Every, Inc. Representative Director, Taisei Yoshida

Creating something new and creating a more convenient society

Every, Inc. Representative Director Taisei Yoshida

■ Profile
After working at Yahoo Japan Corporation and Gree, Inc., she founded EVERY, Inc. in September 2015. In 2017, she won first place in the "Forbes JAPAN Japanese Entrepreneur Ranking 2018 Rising Star Award." In the same year, "DELISH KITCHEN" was selected as "BEST OF 2017" on both the App Store and Google Play. EVERY also won the "Forbes JAPAN WOMEN AWARD 2017, Company Category, Under 300 Employees."

Every Co., Ltd. operates the recipe video media "Delicious Kitchen" and other services.
Through media content related to everyday life such as cooking and childcare, EVERY is making a significant contribution to the expansion of a more convenient society. We spoke to CEO Taisei Yoshida about his path to founding the company, the details of his business, and the society EVERY aims to create.

During my first and second years at university, I focused on part-time work. I didn't want to do a regular part-time job, so I worked attracting customers at restaurants and selling beer at Nagoya Dome. I think knowing that my performance was reflected in my salary was what motivated me.
In the latter half of my university life, I took on orders to create websites and conducted joint research with major companies in my seminars with the aim of improving my skills as an engineer. Even back then, I had a desire to use engineering to solve social issues in the future and leave an impact on society. At the time, I wasn't interested in running a company or working for a company.
The majority of students in the Faculty of Engineering where I was enrolled go on to pursue research careers. However, it is said that it generally takes decades for research careers to produce results, and it is also a world where it is unclear whether results will even be achieved. However, overseas, people in their 20s were using the Internet to achieve results such as solving social issues. I wanted to work with a sense of speed, so I joined Yahoo! Corporation, which was the number one company in the Internet industry at the time.

A year and a half of learning how to approach social infrastructure

I learned a lot during my year and a half at Yahoo!. As an engineer, I was able to see the infrastructure of a large-scale web service, focus on service quality, and work on social infrastructure, all of which were experiences that I continue to use today.
Meanwhile, at Yahoo, my main job was to bring overseas services to Japan. This meant that it wasn't an environment where we could really put out something ourselves and make an impact on society. Even back then, I thought the strength of the Internet was that it allowed services to be distributed "anywhere, by anyone," so I wanted to make Japan a base for services. So I left Yahoo and moved to Gree, Inc., a game company.

■ Creating an infrastructure to deliver accurate information

During the 10 years I spent at GREE, I developed games and worked to pioneer the mobile game industry. I am still proud of having been able to introduce Japan's first mobile game to the world.
As technological innovation in the gaming industry progressed, high-performance smartphones became popular among many people of all ages. However, I began to see that my mother's generation was not very good at using functions like search. Moreover, they assumed that the top search result was correct, making it difficult for them to select and discard information. After seeing this, I decided to provide infrastructure services that could disseminate reliable and accurate information. Since many companies, including GREE, were not focusing on this, I decided to start my own company, EVERY, Inc.
When we first launched, the number of views was low and it was a tough situation. But even in those times, we continued to provide content to users and the market, and continued to gather data. This is because it is easier to confirm needs by repeatedly outputting content than by formulating hypotheses. By repeatedly analyzing that data and outputting it again, we saw a significant increase in the number of views after one month. Even today, these two elements - the "sensibility" that comes from continuing to output content, and the "numbers" of the data we obtain - are important parts of our company's culture.

■Three information media as the core to create a more convenient society

Our company provides services centered around three pillars: "Delicious Kitchen," "Tomonite," and "TIMELINE." In addition, we are developing retail media that connects the media with the "offline" world of retail stores and shops.
At the heart of our four services is our desire to "make the world a better place." What the world expects from us is to "improve the convenience of everyday life." To that end, we are constantly updating our technology and information to ensure that our users continue to use our services.
First, Delicious Kitchen provides a service to a wide range of customers, including beginner cooks in their 20s and 30s, with the theme of "delicious and easy recipes that anyone can make." Existing recipe sites rely on text and photos, making it difficult for beginner cooks to imagine the difficulty and flavor of the recipes. For this reason, we use videos to show the hands of the cooks in all cooking scenes, so that the viewer can see the food from the perspective of an actual cook. In addition, all recipes are supervised by a registered dietitian, and we have set over 300 rules, including cooking procedures and hygiene standards. This allows us to provide recipes that are guaranteed to be easy to make, tasteful, and nutritious.
"Tomonite" provides information about child-rearing for the child-rearing generation. Today, society as a whole is changing, with child-rearing no longer being the sole responsibility of women, but something that the entire family and community must do. Under the supervision of experts, we provide content to address any issues or concerns that may arise. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate any anxieties about having and raising children.
"TIMELINE" provides video marketing services. We promote local specialties and their appealing points nationwide through our media outlets, and are working to revitalize local areas through the media. Through tie-up video production, web advertising, live commerce, and other media, we disseminate a wide range of information, from local specialties such as sake and earthenware pots to popular spots.

■ "Ambition" and "challenge" create a better society and new stability

Our goal is to create something that has never been done before and make society a better place.
That's why I want to work with people who have the ambition to achieve something. The time we spend working in society takes up a very large portion of our lives. While more and more people prefer a stable salary and a job, I believe that time would be more meaningful if it were used to improve society and make life more convenient. I also hope that students will find something that inspires their ambition and something they want to devote their life to achieving while they are at university. If you can't find that while you are at school, I encourage you to join a venture company like ours. Venture companies have many ambitious employees, so you may find it while working together.
I would also like people to reconsider the word "stability." Lifetime employment is disappearing in society today, and we are moving toward meritocracy. The country is also placing its hopes and resources on "venture companies," which are the opposite of "stability." This is why money and talented people are flocking to them. When considering future prospects and one's own career, honing one's skills and increasing one's career options could also be considered a form of stability. I would encourage people to choose a venture company as the starting point for their careers, as it increases their options.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on May 8, 2024 by Ryusei Nishiyama, a fourth-year student at Musashino University