Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia. In this episode, we chat with Mark Suster, a Partner at Upfront Ventures. Upfront is one of LA’s most prominent venture capital firms, renowned for backing companies like Ring, GOAT, Overture, and even Starbucks back in the day. Mark was previously the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia. This episode is a fireside chat with Ming Maa, the Group President of Grab. Initially established as a taxi-hailing app in Malaysia back in 2012, Grab has evolved into the leading super app in Southeast Asia and the region's first decacorn. It empowers the region's economy through a diverse range of services, including transportation, delivery, and...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia. In this episode we chat with Andrew Chen, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he invests in games, AR/VR, metaverse, and consumer tech startups. He is on the boards of Clubhouse, Substack, Z League, Sleeper, Snackpass, All Day Kitchens, Sandbox VR, Reforge, Maven, Practice, and others. He is a prolific writer on user growth, metrics, and...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia. In this episode, we chat with Richard Pearson, Chief Innovator & UK Director and Shutaro Takeda, Chief Strategist at Kyoto Fusioneering (a Coral Capital portfolio company). Kyoto Fusioneering is a nuclear fusion startup founded in 2019. Their business model is unique in that they develop and sell key components and technologies for fusion power...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia. In this episode, we chat with Kathy Matsui, General Partner of MPower Partners, Japan’s first ESG-focused VC founded in 2021. Most people will know her for coining the term "Womenomics" in her groundbreaking report published when she was at Goldman Sachs. Her research put gender diversity front and center of Japanese government policies in the years...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia broadly. In this episode, we chat with Ernest M. Higa, Founder of Domino’s Japan, and essentially the godfather of pizza delivery in Japan. In this episode we discuss: How and why Higa started Domino’s in Tokyo four decades ago. The assumptions people had about the Japan market. What was localized, and what was not. Online ordering in the early...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia broadly. In this episode, we chat with Takafumi Kurahashi, COO at SmartHR. SmartHR is the leading HR SaaS company in Japan. In 2021 they closed a JPY 15.6 billion (~$142.5 million) Series D, most of which was committed from global investors including Light Street Capital, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Whale Rock, and other global institutional...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia broadly. In this episode, we chat with Han Kim, the Managing Director and a co-founder of Altos Ventures. Altos Ventures was founded in 1996 with a $30M fund, and now manages more than $10B. Notable investments include Coupang, Woowa Brothers, Roblox and Toss. Coupang, a Korean e-commerce startup, was valued at over $100B at IPO last year. In this...

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia broadly. In this episode, we chat with Michael Seibel, the Managing Director and CEO of Y Combinator (or, “YC”). YC, one of the top startup accelerators in the world, has invested in over 3,000 companies including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, Instacart, Docker and Gusto. The combined valuation of YC companies is over $400B. Michael was the...

More and more global investors are starting to invest in Japanese tech. In this episode we interview Gaurav Gupta, Partner at Light Street Capital, a firm that has invested in Japanese tech companies since 2011. Their track record includes investments in Start Today (ZOZO), Monotaro, BASE, and Freee on the public side, as well as SmartHR's most recent Series D on the private side. This episode covers: How he became a Partner at Light Street Capital How Japan's E-Commerce and SaaS...