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Events

We hold events regularly. Here are event reports, recordings, and presentation materials of the previous events.

Upcoming Events

Past Events

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Guest Speaker

2024-09-13

Insights on Japan’s Startup Ecosystem from the Ecosystem Builder

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Masaru Nagura, Director of CIC Institute and Co-Founder of the Startup Ecosystem Association Japan.

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Guest Speaker

2024-07-26

Accelerator Talk with Plug and Play Japan

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Ryo Naiki, COO at Plug and Play Japan, the Japanese branch of the world's leading accelerator/venture capital headquartered in Silicon Valley.

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Guest Speaker

2024-06-21

Startup CFO Talk in collaboration with Tuck Club of Japan

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Yoshihiro Iwakami, CFO at Cancerscan, a marketing solutions startup that combines expertise in both marketing and preventive medical care with a mission to make people and society healthier.

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Guest Speaker

2024-05-24

Journey as a Climate Entrepreneur and Stanford's Knight Hennessy Scholar

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Tomo Kumahira, Co-Founder of Project Mizu and the first Japanese student who was accepted into the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program at Stanford GSB (Graduate School of Business).

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Guest Speaker

2024-04-12

Innovator & Entrepreneur's Journey in Tokyo, Silicon Valley, and NY

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Namiko Kajiwara, Founder & CEO at Seasons of Life, a global brand strategy agency and executive coaching company.

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Career

2024-03-02

Spring Career Forum 2024 - Guide to the Startup World -

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its forth Spring Career Forum, where alumni, current students, and prospective students were able to hear from MBA graduates working at startups as Founder, C-Suite, and other key positions, and at VCs within the Japanese community.

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Guest Speaker

2024-02-16

From an Investment Analyst to a Startup Innovator in the PropTech

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Kosuke Kato, President and Investment Evangelist at WealthPark Lab.

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Guest Speaker

2024-01-25

Key Takeaways from a 10+ Year Journey as a Serial Entrepreneur

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Noritaka Kobayashi, Founder and CEO at bajji, a tech startup that operates "capture.x", a decarbonized NFT service, and "Feelyou", a mood tracking application. bajji was selected for Nikkei Cross Trend’s “100 Companies Creating the Market of the Future" in December 2022.

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Guest Speaker

2023-12-31

2023 Year in Review

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Guest Speaker

2023-12-26

Ask Me Anything (AMA) Session Series

This year, the Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community launched a new initiative, Ask Me Anything (AMA) Session Series, designed for those who are aiming to start their own businesses in the near future and currently studying in U.S. business schools including Columbia Business School, MIT Sloan, and Kellogg School of Management.

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Guest Speaker

2023-12-22

The Future of Mobility: the World of Autonomous Vehicles

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Shin Kato, a staff technical product manager at Cruise, a driverless technology startup. Cruise, acquired by General Motors in 2016, is the only leader in the autonomous vehicle technologies sector that launched as a startup. The company has been testing its driverless technology in various cities, including San Francisco, and working toward deploying a commercial autonomous ride-hailing service.

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Guest Speaker

2023-11-29

Intrapreneurship: A Journey of Innovation in HealthTech

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Kota Ageiwa from Thinkie Inc. This year, Kota initiated Thinkie in Seattle as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. Thinkie aims to contribute to the people's cognitively healthy life by providing a real-time measurement of brain blood flow and brain training programs for individualized neuro-feedback. During this session, he shared with us his career history at Mitsui & Co. and his experience as an intrapreneur and the founder of Thinkie. 

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Career

2023-10-27

Post MBA Career in the VC/Accelerator/Startup Space in Japan and the U.S.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Ayumi Ode, the lead of the Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community and Director of Investor Relations at Allegis Capital, an early stage focused VC firm based in Palo Alto, California. During this virtual session, she shared her career journey from a graduation of Columbia Business School in 2017 to date about how she has developed post-MBA career in the startup/VC/accelerator space in Japan and how she gained an opportunity to relocate to the Bay Area for work six years after the MBA.

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Guest Speaker

2023-09-02

The Startup Ecosystems in San Francisco and New York

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Mitsuo Okada from Capy Inc. Mitsuo founded Capy, which offers online security solutions for websites via its CAPTCHA solution, in 2012, and the company raised Series A funding. His team in SF Bay Area is currently building an AI based Chief Security officer as 95% of security issues can be solved by AI. 

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Guest Speaker

2023-08-04

Driving the Future: Woven Capital's Mission-Driven Investment and Japan's CVC Potential

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Michiko Kato from Woven Capital. Michiko has extensive experience in investment banking, investment funds, M&A, fundraising, and private equity investments. She has also served as the CFO of ABEJA Co., Ltd. and is currently leading global venture capital investments as a partner at Woven Capital.

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Guest Speaker

2023-07-03

Development of J-KISS and Advancing Startup Ecosystem in Japan

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Masakazu Masujima, Partner at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, one of the largest full-service Tokyo headquartered international law firms. Masakazu is known as the principal architect of J-KISS (Japanese version of Keep It Simple Security), an investment agreement template suitable for seed-stage startups to raise funds quickly, based on know-how developed in Silicon Valley.

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Guest Speaker

2023-05-10

Unlocking CBS Entrepreneurship & Analytics Programs

⁠The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual talk with current Columbia Business School students who shared the latest trends on Entrepreneurship & Analytics Programs and extracurricular activities at Columbia Business School (CBS) in New York City.

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Guest Speaker

2023-03-02

Spring Career Forum 2023 - Guide to the Startup World -

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its third Spring Career Forum, where alumni, current students, and prospective students* were able to hear from MBA graduates leading growing startups as Founders and C-Suite and VCs within the Japanese community. From this year, the speakers included graduates of Columbia Business School as well as alumni who have completed their MBA programs abroad such as Chicago Booth, IMD Business School, London Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford Graduate School of Business, UC Berkeley Haas, UCLA Anderson, and Wharton School.

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Guest Speaker

2023-02-13

SaaS Startup Founder Lessons

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Naka Imuta, Founder and CEO of Techtouch, Inc., a SaaS-based B2B platform with over 2 million users in Japan that enables companies to create and embed intuitive website user manuals into IT systems. In January 2023, Techtouch announced that they raised 1.78 billion yen (about 13.8 million USD) in a series B round from DNX Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, and others together with their plan on investing in 10 SaaS startups by the end of 2024 for the purpose of business collaborations. In this session, Naka as the Founder and CEO of the B2B SaaS startup shared lessons learned from his entrepreneurial journey to date.

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Guest Speaker

2023-01-31

Fireside Chat on Corporate Governance in Pre-IPO Startups

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Hiroyuki Nebashi, an attorney and outside auditor at PROGRIT Inc., which provides English coaching services and got listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market in September, 2022. Hiroyuki joined one of the most prominent law firms in Japan, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, in 2011 and studied in Columbia University's LLM program in 2016. He is currently engaged in a wide range of legal activities including M&A, governance, and legal risk management at Panasonic Holdings Corporation as well as serving as an outside auditor at PROGRIT Inc.

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Guest Speaker

2022-12-31

2022 Year in Review

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Guest Speaker

2022-12-28

Post MBA Career in an Artificial Intelligence(AI) Startup

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) in collaboration with Columbia Business School Japan Business Association (CBS JBA) hosted a virtual session with Takayuki Nakagawa, Business Lead at ALGO ARTIS, an AI startup specializing in the area of planning optimization. Takayuki enrolled in Columbia Business School in 2020 after having worked at A.T. Kearney since 2017. During his two-year MBA program, he had a variety of academic and internship experiences including engaging with CVC Japan as a sub-lead and joined ALGO ARTIS after graduation in May, 2022.

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Guest Speaker

2022-12-08

10 Lessons from my entrepreneurial journey

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Arudchelvan Krishnamoorthy, Co-Founder and CFO at Rapyuta Robotics. As a Co-Founder, he founded Rapyuta Robotics, a cloud robotics platform provider, in 2014 and the company raised Series C funding in 2022. Based on his experience, he shared with us 10 lessons he has learned along his entrepreneurial journey.

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Social Event

2022-12-02

Happy Hour in December, 2022

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its second in-person Happy Hour in Tokyo, Japan.

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Guest Speaker

2022-11-17

Basics of Startup IPO Process

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Hiroaki Yamazaki, a student at Columbia Business School (Class of 2024) and formerly Vice President, IPO Division in Investment Banking Business Unit at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. He had been engaged in IPO consulting for startups in Japan for the last 4.5 years until he enrolled at Columbia Business School. Based on his previous work experience, he shared with us the basics and critical steps of the IPO process for startups in Japan.

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Guest Speaker

2022-10-05

Lessons from In-Between: Startups and Corporate Innovation in Silicon Valley and Tokyo

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Kenneth Jeng, a graduate of Columbia SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs). He started working as a Senior Program Manager at Moon Creative Lab, a designed-focused venture studio affiliated with Mitsui & Co., where he works to bring 0-1 ventures to life after working for a startup in Tokyo and a corporate venture advisory firm in Silicon Valley.

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Guest Speaker

2022-08-31

Corporate-Startup Partnerships: Connecting Japanese Corporations and Global Startups

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Yuichi Ando, Head of Silicon Valley and GM at Japan Post Co., Ltd. After working in Tokyo, New York, Singapore, and London with global financial service firms, Yuichi started leading innovation efforts in 2019 including startup partnerships, new business creation, and market research in Silicon Valley for Japan Post.

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Guest Speaker

2022-08-01

Ingredients of Successful Innovation Spaces

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Benika Morokuma, a senior consultant at Nikken Sekkei Research Institute (NSRI). Her voluntary team at Nikken Sekkei Group has been studying innovation spaces globally and recently published articles about “Ingredients of Successful Innovation Spaces”. She shared with us their findings and insights arising from the recent project.

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Social Event

2022-06-15

Happy Hour in June, 2022

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its first in-person Happy Hour in Tokyo, Japan.

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Panel Session

2022-06-02

Legal Basics and Tips for Startup Funding

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Ryoichi Kaneko, Partner at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, and Ryo Muramatsu, Corporate Venturing Co-Lead at Tokio Marine Innovation Lab Silicon Valley to introduce the basics and tips on the startup funding from a legal perspective.

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Panel Session

2022-05-07

Unlocking CBS Entrepreneurship & Analytics Programs

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual talk with current Columbia Business School students to share the latest trends on Entrepreneurship & Analytics Programs and extracurricular activities at Columbia Business School (CBS) in New York City.

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Guest Speaker

2022-04-15

Innovation Trends in Life Sciences

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Akihiko Soyama, President and CEO at LINK-J. He shared his work experience to date and LINK-J’s efforts in generating life science innovations in Nihonbashi, Tokyo as well as innovation trends.

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Career

2022-03-01

Spring Career Forum 2022

The Japan Chapter of the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its second Spring Career Forum, where current Columbia University students were able to hear from Columbia University alumni leading growing startups, VCs, and accelerators within the Japanese community who are looking to recruit graduate and undergraduate students and alumni interested in career opportunities in the venture space.

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Guest Speaker

2022-01-25

Analysis of Japan’s Startup Ecosystem with the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Sho Ito, a graduate of Columbia SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs), from the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. The Cabinet Office in collaboration with the World Bank Group recently published a report called “Boosting Japan’s Startup Ecosystem (in English)” “東京のスタートアップエコシステム(日本語)”. In this session, he shared findings and insights on Japan’s Startup Ecosystem presented in the recent report.

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Guest Speaker

2021-12-23

Startup CEO Talk

The Japan Chapter of the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual talk with Riku Sugie, President & CEO of Paidy. He shared his career and invaluable experience of large scale exit (M&A) as a top executive.

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Guest Speaker

2021-11-03

Startup Founder Talk

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with Hitomi Kimura Pender, the Founder & CEO of Link Strollers. She shared her career and personal journey from a corporate professional in Tokyo to a startup founder & a mother in New York City.

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Guest Speaker

2021-08-16

Virtual Talk with 500 Startups on Accelerator Programs in Japan

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with the Co-Lead of CVC Japan and Director of Japan at 500 Startups who shared the overview of 500 Startups’ accelerator programs and the latest trends on startup ecosystem development in Japan as well as her own career development.

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Panel Session

2021-06-29

Unlocking CBS Entrepreneurship Programs

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with current and former Columbia Business School students who will share the latest trends on Entrepreneurship Programs and extracurricular activities at Columbia Business School (CBS) in New York City.

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Guest Speaker

2021-04-28

Innovator & Startup Founder Talk

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with Kunio Hara, Co-Founder and CEO of Beatrust. He shared his experience from working with Son Masayoshi at early stage of Softbank to being an executive at Microsoft and Google, which led him to launch his current startup, Beatrust.

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Career

2021-03-16

Spring Career Forum

CVC Japan hosted its first Spring Career Forum, where current Columbia University students were able to hear from Columbia University alumni leading growing startups, recently IPO’d companies, VCs, and accelerators within the Japanese community that were looking to recruit graduate and undergraduate students interested in career opportunities in the venture space.

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Guest Speaker

2021-01-21

Founder Talk on the Entrepreneurial Journey from Start to IPO

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with Kiyoshi Matsuura, President and CEO of Premier Anti-Aging. He shared his entrepreneurial experience from founding a startup through an IPO.

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Panel Session

2020-11-30

Virtual Launch of Japan Chapter with Alumni Panel Discussion

CVC Japan hosted the Virtual Kickoff and first panel discussion of the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) Japan Chapter. This event marked the beginning of a series of initiatives, programs, and events organized by and for members of the Columbia community interested in entrepreneurship and innovation in Japan.

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