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[Staff comments] This is what the Entrepreneurship Center is like

Starting a business is one way to contribute to society

Entrepreneurship Center staff
Emi Muto

--First, please give us an overview of the Entrepreneurship Center.

The Entrepreneurship Center provides support to students, faculty, staff, and Alumnus (graduates) who want to start their own businesses. Universities have two major roles: education and research. In recent years, in addition to this, it has become important to contribute to society through the knowledge and research results learned. Starting a business is one way to make this social contribution, and we support the creation of businesses.

Although we may earn high profits by providing services that are useful to many people, our university's focus is not on business success but on making the university's learning and research useful for society. One of the ways to achieve this is to start a business, and I don't want people to make starting a business an end in itself. Many people will be able to achieve self-fulfillment and contribute to society by finding employment at existing companies or local governments. However, there are bound to be some people who have goals that don't exist in today's world and can only be achieved by starting a business. We believe that our role is to support such people.

--Please tell us about the specific details of the start-up support provided by the Entrepreneurship Center.

We provide systematic support, from education on starting a business to helping those who are actually thinking of starting a business and support after starting a business.

Education ranges from those that teach entrepreneurship to those that provide more practical learning. In particular, the Business Creation Course, which has been offered at Global Education Center (GEC) since 2017, offers approximately 30 courses, which students can take as needed regardless of their undergraduate or graduate school.

Output venues include the Waseda University Business Plan Contest (sponsored by Research Institute of Business Administration), Japan's oldest university-sponsored event, which will be held for the 26th time in 2023, and the WASEDA-EDGE Human Resource Development Program (hereinafter referred to as the EDGE Program). There is also a place called ` `WASEDA-EDGE Demo Day'', which is held every February, where you can present your ideas and projects.

If you actually decide to start a business, you can become a member of the Entrepreneurship Center (membership examination required) and take the first step toward starting a company while receiving support from business experts such as management consultants. I can. In addition, there is a financial support program called the `` WASEDA-EDGE Gap Fund Project'' for pre-startup business ideas with high potential for commercialization, and the `` Waseda PoC Fund'' for commercializing research results in science and engineering fields. there is. In addition to Waseda University's two affiliated venture capital companies, it is now possible to consult about investment through Waseda University Ventures, which will be newly established in 2022. I don't think there are many universities that offer such a detailed and diverse support menu.

Waseda University's systematic support for startups: Entrepreneurship education has been provided as the EDGE program since 2014. We provide comprehensive systematic support, from education to create future entrepreneurs to support for corporate activities tailored to the growth stage of a company with an eye on a successful exit strategy.

--How can students use this facility?

The current Entrepreneurship Center is divided into three main areas. One is a free space that can be used by any Waseda University student who is interested in starting a business.The second is the co-working space "Waseda Startup Lounge" that can only be used by members (paid) who have started a company. This is a private space that is rented out to an increasing number of companies. Students interested in starting a business should feel free to use the free space as a place to gather information. I'm sure it will be a great inspiration to see senior entrepreneurs working hard on their businesses right next to you.

Free space in the Entrepreneurship Center that can be used by any Waseda University student. It is located in the area on the right as soon as you enter the center, and there is also information on business support and related books.

--Finally, please give a message to students who are interested in starting a business.

The Entrepreneurship Center offers many types of support depending on the stage of business activities, but it is not necessary to use them from scratch. Recently, together with the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, we have formed a platform called GTIE (Greater Tokyo Innovation Ecosystem), in which universities, local governments, and private companies in the Tokyo area collaborate to create startups from universities. There are programs and support systems in place not only within the university but also outside of the university that are useful for starting a business, so you can find the support that suits you from among them and take advantage of it by ``picking the best.'' .

If you want to start a business but don't know where to start, please visit the Entrepreneurship Center. I think the biggest benefit of the startup support provided by universities is that you can interact with students who have similar aspirations. I hope that Waseda University will start a business that will change society, transcending the boundaries of academic year and faculty! Don't be afraid of failure and take the first step.

[Student Voice ①] ~1st year students interested in starting a business~

I was able to realize that the hurdles to starting a business were not that high.

Kohei Kawaji, 1st year student, School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Letters

--Please tell us how you found out about the Entrepreneurship Center.

I have been interested in the field of business administration since I was a high school student, and I wanted to start my own business while still a student! For this reason, I was aiming to enter School of Commerce, but after failing the entrance exam, I decided to enroll in School of Humanities and Social Sciences. I didn't know how to acquire knowledge about entrepreneurship, so I was doing some research, and then I learned about the Entrepreneurship Center and decided to take the business creation course `` Business Model Hypothesis Verification (Essentials).'' .

--Please tell us your impressions after actually taking the course.

My learning experience was more systematic than I had imagined, and I was able to realize that the hurdles to starting a business were not that high. This course is a course where you will learn the methodology from generating an idea to exceeding the break-even point, in other words, getting your business off the ground. ``Design Thinking'' is a way of thinking for providing services that meet user needs, and ``Business Model Canvas'' is a framework that visualizes how to build a business model. ” etc.

Before taking the course, I thought that success in starting a business would be determined by individual abilities, such as exceptional management skills and a sense of generating novel ideas. However, I learned that there is a well-established theory in business that increases the chances of success, and that there is a way to align yourself with it. Of course, I don't think that alone will work, but I feel like my horizons have expanded.

--Please tell us about your future prospects.

First of all, my immediate goal is to participate in "WASEDA-EDGE Demo Day" to be held in February 2024. I would like to test how effective my ideas are by giving presentations and receiving feedback from the judges. Specifically, my hometown, Minamikyushu City, Kagoshima Prefecture, is experiencing depopulation, and I am looking for business ideas to solve this problem.

--Finally, please give a message to students who are interested in starting a business.

If you are interested in starting a business, I think it would be a good idea to take some classes. In particular, I recommend the `` Entrepreneurship Training Course II'' in the Business Creation Course, where you can listen to actual stories from entrepreneurs in an omnibus format. When you think about starting a business, you will naturally be conscious of your own career development. I believe that the experience of thinking things through while thinking through the process and improving my presentation skills will be useful even if I don't end up starting a business, even when I'm job-hunting or enter the workforce.

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[Student Voice ②] - 3rd year students about to start a business -

The support is generous and the enthusiastic support is encouraging.

Shiori Yoshida, 3rd year, School of Fundamental Science and Engineering

--How have you received startup support from Waseda University so far?

I have always been interested in business, so I have participated in several off-campus entrepreneurial support programs since my first year at university, but it was not until the fall semester of my second year that I enrolled in the Business Creation Course on-campus. . After the end of that semester, we will take on the challenge of "WASEDA-EDGE Demo Day" in February 2023, and will announce a matching service that connects local students currently studying abroad with students who will study abroad in the future. Awarded. My mentor at that time, Dr. Mirako Shimaoka (Professor at the Research Innovation Center), who is the Deputy Director of the Entrepreneurship Center, told me that if I was serious about starting a business, I should use the Entrepreneurship Center. is. After that, in the "WASEDA-EDGE Gap Fund Project" in October 2023, we proposed "Linknit", a platform business for information and services necessary for studying abroad, and won first place and received funding. The number of points of contact is increasing.

--What do you think is the appeal of the Entrepreneurship Center?

There is a lot of support from the faculty and staff. I am very encouraged by everyone's enthusiastic support. I have often studied entrepreneurship on my own, so there were times when I wasn't sure if I was going in the right direction, but I also think that being able to absorb a variety of ways of thinking through classes and support is a big draw.

--Please tell us what you found useful in supporting your business.

I learned a lot from the Business Creation Course. I first came up with the idea of a service to support international students after taking the "Business Model Hypothesis Testing" course. This class was not only a lecture, but also a practical exercise where we reflected the knowledge in our own ideas, so I was able to deepen my learning firsthand, which in any case increased my motivation to start my own business. Research Council Professor The class was a great opportunity for me to deepen my learning, and I became more and more motivated to start my own business.

--Please give a message to students who are interested in starting a business.

I'm still learning, but I think it's important to take on challenges. Previously, I was thinking of trying to do things on my own, but I now feel that I can steadily grow by learning from knowledgeable and experienced teachers, and now I regret that I should have received support sooner. There are so many. Now that I'm at Waseda University, I feel like I can use everything I can to start my own business!

Photography: Shiori Banjo

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[Voices from Alumnus] ~ Alumnus starting and running businesses with support~

Opening up your future through connections at Waseda

Graduate School Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering Master's Course Completed in March 2010
Mutsuko Aoki, Representative Director of Heinz Tech Co., Ltd.​

--Please tell us about Heinz Tech Co., Ltd.'s business, which was started using the Entrepreneurship Center.

We manufacture and sell tools for processing cells. This is an application of semiconductor microfabrication technology, and it may be easier to understand if you imagine a small syringe for cells. We are developing our business for use in a wide range of fields, including medicine, the environment, and food.

--Please tell us about your involvement with the Entrepreneurship Center so far.

Ever since I was a student at university, I had been interested in matching the technological seeds born from research within the university with the needs of society and implementing them, so I was aware that starting a business was an option. So, in parallel with my own research activities, I worked as a ``student facilitator'' at the then Incubation Center (now the Entrepreneurship Center). However, when he completed graduate school, he did not expect to start his own business, and instead took a job in the business development department of a foreign tech company in order to "commercialize technology." I also decided to move to the United States, and even after returning to Japan, I worked at another foreign tech company as a new business alliance marketing (*) person.

*A strategy in which companies form business alliances to obtain benefits from each other.

In other words, for many years I had no contact with Waseda University or entrepreneurship. One day, however, I came to know about the research that Prof. Takeo Miyake (Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems Professor), a senior member of my laboratory at the university, was working on, which was similar to our current business, and I felt that it had great potential. At the same time that I had many discussions with Dr. Miyake, I also began to keep in close contact with the professor who had helped me at the Incubation Center in the past, and once again, I was able to establish contact with the Entrepreneurship Center as it is today.

--Specifically, what kind of support did you receive?

Our project was selected and supported by the Waseda PoC Fund, which supports researchers in commercializing their research results. Since starting my business, I have also received consulting services such as legal advice, which have been extremely helpful. Also, although it is not a specific service, I am grateful for the relationships I have with people, which can develop into personal networks and connections. I was able to get involved with the Entrepreneurship Center again, and since then I have been given many opportunities due to my connections at Waseda.

--Please give a message to students who are interested in starting a business.

I think the presence of the Entrepreneurship Center is very reassuring when it comes to commercializing university research results. You can also learn about financing, intellectual property, legal issues, and other issues that often arise when starting a business. Since I entered the workforce, and despite the geographical distance of living in Fukuoka Prefecture, I have received support, including online support, and was able to start my own business. Waseda University has an environment that makes it easy to start a business, so I think it's a good idea to start with a consultation. Let's make startups from Waseda more exciting together!