There are endless questions for startups to solve.

Is your product or service demanded by the market? In the first place, how should a startup that was not well known at the time of its founding have contact with customers?

Startups often have problems with "acquisition of customers", and it is not uncommon for them to not be able to generate sales as expected without finding a solution.

JAFCO Group has continued to provide marketing and sales support to such startups. In this issue, Keiichi Kurosaka, Atsushi Yamamoto, and Masanori Hashimoto from the marketing and sales support team will talk about JAFCO's efforts to support investee companies, including specific support details and achievements, as well as how to deal with investee companies. .

【profile】
Keiichi Kurosaka, Business Development Division JAFCO Group Co., Ltd.
Joined the company as a new graduate, worked in the Investment Division and then joined the Business Development Division when it was established. Support development and open innovation. 5 cases of capital and business alliances and M&As of investees.

Atsushi Yamamoto, Business Development Division 
JAFCO Co., Ltd. (now JAFCO Group Co., Ltd.) as a new graduate. Joined in the Kyushu branch office and experienced investment in startups in the region. Currently engaged in investment support and collaboration support between large companies and startups in the Business Development Division.

Masanori Hashimoto, Business Development Division JAFCO Group Co., Ltd.
Joined GREE as a new graduate and engaged in alliance sales and operation consulting for PF for 3rd party PF. Before joining the company in 2022, he launched sales of HR-related SaaS services at stmn.inc., developed cross-company solutions at Recruit, and launched a JV and engaged in new business development at Softbank.

Leveraging our network of large corporations to support the creation of business opportunities

 From sales strategy review to lead acquisition and creation of business negotiation opportunities

ーFirst, please tell us more about the marketing and sales support that JAFCO provides.

Kurosaka If I were to sum up our efforts in marketing and sales support in one word, I would say that it is "creating relationship value" between investee companies and large companies. Specifically, we are focusing on activities such as holding webinars to create opportunities to learn about investee companies, and introducing large companies that are suitable for investee companies from JAFCO's network. In particular, there are many cases where close to 100 people gather at one time to hold a webinar as a measure that was started due to the corona disaster.

However, it is also true that many startups do not have a set sales strategy or do not have sufficient sales resources. In that case, we also work with investee companies to consider sales strategies and create opportunities for business negotiations.

A network of tens of thousands of large companies that support the creation of relationship values

ーWhat are the factors behind your ability to provide a wide range of support, from introducing companies to holding webinars, examining sales strategies, and creating opportunities for business negotiations?

Kurosaka One factor is its network of tens of thousands of large corporations, which has been built through activities such as investment, fund recruitment, investee support, conferences, and webinars. Since it is categorized in detail by industry type and company size, it is possible to introduce the most suitable company according to the situation of the investee company.

Another factor, I believe, is the mindset of "putting entrepreneurs first." What kind of problems does the client company have and what is needed to solve them? Rather than just connecting networks, we are thinking about what kind of support is best for entrepreneurs and supported companies, so the content of support is inevitably diversifying.

Verification of sales strategies, holding webinars for lead acquisition, and creating opportunities for business negotiations with companies

Verification of sales strategy from multiple patterns

ーPlease tell us about the specifics of your sales and marketing support.

Yamamoto Once again, JAFCO's support can be divided into three categories: "examination of sales strategies," "acquisition of leads," and "creation of opportunities for business negotiations with companies." Among them, the first thing to tackle is "verification of sales strategy".

As a specific example, we support Timeleap Inc., Ltd., which provides the remote customer service tool "RURA". RURA was a tool that allowed customers to serve customers in stores from a remote location, but while it was innovative and newsy from the beginning, target industries and businesses were not clear.

Therefore, we formulate hypotheses while considering compatibility for each type of customer service, such as sales of goods or sales of services, high-priced products or low-priced products, etc., and introduced companies that matched each type.

Of course, each company reacted differently in terms of corporate culture and approach to customer service, but we were able to find a broad direction for customer service that is compatible with the tool.

Kurosaka However, there was no such thing as a correct answer from the beginning. Even if you formulate a hypothesis and implement it, it may fail, and in order to improve quality, you will also increase the number of negotiations.

We at JAFCO are like a "third party" in a good way. That's why I think we can make improvements based on the "actual voices" we hear during follow-up after sales, while objectively looking at the positions of both startups and large companies.

-Are these efforts made at the request of the companies receiving support? Or will JAFCO take the lead in making proposals?

Yamamoto JAFCO does both, although it's a case-by-case basis. In this case, as a request from the management, rather than selling numbers, they wanted to identify the industry to focus on, so we picked up companies that fit that from the network and introduced them.

Host webinars and matching conferences for lead generation

- What kind of initiatives will you take after examining the direction of the hypothesis verification?

Yamamoto The next thing to do is to have a wide range of contacts with companies that follow the direction. Specifically, we will hold webinars.

Webinars are held on a scale of 100 people to support attracting customers. After all, startups that have just been established have a problem in terms of attracting customers because their recognition is not widespread. That's why we use JAFCO's large corporate network to provide opportunities for more people to know about us. Specifically, as a result of 2021, it was held 60 times a year, about 4 or 5 times a month on average.

Recently, we are also holding a "matching conference" for the purpose of collaboration. In fact, there are many cases in which even if an investee company and a large company set up a business meeting opportunity, they do not discuss "problems that they want to solve through collaboration." Especially startups and large companies have different cultures and different languages. For this reason, we believe that by standing between the two, JAFCO will create true "open innovation" that combines the respective values.

-I see. The fact that it is premised on collaboration has a different appeal than other matching conferences.

Yamamoto That's right. We will share an overview of the participating companies in advance with the startups who will be pitching on the day, and we will also approach the person in charge of large companies who are likely to be enthusiastic about promoting open innovation.

In the future, we would like to hold a regular matching conference at a pace of about once a quarter, based on the opinions of the startups and participating companies who took the stage.

https://www.jafco.co.jp/english/andjafco-post/2022/05/26/000301/

Create business negotiation opportunities with 100 companies for product launch

ーPlease tell us about the third initiative, "Creating opportunities for business negotiations with companies."

Yamamoto Even if you acquire leads and develop a sales strategy, you won't be able to increase your sales if you don't have business negotiation opportunities. Therefore, JAFCO utilizes its network of large companies to create opportunities for business negotiations. A good example of this is our support for WACUL INC., which realizes DX in sales and marketing.

Originally, WACUL was cautious about injecting external capital like VCs, and was conscious of whether VCs would provide support as a true member. Certainly, VCs like us are in a situation where it is easy to create a power relationship between investing and being invested. "Would they be the ones who will promote the business together?" It seems that there was anxiety.

That's why we started the "100 company referral campaign." As the name suggests, we decided to introduce 100 companies first, set a monthly target number, attended the sales meetings of the investee, and reported on the progress. As a result, we introduced 100 companies from SMB to large companies in one year. WACUL has already received orders from some of them.

- 100 companies....... I don't think it is easy to see this level of commitment.

Yamamoto That's right. Of course, it is impossible to achieve business negotiations for 100 companies without the hard work of the sales representatives of investee companies. In that sense, I think this is a project that JAFCO could not have done on its own.

On the other hand, we didn't just introduce 100 companies, but we proceeded by considering and modifying what the companies we supported wanted to do and what kind of customers they were looking for. I believe this led to the results we achieved.

Marketing and sales support that benefits investees in the truest sense

The important "first business meeting" for startup ventures

ーFrom now on, I would like to ask Mr. Hashimoto, who was originally employed at a JAFCO investee company, about support for investee companies from the perspective of startups.

Hashimoto I used to work for a JAFCO investee company, but startup ventures weren't well-known, and it was difficult just to set up the first business negotiations. JAFCO provided support at just such a time, and they provided various support from the perspective of "creating relational values." For example, I was able to make business meetings with companies I wanted to make appointments with, and on the contrary, I was introduced to famous companies that I had never thought of.

For startups, the ramp-up phase is critical. If this does not go well, the business may not continue, or even if it continues, the speed of subsequent growth may slow down, which may have a negative impact on company management. That's why JAFCO's support in the startup phase was a good experience for the company at the time, as it was a flagship project.

ーPlease tell us about the difference between JAFCO and other VCs in terms of support.

Hashimoto and other VCs are characterized by being specialized in a certain industry, but JAFCO has a network of tens of thousands of large companies, so it can introduce a wide range of companies without being biased towards a specific industry. . That's why we can provide an environment where it is possible to verify PMF (product market fit) from multiple perspectives, and it is easy to lead to further value improvement and next business creation.

Future marketing/sales support "way"

ー​ ​Lastly, please tell us about the future of JAFCO's marketing and sales support.

Kurosaka At the root of our way of thinking is "respect for entrepreneurs." That is why I would like to aim to improve corporate value and create businesses by working together with the companies we support, rather than simply saying, "For the sake of investee companies." I would like to continue to evolve our marketing and sales support initiatives while thinking about what is important for investee companies.