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[Founder Interview #3] Ayumi Fujimoto (Startup Ecosystem Association) – Part 1

  • Interview
2026.03.26

From Startup to Scale-up:
Mutual Growth and Realization of an Advancing Ecosystem

D-POPS GROUP is engaged in a wide range of initiatives to support the evolution of Japan’s Venture Ecosystem.

For this article, we interviewed the Startup Ecosystem Association’s President Ayumi Fujimoto, a leader who shares our vision for Japan’s entrepreneurial future. (This interview was conducted in January 2026.)

In Part 1 of this three-part series, we jump into the story behind the association’s founding and the urgent challenges facing startups revealed by their field research. In fact, these issues often prove more crucial than raising funds.

◆The Origin Story: A Three-Year Vision and a Public "Declaration"

Sugihara:
Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Ms. Fujimoto. In March 2022, you founded the Startup Ecosystem Association, an organization whose mission closely aligns with D-POPS GROUP’s goal of realizing a thriving Venture Ecosystem.

Ms. Fujimoto, could you start by telling us how the Association came to be? You established it while serving as Plug and Play Japan’s CMO, correct?

Fujimoto:
That’s right. While we officially launched in 2022, the concept actually dates back to 2019, shortly after I joined Plug and Play Japan.

At that time, the category of “Accelerator” was just starting to gain recognition in Japan, and various players were emerging. I felt that while one company can only do so much, if we could foster horizontal connections and broader collaboration, we could create a true platform where startups can grow (in other words, an ecosystem). I was actually writing a proposal for a networking entity back then, though I didn’t call it an association yet.

However, the internal feedback at the time was, “We see the value in it, but it’s not really feasible at this point.” So, I put the idea on the shelf for a while.

What got me moving again on this idea was an invitation to the one-year anniversary event for CIC Tokyo. I was part of a panel discussion with Manabu Miyasaka, the vice governor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, and Masaru Nagura from CIC Tokyo.

During the panel, somehow the discussion turned to, “We need better horizontal connections to cultivate the right soil for startups to grow, for sure.” At that point, I mentioned my old concept for an organization, and Vice Governor Miyasaka immediately commented, “Someone should totally do that!” By the end of the session, caught up in the momentum, I declared half-jokingly and half-seriously: “Well, in that case, I guess I’m going to do it, ha ha!”

That evening, I immediately dug up and revised my old proposal and sent it to the session participants before midnight. Mr. Nagura, in particular, gave me a strong push. He said “Let’s do this together,” which helped me decide to proceed.

That was late 2021. It was a time of great uncertainty due to the pandemic, but that only strengthened our resolve: we needed to connect with supporters to fortify Japan’s ecosystem.

◆Forming a Network of Supporters

Sugihara:
When you talk about horizontal connections, are you referring to a network of startup supporters rather than the startups themselves?

Fujimoto:
Yes, we focus on the former. We saw a problem where the government, local municipalities, corporations, and individuals were all trying to make progress, but for whatever reason, they were doing so separately, creating an environment where it’s hard to collaborate. Our role is to bridge the gaps between all of those entities.

Around the same time, I reached out to Mr. Sunagawa (President of the Startup Kyokai Association), and he told me, “Actually, we’ve been thinking about exactly the same thing.” In the end, about four different support organizations were born around the same time. While our specific objectives differ, we all share the common goal of creating an environment where startups can grow and contribute to the Japanese economy, and we continue to collaborate closely today.

Sugihara:
Regarding Plug and Play, did they eventually agree to let you operate as a separate entity?

Fujimoto:
Yes. When I spoke to the management team again, they understood that it was necessary for the industry as a whole. However, we reached a consensus that it should not be the proprietary project of one company, but rather a General Incorporated Association with a neutral standpoint.

Sugihara:
Were you already well-acquainted with Mr. Nagura and Vice Governor Miyasaka before that panel?

Fujimoto:
We had only met a few times. However, I had previously appeared on a TV program with Mr. Nagura, which led to him inviting me to the CIC Tokyo event. If it weren’t for that invitation, this association wouldn’t exist today. I’m truly grateful for that connection.

◆Building a Collaborative System

Sugihara:
Looking at your association’s official website, you have an incredible lineup of individuals, ranging from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and prominent serial entrepreneurs to investors and even high-level politicians. How did you manage to build such a powerful network?

Fujimoto:
To be honest, I don’t think I could have rallied these people back in 2019. It was the timing of 2022 that made it possible.

In the middle of our continuing operations, many players within the ecosystem were beginning to feel a genuine need for better collaboration and idea exchange. Mr. Nagura and I sat down and literally wrote out a list of every single person we knew who we felt was essential to this ecosystem.

From there, we approached them one by one, saying, “We want to build this framework, and we would really appreciate your backing on this.” At that stage, our specific activities hadn’t even been fully decided yet, but everyone gave us an immediate “Yes, this needs to happen,” and agreed to join as supporters.

All of these politicians, economic organizations, and corporations support startups from a variety of different angles. I believe that simply gathering their collective wisdom and networks in one place provides immense value to the entire ecosystem.

Sugihara:
What specific roles do you expect from these supporters? Beyond just having their names on the roster, do they give speeches at general meetings, provide advice on specific issues, or anything like that?

Fujimoto:
While we have certainly benefited from these esteemed individuals speaking at our events, we are very intentional about not making their commitments feel like a burden.

Instead of giving our supporters a sense of duty, our goal has been to have a flat, transparent relationship where we can exchange information and seek advice whenever necessary.

Even without demanding a deep commitment, everyone is extremely positive about the development of the ecosystem. Because they believe this is a necessary space, we’ve been able to build a collaborative structure that is flexible yet incredibly strong.

◆The Three Pillars: Information, Equality, and Global Reach

Sugihara:
Could you tell us exactly what the Startup Ecosystem Association’s job is?

Fujimoto:
Certainly. There are three primary pillars of our work.

The first is gathering and sharing information from within Japan. You could say we’re the ecosystem’s version of Google, with the goal of collecting information, organizing it, and making it easily accessible. (Note: This is a reference to Google’s mission, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.)

One specific example of this is the Startup Ecosystem Summit, which we hold annually. Usually, these types of startup events feature startup companies on stage. Our summit is unique because rather than featuring startups, we feature the supporters, instead. Representatives from corporations, the national government, and local municipalities present on the specific support programs they are currently offering for startups.

While this is also aimed at startup companies, our real aim is to strengthen information sharing within the community of supporters. It’s surprisingly common for one organization to have no idea what the one next door is doing. By creating this annual forum, we create opportunities for people to notice how others have evolved and find interesting new ways to collaborate.

The second pillar is eliminating information inequality for startups specifically. Startups face countless hurdles as they grow, and I feel the biggest gap is often just information. There are so many obstacles that could be avoided if the founders simply knew enough. To solve this, we are building a comprehensive database that includes support information from a wide range of providers, beyond just those who speak at our summit.

We also launched support for recruitment—a major pain point. Career fairs are expensive, for sure. So it’s hard for a startup to justify spending 400,000 to 500,000 yen when they aren’t even sure they’ll find the right fit. We partnered with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to host career fairs and recruitment events.

One insight we gained was how students who want to intern at a company feel intimidated to cut into a booth full of conversing adults to ask them about it. This led to the creation of an event exclusively for students we call “Internship Fest”. Facilitating these connections and information flows for startups is our second pillar.

The third is global collaboration. The ecosystem doesn’t end at Japan’s borders. We want to connect with ecosystems worldwide. There is a demand to bring overseas startups to Japan, and a reciprocal need to help Japanese startups expand abroad. We act as a bridge for these global needs.

Everything we do revolves around these three axes.

◆Solving Real-World Challenges: Recruitment and Sales Over Funding

Sugihara: That’s true! When people think of startup events, they usually imagine startups pitching while investors act as judges. That’s the standard format for events hosted by VC funds and financial institutions. An initiative that allows everyone to see how to help startups and puts the supporters center-stage is something you rarely find anywhere else.

Fujimoto: Exactly. I don’t think anyone else is doing it. I feel it’s the kind of activity that is only possible for a non-profit like a General Incorporated Association. It’s hard to turn into a business, but it was one of those things that everyone knew was missing.

Furthermore, we recommend policies to the government. There is currently a gap where government officials can’t easily hear from people who are actually in the thick of things. We take the lead on conducting research to capture exactly what startups are struggling with right now and deliver those insights directly to the government.

Sugihara: That ties back to what you mentioned earlier regarding information inequality and recruitment challenges. Hiring is arguably one of the hardest hurdles for any startup to clear.

Fujimoto: It really is. And that insight actually came straight from our research. While the world is full of support programs for fundraising, our data showed that only about 30% of startups cited funding as their primary struggle. The vast majority were actually struggling with two other things: hiring and sales.

Despite this, there were almost no support programs available for these areas. There weren’t many places providing clear and specific guidance, which is why we worked with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to build career fairs from the ground up.

As of this year, we’ve actually transitioned those career fairs to run independently as official Tokyo Metropolitan Government projects. We see our role as having created the initial spark and the framework to get it moving.

~To be continued in Part 2~

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

Startup Ecosystem Association

President: Ayumi Fujimoto
Address: 15F Toranomon Hills Business Tower, 1-17-1 Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo
Established: March 30, 2022
Website: https://startupecosystem.org/home-en

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

・Startup Ecosystem Summit
・Overseas Collaboration
・Global Trend: From Startup to Scale-up
・How a New Company Was Established
・And other topics

Be sure to check it out here:
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/startupecosystem-part2/

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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. 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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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[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
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