Photosynth Inc. President and CEO Kodai Kawase　

Create the ideal future you envision with your own hands

■ Profile

Born in Kagoshima Prefecture in 1988. After graduating from the School of Science and Technology at the University of Tsukuba in 2011, he worked at Gaiax Inc. before founding Photosynth Inc. in 2014. Through its IoT and SaaS business centered on the smart lock Akerun, the company has raised a total of 70 billion yen and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market in 2021.
Part-time lecturer at the University of Tsukuba.

Photosynth Inc., which developed and provides the "Akerun Access Control System," has just been listed on the Mothers market. The company was developing Akerun as a hobby, but it was featured in the newspaper and became a hot topic, leading to the decision to mass-produce it and start a company. The people who started the company were club mates and colleagues from university. President Kawase shared his dramatic entrepreneurial story with us.

■College club mates become entrepreneurs

　I was in the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Tsukuba, but I don't actually remember attending many classes at university; I was more enthusiastic about club activities. I belonged to both serious and casual clubs. The casual one was the biggest drinking club at Tsukuba University. It was an outdoor club, and we drank nonstop every day. One of my seniors in that club was Mr. Mikami, CTO of User Local Inc., and two years older than me was Mr. Koda, CEO of Akatsuki Inc., both of whom are now CEOs of companies that create value for society. It made me realize how important it is to see things through in everything you do.
　Another serious club is "em factory," a business-oriented club at Waseda University that aims to solve environmental problems from a business perspective. Initially, I was hesitant to jump into Waseda University, even though it wasn't an intercollegiate club and I had no ties to Tokyo. Then, a classmate from junior high and high school decided to enroll at Waseda, so I invited him to join me and em factory. From then on, I traveled 50 kilometers from Tsukuba three times a week to participate in club activities. In my third year, I served as club president, even though I wasn't a Waseda student. The vice-president was also not a Waseda student, but someone from Saitama University. In fact, the vice-president of that club, Watanabe, and Kumagai, a friend from junior high and high school who worked in public relations, are the three who founded the current company, Photosynth. For this reason, I believe that my university club provided me with valuable opportunities to meet new people.

■ The early 20s are a time to test your skills

　Through my club activities during my four years at university, I learned that a business approach is interesting. So, I decided that if I were to get a job, I would go to a company where I could create new businesses. So, I thought, "I want to work with crazy people," and joined Gaiax. I've always liked a variety of things and wanted to try new things, so after joining Gaiax, I was working on around 10 projects at the same time.
　Some of the projects I worked on during that time included launching an NPO, a curation app, and an online online insurance application comparison site. I wasn't in a hurry or had any particular goals in mind, but with each experience I gained, I felt joy at growing, thinking things like, "I can start my own NPO," or "I can even get M&A offers." So, for the first three years after joining the company, I spent my days working until sunrise, going home just to take a shower, and then going to work at 9am.

■Akerun was born from the idea of ​​trying something interesting

　Just like our 10 projects, Akerun was born from the desire to "try something interesting." Four guys were drinking and talking about losing their keys and how troublesome it is to hand them over to friends and loved ones. Inspired by real-life experiences, we thought, "In this day and age, it's common for many things to become digital, so why not digitize keys as well?" and development began.

　Kumagai had worked as an engineer at Panasonic and knew how to make things, Watanabe had worked at SoftBank and understood communications, and I had also been involved in launching new businesses at Gaiax, so the three of us had a mutual expertise and we began product development.

■ Support from the President of Gaiax

　At that time, the Nikkei newspaper featured my product in a column. The next day, I was called in by Gaiax's president, Ueda, who asked me, "Is this Kawase?" At the time, side jobs were not the norm, so I replied, "Yes, sorry, I did. But it wasn't a side job or anything like that." The president encouraged me, saying, "That's not what I'm talking about. If you have this kind of opportunity, why not start your own business? I'll invest in you if you do."

　Six people pooled their money together to start with 100,000 yen in capital, and managed to get through the first six months with investments and grants from Gaiax. After that, they created a prototype and went around to venture capital firms, and six months later they raised 450 million yen. That's when things started to move.

■ The appeal is being able to create the future you envision

　The reason why starting a business is interesting is that you can create with your own hands the future you imagine and want to create, the world you think would be great. If I hadn't started Photosynth, smart locks might not have existed, and keys might still be around 100 years from now. I feel like an inventor.

■What kind of world does Photosynth aim for?

　Our goal going forward is to create a society where all doors can be opened and closed with a single Akerun ID. We have to carry around a lot of keys, such as office keys, building security cards, house keys, and car keys. Furthermore, the items in our wallets other than cash, such as insurance cards, employee ID cards, My Number cards, and credit cards, are basically just there to prove our identity. However, if we have one powerful card called "Kawase," it can serve as a business card, a points card, a payment function, and even a key to open doors. We want to create a society where everything can be done with a single ID.

■Message to students

　It's all about action, and I believe that the most important thing is to take action. It's no use just starting to think about it and asking yourself questions like, "What do I want to do?" or "Why was I born?" I think it's best to try everything you can, even if you're not interested, like I did, and then dig deeper into the things that you think might be interesting, and find out what you want to do. You never know where you'll find friends to work with, so cherish them!

Student Newspaper Online Soka University 4th year student Midori Yamauchi