How Bespoke faked AI until it actually worked (w/ Akemi Tsunagawa) | E2320

Monday · 1 hr 2 min · Episode 2320 · 60.5 MB

0:00-1:02:16

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Today's show:

*Before Bespoke's "travel concierge" chatbot could actually hold a conversation, founder/CEO Akemi Tsunagawa and her team quietly answered customers themselves. That "fake it till you make it" strategy paid off. Bespoke landed Narita Airport as a customer based on the strength of their "chatbot" answers, and now the team runs three companies, and is expanding into shipyard robots.

In the fourth and final edition of TWiST Tokyo for Summer '26, Jason and Akemi discuss her thesis: "solve the labor gap first, [then] build the tech to math." Plus insights into Japan's tourism boom, how founders should consider the country's accelerating population decline, the economics and politics of importing foreign labor, and why AI may already be taking over more jobs than you think.

Guest

Akemi Tsunagawa on X: https://x.com/AkemiTsunagawa

Bespoke: https://www.be-spoke.io/

Bebot: https://www.bebot.io

BeTrained: https://www.be-spoke.io/en/be-trained

Relevant Links

Disrupting Japan: "Silicon Valley Has Chatbots All Wrong": https://www.disruptingjapan.com/silicon-valley-has-chatbots-all-wrong-heres-how-they-really-make-money/

CNN on Japan's population decline: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/07/asia/japan-biggest-population-decline-record-intl-hnk

Paul Graham: "Do Things That Don't Scale": https://www.paulgraham.com/ds.html

Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/

TripAdvisor: https://www.tripadvisor.com/

KPMG on Japan's Business Manage Visa Reforms: https://kpmg.com/xx/en/our-insights/gms-flash-alert/flash-alert-2025-195.html

Business Traveller on the "Akiya" renovation trend: https://www.businesstraveller.com/insights/features/japan-akiya-boom-buying-abandoned-homes/

THR on the 2004 satirical film "A Day Without a Mexican": https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/a-day-without-a-mexican-20-years-later-1236293209/

Founder University x Japan: https://tokyo.founder.university/

JETRO: https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/

Antler in Japan: https://www.antler.co/location/japan

Timestamps:

0:00 Founder U Japan Cohort 3: Coming in Jan 2027!

1:06 Introducing Akemi Tsunagawa, founder of Bespoke

3:08 Why investors passed in 2015

4:49 Selling Narita Airport on Bebot

6:29 The roots of Japan's tourism explosion

9:27 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Get started for free at https://Odoo.com/twist

14:17 Japan's population decline, by the numbers

20:06 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST

21:38 Training foreign workers via smart glasses

27:50 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

33:06 Moving into shipyard robotics, too?

37:44 Some customer development lessons

48:21 Plans for even more expansion

52:52 Q&A: How AI changed hiring

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