While the rest of the world is copying Silicon Valley, Tokyo is looking at Paris.

Today we sit down with Mark Bivens and Matt Romaine, the co-founders of Shizen Capital to talk about Japan's new startup policies, the changing role of M&A, the main force behind the changing attitudes about startups in Japan.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Show Notes


Why Japanese startups need to start buying other startups
The root of Japan's odd attitudes towards M&A and the forces changing it
Structuring investments into foreign startups making a Japan market entry
Why the Japan's angel investing tax-break is not really about taxes
What Japan plans to import from the French startup ecosystem
The best way to win the hearts and minds to change startup culture
What's driving the recent explosion in startup events, and will it last?
The best Japanese startup ecosystems outside of Tokyo
Can authenticity scale?

Links from our Guest

Everything you ever wanted to know about Shizen Capital

Connect on LinkedIn
Follow Shizen Capital on X  @shizencapital

I highly recommend Mark's blog Rude VC
Follow Mark on X  @markbivens
Follow Matt on X  @quanza
Check out Mark's Nostr https://rude.vc/nostr

Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight Talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs.
I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.
Everybody wants to be Silicon Valley.
Regional and local governments the world over proudly announced that they will be the Silicon Valley of, you know, whatever. We've seen Silicon Glen, Silicon Beach, Silicon Harbor, and countless other less publicized variations. Now, politicians calling out to Silicon Valley works fine as a metaphor, but you know, it's not really a plan.
Well, the Japanese government has a plan and they are not looking to San Francisco, but to Paris.
And today we're going to talk about that plan and so many other things as well. When we sit down with Mark Bivens and Matt Romaine, the co-founders of Shizen Capital, an early stage fund focused exclusively on Japanese startups.
Now, Matt and Mark are both startup founders who became VCs, and that's still pretty rare in Japan. These VCs tend to be overrepresented on disrupting Japan because I don't know, it's a small group and I'm friends with a lot of them. But founders turned, investors are critical to the success of any startup ecosystem, and they're playing an outsized role in shaping what's happening in Japan right now.
Mark, Matt and I talk about what's driving the changing attitude around M&A in Japan, which part of the government efforts to support startups are actually working and Japan's potential advantage in becoming a startup powerhouse in the coming years.
But you know, Matt and Mark tell that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview.

Interview
Tim: We're sitting here with Mark Bivens and Matt Romaine, the two founding partners of Shizen Capital. So, thanks for sitting down with me.
Matt: Delighted to be here.
Mark: Yeah, pleasure. Tim. I think I mentioned this privately to you before, but I'm pretty still relatively new in Japan. Seven years ago I moved here and you were my first source as I wanted to learn about the Japanese startup ecosystem.
Tim: Well, thank you.
Mark: Somebody introducing me to your podcast, so thank you.
Tim: Well, no, thank you. It's been a great project and I'm glad this has kind of come full circle and I get a chance to sit here and interview you on it.
Mark: I also have to say, in a past life I was a radio DJ. You have a great radio voice, Tim.
Tim: Thank you. It's funny, people tell me that all the time, but this is just the way I talk, like normally. Well, thank you. So, let's get into it. So, tell me about Shizen Capital. Who are you investing in and why?
Matt: Yeah, well, so I first met Mark in 2015 at a conference in Fukuoka. It was the B dash conference.