Profile #28: Tyrone Ranson – founder of freelance engineer community DevIppo

You decided to leave the ‘seishain’ world and work as a freelancer in 2019. Tell me about that.

I worked full-time for over three years. During this time, I established connections with a Vietnamese offshore development company, where I contributed for six months. I gained valuable insights into sales before transitioning to freelance work. While freelancing, I had the opportunity to travel to Japan and explore various tech and non-tech ideas I had (of which all failed). The positive aspect is that I no longer fear interacting with people in formal suits, large corporate buildings, or stepping outside my comfort zone.

You recently launched a YouTube channel, DevIppo, for people interested in working in IT in Japan, especially as freelancers. You’ve held some in-person events and are growing a community on Discord. Tell us about these.

At first, I wanted to tell my story, and then I told another which led to the next. I tried to connect devs to Japanese companies directly but to be honest they weren’t interested. The most common issues they had were language, culture and bringing devs into Japan.

I always tell people to just get good at Japanese and learn the culture and many more doors open up. IT companies here don’t speak English and don’t run the same ways Western companies do, so even if you are an ex Google dev or were getting paid 200k USD back home if you can’t speak and understand the culture you are of very little use.

I then started talking about freelancing, as this is what I am currently doing. Now I am focusing on freelance engineers in Japan. I’m trying to create a closed, trusted, freelance dev community. Freelancing & Freedom (or a type of freedom) is what I truly believe in. I hope to work directly with clients as I’m tired of the middleman business model in Japan.

Why should people consider freelancing? What do you personally get out of working as a freelancer?

For me, it was freedom and more control of my time/life. I’m not the type to complain about life, if you don’t like it do something about it. Flexible work hours, earning more than I have ever or could ever as an employee and not being a part of the “Company Culture” (I really don’t enjoy the employee life).

What does your typical day look like?

These days I work on two projects so I wake up and work from 10am until around 7pm, then work on my second freelance project from 8pm-ish to 2am. It’s not healthy so I’ll be stopping this workload soon.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

Walk my dog, watch E-Sports as I don’t have time to play games, drink espressos at cafes, and look at countryside houses that I would like to live in but I won’t because of Tokyo.

Any cafe recommendations? I’m always looking for new places to visit.

Some of my fav cafes in Tokyo are

• Byron Bay Cafe, Hamamatsucho
• Brooklyn Roasting Company, Yurakucho
• Fuglen Coffee Roasters (a few cafes around Japan)
• Streamer Coffee Company (pet friendly, a few around Tokyo)
• iki Espresso, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (pet friendly)

MY FAV:

• Onibus, Nakameguro or Komazawa (pet friendly) – espresso and banana cake!

There aren’t many pet friendly cafes so I’ve started to just hang out at parks.

As an experienced tech freelancer in Tokyo, what advice do you have for someone thinking of dipping their toes into the freelance world here?

• Make sure you have enough skills before you quit your current job. For example, React.js for a solid 3 years, Golang for 4 years, can program the whole server side of a service, etc. I mean really get good! You will be able to charge more.
• In most cases you will be using Japanese so get that N2 and speak as much as you can.
• Set up your first project while you are working (副業) or make it so that once you quit your job you have a long-term project (at least a 6-month project).
• Learn the basics of taxes. It’s not so difficult, you can learn it in a weekend.
• Join my freelance community as this is all we will be talking about.

Quickfire questions

– what’s the most important piece of advice you’d give yourself if you could go back in time to your arrival in Japan?

Don’t ask your peers for permission, just yourself.

– how do you learn new skills?

Just Google it or ChatGPT it. I call it “just-in-time learning“ rather than “just-in-case learning”.

– tell me a few of your favourite or most recently read books, movies, podcasts, and games?

• Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business by Paul Jarvis [Amazon]
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by Kim & Mauborgne [Amazon]
• Zero To One by Peter Thiel [Amazon]
• Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung [Amazon]

– what’s your favourite place to visit in Japan?

Okinawa.

Being half Samoan / half New Zealander I really like the calmness / chill vibes of Okinawa.

Living in Tokyo is quite stressful but in Okinawa I feel at peace.

– what’s the best thing you’ve spent 10,000 JPY on in Japan?

A sealed Pokemon box. I’ve made at least 5X on some of the boxes I’ve sold. I had some high-value Waifu cards that I sold in Akiba at a card store.

I didn’t work for a few months once and didn’t want to touch my savings so I sold 8万 worth of single cards. I still have plenty of sealed boxes that I will probably sell when I go back to NZ in a few years.

Finally, do you have any asks for our readers?

Try to create good karma in REAL LIFE.

That’s a perfect place to finish. Always a pleasure speaking with you. Best of luck growing your community!

Connect with Tyrone on LinkedIn or Discord and watch his DevIppo YouTube videos here.