleep deprivation</h3>Since my job was to develop new businesses in the EdTech industry, I had the opportunity to hear directly from CEOs and COOs about startups in Japan and overseas at the time. Perhaps that is where I was first attracted to the world of startups.Later, I became pregnant in 2016, gave birth in 2017, took maternity leave, and returned to work in 2018. At that time, I particularly remembered the words of a senior employee at Mitsui &amp; Co. who had started his own business. He said that when it comes to new businesses, it’s important to find a deep pain point. If it is deep, and if it is an issue that you want to solve no matter how much money you have to pay, it should be a viable business.&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/design-research">Why Design Research Is Important in Building a Startup</a>&nbsp;After my son was born, for the first time in my life I was faced with the challenge of sleep deprivation. It was the most physically and mentally exhausting experience of my life so far, a true pain point.While sleep training was a common solution in the U.S., it wasn’t in Japan. I thought, "This is it!" I continued to gather information to commercialize this idea. I later learned that Moon was going to hold its first pitch event, so I decided to apply. It seemed like a good opportunity. I pitched my idea for Lullaby and that was the start of my business to improve children's nighttime crying and improve parent’s own sleep.Later, Dr. Mariko Morita, who participated in the project as a supervising physician, also found that the problems related to bedtime are significant.According to data published by Ehime University in 2018, Japan ranks last when comparing the total length of sleep of three-year-olds in 17 major countries1.But it's not just children’s sleep that is affected. Data published by the OECD in 2016 showed that Japanese adult males had the fourth-shortest total sleep duration of all 38 countries at the time (35 OECD member countries plus China, India, and South Africa), and adult females in Japan had the lowest sleep duration2.Sleep deprivation is a major problem in Japan, and many people associate this to their feelings of anxiety about returning to work after parental leave, to fight because of frustration with their children not sleeping, to get divorced because their marriage deteriorates, or to suffer from postpartum depression. Although the methodology on how to improve this nighttime crying problem has not been established at all in Japan, there is evidence for the effectiveness of sleep training.Out of 52 treatment studies from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 94% of the studies report that sleep training has been effective in improving nighttime crying, and more than 80% of children demonstrated significant improvement that was maintained for three-six months3. Even though the results are well documented, in Japan, there are no medical institutions or midwifery centers to provide guidance.Research has shown that the rate of postpartum depression, stated to originally be about 15%, has increased to about 30% due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic4, which may have a significant impact on mental health. And problems related to infant sleep contribute to the increased percentage as well.I created Lullaby to help solve this very problem. &nbsp;&nbsp;Lullaby is currently expanding its business domain by matching sleep consultants, providing reliable childcare information under the supervision of sleep medicine physicians, and developing other services such as general childcare consultation services.The company has also begun joint development with Pigeon, and as of July 2023, plans to offer a "Nen-ne Kaizen Pack," which combines several services including the use of an application for local governments and the provision of sleep seminars for parents. Demonstration tests of the effectiveness of sleep improvement for families with infants and toddlers will begin sequentially in five municipalities: Kashiwabara City (Osaka Prefecture), Namegata City (Ibaraki Prefecture), Otsuki City (Yamanashi Prefecture), Gyoda City (Saitama Prefecture), and Morioka City (Iwate Prefecture).&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out the <a href="https://www.lullabysleepbaby.com/">Lullaby website</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lullabysleepbaby/">Instagram</a> for the latest information and updates! &nbsp;&nbsp;*1 <a href="http://childsleep.org/guideline/wp-content/uploads/%E6%9C%AA%E5%B0%B1%E5%AD%A6%E5%85%90%E3%81%AE%E7%9D%A1%E7%9C%A0%E6%8C%87%E9%87%9D.pdf">Health, Labour and Welfare Science Research Grants: Research Group on Sleep and Use of Information and Communication Devices by Preschool Children</a> (ed.). Sleep guidelines for preschool children. Ehime: Sleep Medical Center, Ehime University Hospital, 2018.*2 <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/521957/time-spent-sleeping-countries/">Average minutes per day spent sleeping in OECD countries plus China, India and South Africa by gender</a>, as of 2016*3 <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17068979/">Behavioral treatment of bedtime problems and night wakings in infants and young children</a>.*4 <a href="https://www.kuhs.ac.jp/shi/news/details_01448.html">Drastically increased postpartum depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with social restrictions.</a>

<a href="https://goril.jp/">GORIL</a> is a digital product that teaches native Japanese speakers proper pronunciation and articulation of the English language through visualization and providing real-time feedback.They recently launched a new web application, <a href="https://demo.goril.jp/">GORIL48</a>, which visualizes the user’s sounds when they speak out loud. An illustrated animation shows its mouth and tongue moving along with the sound, showing the user how to articulate the correct English pronunciation based on the correct mouth movements. But how did Satoshi Yoshida, founder of GORIL, come up with this idea? Read on to hear Satoshi describe how GORIL came to be, from idea to research and ultimately, product launch.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_8b8b316cf1.jpg" alt="image1.jpg"><figcaption>Satoshi Yoshida, GORIL founder: Satoshi studied abroad at a university in Wisconsin, USA., as an exchange student while in college. After graduation, he joined Mitsui &amp; Co. in the fall of 2021 and was transferred to Moon Creative Lab as an in-house entrepreneur. In April 2023, he launched the iOS app GORIL Beta, and in August 2023, the web app GORIL48.</figcaption></figure><h3>Is it “food” or “hood”?</h3>The prototype of the idea came to me around 1997. When I was in college, I studied abroad as an exchange student at a university in Wisconsin, but even after six months, my English pronunciation had not improved at all and I lacked confidence.I struggled with taking notes in class because I could not comprehend what was being said, and even when I tried my best to speak English, I was always asked, "What did you just say?” I was always in a constant state of anxiety.My interest in the English language started long before college though. In junior high school, my life was all about baseball. I practiced endless hours without a break, aiming for the Koshien (National High School Baseball Championship), and English was the only thing I was interested in other than baseball. I had this vague idea that if I could master English, I would eventually expand my horizons.When an exchange student from Australia transferred to my school in my second year of high school, I was assigned to be his class guide. At first, he could barely speak Japanese, so I spent a year at school with him, carrying both Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries. However, only having been taught English by Japanese teachers up to that point, I was honestly at a loss with understanding English.For example, I could not understand the difference between "food" and "hood" at all. I asked the exchange student to pronounce those words for me dozens of times and I repeated it so much that he told me to give it a rest, but still I couldn't understand it – and this problem came up again later in life when I studied abroad in the U.S. Not only was it difficult to properly formulate what I wanted to say in English, but I was also having problems getting him to understand what I was saying through my pronunciation in the first place!My scores on written tests did not reflect the difficulty I was experiencing with pronunciation – it was a completely different situation. And after much trial and error to figure out what to do at that point, the idea came to me of what would become the prototype for GORIL.<blockquote>"I could not understand the difference between 'food' and 'hood' at all."</blockquote><h3>Learning through imitation</h3>Six months into my U.S. study, I was still struggling with my English pronunciation. I decided at that moment that I needed to ask a classmate to teach me. The classmate I reached out to was an English as a Second Language (ESL) major and aspired to become a teacher, so the student was eager to help me.One day while practicing, I suddenly started looking at my classmates' mouths and imagining the shape of their mouths and the movement of their tongues and muscles. When I was finally told, "That was good," I became aware that the shape of my mouth and the movement of my tongue was important in my pronunciation! Suddenly, I was able to pronounce the words correctly and was given positive feedback.Overtime, I was able to imitate other sounds as well, and I was able to apply these sounds to words more and more. Eventually, people would tell me, "You have good pronunciation! Where did you learn to speak like that?" I gradually gained the confidence I was lacking and actually wanted to speak more English. This made me think that perhaps my method for pronunciation could be replicated to improve other’s English pronunciation as well. &nbsp;<h3>Still a student, not quite the teacher yet</h3>Since joining Mitsui, I’ve worked mostly in logistics. But in 2015, I was transferred to Singapore as a port operator. At the time, a colleague of mine, who was also transferred, wanted to improve his English pronunciation. I remembered my university days and tried the same pronunciation approach, this time as the teacher and he was the student.But when I told him, "Try to visualize the opening of your mouth, the position and use of your tongue, and adjust the way you produce the sound," he did not understand what I meant by "visualize." No matter how many times I tried to explain the concept, I couldn’t get it right. He told me, "If I could see the image you are talking about more clearly, I think I would be able to do it." I began to agonize over it.The port operator I was managing at the time was forming a task force to think of how to create new businesses for the next generation, and I was fortunate enough to join. We didn't really know how to come up with new ideas, and we didn't have much experience, but as the task force members worked with Moon on the ideas, we gradually became fascinated by the novelty of Moon's approach.At that time, I thought the idea of "visualizing pronunciation" could be potentially materialized at Moon. Fortunately, I got the support of the people around me, including my boss at the time, and I made my pitch in March 2021. &nbsp;<h3>Design research</h3>With Moon’s wide variety of professional resources, we were connected with Takuya Yamagishi, a design researcher who is still currently working on GORIL with us. The research we conducted at the time revealed that 3D models developed to improve pronunciation already existed in the speech therapy industry.In fact, the existing 3D model closely mimicked the movements of my classmates' mouths when I was studying in the U.S., but it was too complicated for users to understand, which really surprised me.Of course, I was very particular about the 3D model I had in mind, and some linguists who collaborated with us agreed that a three-dimensional representation would be better to visualize pronunciation, but the users' reactions were different. I think they didn't intuitively know how to imitate it.We have talked to nearly 200 people, and 100 of which we have provided workshops and lessons to. I came to believe that there needed to be a more intuitive system to understand how one's mouth opens and how the tongue is positioned to produce a certain sound. As a result, I began to think about a two-dimensional interface that would allow me to roughly understand the opening of my mouth and the position of my tongue, and my ideas evolved into the current form of the program. &nbsp;<h3>2D proves better than 3D</h3>The team decided to utilize 2D to teach pronunciation and we have even gamified the experience. We developed familiar games like pinball where users must pronounce vowel sounds in order to control the game.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Goril_image_2_f4a7c592d5.jpg" alt="Goril image 2.jpg"><figcaption>The pictured interface uses formant frequencies to output to two-dimensional coordinates. By objectively capturing the characteristics of the sound and showing them in the visuals, the mouth movements are expressed in a way that is easy to imitate.</figcaption></figure>This simplification was easy to understand because the way people understand different sounds may differ from person to person. Even when people say that they understand and can pronounce a sound, some might be able to imitate it naturally and immediately, while others might not. Even when it comes to listening, there are some people who can separate listening into many elements and others who cannot.When you practice English pronunciation with GORIL, you are turning pronunciation into a simple exercise of moving your mouth into a certain shape, and once you learn it, it’s hard to forget – much like riding a bicycle.The 100+ people who have tried GORIL so far have confirmed its effectiveness, and I am now convinced that anyone can understand it and create a new muscle memory related to English pronunciation, as long as it is visualized in this way.In my 2021 pitch, my Singaporean English, or “Singlish,” was in full swing because I had been in Singapore for a long time. Some of the Moon Committee members I was pitching to commented, "Satoshi's English is special, isn't it!” But, as I’ve learned from my own experience, English has many different pronunciations to begin with.GORIL will start with American English, but in the future, we would like to include British English, Australian English, Singaporean English, and many others. Though we have already visualized a portion of the Japanese language, we believe that there is ample potential for visualization of languages other than Japanese and English. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;GORIL released the iOS app (beta version) GORIL in April 2023 and its web app <a href="https://demo.goril.jp/">GORIL48</a> in August. GORIL has been actively communicating their work in English pronunciation by holding events, appearing on radio programs, and starting their own podcast, "GORIL Pronunciation Club" (available on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/08ldUbbRAc2fxR9sSZlKUP">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/goril-%E7%99%BA%E9%9F%B3%E9%83%A8/id1689364810">Apple Podcasts</a>, and <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lMDUzMTM0MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw?hl=ja">Google Podcasts</a>).In the future, GORIL intends to develop an English-learning support tool that allows parents and children to learn pronunciation together, and to visualize not only words but also sentences. They are also looking at applying this technology for learning languages around the world. For the latest information, please visit <a href="https://goril.jp/">GORIL's official website</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Goril_English">Twitter</a>.&nbsp;Check back here frequently as we will be sharing more stories and updates about GORIL.

In Moon Alumni interviews, we hear from entrepreneurs who have worked with Moon Creative Lab on their innovative ideas for new businesses and incubating new startup ventures. This time, we talked with Takayuki Yamanaka, General Manager of Innovation &amp; Corporate Development Div. of Mitsui &amp; Co. India Pvt, Ltd. Mumbai Branch.In this story:<ul><li>Supporting overseas expansion of domestic IP businesses&nbsp;</li><li>Using Twitter to gain traction</li><li>Personal experiences benefit businesses</li></ul><h3>Supporting Overseas Expansion of Domestic IP Businesses</h3>Takayuki Yamanaka has an incredibly diverse background. Since joining Mitsui &amp; Co. in 1999 having a license of registered customs specialist, he has dealt imports/exports and logistics consultations in Logistics Business Unit, was involved in overseas sales and project management for the Iron &amp; Steel Products Business Unit, served as a COO in the Media Division’s affiliate(at that time) TV Channel “Kids Station”, and is currently the General Manager of Innovation &amp; Corporate Development Div. of Mitsui &amp; Co. India Pvt, Ltd. Mumbai Branch, where he focuses on B2B information and communication technology.Takayuki joined Moon in 2021 to work on his venture, Japan IP Studio, an intellectual property platform to support the global development of content produced in Japan. This idea had been on his mind for a very long time, seeing that Takayuki is an avid domestic anime fan and collector owning a library of around 6,000 books in his basement.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/_62843e0378.jpg" alt="山中さん.jpg"> "I wanted to create an environment that would make it easy to match domestic content creators with companies that wanted to showcase their content overseas by making all kinds of IP and creative data related to domestic content searchable,” Takayuki explained.Japan IP Studio would provide domestic content creators with marketing data that would help them determine the value of overseas expansion, while also helping international companies search for Japanese content. By acting as a mediary to handle business and IP between Japan and other countries, Japan IP Studio would have hopefully helped the supply of content meeting overseas demand.According to Takayuki’s research, there were at least 40,000 manga, anime, games, novels, and other types of content in Japan. Though the language barrier was a large challenge, cultural differences in content creation also presented a hurdle. In Japan, content is often created before a marketing strategy is put in place. With global companies, however, art is created to tailor to existing market data. As a result, Takayuki says, foreign companies would often only see popular content, while lesser-known creators remained overlooked.To counterbalance the disparate domains, Takayuki collected data on each piece of content existing in Japan and made it, for the first time ever, searchable. He also managed the information in intricate detail so that other countries could determine if the content fit its cultural background and legal restrictions.Takayuki collected and compiled data on approximately 5,000 pieces of Japanese content into a singular database. With the help of a data scientist, he worked with domestic IP owners and overseas companies to customize the search results. But setbacks with time, resources, and the pandemic slowed the Japan IP Studio project down. "I remember it was like a game of messages. Later, with advice from Moon members, we decided to pivot. At first, we were aiming to develop a matching platform for B2B, collecting data on works and systematically connecting content and companies. But then we realized that it is consumers who support the foundation of the IP business. As a result, we came to the conclusion that we must first understand the fans in each region, such as what fans in the U.S. were looking for, or what fans in Southeast Asia are searching for. It seemed faster to take the data I had in my head on domestic content and link it to international fans. For example, trends in games can be generated from Discord conversations, and content can generate buzz without any marketing. I thought it would be faster for me to create such things by sending out information myself, rather than collecting data and creating a platform.”<h3> Using Twitter To Gain Traction</h3><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/2023_06_29_20_08_43_f466459c96.png" alt="スクリーンショット 2023-06-29 20.08.43.png">Takayuki decided to pivot to a business model using SNS. Japan IP Studio used Twitter to not only communicate with fans to identify and forecast trends, but also used that information to provide planning proposals to Japanese content creators and introduce content to overseas companies.&nbsp;However, building a fan-based business takes time. Though Takayuki was able to gain valuable data by using Twitter, it was difficult to show results in a short time frame. He decided to end his time at Moon after one year.The project was unfortunately terminated, but Takayuki decided to continue the operation on his own. He devoted his personal time to his blog and Twitter, promoting the account at his own expense and continuing to introduce Japanese productions to overseas users in English. Japan IP Studio’s Twitter account now has a following of over 10,000 international anime fans.<h3>Personal Experiences Benefit Businesses</h3>Takayki emphasizes that he learned the importance of personal growth through his research at Moon and his Twitter operation. "I took advice from consultants and actually tried it out, but there were few successful social networking strategies that could be applied directly to what I had heard. I had to try it myself."Takayuki explains further, "If you advertise too much, you are likely to lose followers rapidly afterwards. So, how much is just right?” He says that subtle adjustments to the strategy, like trying to find the right amount of advertising, would have been difficult to understand without actually trying it, and would have been something that no one could teach him.&nbsp;He believes that an individual’s hands-on experience brings the greatest benefits to a business group or organization. "Right now, I'm using my personal time to increase my social influence as much as possible through the Japan IP Studio account… I think it is better for individuals to first gain experience and then apply it to their own business where it will be mutually beneficial. That alone has the potential to create great synergy."Takayuki, who also holds an MBA from the University of Wales and a PLD (Program for Leadership Development) from Harvard Business School, shares that creating connections, such as the personal ties of alumni, can also help build business. "Harvard Business School has an alumni association called HBS Alumni. Everyone has left for their own paths, but the concept of alumni is to loosely unite them… in five or ten years, if the internal entrepreneurs at Mitsui and Moon can create synergies within their networks, the relationship between them should be a great asset.”&nbsp;He explains the necessity of networking, sharing information, and receiving feedback in order to make a business successful, and how a collaborative environment is beneficial for innovation. “It is similar to checking out of a hotel. ‘How was your stay? Please let us know if there is anything we can improve on, and please come back and have a nice trip!’ I think Moon is playing an important role in promoting such an environment within the Mitsui &amp; Co. group.”&nbsp;Learn more about Japan IP Studio on their&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Japan_IP_Studio">Twitter account</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://japanipstudio.hatenablog.com/">blog</a>. Alumni Interview<ul><li><a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/interview-hiraoka">"Experiment Fast and Take Control" Anna Hiraoka</a></li><li><a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/interview-tatsumi">"Be the target user" Yoshinori Tatsumi</a>&nbsp;</li></ul>

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Hiro Narihara, Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) of Moon Creative Lab venture&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pioneerguild.jp/">Pioneer Guild</a>, shares his experiments in career mapping and mentoring. In this interview, you’ll learn how Pioneer Guild launched its product, how they use customer feedback and professional networking to help drive growth, and why it’s never too late to start your own company.<hr>Hi Hiro! Tell us about your venture, Pioneer Guild.<img class="image_resized" style="width:76.48%;" src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_2_bfc8b2e79f.jpg" alt="image1 2.jpg">Hiro Narihara:&nbsp;Pioneer Guild is a venture that is creating a new experience for people to map out their career pathways. Pioneer Guild will allow users to see where they are in their career today and navigate to where they want to be years later. Like Google Maps, they’ll see different paths to go where they want&nbsp; and they can zoom out to take in the bigger picture: they’ll see major highways and minor roads, they’ll see where congestion is choking progress, and they’ll see which route is best for them - which could be the path that’s fastest or the one with the least amount of hassle.&nbsp; Our app’s users – we call them Explorers – will also be able to hear from others who have traversed these paths before. They can read reviews of their career pathway’s conditions or discover insider tips and interesting stops along the way. And there will be seasoned “career travelers” they can talk with – we call these folks our Career Pioneers.&nbsp;&nbsp;We recently ran an experiment matching up Career Pioneers with Explorers looking for advice on traveling down similar career paths, and we learned a lot from it!&nbsp;Can you provide details about how you ran that specific experiment?H.N.: Sure! The whole process was extremely fast and agile. Late last year, our team ran an experiment to test some hypotheses we had made about the current market. We created a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pioneerguild.jp/">website</a> within a week and launched a mentoring program with real customers in only two weeks! The program matched tech startup people who were originally in the finance industry with Explorers who are interested in a similar career shift. The key element that allowed us to run the experiment so fast was networking: Human-to-human connections are always the most powerful, and for us it paid off.Overall, the experiment had some successes but also a lot of struggles. Many visitors to our website were doubtful at first, thinking it was simply another recruiting service. As a result, we did not get much response from users. If I wanted to change anything it would be to use fewer “loaded” words that are common in the industry – e.g., “job change”, “career-up”, “work-life balance”, etc. – which can trigger people’s defensiveness.Taking all this into account, we adjusted our messaging halfway through the experiment. Instead of talking to people as though they were customers, we found they were much more willing to engage with and support us if we simply asked them to evaluate our new experimental offering. Many told us they were excited to become part of something new and join a community of like-minded people. It’s important to remind ourselves that most people fundamentally want to help others.My big takeaway? As founders, we should draw people together into a community and allow them to participate in the creative process of experimentation itself. In fact, when we asked our customers to describe their ideal mentoring service, many of their ideas were more original and insightful than our own! They were teaching us how we should proceed.Listening more and bringing people together to co-create – that’s something I want to focus on more moving forward.&nbsp;Why a mentoring program? How can it help people?H.N.: There are many services out there in the world like this, but most have major drawbacks, which was something we heard again and again from users during our research.Career coaches, for example, tend to be very dream-like and almost therapeutic in tone. They are great for setting long-term, “North Star” goals and going deep into motivations, uncovering unconscious blockers and so on. But their recommendations can lack practicality and near-term actionability.Recruiters, on the other hand, are the opposite – they tend to focus on the near-term, have their own agendas, and don’t necessarily have the best interests of their clients or prospects at heart – sometimes creating a conflict of interest. Recruiters often simply want to make a commission and will push people to accept jobs and take career paths that don’t really meet their needs.With Pioneer Guild, we want to take a different approach and help our Explorers make career path decisions based on objective data, contextualized by the perspective of fellow career travelers – our Career Pioneers – to both inspire them and help them make well-informed, life-changing decisions.&nbsp;Do you have a mentor? Or are you a mentor yourself?H.N.:&nbsp;Yes! I have regular sessions with a certified career coach and also consult with many mentors. It’s extremely valuable to me. Through the process of questioning and being questioned, I can see myself more clearly. In this sense, my coaches and mentors are like mirrors that give me an objective point of view on professional development.Actually, I’ve found the startup founder community in Tokyo – which is relatively small and close-knit – to be a rich resource for mentorship. We often meet up and mentor one other casually. When you’re thinking of building a company from scratch, it’s great to be able to bounce ideas off of so many smart and dynamic people.&nbsp;Is career mapping and mentoring something that more people need?H.N.:&nbsp;Absolutely! Especially in Japan. First off, it’s obvious that Japan needs dramatic changes to recover its competitiveness in the global market. Younger generations know this very well, but middle-aged people (like myself!) are struggling to accept it.&nbsp;The nature of work itself is changing. Everyone needs to start thinking about their mid- and long-term career goals and how to reach them. Too many people are content just existing in their current roles and don’t take an active approach in building their future.&nbsp;As things go on, I believe the employment landscape in Japan will become increasingly fluid with more job mobility – both within and outside one’s current company – with more emphasis on mid-career hiring, hybridity, and work-style diversification. Studies show that many young Japanese people dream of professional independence and are taking steps to make that dream a reality.In recent years, we have seen the growth of freelance matching services and decentralized C2C marketplaces, which reduce the barriers for people wishing to start their own businesses. Pioneer Guild is part of this revolution, where work is more fluid, skill development is self-directed, and people can work across organizations.Our dream is to democratize pathways to rewarding careers, to connect individuals with related expertise, and build guilds of professional excellence. Young people are seeking a more systematic way to find the guidance they need to reach their career goals. That’s the change we want to make in the world!&nbsp;As an EIR, what advice would you give to others wanting to start their own ventures or businesses?H.N.:&nbsp;Truthfully, I’m still learning this. Maybe we all are. But one thing I can say is, don’t give up before you’ve even started. If a middle-aged corporate worker with a young family like me can start a company, so can you!I recently read a great book by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12030438">The Startup of You</a>, where he talks about the need to do an objective self-assessment and treat yourself like a company by analyzing your aspirations, the market for your particular skills and experiences, your assets, debts, risks and so on. And I agree – this is the first step.Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think starting a venture needs to be a total risk the way it is often portrayed. Instead, you need to make reasonable adjustments to your life and take measured risks. In fact, you can launch a new venture as a side gig while still working a full-time job. You just need to be clever and efficient in the way you go about it.Even the big, traditional Japanese corporations are starting to accept this. Recently, there have been policy shifts allowing employees to have side businesses that even a decade ago would have been unthinkable. Why? Because the world is changing and the pressure to adapt is so intense. As societies, industries and markets evolve, new value creation is increasingly important, wherever it comes from.&nbsp;What’s your next experiment with Pioneer Guild?H.N.:&nbsp;Right now we are starting to collaborate with recruiting agencies to create a dynamic career pathway mapping tool. It’s pretty exciting!It’s well known in the industry that job seekers complain about recruiters, saying, “They don’t understand or care about my mid- or long-term career plan. They just want to push me into a role as fast as possible.” And that’s often true. But to be fair, these agencies know this problem and really struggle with it. They want a better way to provide quality advice, too. After all, this is what truly great career consultants do for their clients.&nbsp;So that’s what we’re building right now: a data-driven, objective way to explore the many possible paths careers might take, and make fact-based decisions to navigate the way through this labyrinth. In fact, we’ve previewed what we’re doing with recruitment agencies, and they are very interested indeed.In the end, everyone deserves to find a career that not only pays the bills, but inspires them and brings them satisfaction. We want to help create that world!&nbsp;To learn more about Pioneer Guild and stay in touch, visit:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pioneerguild.jp/">https://www.pioneerguild.jp/</a> or reach out to Hiro at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:hiro@mooncreativelab.com">hiro@mooncreativelab.com</a>.&nbsp;

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This is the blog of an interview series featuring employees from Mitsui &amp; Co. Ltd., who were seconded to Moon Creative Lab to work on new business ventures. These Moon alumni share their experiences as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) while at Moon and the knowledge they’ve brought back to Mitsui.This interview is with Anna Hiraoka, who has been successfully managing a series of Diversity and Inclusion (D&amp;I) initiatives at Mitsui. Anna shares her experience:&nbsp;<ul><li>Discovering strength through design research</li><li>Connecting team members with a coloring book project&nbsp;</li><li>Using visualization to foster culture with acknowledgement</li><li>Gaining driving force after experiencing pivots&nbsp;</li></ul>&nbsp;<h3>Discovering strength through design research</h3>Anna is currently a member of the Diversity Management Dept. of Mitsui's Human Resources &amp; General Affairs Division (HR), where she has been initiating various types of in-house initiatives. After working on hospital investment projects within the Wellness Business Unit (BU) at Mitsui, she was seconded to Moon from October 2018 to September 2021 to focus on a healthcare venture. Due to the business pivot and the pandemic, her own venture eventually folded and her time at Moon came to an end. Anna returned to Mitsui and transferred to HR in April 2022.While at Moon, Anna began working on design research for business creation in collaboration with IDEO, a design consulting firm. In her very first working session, she realized that visualization is her strength.&nbsp;"At IDEO, drawing pictures and visualizing ideas as they discuss is very common, but that was not the case in the past experience at Mitsui. That’s why I was surprised to find myself being comfortable with that practice. That’s when I realized this might be my strength."&nbsp; -A.H.&nbsp;&nbsp;Anna says she always had a habit of taking notes with some drawings and putting them on her desk even before coming to Moon. She even has a vision board at home to put ideas together and organize what’s on her mind.After working with IDEO, she has honed her visualization skills even further. Now, she practices graphic recordings* to compile information at meetings, structure web pages using design tools, and design a sticker of her own vision. She has learned to use visualization in a variety of ways to help team members communicate intuitively.*Graphic recording: a method of discovering insights and stimulating discussion by translating conversations or presentations into text and pictures in real-time.<h3>Connecting team members with a coloring book project</h3>One of the successful examples of Anna’s visual communication was "Color Our Vision," which she started when she returned to Mitsui's Wellness BU. Due to the pandemic, team members had fewer opportunities of working together, making it difficult to get to know each other and share the same core values and strategies.To tackle this challenge, she proposed to print out the graphic image of BU strategy on a huge paper, asking everyone to color it during their break. Since most people worked from home, the office was fairly empty and turned it into a small gathering corner. Over the course of a month, the poster was coloured by many people, showcasing their unique personalities through how they colored. This initiative created an opportunity for team members to spontaneously connect and talk to one another. Everyone loved this project and it continued to be a success.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Microsoft_Teams_image_37_f7eace07a5.jpg" alt="MicrosoftTeams-image (37).jpg"><figcaption>Team members colored and added drawings to the BU strategy poster.</figcaption></figure>Anna also came up with "Acknowledge Month" which recognizes members who understand and practice the core values of the BU. She designed stickers representing five core values, and members were encouraged to give out the stickers to those who embodied each value with a handwritten acknowledgement message on its back.This was an easy way to participate and created many new conversations amongst the BU.These initiatives using visualization created a positive impact on other activities as well. For example, at a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pechakucha.com/">Pecha-Kucha</a> meet-up, Anna invited members she had met through the coloring book project, creating another opportunity for colleagues to connect outside of work by sharing their passions such as drawing and flower arrangement.Since Anna was coming up with a series of unique projects, her manager asked her if she was interested in expanding the work she had been doing beyond BU. Anna’s ability to foster a culture was recognized as an essential skill that the company would continue to need, and she started to consider moving to HR where she thought may lead her to expand her expertise.Anna’s greatest vision is to design an inclusive and creative environment where people can thrive on a global scale. In December 2021, she pitched herself to the Human Resources and General Affairs Division, just like how she pitched her project to Moon. In April of the following year, she was offered a position at Diversity Management Dept. within HR.<h3>Using visualization to foster culture</h3>In March 2022, just before her transfer to HR, Anna organized an event to embrace International Women's Day with team members from Moon. During the event, she set up a booth and asked supporters to put stickers on a poster with a jar drawn which she called an allyship jar, if they believed in supporting gender equality in this world. This created a quick visual of how many supporters also known as allies of gender equality there were in the company.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Image_from_i_OS_12_2_632c9ac36e.jpg" alt="Image from iOS (12) 2.jpg"><figcaption>For International Women's Day, Anna visualized the number of supporters in the company with stickers.</figcaption></figure>The team asked visitors to share the names of the women in their life that inspire them most by writing them on a board and taking pictures with a crossed-hand pose that embodied the "BreakTheBias" theme of that year's International Women's Day. They posted nearly 100 pictures with booth visitors on the wall. Booth visitors also received a purple mask, which was the event's theme color. These masks gathered people's attention in the office and helped spread the word quickly and widely.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/2_4aed161d2b.jpg" alt="写真 2.jpg"><figcaption>International Women’s Day event organizers.</figcaption></figure>At the same time, the team took pictures at the booth and shared them on internal SNS along with #BreakTheBias to share the importance of recognizing our prejudices.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/197anna_a676c646fa.jpg" alt="197anna.jpg"><figcaption>Sticker designed by Anna, representing her vision. Different shapes in seven colors are put together to shape a dinosaur which represents human’s unique and crucial skill of curiosity.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>In June, Anna hosted another event with team members from Moon to talk about LGBTQIA+ allyship and what can we do as allies during Pride Month.&nbsp;Anna designed stickers with rainbow-colored dinosaurs for this special event, as she picked up a voice from the audience that they wanted something visual to show that they are allies, and she explained why she initially created the sticker.&nbsp;&nbsp;"It is important to make things visible to be recognized and to be remembered" -A.H.&nbsp;In September, Anna led the planning and hosting of a company-wide Diversity &amp; Inclusion (D&amp;I) Week event, partnering with Moon to host a workshop on the theme of "Shared Leadership” to promote D&amp;I.&nbsp;Around 500 participants from 25 countries attended the event virtually. For this event, Anna created a dedicated internal web page where she shared research findings by Rikkyo University and interview articles of Mitsui employees.In the workshop, Anna helped participants to deepen their understanding of shared leadership by posting their personal experiences as examples online using an interactive tool. This was another way for Anna to help visualize complex ideas that cannot be explained simply.With her visualization skills, Anna has made her ideas come to life and at the same time, empowered those around her. She credits the core values and learning how to pivot at Moon as her driving force.&nbsp;<h3>Gaining driving force after experiencing pivots</h3>Anna was very excited when she was first seconded to Moon. She was involved in the development of a service that would enable AI-based early detection of cancer and worked with experts in various fields in a fast-paced environment, where she had to continue researching and reporting to pass an project assessment every three months.At Moon, Anna experienced not only design thinking but also a pivot in business direction.While at Moon, Anna proposed a new online consultation platform for pets to expand her business model. However, despite confirming user needs through research in the United States and gaining support from academic societies and veterinarians, she and her team were unable to conduct online consultation tests with veterinarians and pet owners due to legal restrictions. And the immediate impact of the pandemic made it even more difficult to continue the project.After that, the team made the decision to focus on the development of AI-based early detection of cancer services for humans and looked for what they could do remotely. They built an operation and management system needed to continue the research from Japan, but there was still a limit on things that could be done online. “I couldn’t do anything even if I wanted to,” which Anna said was the hardest thing at the time.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/L1500342_retouched_c84da9cef6.jpg" alt="L1500342 retouched.jpg">The loneliness and psychological burden Anna felt when leading the project as a solo Idea Owner made her more aware of the need to support everyone in the company. Anna realized the importance of organizational development and promoting inclusion and pitched her vision to strengthen her expertise in HR.Anna says it was only after she was transferred to her current department that she started seeing the positive side of a series of challenges.&nbsp;"When I look back on myself having a hard time, I think I was too focused on one ideal scenario from the beginning. It's important to instead focus on your vision and&nbsp;celebrate what you have learned from the unexpected outcomes, and connecting it to the next step is even more important. I couldn’t realize that even after one or two pivots, but now I feel that my experience at Moon is giving me the driving force. Maybe I've grown up a little bit."&nbsp;Anna says, “The more you want to achieve the goal, the more painful it is when your ideas are not recognized. Your ideas and approach might not always be the company's priorities.”&nbsp; However, Anna says, “I try to think that there are always allies who will support me, and people are not criticizing you for being a great artist. It is more directed towards your art piece that might need more work, so embrace others’ ideas too, and turn the feedback into making your art piece an even better one.”&nbsp;&nbsp;"I'm always keeping Moon's<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/ja/about"> five values</a> in my mind. Take ‘experiment fast’ for example. It's important to start small and fast. If it seems like it’s working, you can scale that up. And then there's ‘stretch your comfort zone.’ I feel that our company is constantly evolving, and I want to be that driving force. I want to aim for a culture-add, not a culture fit." -A.H.&nbsp;

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An interview with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.metajob.jp/">MetaJob</a> founder Naohiro Hoshino about his inspiration and experiments creating a more human-centered future of work.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/2023_03_24_22_14_48_075cdbab8f.jpg" alt="スクリーンショット 2023-03-24 22.14.48.jpg">Hi there! Can you start by telling us about MetaJob?Naohiro Hoshino (N.H.):&nbsp;Of course! MetaJob is a job-matching platform that aims to create an even-level playing field for all people in a work environment. Various groups – particularly people from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds, stay-at-home mothers, and&nbsp;hikkikomori (people who rarely leave their homes) – struggle to compete in the traditional job marketplace. At the same time, there is a labor shortage in Japan that is only getting worse as the population continues to age. Our vision has always been the same: to level out the playing field and help people find meaningful, rewarding work, while also helping businesses find the quality employees they need to thrive.&nbsp;What inspired you to start building this venture?N.H.&nbsp;I grew up on the east side of Tokyo, where the ratio of self-employed people is very high. As a kid, I couldn’t even imagine going to university. Most people I knew worked in scrappy, family-owned businesses. In a country like Japan which traditionally values formal education, this can be a significant disadvantage. But the truth is, these people have the same capability as others, but less opportunity to show it. These days, technology is changing things, and rapidly. YouTubers have disrupted and democratized popular entertainment and people are increasingly making a living by directly buying and selling to others online. I see it as a dramatic and positive shift in the nature of work itself, and something I want to be a part of!&nbsp;Can you tell us more about how MetaJob works?N.H.&nbsp;MetaJob is a multi-sided platform that matches virtual workers with businesses that have online customer-facing operations. We need to consider all three key stakeholders and their needs: the workers who wish to work virtually, the businesses who need workers they can trust, and the end-users who want&nbsp; quality service. We balance these needs and provide a frictionless, human-centered platform to facilitate the exchange of value between all users.&nbsp;How has MetaJob evolved over time?N.H.&nbsp;Although my vision has stayed the same, our approach has evolved. At first, we worked on solving for the first group: people who want to work, but struggle to do so in the so-called “real world.” We aimed to help them by providing a virtual working environment and identity through the use of 3D avatars. This was very effective and we saw positive results from the worker side, but we also discovered that businesses and end-users do not always trust avatar-only workers.In our second phase of development, we shifted focus to the business side and found that the core issue is a lack of social credit. In short, how can we ensure the quality of virtual workers and create a trusted network? With this in mind, we began developing a system to evaluate virtual worker quality, which led to a huge increase in both trust and engagement.&nbsp;A system as such must be designed with great care; it should be autonomous, transparent, decentralized, and not controlled by an authority like a company or government.&nbsp;Currently, MetaJob has thousands of worker accounts and we make hundreds of job matches per month. Our active users are primarily stay-at-home mothers, minorities, and people with unstable jobs (Hiseiki Shain).&nbsp;What is next for MetaJob?N.H. Our greatest challenge right now is to raise the volume of job opportunities that we are providing and focus on the satisfaction of end-users. This is a common problem for growing ventures. How do we move from linear to exponential growth? But we have a plan!We want to pioneer a new kind of C2C+B market, what we are calling “life-sharing,” or an “experience-and-earn” model. During MetaJob’s growth, we came across the fascinating insight that everyone's an expert on something. For example, I lived in France for some years, and I like driving. As a result, I became an expert on scenic driving routes not only around Paris, but also Western Europe. So if you ever want any advice or recommendations about driving in France and Western Europe, let me know!We want to help our MetaJob users by giving them a platform to provide insight to others in a shared network, sharing life experiences and expert knowledge about whatever the subject may be, and earn money doing so. One of our MetaJob workers, for example, has visited every single&nbsp;onsen hot spring on the Izu Peninsula of Japan. By sharing their life experiences and knowledge, others on the platform interested in traveling to that area can benefit. By building out this functionality, we will dramatically expand the value that MetaJob provides by sharing value amongst the end-users themselves. And we hope that one day, end-users can earn a living this way.Our vision is to continue to expand the platform and provide more opportunities for virtual workers to find meaningful, rewarding work, while also helping businesses find the quality employees they need to thrive. We also want to focus on the satisfaction of end-users and create a platform that provides real value to them.In the short term, we are working on building out the C2C+B model and we believe this will be a major growth area for the platform. We also want to continue to refine our scoring system and make it as objective and reliable as possible.&nbsp;How do you imagine the future of work?N.H.:&nbsp;We believe that the future of work will be more decentralized, human-centered, hybrid, and flexible than it has ever been in the past. Technology is making it easier to work remotely and more people are seeking a better balance between work and personal life. More and more people, especially here in Japan, are seeking options to be self-employed, at least partially. It has never been easier to start your own business providing value to others in a direct, peer-to-peer relationship than now. MetaJob is helping to make this shift possible.In the long term, we see MetaJob as part of a larger movement towards a more dynamic and equitable work environment. We want to help people find work that fits their lives rather than the other way around, and create a world where anyone can earn a decent living by sharing their valuable life experiences with others, regardless of their background or situation. We believe that this is the future of work and we are excited to be a part of it!

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In this interview series, we talk to employees from Mitsui &amp; Co. Ltd., who were seconded to Moon Creative Lab to work on new business ventures. These Moon alumni share their experiences as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) at Moon and the knowledge they’ve brought back to Mitsui.For this interview we talk with Yoshinori Tatsumi, currently leading the crypto asset Zipang Coin.&nbsp;What did he learn from his experience at Moon?.&nbsp;<ul><li>Importance of staying focused</li><li>Become your target user&nbsp;</li><li>Do it yourself &nbsp;</li></ul><hr><h3>The importance of staying focused</h3>Yoshinori belongs to the Commodity Trading &amp; Risk Management Division of the Corporate Development Business Unit of Mitsui &amp; Co., Ltd. In 2018, he submitted his idea to Moon and was then chosen to work with Moon as an EIR.&nbsp;Initially, the project started as an investment project, but eventually shifted to business development for collaboration. Yoshinori tried to build a service that targets inbound tourists, focusing on mobility and regional revitalization. The idea was named "1 Hour Trip”, which aimed to enhance users' travel time by introducing recommended travel routes rather than the shortest route to their destination.Together with Moon, Yoshinori tried to develop a platform that integrates&nbsp;transfer information for transportation, such as buses and trains. The goal was to then link service information, such as restaurants, tours, and various experiences, with the proposed routes, which may also include walking. There were also benefits for service personnel such as the dispersion of transportation resources and the prevention of tourists from expanding into residential areas.However, due to various challenges such as technical problems and the time required to establish an alliance, the business idea had to pivot repeatedly. Yoshinori says it was difficult to imagine the issues and needs of target users with different living environments and cultural backgrounds.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/tatusmi_image2_0c2951dc5e.jpg" alt="tatusmi image2.jpg">&nbsp;"The inbound tourists who were our intended users were very different from me. Interviews were necessary to understand their needs, but the more interviews I conducted and the more user needs I imagined, the more I seemed to lose sight of what was important to me. We couldn't decide what kind of prototype to develop for various reasons, and the repeated pivots had an impact as well. I couldn't say with confidence anymore that we must do this.”A lack of confidence had a significant impact when proposing to the Moon Committee and working with project members. Towards the end of the project, Yoshinori found convincing business potential, but at that time, there was not enough time left for research and the development of that business was postponed even before he could create a monetization mechanism. Yoshinori graduated from Moon in December 2020.<h3>Become your target user</h3>Immediately after returning to Mitsui, Yoshinori participated in the launch of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.zipangcoin.com/">Zipang Coin</a>, a crypto asset that aims to be linked to the price of gold. In the long term, it is expected to be used for exchange with gold.From his experience at Moon, Yoshinori learned the importance of having a deep understanding of his target user.&nbsp;"I felt that it was very important for me to be the target user. I remember that other ventures at Moon, in which entrepreneurs themselves were the target users, had something powerful to attract various things, regardless of the size of the market. Especially in marketing, they had an advantage. So, even if I wasn't the target user in the first place, I thought it would be good if I became one."Yoshinori started to embody Moon's values, such as "experiment fast" and "stretch our comfort zone," one after another at Mitsui.&nbsp;"The moment I joined the Zipang Coin project, I turned all my assets into cryptocurrencies and started trading on my own. Since users are investors, I had to become an investor myself. By using my own money to trade, I gained a deeper understanding of certain aspects. This is why I know the value and weaknesses of our products better than anyone else, and I can confidently say I know how our product is seen in the market. I believe we are well known in the market, as investors tend to associate Zipang Coin with my face. This is because I actually practiced what I learned at Moon.”&nbsp;With the start of Zipang Coin's business, Yoshinori created and began managing a website and SNS account on his own. As a result, he was nominated for the "Person of the Year" by the Japan Blockchain Association, even though SNS operations and content marketing were tasks that he had hardly experienced before, even during his time at Moon.&nbsp;<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/tatsumi_image1_de7a33ea27.jpg" alt="tatsumi image1.jpg"><h3>Do it yourself</h3>"What I learned from Moon’s experts was the importance of doing things yourself instead of outsourcing everything. If you can handle it yourself, you can respond more flexibly and quickly, and it does not cost much nor require approval. You can create a website without writing code, and anyone can create an SNS account right away. I think it's better to release it to the world as soon as possible and observe people’s reactions."&nbsp;For Yoshinori, the use of websites and social media was one of the best ways to allow him to immediately gauge the market’s reaction without spending any money. When he was at Moon, he focused on research, so there were no products developed yet and what he could do was limited. He now acknowledges the value and power of actually creating something with his own hands."I have always kept my distance from social media, but I got to learn the importance of social media, especially in the investor community. Although my reach is limited, connecting with people in the community could lead me to supporters who have millions of followers. In some cases, third-party opinions have a greater impact on investment decisions than press releases. Trustworthy connections between individuals are crucial."Finally, Yoshinori reflected on his experiences at Moon and since returning to Mitsui."Through my experience at Moon, I met people from diverse backgrounds that I had never met before. Without meeting them, I don't think I would have been able to broaden my horizon. It would be ideal to share what I learned at Moon with Mitsui through my work, and as a result, the Moon value would be shared at Mitsui as well.”

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In this article, we share experiences from Space Camp, a program that prepares entrepreneurs at Moon Creative Lab, which supports new business creation at Mitsui &amp; Co.<hr>In this article, you will learn about:<ol><li>How Moon entrepreneurs begin their journey</li><li>Exploring your problem space</li><li>How to prepare for the inevitable</li></ol><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Space_Camp_287e026290.png" alt="Moon+Creative+Lab+Space+Camp.png">When you set out to embark on your next journey, it’s likely you’ve been preparing ahead of time – &nbsp;a future trip, new job, or moving to a new city. For budding entrepreneurs, it’s no different when they begin their entrepreneur journeys building their first ventures with Moon Creative Lab.Before ideation sessions, prototype builds, and a minimum viable product (MVP) rollout, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) must complete Space Camp, an intensive three-week program that aims to prepare them for their new roles at Moon. Imagine stepping into a CEO or founder’s shoes for the very first time. It’s a huge role to fulfill! Space Camp’s mission is to address some of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face not only with their ventures, but as their personal roles transform with profound responsibility. &nbsp;Space Camp gives EIRs a range of experiences and courses, from the transformative (“Life on the Moon”) to the exploratory (“Problem Identification and Design”) to the casual (“Coffee Chat with Moon Mates”). Held by people from the Moon Operating Team including executives, program managers, designers, and other facilitators, Space Camp allows members of the new venture team to get to know one another, and helps EIRs align their team and take the next big step towards bringing their ideas to the world.Throughout their time in Space Camp, EIRs learn by doing, failing, and trying again. Yes, we said failing! Failing and trying again is what the entrepreneur journey is all about. EIRs learn how to collaborate effectively to cultivate their leadership skills, take a deep look into problem spaces, understand concept definition, and learn how to communicate their ideas clearly to future committees – all foundational knowledge needed to begin their ventures.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Inna_Circle_Space_Camp_268e9971b6.jpeg" alt="Inna+Circle+Space+Camp.jpeg"><figcaption>Dell Dela Torre and Grace Aldas, EIRs of Inna Circle</figcaption></figure><h3>The First Step In Entrepreneurs’ Journeys</h3>For two of our newest ventures, Space Camp was a valuable introduction to the world of entrepreneurship and startups. For Dell Dela Torre and Grace Aldas, EIRs of <a href="https://www.theinnacircle.com/">Inna Circle</a> (previously called MOM 247)– a service that aims to support mothers by addressing the stressors of motherhood and offers high-quality childcare – Space Camp helped them better understand the startup industry, something they were unfamiliar with in their previous roles. “In Space Camp, we learned about past and existing ventures at Moon, the diverse working culture, a better understanding of what design-thinking is and how to apply it, reflecting on what leadership means, and pivots,” recalls Dell. For Hiro Narihaya, EIR of Pioneer Guild – a service that helps make career paths visible and available through planning and mentorship – it was helpful to learn “the practical know-how of startups and ventures, how people start off, and the first steps.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Spring_Terrace_Oct_22_8_3d4e3d7573.jpg" alt="Hiro Narihaya, EIR of Pioneer Guild"><figcaption>Hiro Narihaya, EIR of Pioneer Guild</figcaption></figure><h3>Identifying Problems and Widening Perspective</h3>Space Camp gives EIRs insight into the demands of new business creation, especially when it comes to identifying the problems they aim to solve within their ventures. For Dell and Grace, they had their minds set on their original idea they had pitched to the Moon Committee back in November. But after attending Space Camp, it gave them a wider perspective and encouraged them to look at their idea in a new way. “We were able to step back and assess the problem we wished to solve and the possible solutions we can test,” Grace says. With a wider perspective, the pair started to realize their ideas might be reshaping. “We have a more open mind now in terms of exploring more value propositions and concepts, beyond what we initially planned,” Dell adds.<blockquote>&nbsp;“We have a more open mind now in terms of exploring more value propositions and concepts, beyond what we initially planned.” – Dell Dela Torre</blockquote>Looking deeper into the problem space also helped Hiro of Pioneer Guild rethink his original idea, too. “Before, I focused on the space I was originally thinking of, but now I can cast light to the spaces from different angles amplified by the diverse Moon capabilities, and advance my ideas.” Hiro expressed how inspired he was by Space Camp, which gave him a better idea of where he wants to take his venture moving forward. “Space Camp was a great opportunity for me to reflect on myself and how I want to be in the future, where I want to go, and that inspired me to want to go further” he says.&nbsp;<blockquote>&nbsp;“Before, I focused on the space I was originally thinking of, but now I can cast light to the spaces from different angles.” – Hiro Narihara</blockquote><h3>Preparing for the Inevitable</h3>An unavoidable part of any journey is unpredictability. Things are bound to change and might not always go as planned, and that’s okay. The lesson here is the willingness to adapt to change when faced with adversity. Space Camp teaches EIRs that this is an incredibly valuable skill and part of the entrepreneur journey. Dell and Grace, who are well underway with their venture Inna Circle, have been able to remain open to change. “Pivots are inevitable. We have to embrace it and learn to navigate it. Although we are still in the early stages of incubation, we started seeing potential pivots coming in our direction,” Dell says.Because of Space Camp, Hiro has reframed his thinking to stay prepared for the unknown. Knowing that not every step of the way will be smooth, he keeps his mind open for the journey going forward and is ready to learn from experience and inevitable setbacks. “There is no right answer. I need to dispose of the fixed mindset and instead be flexible to survive on this journey. I know there will be a lot of failure, rejection, and disappointment. To survive that disappointment, I need to learn from failure in a positive way. That’s the necessary part. That’s going to be my armor that will get me through this big ocean of unknowns to my destination.”&nbsp;<blockquote>“There will be a lot of failure, rejection, and disappointment. To survive that disappointment, I need to learn from failure in a positive way. That’s the necessary part.” – Hiro Narihara</blockquote>Key Takeaways:<ul><li>Expand your perspective. Looking beyond your initial solution to the wider problem space can offer valuable insight, which in turn can help paint a better picture of your businesses’ direction and core purpose.</li><li>Unpredictability is inevitable. Remaining open to change and realizing that every moment is a valuable lesson is an essential part of the entrepreneur’s mindset.</li></ul>To learn more about Inna Circle be sure to follow <a href="https://www.theinnacircle.com/">https://www.theinnacircle.com/</a>We also plan to share more updates here on Moon Stories for Pioneer Guild!&nbsp;

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Our Programs

About Moon

Our Stories

EIR - Moon Stories Blog

Books as an Experience: How Author Narration Drives Listener Engagement

Don’t Sleep on Sleep Training! Lullaby Teaches the Importance of Infant Sleep Health

Seeing Language: How GORIL Helps Visualize Pronunciation for English Learners

Hands-On: How an Entrepreneur’s Experience Helps Build Better Business

Bringing People Together To Fuel a New Kind of Career Growth Engine

Experiment Fast and Take Control: Lessons Learned From Building a Startup | Moon Alumni Interview

The Future of Work: Decentralized Human Networks

Lessons Learned From Building a Startup | Moon Alumni Interview

Beginning the Entrepreneur Journey

In The News

Moon Opens Doors to Palo Alto Startup Community

What Does Artificial Life Reveal About Us?

The Optimal Solution Between Remote and Office: Who Chooses Where To Work

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