A poster created for a Professional and Community Engagement Unit (PACE): FOAR 300 that documents my experiences, learnings and conclusions developed during my internship at J-Seed Ventures in Tokyo, Japan.

1. ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IN
3-month, full-time internship in Tokyo, Japan as part of
the New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program.
Plug into the startup ecosystem of Tokyo working with
successful serial entrepreneurs at J-Seed Ventures, Inc.
a venture incubator that solves customer problems with
innovative solutions.
PACEACTIVITY
SIGNIFICANCE
Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Shinzo Abe signed the
Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA)
on 8 July 2014 and it entered into force on 15 January
2015.
Japan is often regarded to be a country of the
future: high-tech, innovative, advanced. Yet its
students are risk-adverse, change-resistant
and reluctant to confront challenges,
harbouring perhaps one of the most
conservative mindsets in the world
Percentage of students across OECD Countries who reported
they “agree” or “strongly agree” with the following statements:
NEW COLOMBO PLAN SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
63
61
32
Australia
Average
Japan
“I seek explanations for things.”
31
33
19
Australia
Average
Japan
“I like to solve complex problems.”
MY
My objectives for my internship were set out prior to
commencement with the CEO/Supervisor, Jeffrey Char:
- Gain indepth understanding of the Japanese startup ecosystem
- Understand the core activities and work life of an entrepreneur
- Contribute meaningfully and insightfully to Venture Generation
- Take initiative to work beyond the scope of delegated tasks
- Develop and diversify existing skills and experiences.
- Develop a more innovative and critical entrepreneurial mindset
Who will drive Japan to tackle its greatest challenges – aging
population, disaster management (earthquakes, tsunamis,
nuclear melt down), declining fertility rate, declining economy?
Entrepreneurs will lead the quest to reimagining Japan.
PISA 2012 results: Ready to learn—students’ engagement, drive and self-beliefs (volume III), OECD, December 2013.
OBJECTIVES
These objectives subsequently shaped how I
approached my internship at J-Seed Ventures,
Inc and also prior to it – building up my startup
network from first arriving in Tokyo by
volunteering for SLUSH Asia, then #SVFT:
Skyland Ventures Fest Tokyo, and a range of
#HiveShibuya events.
This active engagement in the startup ecosystem
continued during my internship, where I also
volunteered for Tech in Asia Tokyo.
INTERNSHIP AT J-SEED VENTURES, INC.
Work directly with the
CEO to facilitate client
meetings and prepare
pitches and workshops
Business development, marketing, graphics
design and brand management for the annual
Mobile Challenge Asia Pacific (MCAP)
2015-2016 competition partnered with GSMA
Mobile World Congress: mobile-asia.com
Organise networking events to bring
together the J-Seed Ventures and
Venture Generation community.
Market research to create datasets
for client consulting in expansion
and M&A strategies. Research
analysis to investigate potential
investment and business
opportunities in light of market
changes within Japan.
Apply Lean Startup methods to take
internal projects from ideas to MVPs;
focusing on problem identification,
and qualification of the customer in
order to build a business model.
Create teaching material and teacher
assistant for the Waseda University
Graduate course on Entrepreneurship
taught by Jeffrey Char (CEO).
Startups by definition are high risk and
(ideally) high growth business ventures.
But, as Eric Ries put it:
“Startup success can be engineered by
following the process, which means it can
be learned, which means it can be taught.”
Particularly in my consulting aspects of the
role, I was able to apply the Lean Startup
Methodology to real ventures – stressing
the importance of clarity regarding vision
and customers, and through this, constantly
validating assumptions through
experiments, and innovation accounting.
Entrepreneurship is management – and it
was these principles that I applied to all
aspects of my role as an intern, irrespective
of whether it had direct relevance to
building a business, or if it was creating
materials of teaching, workshops and
market research.
More importantly, I put the theories of
reflection as a means of translating
experience into learning into practice.
Critical reflection, for me, is the
“deconstruction of taken-for-granted
assumptions that underpin knowledge,
values and beliefs to enable critical enquiry,
aimed at positive social change and
transformation” (Das & Anand 2014, p.
110).
I therefore felt that the strategy best
relevant to my own reflective practices, is
“peer learning and support,” something that
I have begun to do more by engaging
further with other New Colombo Plan
Scholars interning in Japan (Das & Anand
2014, pp. 113-114).
I also engaged in reflecting through
alternative mediums, creating a 60 × 50 cm
painting as a gift for my boss, and for
J-Seed Ventures. The painting was of a
nebulae – the birthplace of stars. J-Seed
Ventures is a nebula, because it is the
chaotic, seething cloud of dead stars where
failures, experience, passion and grit
eventually gravitate into clumps of
uncertain masses of minimal viable
products and short term projects. Time,
effort, lean startup methodology and the
uncertainty of high risk until a fusion
reaction begins, and a star is born.
FINDINGS: THEORIES IN PRACTICE
Where stars are born. | Acrylic Painting on Canvas | 60.5 x 50 cm
Japan and Australia may differ greatly in culture, geography,
mindset, economy and life style. Yet entrepreneurship,
innovation and disruption is a universal language for change
that will enable both countries to continue to flourish,
develop and more importantly, play a greater role in
positively impacting the world.
This internship undoubtedly fulfilled all of my learning
objectives and more - offering me a range of different
opportunities to learn more about entrepreneurship, startups
and creating businesses. It has taught me important
principles that I know I will continue to apply throughout my
career, and helped me create the network to support it.
CONCLUSIONS
LOOKING FORWARD
Drop my Law Degree
Graduate
Explore opportunities
Build-Measure-Learn
Ask ambitious yet actionable questions.
Solve problems.
Through the opportunity of the New Colombo Program, the
mentorship of Jeffrey Char (CEO, J-Seed Ventures, Inc.)
and the guiding structure of this FOAR300 PACE unit, I now
have a clear plan of what I want to pursue as my career, and
the best methods to do so.
CINDY HUANG | 43269206