26
April
2012
|
01:59 AM
America/Los_Angeles

SFNewTech: Japanese Startups At Mighty

It was raining but a decent turnout at club Mighty in San Francisco, where Myles Weissleder's SF New Tech showcased top Japanese startups.

Myles Weissleder introduces the startups...

The event was sponsored by btrax.

First up:

Beatrobo

Beatrobo Inc.

Hiroshi Asaeda CEO/Founder

A music community service which enables users to share their favorite music with their friends. Users can create their own avatars and start listening to their friends' favorite music easily. (@beatrobo)

Hiroshi Asaeda gave a polished performance, his English was excellent but I didn't really understand his business idea, and what was original about sharing music. It's aimed at US markets and not available in Japan but the development team is in Japan.

. . .

Coworkify

Coworkify Inc.

Kenshin Fujiwara Founder

A Peer-to-peer job marketplace for co-working spaces. It is a platform to sell and buy small tasks directly from each other and to reserve space and accepts payment from people using credit card or PayPal. Coworkify won first place at Startup Weekend Kyoto 2011. (@cwrkfy)

A business that helps you find co-working spaces that you can rent by the day when you are in a foreign city. I think most people can find a cafe with wifi with few problems...

. . .

foodstoQ

Plaid, Inc.

Kenta Kurahashi Co-Founder/CEO

An online service that assists users find a good restaurant based on friends' recommendations. Users can collect trustworthy information by asking questions and receiving answers from their friends. (@foodstoq)


Hardly an original idea. The presenter joked that people could ask a fat friend where to find food. Since the US is suffering from an epidemic of obesity, there's probably a lot of good advice to be had.
. . .



piaScore

plusadd, Inc.

Hiroyuki Koike CEO/Founder

An iPhone App that allows users to download and carry sheet music on mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad. piaScore has earned a Distinguished Honoree medal in Consumer Entertainment/Information in the 2011 International Business Awards. (@piaScore)

I couldn't understand most of this presentation but it was certainly the most entertaining with the presenter dressed as Mozart. The key feature is that you can turn the "page" of sheet music on an iPad simply by "swiping" with a movement of your head.

Piascore won the "best demo" vote (above).

. . .

Sleipnir

Fenrir, Inc.

Kazushi Makino CEO

A free web browser compatible with Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPad, Android and Windows phone. Another feature, "Fenrir Pass," is a free cloud service that allows users to access their own bookmarks from different devices. (@fenrir_official)

I have no idea what makes this browser so special, the CEO's English was very bad. However, they brought on stage a female colleague whose English was excellent, to answer questions from the audience. She should have made the presentation.

. . .

Monaca

Asial Corporation

An aggregation of cloud services for developing mobile apps. It provides user friendly platform to develop mobile apps.

The best business idea of the lot. A development platform for easy creation of native mobile apps.

The streaming video crew.