Hiroki Kudo: Dream, imagine, and change

  I attended another wonderful event by Vancouver Tech Journal . I am very interested in climate change and am in the process of figuring out how I can get involved. I am an Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) for Foresight Canada, but I haven't been able to do more than that. The "#vtjtalks: How BC Climatetech Could Save The World" was a great opportunity to understand what is happening in Vancouver regarding climate tech. More investment in climate tech Mike Winterfield ( @mikewinterfield ) from Active Impact Investments explained that in general, the investment trend was slowing down, while climate tech hit the 1 billion investment mark. Also, Sithu Ranamukhaarachchi from Creative Destruction Lab mentioned that Vancouver was an excellent place to start, since they have their lab here, which is the only lab focused on climate other than their Paris lab. The constraints in Canada As exciting as it seems there was also a discussion that 90% of that funding was toward growth...

  Photo by Aaron Burden / Unsplash Why? I have started this blog to push myself to become a better writer and also a better communicator. I need to level up my vocabulary and use proper language to articulate and communicate complex concepts I have in my head. But I also find reading and writing effective for a couple of other reasons. Give space for your mind to wander When you dream, your brain processes all the information that you have consciously and unconsciously accumulated. When you are doing a task, you are focus (hopefully) only on the task at hand. There needs to be space to let you materialize your thoughts. I think reading and writing give you that space and depending on what you read and write, it will strengthen certain "brain muscles". The practice If you are a bad writer, write more. Have what you have ready A bit related to the original motivation but preparation makes you better and confident. I was listening to Tim Ferris and Kevin Rose discussion, Tim me...

Photo by Ekaterina Shakharova / Unsplash Technology divide My mom is now 77 years old. Since COVID she hasn't travelled much and her main activities is to walk around her apartment in Kobe, Japan. It makes me worry more now that I am living in Vancouver, Canada. I would call her every month or so, get on zoom so I can see her face. I would usually use the kids as an excuse to have the web meeting. She is very persevering. In other words she doesn't ask for help when she needs it. She had a 5 year old Windows PC that was starting to make the zoom call difficult. She also had a smartphone but.... (We got to actually use it, but gosh!! it was such a piece of junk! You had to press hard on the screen to have any button respond. Fujitsu, your product is awful!) No function to do web calls. And she couldn't download and use Line (the equivalent of Whatsapp in Japan) The hurdles When I visited her in early July, she wanted to change her phone because Fujitsu will not support any ...

Photo by Brooke Lark / Unsplash Think of how living beings, starting from single-cell forms evolved into animals, plants, fungi, protists and monera. The beginning was not to die. Having a strong enough structure to withstand the external environment. Then came how to create energy. That came in 2 forms. Either producing energy or acquiring it. Plants evolved to produce energy with the help of chloroplasts. Animals, on the other hand, had to acquire energy. They developed primitive forms of the gut. This was far before any of the other organs were present. The gut eventually evolved to serve several functions, the nervous system, the lymphatic system, the blood circulation system, etc. These systems were taken over by other organs but the gut and other organs still support the main organs. As an example of this, let me tell you a story. A wealthy man had a liver problem. So he had a part of a liver transplant from a young Mexican man. Since then he suddenly craved spicy food. This sho...

  Photo by Aldebaran S / Unsplash We can only recognize what we can sense Humans can only sense limited information. For example, humans can only see visible light. Some butterflies are known to sense and communicate with ultraviolet. Humans can't sense, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, etc. Humans can't hear dog whistles. Humans can't sense magnetic fields. Humans can't feel seismic waves. In math, we learn about imaginary numbers. But can we recognize them? What if, there was a whole world that we couldn't recognize Humans talk about other intelligent life. What if they were right next to you? Could it so happen that you can't sense them? What if life could exist in a form that humans couldn't sense? Nobody said that intelligent life had to be in a form of a human or octopus-like or other grotesque forms. What if, other species of life were more intelligent than humans? What is the definition of intelligence? I wrote about that in my previous post, but wh...

  Photo by Ian Stauffer / Unsplash Clearly writing is not one of my strengths. But if I DON'T write, how am I ever going to get good at it?! So, I will be writing very short blogs, just to get into the habit of writing. Today I want to start writing about my views of the world. Let me start with where this all happened. I have been meditating now and then for some 8 years or so. (Maybe even longer.) I am now pretty good at quieting my mind. I was thinking that meditation will strengthen my ability to connect, connect to the unknown. What am I saying? Let me write about that in the next blog. By the way, meditation is great and I recommend everyone give it a try. It will clear up your mind and give you more focus. And if you are having trouble focusing, this is a great exercise for you. Set a timer, and just 3 minutes or even shorter, try focusing. If your mind starts drifting or starting to think of something, that is fine! Just notice that and correct it. Don't be frustrated ...

  Learning about Corporate Governance. Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com / Unsplash It seems that it does differ by juristic and Japan has a very unique system or practices. This seems to be related to historical events on how it developed. Japan's stock market had lost a lot of trust as a result of the of courts decision on Bull-Dog vs. Steel Partners. (And the Great Recession that happened the next year, 2008) Bull-Dog wins court case vs Steel Partners Many scandals in the corporate world, such as Daio Paper and Olympus (2011), made it clear that something was needed to be done to retain trust in the Tokyo Stock Market. The Fourth Abe Cabinet (November 2017 to September 2020) introduced a plan called the "tree arrows". The third arrow, a growth strategy known as the “Japan Revitalization Strategy”, pushed to amend "Companies Act", setup the Japanese version of Stewardship Code and Corporate Governance Code. For the "Companies Act" the followi...

  When I came to Vancouver I was trying to figure out where I should live and one of the important pieces of information was where are all the companies located? Photo by GeoJango Maps / Unsplash I did some research but couldn't we find a map of where all the startups were located. Time pasted, and I've already settled in renting a house but I remembered that problem, and thought that it would be helpful to create such a database and map. I know that CrunchBase has a huge database which includes startups not only from Vancouver but all over the world. I've no intention to compete against CrunchBase but just want to create something useful for people in Vancouver and people who are interested in Vancouver. So I pulled out Airtable to create a form so that people can use it to enter information regarding startups that they work or know. That was pretty straightforward. Then I thought, it would be great to visually see where all these startups and tech companies are loca...

So after battling with WeVideo (btw I love WeVideo! It is just that I haven't gotten used to it, and combining it with other software made it a bit more tricky!) I have finally uploaded my YouTube video on "Vancouver Startups" channel! Please comment! Let me know what you think! And if there is anything that you want me to talk about, let me know! (And if you subscribe to the channel, that would be awesome!!) (This has been migrated from Ghost and originally written on Jan 2nd, 2022)

  I've been creating videos using WeVideo it's a new tool that I've been exploring and I want to talk a bit about it. When I started creating videos I started off using iMovies because I am a Mac User. iMovies was pretty simple and it was easy to use but quickly I hit it’s limits. It's really hard to put text on top of videos. For example if you were to put the script on the bottom of the video, that would require a lot of work. (A lot of Japanese YouTube videos have the script in the video.) Or adding new pictures on top of videos. It was frustrating and trying to get the script onto a video was very hard, so eventually outsourced the video editing process. But since I'm doing a new project, I've decided to start on my own and see what I can do. Doing a little bit of research I found a few tools that seem to be very useful. Davinci Resolve VN Video Editor Filmora Final Cut Adobe Premiere Pro WeVideo For the research this YouTube video from Justin Brown - Primal...

  Vancouver is an exciting city to start a business. It is also a city that offers the right ingredients for entrepreneurs looking to start their own business. Let's take a look! Corporate tax is extremely low In Canada, corporate tax is a combination of federal and for each province. For small businesses (income below $500,000) Federal is 9% and BC (British Columbia, this is the state that Vancouver belongs) is 2%, so in total only 11%! In Japan it is more than 30%, in the US it is 21%. If you go to Alberta it is even lower, but you can still say Vancouver has a nice low corporate tax rate. Vancouver's Strong Economic Growth According to Wikipedia Vancouver's economy is one of the most vibrant in Canada From a logistic perspective, Vancouver is a major hub of Canada. As for sea route, it is the official gateway to the Pacific Rim, a major port. Also for land route, it is the main western terminus of transcontinental highway and rail routes. Based on Vancouver Economic Com...

Since I landed in Vancouver on July 14th 2021, I tried to join the startup community. It was difficult to find where everyone was. Especially due to COVID-19, there were no physical meetups/events. So for those who are looking for communities and news sources, here I have made a list. And please let me know if there is anything I should add! What I have found to be very helpful Vancouver Tech Journal https://www.vantechjournal.com/ Founded in 2017 by William Johnson.Now joined by James Matthews, with a team of contributors. Wonderful news source! And they host a casual meetup every Tuesday 8AM. I have met with so many interesting and nice people there. To sign up for the meetup, please use the following form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScNO9dBkqDpsJKUudHo4e12b1bFMYfhIHuZvylW3mm5B3a2Ow/viewform e@UBC (University of British Columbia) https://entrepreneurship.ubc.ca/ One of the best universities in Canada and the world. Large network. One drawback is that it is rather closed...

  To reduce carbon emission is one thing, but there is another way to cope with Climate Change. To expand the carbon sink. The earth has natural carbon sinks: Land sinks Costal & Ocean sinks (There are other ways to categorize/group them such as plants/waters/soil.) From : Project Drawdown (btw, I love all the content that is organized in this website.) There is a whole video about this. To work on the remaining 59% from the above chart, we need to increase the current natural sinks, and also find technology that can be carbon sinks. There seems to be 3 major categories. (It is always difficult to find a MECE category..) Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) Direct Air Capture (DAC) Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) As far as I am researching these solutions are a combination of: Energy: low energy needs or using a renewable energy source The technology: Could be electric/chemical or a combination of both to extract/remove CO2 (carbon) Storing: Keeping the carbon in a form that it w...

Photo by Precondo CA / Unsplash My path to becoming an investor Entering 2024, I decided to transition to become more involved in innovation other than being an entrepreneur. A startup takes 10 or so years to become a solid business. With my remaining life, I would be able to do 1 or 2 more successful startups. It would make more sense to share my experience, knowledge and skills for the greater good. But while working with more than 30 startups, I realized that I was lacking something. I need to have more skin in the game. I need to show more commitment. Finding Material Change Institue Finding a way to achieve my goals seemed complicated. I had very little investment experience. Also, I wanted to have a large portion of my investment in climatetech, but I didn't have much experience in the industry. So, I went out to seek advice. I talked to my friends who were either in startup investment or in the climate change industry. After talking to many helpful friends who extended th...

Pickpocketed at Barcelona I was travelling with my family for 2 weeks around Europe. It was a busy trip. Munich to Paris to Mallorca to Barcelona to Madrid. I might write more about the trip later if anyone shows interest. During the constant packing-unpacking, taking the two kids around, missing our plane once, and trying to get football tickets, I got picked-pocketed. I had all the family passports, my wallet and my iPhone. Fortunately, my elder son noticed the suspicious man. So the damage was limited. I just had my iPhone stolen. What I have noticed I tried finding my phone using "Find my" but could only locate which building it might be in. I reported to the local police which required some time. Within 12 hours of my loss, I found out how much I was reliant on my phone. I had to use a paper/physical map to go to the police station. I had to drag my laptop to print the necessary documents. I had to beg to use the WiFi at the printing shop since I didn't have a device...

Photo by Li-An Lim / Unsplash What is planned Working on a couple of interesting projects and one of them is setting up Climate Tech sessions at Vancouver Startup Week 2023. We (currently a team of 2+ people) are working on getting an interesting event ready. All of the following events will be held at UBC Robison Square in the Entrepreneurship@UBC coworking space. June 2 (Fri) 15:00 - 16:30: General carbon reduction pitch event Planning to have 5 or so startups showcase what they have been working on. If you are interested in Climate Tech, this would be a great session to join to learn what is going on in Vancouver regarding Climate Tech. Carbon reduction startups in varieties of industries such as transportation, construction, and agriculture, will be presenting their exciting projects! June 5 (Mon) 14:00 - 15:30: Energy Panel We will have a session dedicated to energy solutions. As you know, one of the most important carbon reductions that we can make is to move away from generat...

Today, I want to just briefly write about what is going on in Vancouver, Canada. I want to share the 2 events that I have been to last week, where to check the events, and lastly, an exciting event that will be happening in June! Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee at TTT Studios Vancouver Tech Journal has been doing Tuesday Morning coffee, since 2021 summer, just around the time that I moved to Vancouver. I have been to these coffee meetings more than 20 times. It is a great way to loosely meet interesting people in Vancouver. Not everyone is "tech" related but I personally think that makes it even more interesting. Since the coffee meetings grew to 30~50 people, Vancouver Tech Journal (VTJ), the people who voluntarily run this gathering, chose venues that had outside patios, such as the Birds and the Beets .  But then came the Vancouver winters. Since during this season, we get a lot of rain, and it's not so pleasant sitting in the rain,  regarding weather and VTJ decided t...

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski / Unsplash Intelligent life When space travelling started and scientists found out more about the universe, there was interest in finding other "intelligent lives". This is based on the assumption that humans are "intelligent". But are we? What is intelligence? How do small life forms work? When we look at all forms of life on earth, there are animals (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians), insects, plants, etc. Some living things, they consist of living cells. We now know some living things are programmed with DNA. But some aren't. (Cells that don't reproduce.) Does more programming provide "intelligence"? Does the mass of an organ called the brain determine "intelligence"? How do small life forms survive? The evolution of computers To try to understand that I start thinking of computers. The origin of computers goes back to when we didn't have any semiconductors. A computer would be as big as a w...

To manage the many, many operations we have in MerryBiz, I have started looking into software that can help us. MerryBiz has more than a 1,000 staff that work all over the world. They are assigned to operations that differ from client to client. We need something that everyone can use. The few points that I have identified as requirements for the software are Layers: Client > Operation > Tasks > Checklist View: All the tasks assigned to a person across multiple clients View: In a gantt chart or calendar format Recurring: Most task are repeated monthly External accounts: For accounts we need 1,000 external accounts. So the pricing structure is important Rich description: Adding information on each tasks. Something like a manual with screen shots. Am in the process of testing each product. Will see how this goes.

Starting a YouTube Channel, I needed to do a self-intro, so here it is! I am really bad a speaking lines... Hope I get better...