Building a Community of Learners in Japan

Japan wants to learn how to code. Over the past 15 years software development in Japan has changed from low-level clerical work to a mission-critical skill, and the Japanese government and industry as scrambling to find programmers and develop new talent. Yan Fan came to Japan on a mission to teach everyone how to code. After opening Japan's first coding  bootcamp, and she and her co-founder Kani grew Code Chrysalis to profitability and about 50 staff, and continue to grow rapidly. Yan and I talk about digital literacy in Japan, and she also  explains her blueprint for making sales in Japan without speaking Japanese, identifying a startup's unique value in Japan, and her experience raising money from both angels and CVCs It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. As promised, here is a picture of "Benesse's pumpkin"a work by Yayoi Kusama. It will all make sense after you listen to the episode. Show Notes Why Japanese enterprise is looking at coding bootcamps Why software development was a dirty job and how that's changing Why come to Japan to start a startup Raising money as a non-digital startup in Japan How angel investors add value and what attracts CVCs Attracting your first customers as a foreign startup in Japan Why Japan needs a community-learners mindset where people learn from each other Yan's networking and marketing strategy  for foreign founders in Japan Why Japan Inc and METI want Japan to learn to code How to improve mobility in Japan's labor market Links from the Founders Everything you wanted to know about Code Chrysalis Check out their enterprise classes Follow them on Twitter @codechrysalis Send them an email at hello@codechrysalis.io Connect with Yan on LinkedIn Follow her on Twitter @yanarchy Read her blog about teaching Toyota staff to code Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan. Straight Talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. There are a surprising number of entrepreneurs who dream of coming to Japan to start a startup. And recently the Japanese government is working hard to make Japan as attractive as possible to foreign founders by relaxing visa requirements, creating tax breaks, simplifying the incorporation process, and even setting up dedicated teams to attract foreign founders and provide them support in English. You might think that all this would make it easy to build a startup as a foreigner in Japan, but it's not. Of course, part of it is just that growing a startup anywhere is really hard. But the culture and linguistic challenges in Japan are very real, and yet a lot of people are doing it. Today we sit down with Yan Fan, an old friend and co-founder of Code Chrysalis, who's on a mission to teach Japan how to code. Yan came to Japan with the goal of founding and growing a startup, and that's just what she's done. And in our conversation, she lays out her blueprint, how she built a network when she didn't speak the language, how she identified her startups unique value add in Japan, and her experience raising money here from both Angels and from CVCs. Its advice that every aspiring foreign founder or active foreign founder for that matter in Japan really should know about. We also talk about how the image of software engineers, especially foreign software engineers, is changing some of the ways METI and the Japanese government are trying to teach Japan how to code, and why they now consider that skill to be so important for the future of Japan. And also why there is now a picture of Benesse's Pumpkin on the Disrupting Japan website. But, you know, Yan tells that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview.   Interview Tim: So, we're sitting here with Yan Fan, the co-founder of Code Chrysalis, who's teaching Japan how to code. So thanks for sitting down with me. Yan: Thanks for having me today,