The Coral Capital Podcast

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 cofounder of two startups, Justin.tv and Socialcam. Socialcam sold to Autodesk in 2012 and Justin.tv became Twitch.tv and sold to Amazon in 2014. Michael graduated from Yale University with a BA in political science. In this episode we discuss: What makes YC so special for founders How YC classes have become increasingly global in recent years Why there have only been 584 applications from Japan in YC’s 16 year history Why YC doesn’t (yet) invest in Japan domiciled companies (“Kabushiki Gaisha”) Why the domicile of the company may or may not matter! Why Japanese startups may struggle to compete globally How Japan’s startup environment is evolving Why software startups take the lion’s share of funding If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

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 penetration is behind other developed countries (and why there's opportunity) Why studying trends in other markets can help you identify opportunities elsewhere The unique dynamics of the Japanese tech industry Perspectives on SmartHR and why Light Street wrote a check   *Note that the introduction is in Japanese, but the conversation with Gaurav is in English. 日本のスタートアップに海外投資家からの注目と投資が集まり始めています。2011年と早い時期からスタートトゥデイ（現ZOZO）やモノタロウに出資し、最近ではBASE、freee、SmartHRへのシリーズDでの出資などでも知られるLight Street CapitalパートナーのGaurav Guputa氏をゲストに、Coral Capitalではインタビューを行いました。 【ハイライト】 投資銀行のゴールドマンから投資ファームのLight Streetへ／EC・SaaS普及率から見て、日本にはまだ数十年にわたって追い風が吹く／特定地域のトレンドパターンを他地域に当てはめる／ECと統合したFintechでは物販より決済のほうが儲かる／地域個別の事情を知ること／「iPhoneは流行らない」と言われた日本も変化が起こると速い／創業メンバーの英語力は投資には関係がない／まず少額出資して信頼を築いたSmartHR経営チームとの関係性／数千億円のイグジットが海外投資家の目に留まり始めた／セールス・マーケへの投資をケチらないほうがいい ゲスト：Light Street Capitalパートナー Gaurav Gupta氏 聞き手：Coral Capital創業パートナーCEO James Riney、同パートナー兼編集長 西村賢 言語：英語