Old Japan Hand - Food Industry

I arrived in Japan in 1996, in 1997 I started a business with a cell phone and less than a thousand dollars in my account. I was plucky and dumb. Over the years, after far more failures than successes, I grew that business into an online food retailer with millions of dollars in sales, the highest profit margins in the industry, and a brand name with international recognition. In 2016 I sold 100% of that business to a local Private Equity group after an M&A process that involved 9 companies submitting bids. In 2018 I founded a start-up in the food export industry and have also been investing in, supporting, and consulting for local small businesses. I am passionate about entrepreneurism and always looking for ways to support small businesses.

Over the last couple of decades I have done a few things that are fairly unique as foreigner in Japan and that have given me some insights that I am willing to share:
- Building an online sales platform that included 7 sites which funneled orders into our own system where we did our own picking and packing of dry, chilled, and frozen goods for next day delivery throughout most of Japan.
-Growing the business on an absolute shoestring budget and bootstrapping it to over US$3 MM in sales without any external financing. Later, working with banks, growing the business even more.
-Building a state of the art meat processing factory; dealing with regulatory approval; and creating our own product safety, QA, traceability, and inventory control systems from scratch.
-Designing and formulating by hand hundreds of food products that were LOVED by our customers and copied by our competitors.
-Creating marketing content that appealed to direct consumers as well as wholesale accounts in many of Japan's best known hotels and restaurants.
-Managing a diverse team of employees and giving them a safe and rewarding work environment.