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[Founder Interview #01] Kazuhiro Goto (D-POPS GROUP) – Part 1

  • Interview
2025.07.28

Personal ideals, and ideals as a business owner, all about realizing a Venture Ecosystem

For this article, we interviewed our own President and CEO of D-POPS GROUP! Our company is aiming to realize a “Venture Ecosystem” that is indispensable to society. We are striving to create a platform where startup companies can grow.
We asked President Goto about his thoughts on realizing a Venture Ecosystem and contributing to society.
(This interview was conducted in July 2025.)

Sugihara:
It’s been over 27 years since you founded your original company, D-POPS, and this October 1st will mark exactly 10 years since D-POPS GROUP was established and you transitioned to a group company management system. About five years ago, you started advocating for ecosystem management. Could you describe your journey of these past 27 years, as well as the past 10 years of group management and the last five years of ecosystem management?

Goto:
To put it simply, I’d say my life as a business owner has been like that of a Buddhist monk training in the mountains, ha ha. It’s been a continuous series of hardships—all kinds of adversity, headwinds, and hitting rock bottom. At the same time, there’ve been many moving experiences and memorable encounters, and I can truly say it’s been a fulfilling 27 years.

Initially, as the CEO of a startup, I focused on business and built a 10-billion-yen company. But I also experienced how focusing solely on one business and being dependent on a single revenue stream could be a major risk. From there, I decided to transition to full-scale group company management.

After transitioning to group management and managing 10, then 15 companies, I received a lot of requests to give lectures and lead study groups. As I accepted these requests within my capacity, I got to know the reality of entrepreneurs and business owners who, like me, were truly struggling to manage their businesses. The study group where I felt the most direct connection, where I could remember the faces and businesses of all participants over the years, eventually developed into the “Goto School” intensive training sessions that I now hold almost every month. So far, approximately 300 entrepreneurs and business owners have participated. As a result, the inspiration to dedicate my life to realizing a Venture Ecosystem—or, as you said it, the start of “ecosystem management”—suddenly came to me.

Through the creation of this Venture Ecosystem platform, we increase our number of allies, enable the sharing of know-how, information, and networks with each other, and even if one company suddenly faces headwinds, suffers a big deficit, or hits rock bottom, the Venture Ecosystem protects and supports it, achieving a strong risk portfolio. These allies can be in any form, such as group companies, investment portfolio companies, or strategic capital and business alliances. I even support companies with which we have no financial relationship. Ultimately, what I want to achieve is the establishment of a social system that supports entrepreneurs and managers by walking alongside them.

Sugihara:
As an entrepreneur, you have walked a difficult path that the average company employee in the world today couldn’t even imagine. What has been the source of your drive and passion?

Goto:
When it comes to passion, I have never lost it since starting my business. It’s been overflowing continuously since I was 25. The source of it was a study abroad experience in the UK.

I saw so many students from around the world who had a clear dream for the future and were studying incredibly hard to achieve it. Before studying abroad, I honestly spent my college years just having fun (like being the president of a tennis club and an intercollegiate club), but I started to feel a great sense of anxiety about the future of Japan.

I worried that 10 or 20 years from now, with Japan’s economic power declining and other countries developing significantly, especially in Southeast Asia and the BRICS nations, I feared that we would be unable to maintain the prosperous Japan that our predecessors built before and after the war. Then, just as I was thinking how I wanted to powerfully nurture and change young Japanese people, I came across a book by Konosuke Matsushita and realized that company management could be a way to foster young talent.

Initially, my passion was focused on directly nurturing young people. When the number of employees grew to several hundred, I focused on nurturing executives. When the number of employees reached several thousand, I dedicated my efforts to fostering entrepreneurs and presidents. But the core principle has always been the same: I want to create an environment where young people who will lead Japan’s future can grow and take on challenges. I believe that has continuously been the source of my passion.

I always hope to leave a better society for the next generation of children and the generations after them, even after I am gone. Ultimately, I want to do this not only for Japan but for all people on Earth.

Sugihara:
I imagine that your difficult journey was saved by many instances of great fortune and strong luck. Could you share with our readers any secrets you have for “taking hold of strong luck”?

Goto:
Simply put, I place a lot of importance on being the kind of person that even God might want to support. I also believe it’s important to have an unrivaled passion, to put in effort that is second to none, and to have a vision and goals that have social significance. In addition, I think one needs to have a heart of sincerity, humility, and gratitude.

Even I am shocked by how good luck completely disappears when I stray away even slightly from these practices, but when I follow them diligently, then astonishingly great circumstances occur. One more thing I would add is that I think it’s very important to associate with people who also have good fortune. I feel that our chairman, Dr. Semmoto, and our corporate advisor, Mr. Fujisaki, are like sources of strong luck for me. I feel the same way about our non-executive director, Mr. Naito, and our advisor, Ms. Ishiguro.

Sugihara:
In your stories, you often say that you owe everything to your connections*. What conscious efforts are you doing on a daily basis to maintain good connections?
*The original Japanese term connotes both fate as well as one’s connections with others.

Goto:
My answer is quite similar to my response about strong luck. I believe that good connections are born from making sure that positive energy overflows from within myself. In other words, from having an altruistic heart and love. And also, when an opportunity presents itself, making sure to properly convey the vision and social impact I am trying to achieve. I feel that when people are on the same page as me, our bond deepens; sometimes they support or help me; and in the end, it becomes a good connection.

Sugihara:
You as an individual and D-POPS GROUP as a company are involved in many social contribution activities, such as supporting the “Walking Together Hand-in-Hand with Children Foundation” and the non-profit organization “bond Project”. Are these efforts in CSR activities also based on your idea of improving your luck?

Goto:
Yes, that’s right. My desire to help suffering children—even just a little—is pure, but when I put my energy into activities like these, I also have this mysterious feeling that good fortune will come to me as a result. However, even if good fortune doesn’t come, I think it’s a natural human instinct to wonder if you can do something to help when you see a child or a person who is suffering.

Sugihara:
So, you’ve grown D-POPS GROUP to this large size through your management skills, your constant effort, and being blessed with good fortune and great connections. The company’s sales have surpassed 30 billion yen, and it is already big enough to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, even under the newly-revised listing requirements. Could you tell us why you are choosing to remain unlisted?

Goto:
Naturally, I understand the benefits of being a listed company, but my management style is quite unique, so I think it would be difficult for all investors to understand it. I’m constantly investing with a medium-to-long-term vision (I don’t worry too much about short-term results), and I devote about 15% of my time to the activities of the aforementioned foundation that supports abused children. Another form of volunteering I do is to spend about 20% of my time on the so-called Goto School (supporting the individual growth of entrepreneurs), which I convene when requested.

If I were the president of a listed company, my mission would naturally be to focus on producing results for my company, and I feel that doesn’t fit with who I am right now. However, listed companies have already emerged from within our Venture Ecosystem, and many more are expected to be born from it in the future.

Sugihara:
So, for you personally, going public is not a goal or an objective. On the other hand, you support startups aiming to go public by offering investment and management advice. You also have a vision of building a platform that will produce numerous “unicorns”. What kind of support activities do you engage in, both as an individual and as D-POPS GROUP?

Goto:
Honestly, this is also difficult to answer in one word. I could say that I am available to entrepreneurs and business owners for advice and questions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I fully mobilize all my knowledge, experience, know-how, network, and the majority of my time for the sake of CEOs who are going through a particularly tough phase or to the leaders of growing companies that are experiencing a growth curve. And as balls get tossed into my court from every angle, I use my 27 years of experience and database to provide support.

As an active business owner who has managed many companies, and now with almost 60 group and investment companies, holding Goto School for representatives from 300 companies, and other various activities in my life, I believe there are extremely few business owners in the world in a similar position as mine. That’s why I work hard every day with the belief that I must be the one to create a Venture Ecosystem in Japan. When I’ve been able to guide the CEO of a company on the verge of bankruptcy to make a V-shaped recovery, I can truly feel the social significance of my work.

Sugihara:
Although it’s a private company, the board of directors and advisory team have a truly impressive lineup. You have also gradually increased the number of advisory members, including myself. As much as you can share publicly, could you explain your thoughts on the meaning and purpose of this structure?

Goto:
Frankly speaking, I am a total expert in management strategy, so I believe that technical matters are best handled by professionals in those fields. In that sense, I think it’s very important to have many “super specialists” on my team of advisors, and I find them all to be incredibly reliable.

The people we support are entrepreneurs, and as such, they won’t listen to someone unless that person has skills that are on another level. Because of this, I am always on the lookout for such people, hoping that even just one of them will join our team every few years. The members of our Board of Directors and our advisors are my mentors, coaches, and sometimes even feel like a father, an older brother, or an older sister to me. In other words, the Venture Ecosystem is also functioning for my own growth, and I am always being helped by it.

 

Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.

D-POPS GROUP

Company President and CEO: Kazuhiro Goto
Address: 32F Shibuya Hikarie Bldg., 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Established: October 1, 2015 (Founded: February 4, 1998)
Website: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/

 

Next, in the latter part of the interview, we discuss:

・Success stories unique to the ecosystem
・The complexification strategy
・The “ideal form” of a Venture Ecosystem
・Venture Ecosystem Summit 2025
・And other topics

Be sure to check it out here:
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/executive-interview02-latter-part/

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Our payday is the 25th, so I can pay you this month, but three months from today, I won’t be able to pay you any more.” I knew the risk that everyone might jump ship. But I couldn’t keep going with that emotional disconnect, so I decided to put all the cards on the table. While one person did choose to leave, the remaining ten members said, “Let’s find a way to push through this together,” and they really worked hard. That moment erased the inconsistency I had been feeling, and seeing them commit gave me the courage to keep going myself. First, I went to my former boss and humbly asked for a bridge loan to extend our runway by another three months. Then, during those three months, a new feature we developed became a massive hit. Our KPIs skyrocketed, and revenue went up as well. People started telling me, “Since you’ve come this far, I’ll throw in my investment.” We successfully raised about 300 million yen in our Series A. That was the most grueling time of my life. Since then, I’ve made it a point to share the details of our company’s expenses and exactly how much cash we have on hand. Sugihara: By doing that, I imagine the employees feel like they are truly in the same boat. Tateishi: Exactly. At the end of the day, you can’t reach the same decision if you don’t have the same information. I believe that if you make that information open to others, you’ll eventually reach a shared understanding. ◆A Team of 10+ Nationalities: The Strength and Struggle of True Diversity Sugihara: SpeakBUDDY is a remarkably global company. About a third of your employees are non-Japanese, representing over ten different countries. What are the benefits of this multinational team, and what challenges have you faced? Tateishi: It’s a bit of a chaotic mix, ha ha. ‘Diversity’ sounds great as a buzzword, but in reality, managing it is incredibly difficult. Everyone has different perspectives and values. It’s a constant challenge to keep everyone aligned. 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Tateishi: I was primarily struck by the sheer number of people in attendance, since they were all executives! It made a deep impression to see leaders of that caliber listening so intently to our story, asking sharp questions, and offering collaboration ideas on the spot. During the formal briefing, I felt a bit of a distance, but once the drinks started flowing at the social gathering and we got into our personal stories, I felt like I was immediately accepted as a companion. I really felt that D-POPS GROUP is a company with a strong family vibe. Actually, we have a new feature currently in the R&D stage that hasn’t been released yet. When I shared the idea at the briefing, the reaction from the audience was overwhelming. Afterward, our Executive Officer Morimoto and I were talking about it, and we’re pretty sure that idea is going to be a hit. Having that kind of validation from a room full of entrepreneurs gave us the confidence that we’re heading in the right direction. 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Tateishi: Above all, I deeply resonate with your commitment to developing unicorns. To be honest, I’ve never been the type of person to put stickers on my laptop, since I always felt, “I don’t want to ruin a machine that I’m trying to keep clean!” However, since the D-POPS GROUP unicorn sticker has a genuinely cool design, and more importantly, it serves as a constant reminder of your ambition for us to reach unicorn status, I decided to put that sticker on my laptop. Sugihara: We really appreciate that, especially since you don’t even put your own company’s stickers on it, ha ha! Now, where do you see SpeakBUDDY in 5 to 10 years? Tateishi: Over the next five years, our vision is “to become the AI language acquisition startup driving Asia’s globalization”. And in ten years, we want to fully realize our mission: “Open a world of opportunities by achieving true language acquisition.” Lately, one thing I’ve been consciously trying to pursue is “to build a truly great company”. 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(This interview was conducted in March 2026.) ◆The Four Pillars of SpeakBUDDY’s Competitive Advantage Sugihara: Now that we’ve heard the particulars of how SpeakBUDDY came about, could you explain to our readers about your company’s AI English conversation service that has come this far? Tateishi: SpeakBUDDY is an English conversation service where you practice with AI characters, which we call “Buddies”, rather than human instructors. It’s not just a back-and-forth exchange with these Buddies, though. The service is designed so you learn essential expressions through immersive storylines. These expressions are categorized by level, allowing users to master key phrases suited to their specific proficiency in each lesson. There are four key reasons why this approach is superior to face-to-face lessons. The first is that you can learn anytime, anywhere. The second is that it is significantly more affordable than hiring human tutors. 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Regarding Speak, the US-based AI app that also focuses on verbal expression, I believe we have the edge in two areas. The first is ease of use. Our UI and UX are meticulously crafted to be intuitive, making it easier for users to build a daily habit. The second is our scientific foundation. We’ve integrated rigorous Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories into the very core of our design to ensure users achieve actual fluency. The fusion of these two elements is where we stand out. Sugihara: I’ve noticed the app can be quite persistent with having me review expressions right when I’m about to forget, ha ha. Tateishi: That’s the idea! Our review system is based on Ebbinghaus’ “forgetting curve”. We ensure that learning is reinforced through spaced repetition to guarantee retention. Packaging such high-level pedagogical expertise into an app is one of our greatest strengths. The other differentiator is in the name itself: the “Buddy”. While apps like Speak can feel like you’re talking to a somewhat mechanical interface, SpeakBUDDY is built on storytelling and rich character development. We’ve created a world where you interact with human-like IP (original characters) within realistic scenarios, and that fundamental philosophy sets us apart. Sugihara: The character design is certainly distinct. You encounter characters like a boss with a realistic Indian accent, which makes the conversation feel grounded in the real world. The entire app feels like one cohesive universe. Is this design aesthetic a point of particular focus for you? Tateishi: Absolutely. We are a company that is obsessed with design, and I take great pride in our incredibly talented design team. We even received the Good Design Award in 2021. Actually, our entire design team currently consists of international talent. I’ve always personally loved the type of UI/UX aesthetics found in the West, so having international designers lead the creative process is a defining characteristic of our product. At our core, we believe that consistency is key to language acquisition, and the key to consistency is enjoyment. Internally, we often use the terms ‘Buddy-ness’ or ‘Buddy sense’ to describe how we want every aspect of our app experience, from the characters to the interface, to embody a sense of companionship and rapport. ◆Over 300 Clients: Rapid Growth in the Corporate Market Sugihara: Have you been putting a lot of effort into developing your corporate client base? What kind of companies are adopting your services, and what are their primary objectives? Tateishi: We have focused heavily on corporate expansion over the last three years. Due to the increasing need for communication driven by corporate globalization, we have now surpassed 300 corporate clients. Most companies implement the service as part of their self-improvement programs or employee benefit packages. In terms of industries, while we naturally serve global enterprises, we’ve seen a recent surge across all sectors due to a recent trend towards management of human capital. More companies want to support their employees’ self-development through paying for our services. After all, there are people who genuinely want to improve their English in every company. We see a particularly high rate of adoption in the IT, manufacturing, and customer service industries. We already provide sector-specific content, and we plan to further strengthen our corporate-oriented curriculum moving forward. Sugihara: What kind of feedback are you getting from these companies? Tateishi: It’s incredibly rewarding to hear from HR managers that their employees no longer feel a resistance to speaking English or that they have begun participating proactively in international meetings. We often hear from HR and training coordinators that they have never seen such a positive internal response to an English training program before. Sugihara: I see, so the employees themselves are reporting their satisfaction back to the HR department. Tateishi: Right, and then the number of applicants for the program is often multiple times higher than the original estimated number of applicants. Apparently, the turnout has been up to ten times higher than for in-person English conversation training. I’m pretty sure the fact that you can start so casually, with such a low barrier to entry, must be a big factor. We’re also seeing significant adoption in the hospitality sector, such as hotels. With the rise in inbound tourism, SpeakBUDDY is proving very effective in lowering the so-called “English allergy” barrier for staff when international travelers drop by their shops or hotels. ◆More Employee-Friendly than Traditional English Training Sugihara: In many large Japanese corporations, English training often comes with rigid requirements, like having to achieve a specific TOEIC score. Tateishi: That’s true. Traditional corporate English training usually felt like a burden…you had to hit a certain score, or you might even have to pay for it yourself if your attendance was too low. SpeakBUDDY’s greatest strength is its ability to be offered to a wider range of people at a lower cost. Instead of a mandatory chore, it becomes an employee benefit that people want to take advantage of. Sugihara: That approach is only possible because so many of your customers study consistently. Is the corporate segment still growing at this point? Tateishi: Yes, it’s continuing to grow very rapidly. If there are any companies out there struggling with their English training programs, please do introduce them to us, ha ha! ~To be concluded in Part 3~ Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. SpeakBUDDY, Ltd. President and CEO: Tsuyoshi Tateishi Address: 3F +SHIFT Nihonbashi Sakuradori, 3-14-3 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Established: May 2013 Website: https://www.speakbuddy.com/en In the third and final part of the interview, we discuss: ・Gathering all employees together for an honest confession of short funding ・Building a great company that balances autonomy and discipline ・Creating an AI language learning startup that will drive globalization in Asia ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/speakbuddy-part3/
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2026.04.21
[Founder Interview #4] Tsuyoshi Tateishi (SpeakBUDDY) – Part 1
From 280 Points on TOEIC to a Perfect Score and 5,000 Hours of Studying, Forming a Belief in the Necessity of AI English Conversation In December 2025, D-POPS GROUP invested in SpeakBUDDY Ltd., the developer and operator of the “SpeakBuddy” AI English conversation app. (Read more about it here.) How did someone who was once considered the worst English student in his grade go on to build a cutting-edge, AI-powered English conversation service? In this three-part series, we look into the entrepreneurial journey of SpeakBUDDY’s founder Tsuyoshi Tateishi and the future he envisions for language learning. In Part 1, we explore his incredible transition from a low TOEIC score of 280 to 5,000 hours of dedicated study, his experiences at a foreign investment bank, and how a trip around the world sparked the idea for AI-driven English conversation. (This interview was conducted in March 2026.) ◆“Worst at English in the Entire Grade” Sugihara: To start off, could you tell us what gave you the initial push to develop the SpeakBuddy app? Tateishi: First of all, the biggest reason I chose the field of English was because I was actually terrible at it during my student years. English requires consistent, cumulative effort, but I hit a wall in my first year of junior high school and just couldn't keep up with my classes after that. By high school, my teacher told me I was "the worst at English in the entire grade." Sugihara: So the student who was the worst in his grade became the CEO of an English conversation app company, ha ha! Tateishi: Exactly. That was my reality in high school, but the turning point came during my job hunt in university. I received a tentative offer from a foreign investment bank, and starting my career there was what finally forced me to start learning. Sugihara: It was a foreign-owned firm, so didn't they interview you in English? Tateishi: Oh, they did. The final interview was in a boardroom with the then-CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Japan and a row of executives from various departments. At the time, they were testing whether candidates could handle that kind of pressure. Since investment banking is a business where people are the only real assets, they were looking for character. That 10-on-1 interview was mostly in Japanese, but at the very end, the HR Director said, “Alright, I’m going to ask you a question in English, so please answer in English.” Up until that point, all the interviewers were Japanese, so they were probably assuming, “He graduated from Keio University, so he can probably handle it.” But in fact, my English was non-existent. My TOEIC score was only 280, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to understand any questions if they asked me in English, so I had prepared exactly one response in my head: “I can’t speak English. But I will study hard. So, no problem!” I said it with total confidence, but in fact, that single sentence was the only English I had learned. Back at that time, just memorizing that one phrase had been a struggle for me! The entire room of interviewers froze. Everyone was like, “Wait, what? You applied here with that level of English? This is a foreign firm…what are you expecting to do?” However, this was during my third year of university, so I told them, “I still have one year until I graduate.” At the time, I had just become the youngest person that year to pass the CPA exam at age 20. I was studying 14 hours a day…other than study and sleep, I would spend only two hours a day to shower, eat, and commute. I was used to finishing an entire textbook in a single day. So, I truly believed it when I told them, “I have a year, and that’s enough time for me, seriously.” At the time, I figured if I could get a 750 on the TOEIC, I would be basically fluent. Compared to the CPA exam, where if you fail, you have to wait another year, I felt no pressure at all. When I said, “I’ll start tomorrow”, they looked at me and said, “You do look like the type of guy who would actually do that.” Still, I walked out thinking I had definitely failed the interview, since it was a global firm and I couldn’t speak a word of English. But later that day, someone from their HR called me. Apparently, the CEO had been my biggest advocate. He told them, “Hire that guy.” The HR worker asked me, “What on earth did you say to the CEO?” Now, what I had told the CEO was this: “I might not speak English now, but through my CPA studies, I realized there isn’t that much difference in the capacity of human brains. It’s all about having grit. I know for sure that if I put my mind to something, there’s nothing I can’t achieve, and I will absolutely get this done.” The CEO decided, “Let’s hire one interesting guy like this”, and that’s how I got the job. ◆The Problem for Japanese Who Study English for 5,000 Hours Tateishi: Over the following years, I reached a perfect score on the TOEIC, passed the Eiken Grade 1 (the highest level of Japan’s most popular English proficiency test), and logged a cumulative total of approximately 5,000 hours of English study. Through those 5,000 hours, I had a painful realization: learning English would be far more difficult than I thought it would be when I was job hunting. I realized that this might be the single greatest challenge facing the Japanese people. I struggled with it while at that foreign-owned firm, and even after I moved to a Japanese brokerage, I was stationed in Hong Kong where I had to use both English and Chinese. If you can't use the language, you simply cannot do the job. I learned enough Chinese in Hong Kong to handle daily conversation, but if people ultimately can't understand what you're saying, you can't conduct business. Japanese people are excellent workers, but just because their English isn't great, my compatriots were being looked down on by people from headquarters or other overseas branches, and I couldn't stand it. During global training sessions and such, Japanese participants may not be able to speak English at all, but when it comes to the actual work output, they are consistently the best. Changing the reality that Japanese people are brilliant but are dismissed because they can’t communicate in English became my core motivation. I spent 5,000 hours to get there, but that’s not a realistic path for everyone. I want to use the power of technology to drastically shorten that time. This is the fundamental reason I chose the field of English education and began developing SpeakBuddy. ◆Making a “Doraemon” Who Can Speak English at Home Sugihara: Did you always have the desire to be an entrepreneur, even as a student? Tateishi: I did. I remember asking during my job interviews, “If I work at this investment bank, will it help me when I start my own company later?” But after seven years of intense, high-pressure work, I had completely forgotten that dream. However, as my desire to create a service that truly helps society grew stronger, I remembered, “Oh right, I actually wanted to start a company!” So, I quit as soon as I returned from my overseas assignment. I decided to quit first, and think of a business plan later. So, with my back against the wall, I finally went on the world tour I had always wanted to do, and I mapped out my business plan while traveling. While hopping from country to country, I was also teaching myself app development. The English learning app I built during that trip actually reached number 1 in the overall App Store rankings. Sugihara: Hitting an overall ranking of 1 is incredible! Was that app the prototype for what SpeakBuddy is today? Tateishi: Yes, I’d say that was the prototype. During my world tour, I also did a short-term study abroad program. Even when you are overseas, you find yourself wanting someone to practice English conversation with. But making friends in English out of thin air is incredibly difficult. People always say, “Just get a foreign boyfriend or girlfriend”, and I actually tried to do that while I was abroad, but it’s not as easy as it sounds, ha ha! While I was abroad, I thought, “If only I had a Doraemon* at home who could speak English with me, that would be enough.” That desire to create a Doraemon who speaks English was the starting point of our service. *Note: ‘Doraemon’ is a beloved character from a Japanese children’s cartoon who always helps the other characters with their various problems. I included a voice recognition feature in that first app, and I’m proud to say it was likely the first app in Japan to feature English voice recognition. However, back in 2014, the accuracy was still quite low. But over the next year or two, I felt the technology improving at an exponential rate. I became convinced that in the future, I would be able to create a real AI English conversation partner. In 2016, I stopped everything else I was working on and focused all my resources on AI English conversation. ◆The Problem with AI-related Branding in 2016 Sugihara: When you released the precursor to your current app back in 2016, were you already using the word ‘AI’? Tateishi: Yes. Even at the 2016 launch, we were calling it ‘AI English Conversation’. Since we had no capital at the start, we began with a crowdfunding campaign. It went surprisingly well—we raised about 4 million yen—and we were already positioning it as an AI-driven service even then. Sugihara: The speed of AI adoption and evolution lately is staggering. While language models have developed explosively in the last year or two, you were really at the forefront. Tateishi: We were the only ones in that space back then. But honestly, the immediate aftermath of the release was a struggle. People in 2016 were very vocal with their skepticism, asking, “Where exactly is the AI in this?” They’d complain, “I’m talking, but this doesn’t recognize my voice at all!” Back then, AI conversation meant little more than speaking to a character with an electronic voice. The conversational AI was still in its infancy, with a simple tree structure where we programmed specific responses to specific phrases. You couldn’t engage with it via truly free conversation like we have now. In the end, because we were getting so many reviews asking “Where’s the AI?”, we actually removed the word ‘AI’ from our branding around 2017. Having AI in the title seemed to raise expectations so high that it led to people leaving 1-star reviews, so we decided to take it out for a while. Then, around 2019, speech recognition technology started to improve dramatically. We also built our own proprietary speech recognition engine, which boosted our accuracy significantly. From that point on, the quality of our conversational AI was able to truly shine. Sugihara: When I try using features like BuddyChat now, the AI responds naturally even if I say something completely random or trivial. It clearly isn’t just simple pattern recognition anymore. Tateishi: Yes, it can handle tangents and keep the conversation going. I feel like I can finally say “This is AI” with my head held high. Back in 2015 and 2016, we were right in that peak of inflated expectations on the hype cycle, which was followed by a valley of disillusionment. During that valley, people kept telling me, “AI is a joke; it’ll never work.” But gradually, it became the real deal. Sugihara: For someone who has been working on this for a decade, do you feel like it's about time for the AI boom to finally sweep across the world? Tateishi: In a way, yes. It feels like things are moving exactly as I expected, though there’s a bit of a time lag in terms of when the world finally noticed. To be honest, even with GPT, we were looking at GPT-2 and saying, “This is going to be incredibly useful.” So by the time GPT-4 arrived, our reaction was like, “Well, it’s already been impressive since the beginning.” It’s only been in the last few years that speech recognition, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), and Personalized Learning Logic have finally synced up. Because the level of inference has jumped so significantly recently, we can now provide high-level free talk like BuddyChat. It feels like the times have finally caught up with SpeakBUDDY. ~To be continued in Part 2~ Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP's advisor Genta Sugihara. SpeakBUDDY, Ltd. President and CEO: Tsuyoshi Tateishi Address: 3F +SHIFT Nihonbashi Sakuradori, 3-14-3 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Established: May 2013 Website: https://www.speakbuddy.com/en Next, in the second part of the interview, we discuss: ・The four pillars of SpeakBUDDY's competitive advantage ・Where SpeakBUDDY differs from Duolingo and Speak ・Rapid growth in the corporate market and feedback from business clients ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/speakbuddy-part2/
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