Techfund wants to be the YCombinator of Japan. But it invests using technology, not money

“We know how to build an entrepreneur,” Peasuke Kawahara, the co-founder and CEO of Techfund told me. Only 25 years old, Kawahara’s confidence can be mistaken for youthful, maybe even naive, exuberance. The sartorial adherence to his company’s colors – black and yellow – and triangular gold earring dangling from his left ear do not help. Even so, disregarding him as a young guy who has tasted a bit too much entrepreneurial catnip would be a mistake. The strategy behind Techfund speaks to a very real problem in Japan’s startup community – the stark lack of mentors.

Entrepreneurs can be born, but. in Japan at least, many are made. Most of the Japanese entrepreneurs interviewed by Tech in Asia are in agreement that they did not grow up wanting to “crush it” in the #startuplife. In fact, most are best described as exceedingly intelligent, capable people who once decided to leave a strong position at a large corporation to try their luck.

This creates a supply and demand problem in the ecosystem. Waiting every year for a handful of inspired executives to emerge from their corporate chrysalis is not how venture capital makes money quickly and it certainly will not make a dent in Japan’s perilously low entrepreneurship rates.

Kawahara recognizes this issue and is willing to take on the risk of shaping young people – high school and college students, recent graduates – into entrepreneurs who can build startups and push boundaries.

An inveterate entrepreneur himself, Kawahara has been engaged in freelance design since he was 15 years old. The inspiration for Techfund came during his two years at a struggling startup. “One of the reasons for the failure was we did not have a mentor to help on our product. We needed someone who could give product advice on a technical level,” he says. “A mentor is often an investor, a serial entrepreneur, or a venture capitalist. I decided to combine that concept with the technical perspective.”