Spicysoft Corporation: Colonizing the Stars

Motoyasu Yamada
CEO, Spicysoft Corporation

Entered the University of Tokyo, School of Science, in 1994. While studying, he began working as a freelance programmer and engineer. After leaving school, he founded Spicysoft Corporation in 1999.

Q: You founded a business at a young age. Even as a child, had you wanted to start your own business?

Yamada: No. My father was a salaryman at a fairly big company, so I didn't have any aspirations to become an entrepreneur. And I wasn't really the type to speed off down one particular path. During my junior high school days, I had already strayed from the path somewhat! (laughs)

Q: What were you like back then?

Yamada: In junior high, my grades were poor. I didn't turn in my homework, I slept during classes, and didn't listen to what my teachers said, so I wasn't evaluated very highly at school.

Where I was living in Kanagawa Prefecture, you got into high school based on your teacher's evaluation of you rather than your academic strength, so I ended up going to a nearby private high school rather than a public high school.

That school had just been established, so instead of taking tests created in-school, all our grades were determined by prep tests from elsewhere. When you think about it, that's actually fairer in some ways. I thought it was fun, and pushed on with my high school studies.

Q: Then you took the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo, said to be the most difficult in Japan.

Yamada: My father had gone to the University of Tokyo. Since my own father had gone there, I simply assumed I could, too, and wasn't intimidated by it at all. My exam studies had been going smoothly, and about the beginning of my third year in high school I was certain I would pass, so I started slacking off. My little brother bought a Super NES and I stayed up all night playing that with him. Before exams, I thought I would review a little, but I'd forgotten everything. I was like, "What?! You don't know this? You should know this, but you don't?!" I failed horribly.

Having learned my lesson, I decided to take it easy for half a year and then buckle down and study until the next round of exams. I didn't have any money, though, so I started working a part-time job from seven to five. I gradually began working from morning to evening, and before I knew it, I was working until late at night.

Q: Not too many kids studying for entrance exams while working. What kind of job did you have?

Yamada: I knew that students of the University of Tokyo who worked as home tutors made good hourly pay, so I seriously thought things like "I'm definitely not doing a normal part-time job!" and "I'm elite, so I won't do anything for less than 10,000 yen ( around $100) per hour!"

However, such jobs don't exist for guys who haven't even gotten into college yet! This is embarrassing to admit, but even if I applied for normal part-time jobs in my neighborhood, I couldn't get any. I didn't have any social graces back then. Job interviewers would tell me there was no way I could face their customers. But as chance would have it, the local fast food shop was expanding and taking anyone they could get their hands on. I needed a job, so I started working there.

When I saw how everyone there was working so seriously, I was inspired to do the same. I started working harder and really enjoyed it. I realized it was just like taking exams. If you work at it, you get results. It may have just been a part-time job, but I approached it with a sense of professionalism and wanted others to compliment me on my work.

Q: Later on, you did eventually enter the University of Tokyo.

Yamada: Yes. Just before the National Center Test for University Admissions, I quit my job, took the test seriously, passed, and entered the University of Tokyo, but the classes were boring. There wasn't the same degree of competition as in high school. There wasn't a sense of chasing after your goals. Now that I think about it, classes at my high school each had about 20 students. If there was something I wanted to do, I could discuss it directly with my teacher. It was just like a venture business. The University of Tokyo, on the other hand, was more like a large corporation. I couldn't learn to like it, and suddenly stopped attending.

Q: What were you doing while you weren't at school?

Yamada: I started working again. I still didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I was thinking about working at something I wasn't good at. Just as in my previous job interviews, my friends were telling me I wasn't cut out for dealing with customers. (laughs) So I decided to try being a waiter at a restaurant.

But I realized that wasn't really customer service, so I decided to give sales a shot. That was during the cell phone and PHS boom, so I started selling cell phones and PHS systems as a salesman for a cell phone company.

I found it interesting. I really enjoyed convincing people who wanted to buy another company's phone to buy from us instead. I was always getting into fights with the staff from other companies. (laughs)

During that time, I was asked if I'd like to leave the storefront and work at the head office. They asked if I would plan campaigns and instruct the salespersons. At the head office, I thought that business really lies not in shops making sales but in figuring out how best to provide service.

Q: How did you come to start your own business?

Yamada: I had always liked programming, and I had constructed homepages on my own. During my college days, I had talked with my friends about contracting to build homepages and selling related software.

About that time, a friend asked me to help him out with his business, and I started working for a certain company. As I was working there, I realized I had a strong desire to develop a particular kind of service, but since I didn't get along with the company president, I couldn't make my ideas a reality, so I had to do it on my own. What came first wasn't wanting to start a business or become a CEO. Rather, I couldn't do what I wanted, so the only thing to do was start my own company and be my own boss!

Q: Could you tell me about the service Spicysoft provides?

Yamada: We provide a service that allows individual creators of video games and manga to distribute their own content via cell phones. Furthermore, utilizing user fees, we're trying to provide to individual manga authors and game programmers an environment in which they can be active as professional freelancers.

For example, it's virtually impossible for an author to make a mark in the manga industry. To make a living in manga, first your manga has to be serialized in a manga magazine, but these days, partially due to the influence of IT, such magazines are disappearing.

The market has been around for a long time, though, and lots of veteran authors are still around, leaving no room for new authors. People making manga have no choice but to keep their work to themselves, when what they really want is for as many people as possible to read it. It would be much better if they could earn some money and be active as pros.

Q: How do you hope Spicysoft's service will change, for example, the manga world?

Yamada: I think manga is a perfect example of artistic creation. As soon as you have a team of, say, 100 people, like when making anime, business elements begin to outweigh creativity. When you work alone, you only have to worry about whether you can make ends meet or not, without being encumbered by business considerations. I think individuals will give birth to lots of new and impressive manga through use of Spicysoft's service.

Q: Why did you choose comics rather than video games for your efforts in the U.S.?

Yamada: Because games aren't really where Spicysoft's strength lies. America is a world power when it comes to video games and we'd be squaring off against countless competitors. Even should we survive, it would only be as one among many. But with comics, Japanese manga has distinct value, and we thought that could be a big strength for us.

Q: How are the Japan and U.S. cell phone markets different?

Yamada: In the American market, an ecosystem, as it were, involving creators isn't sufficiently in place. In Japan, however, cell phone companies have provided many open platforms, and an ecosystem is in place within which creators can thrive. American cell phone companies are relatively open-minded, but each company is going its own way, resulting in a lack of various foundations.

An American who understands the Japanese cell phone market told me that since Japan has the appropriate ecosystem, it's easy to do business there, and that the mobile business environment is much better in Japan.

Also, a game maker has told me that in order to do business in the American cell phone market you have to consider compatibility with hundreds of different models, so it costs twice as much to adapt the software.

Q: Why did you decide to venture into the American market despite its lack of a sufficient ecosystem?

Yamada: I thought that in order for Spicysoft to grow healthily, it was important to take on something new by advancing into the U.S. In both Japan and America, regulations over content exist, but in America, we'll also be able to move forward by fighting for the development of new services that have never existed before.

Q: What is your dream for the future?

Yamada: I've always been interested in creating systems. I'm interested in making things systematically. So, I'm more interested in making platforms than actual content and in making a company--which is a system of sorts--for establishing a platform. The true end goal of making a company, however, is the carrying on of that company. As CEO, I think the most important thing is raising someone from among today's ranks of Spicysoft staff to be the next CEO and then retiring without delay.

I say that, but after I retire, I want to create yet another new system. (laughs) In making one system after another, I want to do what appears least possible, what is incredibly difficult, what is the biggest project imaginable. In the future, I even want to build a human colony in space!

(Editor: Tatsuro Maeda)