[Founder Interview #4] Tsuyoshi Tateishi (SpeakBUDDY) – Part 2| 株式会社ディ・ポップスグループ

[Founder Interview #4] Tsuyoshi Tateishi (SpeakBUDDY) – Part 3

The Challenge for an AI English Conversation App: Creating a Language Acquisition Technology to Globalize Asia In this final part of our three-part series, we look back at the greatest crisis SpeakBUDDY faced in its 13-year history. President Tateishi shares how he navigated a dire situation, with only three months of runway left, by being brutally honest with his employees. We also discuss the company’s unique organizational culture, where a multinational team of over 10 nationalities balances autonomy with discipline, and explore his grand vision for leading Asia’s globalization. Finally, we reveal how their partnership with D-POPS GROUP is accelerating SpeakBUDDY’s ambition to become a unicorn company. (This interview was conducted in January 2026.) See Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview here. ◆Understanding How Long a Year Can Feel to an Entrepreneur Sugihara: It has been exactly 13 years since you founded your company. During that time, you’ve navigated various shifts, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking back over these 13 years, what were the major turning points or obstacles that you encountered, both personally and as a company? Tateishi: While the company was founded quite a while ago, for the first three years, I was developing non-AI English learning apps and operating solely on my own personal capital. The situation changed dramatically around 2016, when we pivoted fully to AI-driven English conversation and began receiving investment from venture capitalists. In that sense, it has been a long road. One thing that surprises you when you become an entrepreneur is that one year feels incredibly long. You’ve likely heard of Janet’s Law, which suggests that time feels like it passes faster as you get older. By my seventh year at the investment bank, my colleagues and I would often say, “This year is already almost over!” I think that happened because I had mastered most of my tasks, the work had become routine, and there were fewer new stimuli. However, when you start a business, new challenges appear one after another, day after day. Each time, you have to acquire new skills or come up with fresh solutions. This density of experience makes a single year feel exceptionally long. Doing that for over a decade has been a very lengthy, yet fascinating process. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, AI English conversation benefited a lot from the stay-at-home environment at first. However, as the period of restricted travel dragged on, Japanese people sadly stopped studying English. With no business trips, no international visitors coming to Japan, and no overseas vacations, their opportunities to think about English virtually disappeared. The entire English learning industry slumped, and it was a very difficult time for us. Fortunately, demand has now fully returned. ◆The Ultimate Crisis: An Honest Confession with 3 Months of Runway Left Sugihara: Of all the situations you’ve faced over the years, if you had to pick one, what was the biggest hurdle? And more importantly, how did you manage to overcome it? Tateishi: It was undoubtedly the period during the lead-up to our funding round, when our runway (the time left before we ran out of cash) was nearly gone. In a startup setting, you’re constantly accelerating hiring to fuel growth. When the pressure to raise capital hit at the same time as the need to keep the organization unified, it was incredibly intense. Developing AI services is a marathon. At first, the tech can’t quite match human performance, so you go through years of not being able to amount to much. But then, you hit a tipping point where the AI suddenly starts outperforming humans, and growth just takes off. 2019 was that turning point for us, and it was also our hardest year. We were right on the cusp of our Series A, but we only had about three months of cash left in the bank. I was running myself ragged trying to secure funding, while the team seemed—at least to my eyes—a bit too relaxed. Eventually, I couldn’t bear the stark contrast between my stress levels and their composure any longer. Until then, I had kept our financial numbers and cash flow concerns private because I didn’t want the team to worry, but I had finally hit my limit. I called everyone together and told them honestly, “This is exactly how much cash we have left, and this is how much we burn every month. If you do the math, we have three months. 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. However, the upside is that it naturally brings in ideas we never would have had otherwise. We can flexibly adopt global best practices and viewpoints that aren’t bound by Japanese common sense. Plus, since we are a language company, many of our Japanese hires join specifically because they studied English and want to work in an international environment. For them, working in a cross-cultural team is a source of genuine professional fulfillment. From a management standpoint, it’s a huge strength. For specialized roles where the domestic talent pool is small, such as engineers and designers, widening our search to include global talent allows us to hire elite performers. Although, running all-hands meetings in both English and Japanese with simultaneous interpretation can be rough, ha ha. ◆Encountering D-POPS GROUP Sugihara: You recently attended our business briefing and social gathering. What were your impressions? (Click here to read more about the event.) 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. Sugihara: SpeakBUDDY already has many supporters and investors. Why did you decide to accept our investment, and what has the experience been like so far? Tateishi: The biggest reason was that President Goto, and you as well, really listened to us with such sincerity. It made us really want to grow alongside you. D-POPS GROUP is a very unique organization, and there are many elements of your company that make me think, “This is the kind of company I want to build.” When we were raising the funds, I told my team, “I want entrepreneurs whom I truly respect to become our shareholders. I want us to aim to become a company like D-POPS GROUP, so I absolutely want to accept their investment.” My thoughts at the time were, “I want us to learn from you, so please invest in us!” ◆Building a Great Company that Balances Autonomy and Discipline Sugihara: Regarding our company’s aim of realizing a Venture Ecosystem, are there any parts of that vision that resonate with you? 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”. This may be an abstract goal, but I want SpeakBUDDY’s very existence to make people say, “I’m glad this company exists.” To achieve that, I feel like we really need to return to the roots of our mission, vision, and values. Organizationally, we spent the last year significantly strengthening our discipline. Startups are often free-spirited, autonomous environments, and we ourselves operate on a hybrid model centered on full-remote work. I’m personally someone who didn’t originally like to create rules, but as we grew past 60 employees, errors and accidents inevitably started to occur. So, I decided to steer us toward a culture that strongly asks for discipline and accountability. I recently read that “only by balancing autonomy and discipline can one create a great company”, and it struck a chord. Autonomy without discipline is chaos, but discipline without autonomy is stagnation. I want both at a high level. Sugihara: Autonomy and discipline seem like opposites, but they are actually two sides of the same coin. At companies like Google, the environment looks free, but the governance and the focus on achieving goals are incredibly intense. You are free to choose how you work, but you are also held totally responsible for the mission. Both aspects co-exist. Tateishi: Very true. That’s directly related to the recent moving of our office and us paying closer attention to the culture we’re building. ◆From Asia to the World: Leading Global Integration Sugihara: Do you have concrete plans or an outlook for expanding into the market in Asia and the rest of the world? Tateishi: We do. While we’ve temporarily paused our efforts to enter the Taiwanese market, we’re looking at opportunities to move into East Asia first, followed by Southeast Asia. Ultimately, we want to expand to Europe and the rest of the world. Sugihara: Right, since Southeast Asia alone has a population of over 600 million. Tateishi: It is a remarkably attractive market. There are billions of people worldwide struggling with English, so we want to provide our services to them, for sure. First, we’ll focus on succeeding in Japan, and then scale up from there. ◆A Message to Readers: “A New Way to Master English” Sugihara: Finally, do you have a message for our readers? This column is read closely by executives, entrepreneurs, and investors who have a real eye for professionalism. Tateishi: Everyone can feel the staggering pace of AI evolution every day. In an era like this, I believe we are being asked to question traditional methods and try something new. For English learning, too, I encourage everyone to try different methods from what you’ve done before. At the risk of sounding biased, I believe English is only going to become even more important for business professionals as AI makes international collaboration easier. We are seeing an increasing number of young people for whom English fluency is a given. We hope the professionals currently leading our industries will also take advantage of SpeakBuddy to brush up on their language skills, develop their own unique English style, and not get left behind by the younger generation. 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

Interview

2026.04.28

[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/

Interview

2026.04.15

[Member Interview #1] D-POPS GROUP President’s Office Member Shane Hetrick

Overcoming the Language Barrier to Create a More Global Venture Ecosystem ①First, please tell us about where you’re from and your background. I was born in California, but while growing up, my family moved about a dozen times to various other places in the western part of the US as well as spending seven months in South Korea. As a result, my parents, my younger brother, and my two younger sisters were the only stable figures in my life, so I had to get used to constant change from an early age. In fact, I can confidently say that learning how to deal with so many transitions had a significant impact on my life. After moving to the city of Pullman in Washington to attend Washington State University, I earned a dual degree in microbiology and genetics and cell biology. In my freshman year, I became an active member of a Christian community for university students, and even after finishing my studies, I decided to remain in Pullman and volunteer with that group for two years as an intern and then one year as a staff member. Throughout this period, I enjoyed getting to hang out with friends often, not having many responsibilities, and ultimately realizing my life’s passions. I also gained a number of critical skills which I would soon utilize in my career: developing relationships with people from both similar and different cultures, guiding and coaching university students through strategizing how to tackle their personal problems, facilitating group discussions, and—perhaps most importantly—learning how to learn. ②How many years ago did you arrive in Japan? What was your reason for moving here? Towards the end of my time in Pullman, I started to meet more and more international students from various countries, and even met a student from Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, who even became my roommate for one semester. All of them suggested very seriously that I would make an excellent English instructor, and I became quite interested in the idea of starting a brand new adventure. Looking back on it now, I suppose I had also grown restless in my relatively safe and predictable life. First, I began working part-time at my university’s affiliated TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program for about half a year, and then started to look into different options to live abroad as an English instructor. In the end, I was offered a full-time position as a dispatch worker through a small English teaching company in Japan, and in August 2015, I moved into a Japanese family’s house in Tokyo. I had met their son while he was studying abroad at my university, and his parents graciously offered me a place to stay when they heard I would be moving to Japan. I began facilitating English lessons at elementary and middle schools, trade schools, hospitals, hotels, and various other companies throughout the Tokyo area. Some were large classes with 10 to 20 children or young adults, while others were 1-on-1 with businesspeople, and I soon became capable of teaching English to Japanese people of all ages. ③Why did you join D-POPS GROUP? During my first year of teaching English full-time in Tokyo, I encountered a local branch of the same Christian university student organization in which I had been involved before. They were low on staff, so I volunteered for them and moved into their community house while continuing to teach English part-time at various places. I met a young woman from China through this group, we got married, then we had a daughter and were expecting a baby boy. During the months leading up to his birth, I was actively searching for a full-time job to provide for our family's finances, since my wife would soon go on maternity leave and she was our main breadwinner at the time. Then, a recruiting partner of D-POPS GROUP found my profile while looking for someone with English teaching experience and a Japanese driver's license to be hired as an English-speaking chauffeur for the CEO, and offered me an interview. While I was somewhat intrigued by the prospect, the position was very different from what I had been searching for. However, once I met President Goto at the interview, something inside me changed. I was deeply impressed by how he listened to me and was genuinely interested in me as a person, and when he spoke, I immediately believed in his vision. So, last November, I decided to join D-POPS GROUP and play even a small part in creating a society that will support my children to take risks, learn, and grow. ④What kind of work are you doing at D-POPS GROUP? I was originally hired to help President Goto to improve his English through natural conversation while riding in the car. While that is my highest priority, I quickly recognized that within the flexible and swiftly-changing scene of a startup, I couldn't limit my role in our company to such a narrow task. When I’m not driving, I was given the primary task of translating the articles on our company website from Japanese to English. From time to time, I also get to use my native English skills for corresponding with foreign guests and welcoming them to our office. As much as I can, I try to help out the other members of the President's Office, too. After all, the more work they can delegate to me, the more work President Goto can delegate to them, which frees him up to do more of the things that only he can do. I receive and send letters and packages, order various supplies, issue entry passes to our office, and handle other light administrative tasks. ⑤As you drive President Goto around and help him practice his English in the car, have you gotten used to driving in Tokyo? Has President Goto’s English actually improved? Ha ha… The car that President Goto chose for our company vehicle has a number of premium features that make it easier to drive safely in city traffic. It also helps that I’ve been driving for many years, so even though the streets in Tokyo are much more crowded and narrow than the roads in the US, I have been able to get used to driving here. In fact, I am always delighted every time I have the chance to drive President Goto to his various meetings and appointments and learn something from his wise words. And yes, as President Goto is using English more consistently, he is more capable of recalling the foundation that he built as a high school and university student in the US and the UK. All I’m doing is providing him with an atmosphere where he can comfortably practice and supplying him with correct vocabulary and natural English phrasing when appropriate. He has been making steady progress, and is definitely more visibly confident when speaking English compared to a year ago. However, he often likes to encourage me by saying that he wishes his English would improve as fast as my Japanese, ha ha. ⑥You seem to have a proactive stance towards speaking Japanese with everyone around you in our office. When did you learn Japanese? Is the Japanese business lingo that we use here difficult? While I was living with that Japanese family during my first year in Tokyo, they helped me learn the fundamentals of everyday conversation, and I became capable of basic communication. However, after I moved out of their home, my Japanese level essentially stagnated, since the only time I spoke it was in the exact same situations in daily life and did not usually seek out opportunities to study and improve my language abilities. After joining D-POPS GROUP last year, I found myself in a Japanese work environment for the first time in my life, so there have been countless moments where I’ve been challenged and stretched. It’s not just that business Japanese is difficult for me to learn, but also that I had virtually no experience in the business world before starting this job. As a result, while I’m trying to pick up polite Japanese phrases that are commonly used in the office, I’m also learning about the concepts, situations, and systems behind those phrases at the same time. I want to provide as much value to D-POPS GROUP as possible, since I understand that I can contribute to society more this way. To that end, I have undertaken a lot of challenges and overcome almost as many obstacles, thanks to the patience and understanding of my excellent and gracious coworkers, though there are still many more to go. And I want to tell everyone within our Venture Ecosystem that I am always happy to practice my Japanese, so when you see me, please don’t hesitate to say hello! ⑦What differences have you felt between living and working in Japan compared to the US? In my opinion, the biggest way that life in Japan is different from life in the US is the perception of peer pressure. From what I’ve seen over the past ten years, Japanese people seem to be very considerate of other people, to the point that they try to remain aware of the outward behaviors and even the unspoken feelings of the people around them. In addition, they usually have a deep reverence for common courtesy, harmony, and consensus, and would rather inconvenience themselves than voice an opinion contrary to the majority. On the other hand, Americans place a very high value on the personal independence of the individual. From a young age, we are taught that we should think before we copy what everyone else is doing, and we prize uniqueness above uniformity. There are obviously many reasons why these two cultures are so opposite, but I think one primary root may be the lack of livable space in Japan combined with the history of frequent natural disasters here. When the threat of earthquakes, tsunamis, or other dangers is always near, and your neighbors live so close that a house fire can spread to surrounding buildings almost instantly, it becomes critical to maintain amicable relations with all the people you interact with on a regular basis, so that you can rely on their help in an emergency, rather than watch them gleefully loot your belongings as you lay dying. I’ve also noticed some smaller contrasts between Japanese and American lifestyles that our readers may find interesting. For one, Japanese tend to keep their social circles cleanly distinct from each other, so family, acquaintances, and coworkers rarely mix. Americans, however, are much less shy about introducing family to their friends and colleagues who are close to them, so I’ve had to get used to knowing next to nothing about my team members’ personal lives, even though I talk with them all the time. Another is that while most Japanese eat rice at least once a day as part of their diet, Americans aren’t usually loyal to a single staple food, and will even eat meals that contain no staple food at all. Finally, this isn’t necessarily a major difference between Japan and the US, but rather something that’s starting to change in both cultures. Until recently, fathers did not usually take a long paternity leave. However, I decided to take advantage of the Japanese government’s childcare provisions to stay with my wife and children at my parent’s house in the US for much of December and January. My coworkers at D-POPS GROUP were very supportive, and though I’ve heard horror stories of fathers at Japanese companies coming back from paternity leave to find their position relocated or minimized, in my case there was nothing of the sort. ⑧After joining D-POPS GROUP, you have been working on the English version of our company’s website. What are your most important considerations for writing English translations? First of all, I try to imagine the audience who will be reading these translations. They could be executive members of foreign companies thinking about expanding their business into Japan, or venture capital investors looking for a good return from a Japanese startup, or even members of D-POPS GROUP or our partners who simply want to practice their English reading ability. This affects the word choice and overall tone of each article I translate, and also helps me decide how to convey phrases or ideas that have no direct translations. Next, I do my best to paint a clear picture of the mission, vision, and values of D-POPS GROUP and our leaders in such a way that anyone who reads the pages of our website in English will be able to sense them through what parts are emphasized and even through the vocabulary I use. After all, I believe that the energy surrounding us really is special, so I hope to share as much of that spark as possible with our readers. Finally, since I am still quite far from being bilingual, I would not be able to accomplish the task of translating our website without the support of our corporate advisor, Genta Sugihara. Without his wisdom, experience, and especially his deep knowledge of startups and corporate venture capital, you would not be reading this now. Not only with translation, but he has also given me invaluable advice on navigating the unfamiliar world of working at a Japanese company, and I can’t express in words how much I sincerely appreciate him. ⑨In August, we hosted a group of delegates from the Japan-America Student Conference. You helped to create English presentation materials that were oriented towards students, and also did a little bit of interpretation on that day. What were your impressions of all the work that went into making those materials and what you experienced on the day of their visit? That event was my first taste of getting to work more closely with President Goto, and it was definitely awe-inspiring to witness firsthand how much thought and effort he puts into anything he does. He was put in a position where he was out of his element, and I would guess that is not usual for someone at his level of professionalism. But even in the midst of a situation like that, he was able to think strategically about what he could do in the limited time before the presentation, and also what was not possible. For example, I first prepared a script for him that might have seemed quite impressive to an academic audience in an English-speaking country. However, it contained a significant amount of high-level vocabulary he was not familiar with. President Goto pointed out to me that since he did not have a long time to prepare, it would be better for him to focus on practicing fluently speaking words he already knows than on learning a bunch of new words. Then we went back and forth over the next several weeks, refining his script and his presentation slides until he was satisfied with them. This was also an educational experience for me, as I learned that being able to reach a state of 90% perfection in a timely manner is much more important in a business setting than finally getting to the point of 100% perfection long after the deadline has already passed. When the students arrived at the Shibuya Hikarie Building, I had the honor of showing them around various parts of our inspirational office space and explaining their significance in English. Then, after we listened to President Goto and Advisor Sugihara share their lectures, I was supposed to help interpret for the students and our company leaders, but it turned out that between President Goto’s English skills and the Japanese ability that several of the American students had, I hardly needed to say anything. Given my work background in connecting with university students, I was so happy to see a deeper understanding of the value of entrepreneurship dawn on their faces over the course of our time together. ⑩What kinds of activities at D-POPS GROUP do you hope to participate in from now on? My knowledge and experience in the venture capital business is still almost zero, but someday I hope to be a more active participant in the process of welcoming new partners to our Venture Ecosystem. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been given the privilege of facilitating communication between the members of our CVC team and a pair of foreign entrepreneurs who want to more firmly establish their business in Japan. This has been exhilarating for me, and I want to increase my capabilities in this regard. Besides the CVC team, I hope to support any other conversations that take place between members of our Venture Ecosystem and non-Japanese speakers. One of my personal goals at D-POPS GROUP is to utilize my English skills to serve our expansion onto the global stage. In accordance with that, I want to keep myself available as an asset anytime there is a need for a native English speaker. Speaking of which, I'm hoping to start some English-related activities within D-POPS GROUP's Ecosystem sometime soon. If anyone is interested, please feel free to contact me! Beyond this, I’d really like to continue improving my Japanese language and business skills to the point that not only am I a professional English translator for D-POPS GROUP, but also that I prove to be truly useful in other areas. I’m excited to see what I look like after another year of working here!

Interview

2026.04.09

COLUMN

[Founder Interview #4] Tsuyoshi Tateishi (SpeakBUDDY) – Part 2

Design Concept that Combines SLA Theory and a Sense of Companionship to Truly Teach Japanese People to Speak

◆The Four Pillars of SpeakBUDDY’s Competitive Advantage

◆Where SpeakBUDDY Differs from Duolingo and Speak

◆Over 300 Clients: Rapid Growth in the Corporate Market

◆More Employee-Friendly than Traditional English Training

SpeakBUDDY, Ltd.

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