Well done! Congrats on your launch. I thought about a similar service too when I was pregnant and spoke with a few mommies and moms to be and abandoned the idea. I found the mommy network of family and friends giving you used baby clothes is a huge competitor.
With that being said though, I would probably try this service out, if I weren't in Japan. But I'd give it as one-time gift. Not sure I'd pay a monthly subscription for it.
I just had a baby myself (2 months ago) and would have LOVED this service during my pregnancy. I too tried using Amazon, but it sucked. So, I ended up going with Babies R Us, wasn't pleased with their service at all.
Blogher would be a great source for you to find testers and get solid feedback from a group of mommies and mommies to be :). Also, one thing that I liked about Amazon and Babies R US however, is they had list recommendations. It may be a good idea for you to add some cool lists to you site such as "Top 10 Must Haves for Green Moms" or somethng like that. I was clueless when registering and appreciated the guidance of the lists.
I'll be sure to promote it here in Tokyo to the American moms! Good luck with your pregnancy!
Perhaps the title should read, "What Stops Women from Becoming Founders? I was hoping to read an essay on women who are already founders and their challenges (as the title implies).
I am a founder and will be launching my start-up soon, and I have a newborn. I am truly thankful that I can stay home, take care of my baby and continue working on executing my idea.
I agree with Jessica's points and appreciate her sharing her personal experience, however, there aren't specific to women.
IMO, what can really stop a female founder from pushing their idea through to execution is:
Seriously, when facing these three factors, you must be absolutely certain about your idea and driven to keep it moving; especially when it's easier to hold your sweet baby all day and simply throw in the towel.
To answer the question outright, yes. Popular topic these days on HN. I am a 29 year-old female founder expecting my first child soon, based in Tokyo and I applied to YC recently.
I have been blessed with an incredible support system. My husband and I both worked hard and saved over the last four years, my technical co-founder is an experienced parent of two in his 40s, the community here in Tokyo has been unbelievably supportive and, not to mention my family and close friends who are all aware of my YC application and have agreed to help us in both relocating to the valley and helping us on a rotating schedule to support us and help with our baby, if we are indeed selected.
We have the resources and the support, as Jason has suggested is most critical. I personally think this is a perfect time for me to pursue my start-up, especially in Japan. Women in the workplace and policies here are still significantly behind those in the US.
I've always taken huge risks and gone after what I wanted. This is no exception.
This has been a hot topic recently here in Japan. Very happy to see more attention being paid to the entrepreneurial environment in Japan.
However, it's important to point out that the web/high-tech entrepreneurial industry is still fairly young and seems to be in its infancy compared to areas referenced in another comment regarding government subsidies and whatnot.
For the past four years, I worked as a head-hunter recruiting Japanese talent for companies in the web space. I've met and spoken with over 3,000 industry professionals ranging from company owners, entrepreneurs, engineers and designers. Here's what I've learned:
1. Those most considered risk-takers, confident and willing to forgo the security and stability for more entrepreneur-driven opportunities are normally educated outside of Japan, or have spent a significant amount of time outside of Japan.
2. Start-ups created in Japan, in the web space or high-tech space are considered too risky. Even foreign companies that have been successful in other markets have a stigma attached to them and are not considered as attractive options.
In my experience, most Japanese like to see either a track record of success in Japan as well as a partnership with or backing from a major Japanese company in order for the start-up stigma to be removed.
3. Tokyo is beginning to have a great start-up and entrepreneur community in the high-tech space however, there is a language barrier that, in my opinion contributes to the slow growth of the community. For example, there was recently a conference title New Context Conference 2010, in which several companies from a new YC Clone seed accelerator (Open NetworkLab) were able to demo their start-ups. A part of the program is that companies receive mentoring from international and Japanese investors, founders and the like to help improve their start-ups. Watching the presentations, it's clear that the Japanese start-up founders for the most part were struggling most with presentation skills.
My point is, when your language ability is limited and you can only access resources in Japanese, it's tough to really push and challenge yourself, especially when a lot of the most exciting things happening in this space are in English. It's unfortunate, but Japanese is not the language of business outside of Japan.
4. Have you tried starting a company here? With the long set-up time at least 1 month, expensive office space, taxes, banking fees, not to mention the difficulty in closing a company down-- they don't make it easy to take a risk.
5. If you're a former founder of a failed start-up here, unless you have a great network it's highly likely that the only companies that will find your failed start-up experience highly attractive are foreign owned. Most domestic companies would be too blinded by your failure and/or the fact the founder is used to being independent and most senior in their company, and may not be able to adjust to a team environment again.
I could go on, but overall there's a lot that contributes to the current state of Japan's lagging entrepreneur state.
This is great, just in time for my testing :), I'll definitely give it a try! I would love for one of your pricing packages to include speaking directly with an optimization consultant, or perhaps receiving a detailed report that includes optimization recommendations.
Indeed. Starting a business in Japan is a hurry-up and wait game. There was a recent panel sponsored by the ACCJ last month which invited several government officials to a panel discussion to inquire into why things were so burdensome and to come up with solutions. At the conclusion of the panel we had a long list of ways the 'start-up' process and culture of Japan could be improved-- among them was updating laws, making banking and related matters for small business (bank transfer fees) easier, encouraging the media to cover more entrepreneurs, and engaging college students in the start-up process more.
I'm a start-up founder based in Tokyo and the most popular questions I receive is, why are you founding a start-up focused on a market outside of Japan? Market research aside and my being American who will be returning to the US some time in the very near future, Japan is not the easiest company to start and run and successful small operation in. A Rank of #91 for such an advanced country is an indication of the system being broken and burdensome.
I'm a 29 year old start-up founder in Tokyo, I'm also carrying my first child.
I don't know all of the stats regarding women and start-ups and to be honest, I don't care. I have learned that in order to be successful in anything-- sacrifice, hard work, knowing your stuff and the right people goes a long way and opens up a lot of opportunities, especially for Americans or start-ups in the US. The amount of support I receive being pregnant and founding a start-up is unbelievable, and I'm and American in Japan.
Penelope is known for writing articles like these, which do more harm than good in my humble opinion.
If you want to start a company, male or female, recognize that it won't be easy, be prepared to work harder than anyone else and dismiss the naysayers.
Gilt is fantastic and it is also gaining a popular following here in Tokyo.
As a female consumer who loves fashion, I have been disappointed with the lag in fashion companies to adopt new technology and ideas online, I love this idea and would like to see a service like this devoted solely to shoes.
I hope to see even more services focusing on the massive group of women consumers online.