Hiking, back-country skiing and mountain climbing are not usually the first things associated with Japan. Japan, however, has some stunning natural beauty and Yoshihio Haruyama of Yamap is trying to get more and more people to appreciate that.

Yamap is a mobile app that allows hikers, back-country skiers and other outdoorsmen to know exactly where they are even when they are well outside of areas cell-phone reception, and the platform is also providing Japan’s outdoor enthusiasts with a way of connecting to each other.

Yoshi also explains how relatively young Yamap managed to negotiate OEM deals with both Casio and Kyosera, and give practical advice for other startups hoping to partner up with large Japanese firms.

It’s a great discussion and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes for Startups

Why add gamification to a hiking app
Why Yamap had to pursue multiple monitazation strategies
What a startup needs to know to work with a large Japanese brand

Why going global might require a business model pivot

There are important differences between hikers in the US and Japan

The importance of inbound tourism for outdoor activities in Japan
How the Fukuoka startup scene is different from Tokyo

Links from the Founder

Everything you wanted to know about Yamap
See a demo video of Yamap in English
Check out Yoshi on Tumbler
Follow him on twitter @haruyamayoshi
Friend him on Facebook

 Leave a comment

Transcript from Japan
 

Disrupting Japan episode 75.

 

Welcome to Disrupting Japan- straight talk from japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.

Ah, the great outdoors, it is something that nerds like me do not get enough of, especially living here in Tokyo. Yoshi Haruyama of Yamap is starting to change that. Yamap is a mobile app that allows hikers, backcountry skiers, mountain climbers and other outdoorsmen to know exactly where they are. Even where they are far, far away from anywhere with cell phone reception, and to share this experience with others and to learn from them. If you are one of our overseas listeners, you might be surprised at how much natural beauty Japan has to offer, and if you are of our listeners in Japan you might be surprised at the average age of Japanese outdoorsmen.

Yamap has also done some OEM deals with Japans largest brands. Yoshi gave us some practical advice on how startups can sell to and work with large Japanese companies on joint projects. Oh and during the interview we talk about  a wireless transmission technology called Lora. Just so you know, it is a low power wide coverage network that is useful for transmitting large numbers of very small messages. So, now you will know it when you hear it. Let us hear from our sponsors and get right to the interview.
    

[Interview]
Tim: I am sitting here with Yoshi Haruyama of Yamap, it is an application for hikers and mountaineers and other outdoorsmen in Japan, but Yoshi, I’m sure you can explain it a lot better than I can, so, tell us abet about a Yamap, what is it?

Yoshi: Yamap is a social GPRS tracking application. You install the Yamap application. You can find where you are without mobile reception, such as mountain or foreign countries.

Tim: Who are the main users, is it hikers, is it backcountry skiers, mountain climbers? Who uses it?

Yoshi: The most of our uses are hikers and backcountry skiers.

Tim: Okay let us see, you started the company in 2011 and you launched like two years later, right? You were working on this project for a long time and you digitized a ...