Profile interviews of interesting people from the Japanese tech community:
Paul: Ved Kamat is a bilingual solopreneur offering AI-first project and product management consulting in Japan. Ved and I spoke about his unique childhood, transitioning from software engineering into project … Read more
Paul: Cameron Long is a software engineer and co-founder of the legal tech startup Jora AI. Cameron and I spoke about his pivot from mechanical to software engineering, his early … Read more
Paul: Jenessa Carder is a CX transformation specialist, an inclusive designer, a multicultural thinker, and most recently, an author. Jenessa and I spoke about her unique identity in Japan, shifting … Read more
Paul: Kaido Chiwata is a co-founder of BillPay, a Tokyo-based billing solution for foreign companies entering the Japanese market. Kaido and I spoke about how he went from bullied returnee … Read more
Paul: Shane Brown is a Tokyo-based product manager and designer, as well as the founder of Thinkers Social Club, a space for high quality conversations about life’s most universal problems. … Read more
Paul: Janak Bhimani is a Yokohama-based brand strategist and a graduate of the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design. Janak and I spoke about his early life in New … Read more
Paul: Tarek Alkhaldi is the founder of nexCraft Design, an experience design studio based in Tokyo. Tarek and I spoke about how his interest in psychology led him from software … Read more
Paul: Lee Jean is a Kamakura-based entrepreneur and host of the Produck Podcast, where he dives into the world of product management and startups in Japan. Lee and I spoke about … Read more
Paul: Majid Hashmi is the founder and CEO of Bridging Connect, a professional networking platform and consultancy connecting East and West. We met last year at Yokohama Connect on one … Read more
Paul: Duc Doba is the founder and CEO of Tokyo Techies, a one-stop IT consulting firm that focuses on Data Science & AI, Cybersecurity, Robotics, and Software Development. Duc and … Read more
Paul: Joe Baz is a highly accomplished product design leader who moved to Japan with his family in 2023. Joe and I talked about his early career in the US, … Read more
Paul: Tyrone Ranson is a self-taught freelance software engineer based in Tokyo and the founder of DevIppo, a community for freelance software engineers in Japan. Tyrone and I spoke about … Read more
Paul: Matt and I met in 2007 when he was a newly arrived job hunter in Tokyo. 17 years later, Matt and I spoke about his career in technology and … Read more
Paul: Annie Hoang is a Vietnamese UI/UX designer living in Tokyo. Annie and I spoke about developing her interest in UX while studying in Canada, how an internship at Rakuten … Read more
Paul: Michael Stobo is a senior product management leader who has successfully launched and grown products across Asia Pacific, EMEA, and Latin America. We spoke about his beginnings in product … Read more
Paul: Bukky Adejobi is a co-founder of Awa’Tori, promoting the creative industry in Africa & Japan through fashion, art & music. She’s also a career coach and the co-founder of … Read more
Paul: Alvin Leonard is the CTO of SmartRyde, a Tokyo-based startup providing airport transfers to travellers around the world. Alvin and I spoke about his early career as a software … Read more
Paul: Aidan and I first connected after she graduated from Le Wagon’s coding bootcamp in 2021. Our conversation today covers a wide range of topics, from her time at university … Read more
Paul: Philippe Khin is the Tokyo-based founder of SewaYou, an app that helps you easily find language partners in your area. Philippe and I talked about him coming to Japan … Read more
Paul: James Balcombe pivoted his career from international school computer science teacher to software engineer at a startup in Tokyo. James and I spoke about his early interest in computers, … Read more
Paul: Jayson Cunanan moved to Japan from the Philippines in 2011 to follow his dream of using higher education to find a better life. Jayson and I spoke about his … Read more
Paul: Drew Terry is the founder of OpenSalary.jp, a website promoting salary transparency for the tech community in Japan. Drew and I spoke about starting his career as a software … Read more
Paul: Raymond Murphy is a creator and marketing creative who first arrived in Japan in 2004. He launched ‘Cnota Gaelach’, a Tokyo-based Irish apparel brand in 2021. Raymond and I … Read more
Paul: John Rajeski is an aspiring people / data analyst, a recent global educator, and a former Silicon Valley start-up co-founder. John and I spoke about his early career in … Read more
Paul: With 15+ years experience in Product Management, Arnout Hemel’s team at Grab in Singapore grew GrabInsure into one of the largest InsureTechs in South East Asia. Arnout relocated to … Read more
Paul: Originally from the UK, Lawrie moved to Tokyo in 2018 to work as a software engineer at Mercari, the Japanese marketplace unicorn. Lawrie is now at travel tech startup … Read more
Paul: Sushant Pandey is the founder of Scurid, a distributed digital identity platform bringing scalable security to the world of IoT. A Shibuya Startup Visa holder, Sushant will be relocating … Read more
Paul: I first learned about Jatin Kumar after stumbling upon an online post about his GoCurry community last year. I was fascinated to learn more about Jatin’s background as a … Read more
Paul: Tanmay Goel is a Tokyo-based product manager and organiser in the product management community here, with a background as an international student & entrepreneur, and interests including tech, the … Read more
Paul: A recent introduction to Miho Tanaka from Sasha at Le Wagon Tokyo was a case of perfect timing, as I’d just been reading about Miho’s work at Startup Welcome … Read more
Paul: Greg Jeanneau is a talented UI/UX designer who moved to Tokyo from his native France in January of this year. We talk about Greg’s background as an engineer, his … Read more
Paul: Sylvain Pierre is an entrepreneur, co-founder of the Le Wagon Tokyo coding bootcamp, and Tokyo resident since 2016. We talk about how Sylvain got into entrepreneurship, his experiences in … Read more
Paul: I met Andrew Bishop way back in 2000 when we worked together in the IT recruiting team at PANACHE, a Tokyo-based technology, staffing and services company. We’ve been friends … Read more
Paul: I met Misha Yurchenko for the first time a couple of years ago after coming across his excellent newsletter (you can find it and more of his writing at … Read more
Paul: James Ryland and I met at 8:25 am on Monday, November 15th, 1999. I remember the date and time well as it was my first day of work in … Read more
Paul: Ji Youn Yoo is an in-house recruiter at Google’s Tokyo office in Shibuya Stream. We worked together a few years ago in the IT team of a recruiting agency … Read more
Paul: Asumi Saito is a young data scientist turned non-profit organisation founder from Tokyo. We met over Skype in 2017 when Asumi had just finished her master’s degree at the … Read more
Paul: Gerard Noakes is an in-house recruiter at Indeed’s Tokyo office. We met in the summer of 2016 when Gerard joined the recruiting agency I was working at. His first … Read more
Paul: Andy Hall is an indie game developer, originally from the US. Now living in Kawasaki, Japan, Andy and I met in early 2000, when Andy joined a Tokyo-based IT … Read more