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<a href="https://www.voox.me/">VOOX</a> is a platform that offers a curated collection of bite-sized audio content for lifelong learning. Content is narrated by the author in order to accurately convey and express what they intend. This can sometimes be quite difficult to achieve when read by someone other than the author themselves. Founder Hong Guihua shares why she decided to create VOOX and the impact her company is looking to create.<h3>In this blog:</h3><ul><li>“I like books but I’m unable to read them.”</li><li>Right plan, wrong content</li><li>Keeping authors authentic</li><li>Connecting authors, editors, and publishers</li><li>Bringing authors and readers together</li></ul><hr><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_2b52554b2b.jpg" alt="image1.jpg"><figcaption>Hong Guihua launched VOOX in May 2020 and released the application in 2021. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><h3>“I like books but I’m unable to read them.”</h3>I have always been interested in audio services for two main reasons:<ol><li>While I like books and think they are important, I found myself unable to read them. Especially difficult books; if it is a classic or a book with complex content, it is very difficult to read, let alone understand.</li><li>When I was stationed in Indonesia back in 2016, I had to drive to work for two years. I had spent a lot of time driving and audio content was a crucial means of consuming information for me. I had always used different forms of audio content, including radio, and I had a strong interest in audio services such as audiobooks, news delivered by voice, audio lectures on economics at Peking University, and so on. &nbsp;</li></ol>However, compared to the U.S. and China, Japan had hardly any audio content other than radio. The only thing that existed were podcasts for learning English. There were so few options!&nbsp; I thought that offering a variety of audio content in a different format would grow in Japan. When I had learned about Moon's open call for new business ideas, I started thinking about my idea and how I might commercialize it. I refined my idea, pitched it to Moon and upon acceptance was transferred to Moon where I had launched the VOOX website in the summer of 2020.&nbsp;<h3>Right plan, wrong content</h3>At first, there were only three people on the VOOX team and we didn't have any background knowledge on how to create content. But the important things we wanted to do back then are the same as what we want to do now: provide content that could be listened to within 10-minutes, organize the information so that it’s easy to navigate, and make learning easier and more accessible to everyone.&nbsp; Initially, we tried to create 100 10-minute segments of content focused on the theme of economics, something we thought everyone would like to learn more about. But it turned out that it wasn't interesting content for listeners. Our planning was right, but the content itself just wasn’t interesting enough. It proved impossible to listen to such long content all the way through. I decided to look for an editor. Then I met Fumio Iwasa, the current editor-in-chief of VOOX, who has 30 years of experience in book editing and is also a former editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review. Together, we reviewed the world view and editorial policy at VOOX and arrived at the current format, a series of six 10-minute episodes, which allows us to offer a variety of topics.&nbsp;<h3>Keeping authors authentic</h3>At first, we tried to make 100 episodes, but we soon learned that even if we divided the episodes into 10 series, the content would start to overlap in the middle of the series. For this reason, we decided to limit the number of episodes to six.&nbsp; We prepared a landing page and recruited about 120 users to test it out. On that page, we provided three recorded samples:&nbsp;<ol><li>A narrator reads the trend summary articles published by VC.</li><li>A narrator reads their own summary of the book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/Blitzscaling-Lightning-Fast-Building-Massively-Companies-ebook/dp/B0791239V7/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&amp;crid=3D4QYFT3EFJB2&amp;keywords=blitz+scaling&amp;qid=1695110423&amp;sprefix=blitzscaling%2Caps%2C151&amp;sr=8-2">BLITZSCALING</a>.</li><li>The book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%B5%B7%E6%A5%AD%E3%81%AE%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6-%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%82%B5%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9-%E7%94%B0%E6%89%80-%E9%9B%85%E4%B9%8B/dp/4822259757">The Science of Entrepreneurship: Startup Science</a> is explained by the author himself.</li></ol>The recordings with commentary by the authors themselves achieved the best results, much more than the others.&nbsp; Option 3 was originally listed as "commentary by the author," whether the content was read by a third-party narrator or by the author. But after qualitative interviews with users about their impressions and the extent to which they remembered the audio content, we learned that the users who chose “commentary by the author themself" were the ones who reportedly retained the most information. When creating audio content, our goal is to try and preserve the author's authenticity as much as possible. We prepare a simple bulleted list of questions for the author to address at the time of recording instead of providing a script for them to read. We don’t edit the recordings, although we sometimes re-record any mistakes. This method seems to work well for not only the user, but also the author.&nbsp; It really helps the authors to organize their thoughts. As a matter of fact, there is even a newly published book based on the content of a VOOX talk. The author, who had no intention of writing a book, realized that he could turn his audio content into a book after talking about it at VOOX. We connected the author with a publishing company, which eventually led to the publication of his book. With an increase in such cases, we have come to realize that VOOX is beginning to produce new benefits not just for authors and listeners, but also for editors and publishers.&nbsp;<h3>Connecting authors, editors, and publishers</h3>Originally, the main objective of VOOX was to have authors read and comment on their own content in audio form. However, every time we spoke with the authors, they would digress and tell stories that went beyond the books in discussion. Then I tried asking authors to not only talk about the applicable book, but also about the entire topic or subject. By doing so, we developed brand-new audio content, which further developed into new publications. One time, an author was writing a book and got a little stumped, so he decided to try and overcome his writer’s block by talking about it on VOOX. That author happened to be our editor-in-chief, but we used VOOX as a place to reinvigorate his inspiration and perspective.&nbsp; Sometimes an author will use it in that way, and other times, they'll have a topic that they've been trying to write a book on, but have neglected it for a long time. So, they'll talk about it on VOOX as a way to refresh their ideas.&nbsp; When you think about it, there are a number of advantages for editors to work with VOOX – it’s a place to learn about authors who are not yet widely known. It’s a place to relieve authors of stumbling blocks and dead-ends and a place to stimulate planning and ideas. It’s a place to discover new authors. And, of course, a place to promote books. In fact, more and more people are contacting us organically. When we find a good book and contact the publisher, the publisher, in turn, contacts us to ask what we think about the book. We are also hearing more from people who are interested in the books that have been published on VOOX. I am very happy to say that in our third year, we are gradually expanding our relationships not only with authors and editors, but with publishers as well.I was happy to hear one of our editors say, "I wasn't sure where I could transfer my book editing skills, but now I know that I can use them in this kind of situation.” I was excited to hear that he thought VOOX could be a new way to apply his skills.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://vimeo.com/859211849"></oembed></figure><h3>Bringing authors and readers together</h3>Nowadays, the number of people who read books is decreasing rapidly. I don't want this to continue, so I hope VOOX can become a service that can create synergy with books. We did not set out to replace books, but to introduce them. On top of that, we are trying to create a deeper connection between readers and authors. We are currently reaching more people by making VOOX content available on Amazon’s Audible. On the other hand, we think that for fans and listeners of a particular author, even 60 minutes of content isn’t enough, so we are trying to create more ways to deepen the communication between authors and readers. The "pre-publication book club" was one of the ideas we came up with to address that issue. Learn more in the video below (in Japanese).<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://vimeo.com/859212188"></oembed></figure>Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we had never been able to hold an offline event before. But when we held our first in-person event to meet authors, it was more exciting than we had ever imagined. I remember that the authors were very lively because readers came to the events. We plan to do more of these events in the future. Since audio content is a niche market, we are always thinking about ways to make it more widely known. With a Japanese magazine, if 50,000 people know about your business, you can say that everyone knows about it to some extent. Or if the book is on the shelves of a bookstore, you can feel a sense of response. We are still creating content one by one, thinking about how we can create a similar outcome with VOOX.&nbsp;*This article was originally written in Japanese and has been translated and edited for clarity.<hr>VOOX launched its <a href="https://www.voox.me/">website</a> in 2020, followed by its app (<a href="https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/voox/id1546175303">iOS</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.voox&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=US&amp;pli=1">Android</a>) in 2021. A book’s worth of knowledge is narrated directly from leading experts from various fields, including Taizo Son, Dai Tamesue, Ken Kusunoki, Shu Yamaguchi, and others. New series are available for free for two weeks after its release. In June 2023, VOOX began providing content to Audible, the world's largest audiobook and audio content production and distribution service. On June 27, an event was held to celebrate the publication of Surrender Theory with former professional baseball player and current business coach, Yuhki Takamori. In July, VOOX also held a pre-publication reading of Maturity Theory with Dai Tamesue. Follow VOOX on <a href="https://twitter.com/VOOX_jp">X (formerly Twitter)</a> for the latest news and useful knowledge from each series. &nbsp;

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Lullaby is a personalized sleep training service and platform for parents and their newborns.In this article, hear from founder Yukari Tago on how cultural differences and an unfortunate accident inspired her to create Lullaby.&nbsp;<h3> Key Learnings&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Different countries, different childbirth experiences&nbsp;</li><li>An accidental wake-up call</li><li>Better sleep becomes more than a dream</li><li>Global effects of sleep deprivation</li></ul><hr><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_74171e0d92.jpg" alt="image1.jpg"><figcaption>Yukari Tago, founder of Lullaby</figcaption></figure><h3>Different countries, different childbirth experiences&nbsp;</h3>The launch of Lullaby was greatly influenced by my experience giving birth in the United States. While the procedures and preparations were more inconvenient and difficult than in Japan, I was surprised at the high level of child-rearing literacy that mothers had in the U.S.Japan is safe and well insured. With an infant medical care card, you can receive free medical care throughout the country. But the situation is quite different in the United States.One time I was at a friend of mine’s US-based home and I had noticed her thick medical dictionaries covered in sticky notes. She told me that she went through every detail of a recent doctor visit’s recommendation, such as whether there is a generic version of a recommended drug, if there is a cheaper alternative, what tests were recommended, etc. She even had suggested options that differed from her doctor's opinion!&nbsp;There were also differences in the birthing process. I had to choose the hospital where I would give birth and also make an appointment with an obstetrician that was covered under my medical insurance. Immediately after birth, I was assigned a pediatrician, and I needed to make an appointment with that doctor in advance. Making separate appointments for the hospital and the doctor was a big difference in itself, but I was indeed surprised when I asked an acquaintance for a hospital recommendation, he replied, "X hospital won't rip you off.”Since I did not have many local acquaintances I decided on a hospital on my own after gathering information using classified websites and other resources. Other mothers I had met were so skilled in gathering such information, which was quite impressive to me. Also, in California, it was not unusual for mothers to return to work three months after childbirth, and it seemed normal for them to invest time and money in preparing for this.One of the things I learned through my experience giving birth in the U.S. was sleep training, which helps babies develop the habit of falling asleep on their own rather than being put to sleep by co-sleeping or being held, as is typical in Japan. My obstetrician told me about the importance of sleep training and how proper sleep health, for both child and parent, is essential. After all, “you can't raise a healthy child if you are exhausted,” as she said.I still wasn't sure whether or not to actually seek sleep training consulting, but an unforeseen event occurred when my child was six months old which drove my need for it. &nbsp;<h3>An accidental wake-up call</h3>My baby was continuously crying at night, leaving me so exhausted that it was hard for me to function throughout the day.When my baby was six months old, he was still crying throughout the night, and I started noticing how constantly foggy my mind was during the day. One day, while he was sleeping on the couch, I took my eyes off of him for just a moment, but when he woke up he fell right off the couch. Had I not been sleep deprived, I probably would have kept a closer eye on him or noticed the moment he woke up.Fortunately, it was nothing too serious. But I remember panicking and rushing to call a cab to take him to the hospital. I was terrified that I might have caused serious injuries. After that scary accident, I decided to seek consulting for sleep training.<blockquote>"You can't raise a healthy child if you are exhausted.”</blockquote><h3>Better sleep becomes more than a dream</h3>Before that incident, I had only considered sleep training. In California, where I had given birth, mothers often returned to work three months postpartum. It was common practice to work with a sleep consultant – a professional that handles sleep training and nighttime crying – to prepare a baby’s sleep environment, allowing the mother to return to work fully equipped to handle nighttime crying and sleep training on her own.At the time I had been reading The Happiest Baby on the Block, a well-known book about parenting and increasing a baby’s sleep, since my son was three months old. But just reading about it didn’t really help the problem I was facing. I still wasn’t sure what to do.The couch incident showed me that I had not been thinking clearly thanks to my baby’s continued night time crying and my own unwavering sleep deprivation. I decided to seek help right away. After receiving consultation and working on sleep training with my husband, I saw a change in my baby’s sleep pattern after just three days.We would leave the room after putting my baby to sleep and watch him through the monitor to measure the time from the start of crying to the end of crying, and we would let him cry for about five minutes, then have contact with him for two minutes, and leave again for a short while, following a time chart. If I had been alone without my husband’s support, I would have broken down when I heard my baby crying.The first few days were pretty rough but to my surprise he quickly began to adapt. After a few weeks, I was actually able to sleep through the night on my own as if by magic. I was so happy about it that when I shared it on Instagram, I was inundated with questions from my friends in Japan, "What is sleep training!?"I received the same response from other people who used sleep training with their infants using the same method as I did. To this day, I still receive comments from users of the Lullaby app saying that they start to see changes in their infants after about the third day. Of course, there are individual differences, but that is the magic of sleep training! You can see improvement almost immediately.For me, the change was drastic. I had read some papers with scientific evidence at the time, but I felt that perhaps if I had the knowledge, parenting would be much easier.I was finally able to get more sleep and I even had enough time to myself that I could take night classes at UCLA Extension. Looking back, the first three to four months after giving birth are a hurdle for just about anyone looking to sleep train because it is a time when the baby does not yet have the strength to sleep through the night. With such knowledge, I would have felt more relaxed about the position I was in.<h3> Global effects of sleep deprivation</h3>Since my job was to develop new businesses in the EdTech industry, I had the opportunity to hear directly from CEOs and COOs about startups in Japan and overseas at the time. Perhaps that is where I was first attracted to the world of startups.Later, I became pregnant in 2016, gave birth in 2017, took maternity leave, and returned to work in 2018. At that time, I particularly remembered the words of a senior employee at Mitsui &amp; Co. who had started his own business. He said that when it comes to new businesses, it’s important to find a deep pain point. If it is deep, and if it is an issue that you want to solve no matter how much money you have to pay, it should be a viable business.&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/design-research">Why Design Research Is Important in Building a Startup</a>&nbsp;After my son was born, for the first time in my life I was faced with the challenge of sleep deprivation. It was the most physically and mentally exhausting experience of my life so far, a true pain point.While sleep training was a common solution in the U.S., it wasn’t in Japan. I thought, "This is it!" I continued to gather information to commercialize this idea. I later learned that Moon was going to hold its first pitch event, so I decided to apply. It seemed like a good opportunity. I pitched my idea for Lullaby and that was the start of my business to improve children's nighttime crying and improve parent’s own sleep.Later, Dr. Mariko Morita, who participated in the project as a supervising physician, also found that the problems related to bedtime are significant.According to data published by Ehime University in 2018, Japan ranks last when comparing the total length of sleep of three-year-olds in 17 major countries1.But it's not just children’s sleep that is affected. Data published by the OECD in 2016 showed that Japanese adult males had the fourth-shortest total sleep duration of all 38 countries at the time (35 OECD member countries plus China, India, and South Africa), and adult females in Japan had the lowest sleep duration2.Sleep deprivation is a major problem in Japan, and many people associate this to their feelings of anxiety about returning to work after parental leave, to fight because of frustration with their children not sleeping, to get divorced because their marriage deteriorates, or to suffer from postpartum depression. Although the methodology on how to improve this nighttime crying problem has not been established at all in Japan, there is evidence for the effectiveness of sleep training.Out of 52 treatment studies from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 94% of the studies report that sleep training has been effective in improving nighttime crying, and more than 80% of children demonstrated significant improvement that was maintained for three-six months3. Even though the results are well documented, in Japan, there are no medical institutions or midwifery centers to provide guidance.Research has shown that the rate of postpartum depression, stated to originally be about 15%, has increased to about 30% due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic4, which may have a significant impact on mental health. And problems related to infant sleep contribute to the increased percentage as well.I created Lullaby to help solve this very problem. &nbsp;&nbsp;Lullaby is currently expanding its business domain by matching sleep consultants, providing reliable childcare information under the supervision of sleep medicine physicians, and developing other services such as general childcare consultation services.The company has also begun joint development with Pigeon, and as of July 2023, plans to offer a "Nen-ne Kaizen Pack," which combines several services including the use of an application for local governments and the provision of sleep seminars for parents. Demonstration tests of the effectiveness of sleep improvement for families with infants and toddlers will begin sequentially in five municipalities: Kashiwabara City (Osaka Prefecture), Namegata City (Ibaraki Prefecture), Otsuki City (Yamanashi Prefecture), Gyoda City (Saitama Prefecture), and Morioka City (Iwate Prefecture).&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out the <a href="https://www.lullabysleepbaby.com/">Lullaby website</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lullabysleepbaby/">Instagram</a> for the latest information and updates! &nbsp;&nbsp;*1 <a href="http://childsleep.org/guideline/wp-content/uploads/%E6%9C%AA%E5%B0%B1%E5%AD%A6%E5%85%90%E3%81%AE%E7%9D%A1%E7%9C%A0%E6%8C%87%E9%87%9D.pdf">Health, Labour and Welfare Science Research Grants: Research Group on Sleep and Use of Information and Communication Devices by Preschool Children</a> (ed.). Sleep guidelines for preschool children. Ehime: Sleep Medical Center, Ehime University Hospital, 2018.*2 <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/521957/time-spent-sleeping-countries/">Average minutes per day spent sleeping in OECD countries plus China, India and South Africa by gender</a>, as of 2016*3 <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17068979/">Behavioral treatment of bedtime problems and night wakings in infants and young children</a>.*4 <a href="https://www.kuhs.ac.jp/shi/news/details_01448.html">Drastically increased postpartum depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with social restrictions.</a>

<a href="https://goril.jp/">GORIL</a> is a digital product that teaches native Japanese speakers proper pronunciation and articulation of the English language through visualization and providing real-time feedback.They recently launched a new web application, <a href="https://demo.goril.jp/">GORIL48</a>, which visualizes the user’s sounds when they speak out loud. An illustrated animation shows its mouth and tongue moving along with the sound, showing the user how to articulate the correct English pronunciation based on the correct mouth movements. But how did Satoshi Yoshida, founder of GORIL, come up with this idea? Read on to hear Satoshi describe how GORIL came to be, from idea to research and ultimately, product launch.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_8b8b316cf1.jpg" alt="image1.jpg"><figcaption>Satoshi Yoshida, GORIL founder: Satoshi studied abroad at a university in Wisconsin, USA., as an exchange student while in college. After graduation, he joined Mitsui &amp; Co. in the fall of 2021 and was transferred to Moon Creative Lab as an in-house entrepreneur. In April 2023, he launched the iOS app GORIL Beta, and in August 2023, the web app GORIL48.</figcaption></figure><h3>Is it “food” or “hood”?</h3>The prototype of the idea came to me around 1997. When I was in college, I studied abroad as an exchange student at a university in Wisconsin, but even after six months, my English pronunciation had not improved at all and I lacked confidence.I struggled with taking notes in class because I could not comprehend what was being said, and even when I tried my best to speak English, I was always asked, "What did you just say?” I was always in a constant state of anxiety.My interest in the English language started long before college though. In junior high school, my life was all about baseball. I practiced endless hours without a break, aiming for the Koshien (National High School Baseball Championship), and English was the only thing I was interested in other than baseball. I had this vague idea that if I could master English, I would eventually expand my horizons.When an exchange student from Australia transferred to my school in my second year of high school, I was assigned to be his class guide. At first, he could barely speak Japanese, so I spent a year at school with him, carrying both Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries. However, only having been taught English by Japanese teachers up to that point, I was honestly at a loss with understanding English.For example, I could not understand the difference between "food" and "hood" at all. I asked the exchange student to pronounce those words for me dozens of times and I repeated it so much that he told me to give it a rest, but still I couldn't understand it – and this problem came up again later in life when I studied abroad in the U.S. Not only was it difficult to properly formulate what I wanted to say in English, but I was also having problems getting him to understand what I was saying through my pronunciation in the first place!My scores on written tests did not reflect the difficulty I was experiencing with pronunciation – it was a completely different situation. And after much trial and error to figure out what to do at that point, the idea came to me of what would become the prototype for GORIL.<blockquote>"I could not understand the difference between 'food' and 'hood' at all."</blockquote><h3>Learning through imitation</h3>Six months into my U.S. study, I was still struggling with my English pronunciation. I decided at that moment that I needed to ask a classmate to teach me. The classmate I reached out to was an English as a Second Language (ESL) major and aspired to become a teacher, so the student was eager to help me.One day while practicing, I suddenly started looking at my classmates' mouths and imagining the shape of their mouths and the movement of their tongues and muscles. When I was finally told, "That was good," I became aware that the shape of my mouth and the movement of my tongue was important in my pronunciation! Suddenly, I was able to pronounce the words correctly and was given positive feedback.Overtime, I was able to imitate other sounds as well, and I was able to apply these sounds to words more and more. Eventually, people would tell me, "You have good pronunciation! Where did you learn to speak like that?" I gradually gained the confidence I was lacking and actually wanted to speak more English. This made me think that perhaps my method for pronunciation could be replicated to improve other’s English pronunciation as well. &nbsp;<h3>Still a student, not quite the teacher yet</h3>Since joining Mitsui, I’ve worked mostly in logistics. But in 2015, I was transferred to Singapore as a port operator. At the time, a colleague of mine, who was also transferred, wanted to improve his English pronunciation. I remembered my university days and tried the same pronunciation approach, this time as the teacher and he was the student.But when I told him, "Try to visualize the opening of your mouth, the position and use of your tongue, and adjust the way you produce the sound," he did not understand what I meant by "visualize." No matter how many times I tried to explain the concept, I couldn’t get it right. He told me, "If I could see the image you are talking about more clearly, I think I would be able to do it." I began to agonize over it.The port operator I was managing at the time was forming a task force to think of how to create new businesses for the next generation, and I was fortunate enough to join. We didn't really know how to come up with new ideas, and we didn't have much experience, but as the task force members worked with Moon on the ideas, we gradually became fascinated by the novelty of Moon's approach.At that time, I thought the idea of "visualizing pronunciation" could be potentially materialized at Moon. Fortunately, I got the support of the people around me, including my boss at the time, and I made my pitch in March 2021. &nbsp;<h3>Design research</h3>With Moon’s wide variety of professional resources, we were connected with Takuya Yamagishi, a design researcher who is still currently working on GORIL with us. The research we conducted at the time revealed that 3D models developed to improve pronunciation already existed in the speech therapy industry.In fact, the existing 3D model closely mimicked the movements of my classmates' mouths when I was studying in the U.S., but it was too complicated for users to understand, which really surprised me.Of course, I was very particular about the 3D model I had in mind, and some linguists who collaborated with us agreed that a three-dimensional representation would be better to visualize pronunciation, but the users' reactions were different. I think they didn't intuitively know how to imitate it.We have talked to nearly 200 people, and 100 of which we have provided workshops and lessons to. I came to believe that there needed to be a more intuitive system to understand how one's mouth opens and how the tongue is positioned to produce a certain sound. As a result, I began to think about a two-dimensional interface that would allow me to roughly understand the opening of my mouth and the position of my tongue, and my ideas evolved into the current form of the program. &nbsp;<h3>2D proves better than 3D</h3>The team decided to utilize 2D to teach pronunciation and we have even gamified the experience. We developed familiar games like pinball where users must pronounce vowel sounds in order to control the game.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Goril_image_2_f4a7c592d5.jpg" alt="Goril image 2.jpg"><figcaption>The pictured interface uses formant frequencies to output to two-dimensional coordinates. By objectively capturing the characteristics of the sound and showing them in the visuals, the mouth movements are expressed in a way that is easy to imitate.</figcaption></figure>This simplification was easy to understand because the way people understand different sounds may differ from person to person. Even when people say that they understand and can pronounce a sound, some might be able to imitate it naturally and immediately, while others might not. Even when it comes to listening, there are some people who can separate listening into many elements and others who cannot.When you practice English pronunciation with GORIL, you are turning pronunciation into a simple exercise of moving your mouth into a certain shape, and once you learn it, it’s hard to forget – much like riding a bicycle.The 100+ people who have tried GORIL so far have confirmed its effectiveness, and I am now convinced that anyone can understand it and create a new muscle memory related to English pronunciation, as long as it is visualized in this way.In my 2021 pitch, my Singaporean English, or “Singlish,” was in full swing because I had been in Singapore for a long time. Some of the Moon Committee members I was pitching to commented, "Satoshi's English is special, isn't it!” But, as I’ve learned from my own experience, English has many different pronunciations to begin with.GORIL will start with American English, but in the future, we would like to include British English, Australian English, Singaporean English, and many others. Though we have already visualized a portion of the Japanese language, we believe that there is ample potential for visualization of languages other than Japanese and English. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;GORIL released the iOS app (beta version) GORIL in April 2023 and its web app <a href="https://demo.goril.jp/">GORIL48</a> in August. GORIL has been actively communicating their work in English pronunciation by holding events, appearing on radio programs, and starting their own podcast, "GORIL Pronunciation Club" (available on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/08ldUbbRAc2fxR9sSZlKUP">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/goril-%E7%99%BA%E9%9F%B3%E9%83%A8/id1689364810">Apple Podcasts</a>, and <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lMDUzMTM0MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw?hl=ja">Google Podcasts</a>).In the future, GORIL intends to develop an English-learning support tool that allows parents and children to learn pronunciation together, and to visualize not only words but also sentences. They are also looking at applying this technology for learning languages around the world. For the latest information, please visit <a href="https://goril.jp/">GORIL's official website</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Goril_English">Twitter</a>.&nbsp;Check back here frequently as we will be sharing more stories and updates about GORIL.

Moon Creative Lab thrives on building an inclusive and diverse community – it’s what keeps us creative, innovative, and human-centered. And though we celebrate inclusivity all year long, the month of June, which is International Pride Month, was a great opportunity to spotlight our LGBTQIA+ community.Throughout June, our team led learning sessions, discussions, and other fun activities like trivia to celebrate Pride as a company. We also organized a community-based art show where artists could showcase their queer-themed art to the public.Following an open call to digital artists around the world, an art show and pop-up exhibition was held at our Tokyo studio in Omotesando. The event, which was open to all, displayed the beautiful, queer-themed art on windows and walls throughout the office. Visitors were able to admire art that celebrated the LGBTQIA+ community, socialize over drinks, and listen to their peers discuss building a diverse community during an open mic session. “The community and the people that came through were super chill, and we were just chatting. It was a nice event not only for queer people but for their friends, too. And the open mic portion, where anyone could talk about whatever they’re doing or anything they want to share – it was really fun,” says Hoan Phan, who was also chosen as the featured artist during the exhibit.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/PXL_20230619_012117552_1_d94a5829da.jpg" alt="PXL_20230619_012117552 (1).jpg"><figcaption>Featured art piece from artist <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hoanhoanhoan/">Hoan Phan</a>.</figcaption></figure>Hoan says the inspiration for his art piece came from a traditional Vietnamese dish called bánh bèo, which is also a slang term used to describe queer men. “I thought this could be an interesting concept. This slang in Vietnamese, when used as an adjective, could be a bit negative… I wanted to change this kind of mindset because we are a new generation. It’s not just like, being feminine means being weird.” Aside from using the illustration of bánh bèo, Hoan wanted to instill a sense of confidence to emphasize the reclamation of the slang term. Characters are illustrated in various poses, much like those in the dance style of voguing. One character in particular strikes a strong resemblance to gender-defying, cultural icon Grace Jones. “You can see some Grace Jones there. I love her,” Hoan gushes. “I was thinking of voguing or ballroom culture, which would be a good fit for this because the people in this scene have a lot of confidence, show good energy, and have a lot of freedom expressing themselves. So I thought putting these two pieces together could be fun.”<blockquote>"It’s not just like, being feminine means being weird.”</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Pride_event_photo_ca365a97fe.jpg" alt="Pride event photo.jpg"><figcaption>Hoan Phan at Moon's Pride art show.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Hoan’s work of art is brimming with fantastic detail, allowing the viewer to take notice of something different with each view. But those details aren’t just there to embellish, fill, or adorn – Hoan is much more thoughtful, instilling significance and symbolism into every small aspect, something that he hopes is conveyed to the observer. “My work, generally, is really colorful. Through this piece, I would like people to feel a very positive energy through the poses of the characters. When you look at more details, you see small things, so I would like for them to spend a little bit more time, traveling around, moving their eyes through the piece, looking into the details. Even though it’s small details, it’s simple, but I think it’s fun because each detail stands for some meaning. For example, the nail polish – it’s like a ‘yeah, I’m pretty!’ kind of thing. Or when you see the chili, it’s like being a ‘spicy’ person!”<blockquote>"I would like people to feel a very positive energy."</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Pride_art_show_700ef34dbc.jpeg" alt="Pride art show.jpeg"></figure>Yu Onodera, Senior FP&amp;A Analyst at Moon, sees events that celebrate our diversity, like the Pride art show, as a way of celebrating Moon’s culture and sharing that with the world. “Moon is a place that embodies diversity, and I am sure most of us are proud of the freedom to be ourselves at Moon. So I hope the Pride event was a great opportunity for attendees to see, feel, and experience our culture.”Machi Rezende, Design Lead at Moon, helped create the Pride art show so that he could increase visibility, awareness, and education throughout the company, and embrace our LGBTQIA+ community to show that Moon is a safe, welcoming, and inclusive place. “I wanted to create a safe space where not only queer individuals, but also allies could co-exist and learn about each other's stories. Instead of a boring presentation, we wanted to create a space of joy where people could feel free to express who they really are. And allies could engage in that dialogue. There is so much invisibility and ignorance around the existence of queer individuals. Opening spaces and media for discussion brings those people out of the shadows they’ve felt they had to hide in. Queer people exist, they are all over, and their existence has to be acknowledged, protected, and celebrated.”&nbsp;<blockquote>"Queer people exist... their existence has to be acknowledged, protected, and celebrated.”</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Pride_0e25edb349.jpeg" alt="Moon Pride.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Machi_Yu_4207208345.jpeg" alt="Machi Yu.jpeg"><figcaption>Machi Rezende and Yu Onodera from Moon.</figcaption></figure>We know that culturally diverse teams transcend homogeneous ones when it comes to innovation and creativity. At Moon, being human-centered is a value that lies at our core. And there is no better way to show and practice that value than to welcome, love, and include all humans, no matter their background, their orientation, or how they choose to identify. Stay connected to get invites and updates on upcoming events by <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1OHQANbcgR9q4ky5Q4M6wMQcxaid">subscribing to our newsletter</a>.&nbsp; &nbsp;

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On June 30, 2023, Yukari Tago, founder of <a href="https://www.lullabysleepbaby.com/">Lullaby</a>, a personalized sleep training service and platform for parents and their newborns, and Dr. Mariko Morita, the platform's supervising physician, spoke at an event held by the Work-X Office, an organization dedicated to improving the office environment at Mitsui &amp; Co. More than 40 Mitsui employees from different departments gathered for the event and participated in roundtable discussions.Yukari and Dr. Morita discussed Lullaby’s success and shared personal stories and challenges experienced when balancing childcare, work, and homelife. They answered questions and offered several tips and solutions for common problems that parents face.Key Learnings<ul><li>Sleep training significantly improves sleep for infants and parents</li><li>Tips on balancing childcare, work, and homelife</li></ul><hr><h3><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image2_615f8a855f.jpg" alt="image2.jpg"> The Effectiveness of Sleep Training</h3>Yukari Tago: What I am most proud of is Lullaby's performance of a 99% improvement rate in children’s overall sleep. Our app has a feature that allows users to rate the service, and of the 2,300+ paid napping consultations we provide, 99% of those who have used the service have rated it as good: meaning they have found it to be very successful! Users have shared their success stories and we are very proud of the results.&nbsp; &nbsp;Dr. Morita: The problems related to proper bedtime routines are big and are the number one concern for parents in Japan. Those who are troubled feel very strongly about it because they cannot get proper sleep with a newborn. On the other hand, what about children's sleep in Japan? Comparing the total sleep time of children aged 0-3 years old in 17 major countries, Japan ranks last. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that Japan also ranks last among the 38 OECD member countries in terms of sleep for adult males and females. I feel this is a good indicator showcasing Japan's low awareness of sleep. Marital discord, divorce, postpartum distress, and postpartum depression are some of the effects people face due to their lack of sleep and frustration with their children’s sleeping habits. In Japan, there is currently no common methodology on how to improve a child’s consistent nighttime crying.The reason I am confident in the 99% improvement rate is because I have evidence. In a survey that analyzed 52 articles on sleep training, 94% of the articles concluded that sleep training was effective in improving nighttime crying, and the results showed that on average, it improved nighttime crying in more than 80% of children. Although the results are solid evidence that sleep training does in fact improve sleep, it is still not widely used in Japan. Even if you go to medical institutions or midwifery centers, they do not provide guidance or proper sleep training techniques. I think that is a problem.Factors that affect sleep deprivation in adults include the fact that children do not sleep, but also the fact that they will wait for their entire family to return home and eat dinner together instead of utilizing that time for rest. However, the impact of sleep problems on children during infancy, the most difficult time of child-rearing, is still quite significant.It often takes on average 1-2 hours to put a child fully to sleep. Children often wake up every 1-2 hours to feed throughout the night or wake up between 4:00 to 5:00 a.m. Parents often find themselves stressed with these new circumstances and often experience difficulties to increase their own sleep time.Studies have shown that the rate of postpartum depression, estimated to be around 10%, has increased to 25% since the coronavirus pandemic. The lack of sleep has had a significant impact on mental health and it’s no surprise that if people can't sleep, they will be irritable and their mental health will suffer.I want Lullaby to improve nighttime sleep deprivation and help create a society where people are not limited in their choices when it comes to parenting.<h3> Dr. Morita on Weaning, Napping, and Work-Life Balance</h3>Dr. Morita: In the preliminary questionnaire for the Q&amp;A during the event, many participants were concerned about their own sleep, including naps and power naps. We also had many questions about children's sleep and balancing home and work.To answer how I do it myself, first of all, I use Lullaby to put my own children to sleep. This is the punchline – haha!However, I think that putting children to bed and getting a good night's sleep is very important for balancing work and family life. What to do if a child is obsessed with breastfeeding?We received a question from a person who has a 2 1/2-year-old and said that her child is attached to breastfeeding. Regarding this, I think it is possible to stop breastfeeding at night. If you want to sleep at night, there is no problem to breastfeed only during the day with nocturnal weaning.However, at that age, I think the child will resist a lot. Be prepared for that, but I think they will get used to it in a week or two. It would be better to first tell the child that he or she will not drink at night, rather than stop during the day as well. How can someone take an effective nap or power nap?It is very important that naps for adults are only 20 minutes maximum. If you sleep longer than that, you will go into a deep sleep and have difficulty waking up, or you will feel foggy when you wake up. I recommend setting an alarm or having some caffeine before napping. It takes about 30 minutes after you drink it to take effect, which is said to be just right. If it is too bright for you to sleep, try using an eye mask. How do you maintain work-life balance?I recognize that work-life balance may be a matter of priorities. By far, the lowest priority is housework. I think it is important not to do the housework itself. I have three children of my own, so I hardly cook meals anymore. I outsource the preparation of meals.When I was pregnant with my third child, I physically couldn't cook anymore due to the morning sickness I was experiencing, so I asked someone to come every week and prepare a week's worth of meals for me and my family. To be honest, it doesn't last the full seven days, but on the one or two days that remain, I would cook dried fish, vegetables, rice, and so on.We also vacuum only once a week. Sorry if it seems dirty! We hire an outside cleaning service to do the cleaning once a week. This alone is a huge relief.This is a small detail, but serving food from containers is also a hassle in itself, so we put storage containers on the table and make it buffet style. The kids are happy when I tell them they can take whatever they would like. I think it's okay to make it a single-plate meal. It might be another small detail, but I tend to be very sloppy too, like not using chopstick rests.As for work, I really wanted to do both work and provide childcare, so I chose this line of work partly because I wanted to make child-rearing time useful while I was able to work.<h3> Yukari Tago on Balance and Mental Wellness</h3>How do you ensure proper sleep for your children and for yourself in the midst of balancing work and family?Yukari: Let me first give you some basic information about me. My son is 6-years-old now. My parents live in Tokyo, 15 minutes by bicycle from our home. My husband's parents live in Shizuoka [over 100 miles from Tokyo].Typically, I drop my child off at around 8:30 a.m. and pick him up at 6:30 p.m., while my working hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I have free time at night two-and-half days a week. My husband and I take turns doing this schedule, and we both make sure to have two-and-a-half days of free time each week at night. During that time, I try to spend my free time doing the work I want to finish, meeting people, getting massages, physical therapy, saunas, etc. to refresh myself and take care of my health. By doing this, I maintain my mental health and consciously try to keep myself in a state where I can be happy. How do you maintain your mental health?Mental control is the biggest thing I have learned since I was transferred from Mitsui &amp; Co. to Moon Creative Lab and started working on Lullaby. I always feel like someone is evaluating my work, but that is why I try to maintain my mental health. Of course, there are times when things don't go well, but I think that if my mental health breaks down, my work efficiency will drop very badly.As for work, most of the people working for Lullaby are outsourced, except for me, so the content and volume of outsourcing are clearly defined, and I feel that makes it easy to work efficiently. How do you make time for yourself?I thought it might not be very helpful to know how to generate time, as there are many external factors, but I feel that Moon's flexible working style (core hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m.) makes it very easy to work.The scale of the business is still small and I have authority to make most of the decisions. I make decisions on what to do, which I think is one of the main reasons why I can work quickly. Also, since it is a domestic business, there are no overseas business trips.Also, many mothers have a lot of spare time. In order to make the best use of our spare time as mothers, we are gradually preparing useful tools on our app all while consulting with our members. Almost all of our staff members are mothers, and since we are all sleep consultants, our children are all asleep around 9 p.m., allowing us time to catch up and discuss Lullaby. We all have a shared love for the business, so we think about it all the time, 24 hours a day, and I think that is one aspect that allows us to make a lot of decisions quickly.At home, my son is fast asleep by 9:00 p.m., which is a big advantage. Perhaps the most important thing for me is that he’s in good health because of his sleeping pattern. He has attended various preschools, kindergartens, and afterschool programs, and he has received perfect attendance awards to all of them. It may not all be due to sleep, but I still believe it is related to the fact that lack of sleep often relates to getting sick more often.You might be familiar with the book, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, and I feel that book is the root of my way of thinking. Life is long, so it is a question of what to prioritize now. I'm not able to save much now, but I've decided that it's one stage in the long run, and I'm outsourcing as much housework as possible, and even if I have to live in a smaller house, my first priority is to generate time for travel distance, work, and family.I can relate to Dr. Morita as I also use a make-and-prepare service and have found it to be very helpful.<hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_7b2395e541.jpg" alt="image1.jpg">Yukari Tago, founder of Lullaby, is a mother to her son and experienced child rearing years in the United States. While raising her son, she struggled with his frequent nighttime crying and, after practicing a sleep training program she learned while in the U.S., she experienced a dramatic improvement. Using her experience in startup investment in the EdTech industry, she commercialized her idea to improve nighttime crying. She joined Moon Creative Lab from a career at Mitsui to start Lullaby.&nbsp;<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image3_a6318fc14a.jpg" alt="image3.jpg">Dr. Mariko Morita is a mother of three and supervising physician for Lullaby. She worked as an anesthesiologist, but started researching pediatric sleep after facing nighttime crying with her first child. She currently provides counseling as a sleep medicine doctor, trains sleep consultants, and publishes books on pediatric sleep.Lullaby’s founder and doctor share stories and challenges of balancing childcare, work, and homelife, and offer several tips and solutions for common problems that parents face.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/L1530377_93ae1de6ce.jpg" alt="L1530377.jpg"></figure>Moon Creative Lab <a href="https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/501861/moon-creative-lab-expands-venture-programming-to-turn-brilliant-ideas-into-rockstar-businesses">recently announced</a> three new programs that we will be offering to current and future entrepreneurs. One of those offerings is <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/en/orbit">Orbit</a>, a new event series where those interested in creating new businesses can connect with others to learn, network, and collaborate.Currently held at our Spring Terrace studio in Tokyo (and soon to expand to our studio in Palo Alto, California), Orbit events are free and open to everyone who is interested in entrepreneurship, business and design. Each event will focus on different topics focused on startups, technology, human-centered design, corporate innovation, and much more. They’re unique opportunities to learn and connect with others who are passionate about new business creation. And it’s the perfect environment for serendipitous connections to occur. Meeting a future co-founder, collaborating for an experiment, discovering the design research your idea needs – just a few of the wonderful “happy accidents” that could happen at an Orbit event! &nbsp;<h3>Come One, Come All</h3>Our first Orbit event was an Ask Me Anything (AMA) panel with first-time founders. It was the first time Moon invited local business leaders and supporters to share their experiences. The panel of successful founders included Takanori Sato, co-founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.shippio.io/">Shippio</a>, Japan’s first digital forwarding company; Eriko Suzuki, leader in global venture capital investing and founding director of <a href="https://www.kind-capital.com/home-en">Kind Capital</a>; and Francisco Soares, engineer, community organizer, and founder of management consulting firm, <a href="https://migiude.seefy.co/">SEEFY</a>. They provided valuable insight, gave advice on common challenges, offered tips for building a successful business, and answered questions from audience members.“Events like this are impactful for people connecting in meaningful ways to recognize the challenges of the startup process,” says Jimi Okelana, Moon Design Lead and Orbit events team member. “Through casual conversation, each of the speakers created an environment of motivation and gave insight to navigating the role of a founder. Through Orbit, we are creating a way for Moon to play a more active part in our local startup/venture ecosystem, and this has been a great way to begin that initiative!”<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://vimeo.com/852962612"></oembed></figure>Other Orbit events include Thursday Night Sliders and Moon Talk! For those who have discovered a problem they want to solve, are looking for a startup team to support, or want to learn what they need to make their venture ideas happen, Thursday Night Sliders is an opportunity to both pitch your own idea and see pitches from your peers in the startup community. Each presenter gets five minutes to present five slides describing their project, product, or idea. Thursday Night Sliders is a fun, casual event that offers attendees bite-sized tastes of challenging problems and great ideas.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Copy_of_Thursday_Night_Sliders_Master_v1_3a6cad7a3d.png" alt="Copy of Thursday Night Sliders - Master v1.png">Moon Talk! events are casual talks that provide insightful and valuable information for entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and others interested in startups and innovation. With a different topic for each event, attendees will hear industry leaders and experts discuss subjects such as business strategies, the latest in corporate innovation, stories of startup founders, and deep dives into design and technology.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/ama_photo_d6a4daabe1.png" alt="ama photo.png">Whether you’re interested in innovation, passionate about startups, or want to learn more about creating new businesses, we encourage you to come to an Orbit event and join our community. You never know – you might meet your future co-founders, team members, partners, and customers!<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/en/orbit">Learn more about Orbit here</a>, and be sure to <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1OHQANbcgR9q4ky5Q4M6wMQcxaid">sign up for our newsletter</a> to stay updated on future events from Moon.

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At Moon Creative Lab, we’ve always been focused on unlocking people’s creative potential to create new businesses, and we are always looking for ways to support as many entrepreneurs and startups as we can. And now, with our <a href="https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/501861/moon-creative-lab-expands-venture-programming-to-turn-brilliant-ideas-into-rockstar-businesses">recently announced three new program offerings</a>, we are broadening our reach more than ever!Our new program, <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/boost">Boost</a>, is an incubation program to help startup teams and corporations gain traction for new businesses.&nbsp;Since we were founded in 2018, Moon Creative Lab has been a venture studio for powering the creation of new businesses globally for individuals, teams, and business units within Mitsui &amp; Co. Our new programs will expand our support for Mitsui &amp; Co as well as outside corporations and startup teams that want to incubate their early stage business.&nbsp;&nbsp;Boost Your Early-Stage New Business&nbsp; Our Boost program is an intensive 3-6 month incubation program that will help new businesses build traction and potentially earn $300,000 USD in funding.* Boost focuses on a human-centered approach to new business creation with expertise in user research and testing and prototype creation. By joining our Boost program, participants will receive:<ul><li>Hands-on support and mentorship from our diverse and creative team of global experts in design, engineering, product, marketing, and more.</li><li>Help finding co-founders, team members, or strategic partners.</li><li>Working space at Moon’s Silicon Valley or Tokyo studio.&nbsp;</li><li>Potential collaboration with Mitsui &amp; Co. and its global network.</li><li>Helpful SaaS tools to build your business.&nbsp;</li></ul>&nbsp;Earn Funding After completing the Boost program, participants may compete in Moon’s Demo Day where they can pitch their business to Moon’s Investment Committee to earn $300,000 USD* of seed funding from Moon.&nbsp;The Many Ways We Can Work Together If you, your team, or your company have started working on a new business idea and are looking for additional support in building and testing prototypes with real customers, we’d love to help bring your innovative ideas to life! <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/boost">Head here to learn more and apply for Boost.</a>Haven’t yet started working on that “crazy” idea but want to learn more about new business creation? Check out our hands-on learning program, <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/spark">Spark</a>. And if you’d like to connect with others and become part of our diverse, creative, and fun community, check out <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/orbit">Orbit</a>, our series of in-person events.&nbsp; *Participating startups will be able to pitch for an investment of $300,000 USD on a post-money KISS/J-KISS at a $3M valuation cap – 10% of your company prior to dilution. <a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/boost">Click here for details.</a>

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In Moon Alumni interviews, we hear from entrepreneurs who have worked with Moon Creative Lab on their innovative ideas for new businesses and incubating new startup ventures. This time, we talked with Takayuki Yamanaka, General Manager of Innovation &amp; Corporate Development Div. of Mitsui &amp; Co. India Pvt, Ltd. Mumbai Branch.In this story:<ul><li>Supporting overseas expansion of domestic IP businesses&nbsp;</li><li>Using Twitter to gain traction</li><li>Personal experiences benefit businesses</li></ul><h3>Supporting Overseas Expansion of Domestic IP Businesses</h3>Takayuki Yamanaka has an incredibly diverse background. Since joining Mitsui &amp; Co. in 1999 having a license of registered customs specialist, he has dealt imports/exports and logistics consultations in Logistics Business Unit, was involved in overseas sales and project management for the Iron &amp; Steel Products Business Unit, served as a COO in the Media Division’s affiliate(at that time) TV Channel “Kids Station”, and is currently the General Manager of Innovation &amp; Corporate Development Div. of Mitsui &amp; Co. India Pvt, Ltd. Mumbai Branch, where he focuses on B2B information and communication technology.Takayuki joined Moon in 2021 to work on his venture, Japan IP Studio, an intellectual property platform to support the global development of content produced in Japan. This idea had been on his mind for a very long time, seeing that Takayuki is an avid domestic anime fan and collector owning a library of around 6,000 books in his basement.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/_62843e0378.jpg" alt="山中さん.jpg"> "I wanted to create an environment that would make it easy to match domestic content creators with companies that wanted to showcase their content overseas by making all kinds of IP and creative data related to domestic content searchable,” Takayuki explained.Japan IP Studio would provide domestic content creators with marketing data that would help them determine the value of overseas expansion, while also helping international companies search for Japanese content. By acting as a mediary to handle business and IP between Japan and other countries, Japan IP Studio would have hopefully helped the supply of content meeting overseas demand.According to Takayuki’s research, there were at least 40,000 manga, anime, games, novels, and other types of content in Japan. Though the language barrier was a large challenge, cultural differences in content creation also presented a hurdle. In Japan, content is often created before a marketing strategy is put in place. With global companies, however, art is created to tailor to existing market data. As a result, Takayuki says, foreign companies would often only see popular content, while lesser-known creators remained overlooked.To counterbalance the disparate domains, Takayuki collected data on each piece of content existing in Japan and made it, for the first time ever, searchable. He also managed the information in intricate detail so that other countries could determine if the content fit its cultural background and legal restrictions.Takayuki collected and compiled data on approximately 5,000 pieces of Japanese content into a singular database. With the help of a data scientist, he worked with domestic IP owners and overseas companies to customize the search results. But setbacks with time, resources, and the pandemic slowed the Japan IP Studio project down. "I remember it was like a game of messages. Later, with advice from Moon members, we decided to pivot. At first, we were aiming to develop a matching platform for B2B, collecting data on works and systematically connecting content and companies. But then we realized that it is consumers who support the foundation of the IP business. As a result, we came to the conclusion that we must first understand the fans in each region, such as what fans in the U.S. were looking for, or what fans in Southeast Asia are searching for. It seemed faster to take the data I had in my head on domestic content and link it to international fans. For example, trends in games can be generated from Discord conversations, and content can generate buzz without any marketing. I thought it would be faster for me to create such things by sending out information myself, rather than collecting data and creating a platform.”<h3> Using Twitter To Gain Traction</h3><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/2023_06_29_20_08_43_f466459c96.png" alt="スクリーンショット 2023-06-29 20.08.43.png">Takayuki decided to pivot to a business model using SNS. Japan IP Studio used Twitter to not only communicate with fans to identify and forecast trends, but also used that information to provide planning proposals to Japanese content creators and introduce content to overseas companies.&nbsp;However, building a fan-based business takes time. Though Takayuki was able to gain valuable data by using Twitter, it was difficult to show results in a short time frame. He decided to end his time at Moon after one year.The project was unfortunately terminated, but Takayuki decided to continue the operation on his own. He devoted his personal time to his blog and Twitter, promoting the account at his own expense and continuing to introduce Japanese productions to overseas users in English. Japan IP Studio’s Twitter account now has a following of over 10,000 international anime fans.<h3>Personal Experiences Benefit Businesses</h3>Takayki emphasizes that he learned the importance of personal growth through his research at Moon and his Twitter operation. "I took advice from consultants and actually tried it out, but there were few successful social networking strategies that could be applied directly to what I had heard. I had to try it myself."Takayuki explains further, "If you advertise too much, you are likely to lose followers rapidly afterwards. So, how much is just right?” He says that subtle adjustments to the strategy, like trying to find the right amount of advertising, would have been difficult to understand without actually trying it, and would have been something that no one could teach him.&nbsp;He believes that an individual’s hands-on experience brings the greatest benefits to a business group or organization. "Right now, I'm using my personal time to increase my social influence as much as possible through the Japan IP Studio account… I think it is better for individuals to first gain experience and then apply it to their own business where it will be mutually beneficial. That alone has the potential to create great synergy."Takayuki, who also holds an MBA from the University of Wales and a PLD (Program for Leadership Development) from Harvard Business School, shares that creating connections, such as the personal ties of alumni, can also help build business. "Harvard Business School has an alumni association called HBS Alumni. Everyone has left for their own paths, but the concept of alumni is to loosely unite them… in five or ten years, if the internal entrepreneurs at Mitsui and Moon can create synergies within their networks, the relationship between them should be a great asset.”&nbsp;He explains the necessity of networking, sharing information, and receiving feedback in order to make a business successful, and how a collaborative environment is beneficial for innovation. “It is similar to checking out of a hotel. ‘How was your stay? Please let us know if there is anything we can improve on, and please come back and have a nice trip!’ I think Moon is playing an important role in promoting such an environment within the Mitsui &amp; Co. group.”&nbsp;Learn more about Japan IP Studio on their&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Japan_IP_Studio">Twitter account</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://japanipstudio.hatenablog.com/">blog</a>. Alumni Interview<ul><li><a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/interview-hiraoka">"Experiment Fast and Take Control" Anna Hiraoka</a></li><li><a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/interview-tatsumi">"Be the target user" Yoshinori Tatsumi</a>&nbsp;</li></ul>

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I’m excited to announce the biggest change we’ve made at Moon Creative Lab. Today, we’re launching three new Moon programs –&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/en/spark">Spark</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/en/boost">Boost</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/en/orbit">Orbit</a> – that will help organizations and startup teams unlock their creative potential to start new businesses.&nbsp;Since Moon was founded in 2018, we have been working closely with Mitsui &amp; Co. to transform our people and businesses globally. We hosted eight pitch events (in person and online), supported 150+ idea owners, and launched 10 successful ventures into the market – among many other achievements – and I’m so proud of the work we have accomplished together over the past five years.With today’s announcement, we’re enhancing our support for Mitsui &amp; Co. employees while broadening our reach to individuals, startups, and corporations outside the company, which will expand our community to make an even bigger impact through brilliant ideas and entrepreneurship.<h3>Why now?&nbsp;</h3>I often spend my time thinking about how to make a greater impact at Moon through books, in-depth conversations, and listening to thought leaders’ personal experiences and stories. One quote in particular that has stood out to me through and through comes from the wise Mark Twain, which reads, “Name the greatest of all the inventors. Accident.”&nbsp;Within our two studios, I’ve witnessed accidental connections blossom into meaningful conversations and even deeper collaborations, all of which happens not by design, but by happenstance. The effects we have on our expanded network of entrepreneurs, founders, and creatives have been an outcome of the environment we’ve created and the impact of our activities.Of course, we always start with a general course of action for every individual. But as every entrepreneur knows, the road to success is never straight or narrow, and there will be many detours along the way. These detours just might end up being better than the main thoroughfare. In fact, they might be the best road of all: happy accidents that lead to successful business outcomes.&nbsp;<h3>Nurturing more happy accidents&nbsp;</h3>Our new program offerings invite individuals to work in a unique environment with people from different backgrounds, careers, industries, cultures, and passions to work, learn, and transform – together. Mitsui &amp; Co. employees, anyone curious about entrepreneurship, employees from outside corporations, and first-time founders are invited to leverage Moon’s resources through our new Spark, Boost, and Orbit experiences.&nbsp;Our Moon programs are for anyone who would like to:<ul><li>Learn about human-centered new business creation.</li><li>Build new businesses with a diverse and creative team of global experts in design, engineering, product, marketing, and more.</li><li>Find co-founders and build a team.</li><li>Find potential joint venture partners to accelerate and scale their business.</li><li>Potential collaboration with Mitsui &amp; Co. and its global network.</li><li>Earn $300,000 USD in funding to scale early-stage startups quickly.</li></ul>Beyond expanding our efforts to create an even bigger impact, I am most excited about watching the transformation of people and businesses that will take place at Moon. You never know what happy accident at Moon might lead to the next greatest invention.&nbsp;Kaichi Yokoyama President &amp; CEO of Moon Creative Lab&nbsp;&nbsp;

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<a href="https://www.lullabysleepbaby.com/">Lullaby</a>, a personalized sleep training service and platform for parents and their newborns, has collaborated with industry leader Pigeon Corporation launching a new service together that provides individual online consultations for breastfeeding, diet, and childcare.&nbsp;<h3>Key Learnings</h3><ul><li>Lullaby enhances their app with new consultation service</li><li>Meet the consultants&nbsp;</li><li>Research reveals mothers’ top 3 concerns&nbsp;</li><li>Hearing from the consultants</li></ul><hr><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image3_c4541eac51.png" alt="lullaby_pigeon_image3.png"></figure><h3>Lullaby enhances their app with new consultation service &nbsp;</h3>As Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultants1 and under the supervision of doctors, Lullaby provides the latest research on baby sleep health and information tailored to parents in Japan. In addition to its existing infant sleep training service, Lullaby has recently launched a new range of consultation services for parents, including breastfeeding, weaning, and childcare.Through a partnership with Pigeon Corporation, which focuses on creating a more baby-friendly world through its products and services, Lullaby is able to offer more consultation services than ever before. By having access to industry experts such as midwives, nutritionists, weaning/infant food advisors, childcare professionals, speech therapists, physical therapists, teachers, and many others, new parents are able to get the guidance and resources they need throughout their parenthood journey.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h4>&nbsp;</h4><h3>Meet the consultants&nbsp; &nbsp;</h3>Fujiko: nursery teacher Childcare consultation services for mothers and caregivers by a childcare professional, including advice on how to interact with and talk to children to promote their physical and mental development.Momo Mommy: nutrition Consultation on baby and toddler food, including how to prepare easy and healthy food for your child.&nbsp;Hana: midwife from Kaneko Midwifery Clinic Provides help with breastfeeding and weaning.Kaori: Montessori educator and nursery teacher Offers guidance on childcare for children up to 3 years old.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h4>&nbsp;</h4><h3 style="text-align:justify;">Research reveals mothers’ top 3 concerns &nbsp;</h3><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/image1_851d1bee06.png" alt="image1.png"></figure>After surveying mothers of children who are 0-11 months old, the team learned that the top three concerns for new mothers are breastfeeding, sleep, and baby food.2 Though these things are all normal for new moms, concerns could be about their baby not taking to breastfeeding, not sleeping through the night, having allergies, or being introduced to new foods at the right time.Additionally, interviews with Lullaby app users3 revealed that the ideas about breastfeeding, sleep, and baby food differ from family to family and are difficult to discuss with others, thus creating a need for more individualized consultations with specialists. &nbsp;<h3>Hearing from the consultants &nbsp;</h3>To choose their consultants, Lullaby worked with Pigeon to conduct a series of monitor tests where users were able to consult with area experts. &nbsp;Consultation topic: dealing with the “terrible twos” Consultant: Fujiko, nursery teacherUser feedback: “I was able to talk with her in a very friendly atmosphere and relaxed my shoulders about how to deal with the early stages. It was helpful that she gave me ideas on how to deal with my child and ideas to ease my way of thinking. It was very easy to talk to her! I was impressed with the idea of making food a fun event. I was also impressed by what she said when I told her that my daughter sometimes doesn't eat and I worry about whether she is getting enough nutrition.”&nbsp;Consultation topic: Montessori education Consultant: Kaori, Montessori teacherUser feedback: “I hated myself for getting angry and frustrated when I was working with children, but I was relieved when [Kaori] said that it is difficult unless I know why the child is behaving the way he or she is. She told me why my child was acting the way he was, what he was interested in by age, and not only that, she told me about my son's actual behavior. Just knowing how I should treat my son in these situations and what he is interested in at this time has made me less frustrated than before, and I have learned to be calm with my son and allow him more time for his behavior. As for playing at home, there are many items that can be found at 100-yen stores, and I can quickly incorporate them into my home, so I feel that I am able to spend more time at home on holidays and rainy days, and I feel more fulfilled.”&nbsp;Consultation topic: how to play with children as they grow Consultant: Kanako, physical therapistUser feedback: “First of all, I am surprised and grateful that the process from application to individual consultation went so quickly and that I was able to discuss my concerns right away. In my case, my concern was about my child turning over. In child-rearing books, it is written only that ‘it is time for the child to be able to turn over,’ etc. I did not understand how the child's body works to turn over, and was puzzled as to why the child did not turn over very often. This time, I learned a lot by learning in detail about the causes of not turning over and the mechanism of turning over. First, she praised me for what my child was doing, and then told me what I was not doing or what I was missing, so I could easily accept her advice. Also, Kanako taught us by using her body, so it was easy to visualize what she was doing.” &nbsp;For more information about Lullaby, visit their <a href="https://www.lullabysleepbaby.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/lullaby_nenne">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lullabysleepbaby/">Instagram</a>.You can download the Lullaby app via <a href="https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/lullaby-%E4%B9%B3%E5%B9%BC%E5%85%90%E3%81%AE%E5%AF%9D%E3%81%8B%E3%81%97%E3%81%A4%E3%81%91%E3%82%B5%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%82%A2%E3%83%97%E3%83%AA/id1541996755?shortlink=c40c4a7&amp;pid=Official_site&amp;c=Official%20Site_LP&amp;is_retargeting=true&amp;af_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.apple.com%2Fjp%2Fapp%2Flullaby-%25E4%25B9%25B3%25E5%25B9%25BC%25E5%2585%2590%25E3%2581%25AE%25E5%25AF%259D%25E3%2581%258B%25E3%2581%2597%25E3%2581%25A4%25E3%2581%2591%25E3%2582%25B5%25E3%2583%259D%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2583%2588%25E3%2582%25A2%25E3%2583%2597%25E3%2583%25AA%2Fid1541996755">iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lullabysleepbaby.app">Android</a>. &nbsp;Sources 1. Certified by the Consultant of Infant Sleep Association (CISA) 2. Pigeon research (conducted in May 2022, web-based survey, 500 mothers with first child aged 0-11 months) 3. Lullaby app user interviews (conducted from January to February 2023, interviewed about 50 people) &nbsp;

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Books as an Experience: How Author Narration Drives Listener Engagement

Don’t Sleep on Sleep Training! Lullaby Teaches the Importance of Infant Sleep Health

Seeing Language: How GORIL Helps Visualize Pronunciation for English Learners

Celebrating Our Queer Community Through Art, Voguing, and Coming Out of the Shadows

Lullaby: Helping Parents Find More Balance in Their Busy Lives

Widening Our Orbit: A New Series of Events for Tokyo’s Growing Startup Community

Starting a New Business? Moon Can Give You the Boost You Need!

Hands-On: How an Entrepreneur’s Experience Helps Build Better Business

Expanding Our Reach: A Message From Our CEO

Parental Guidance Advised: Lullaby Launches New Services With Pigeon

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Moon Opens Doors to Palo Alto Startup Community

What Does Artificial Life Reveal About Us?

The Optimal Solution Between Remote and Office: Who Chooses Where To Work

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About Moon

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Moon Stories Blog - Page 2

Books as an Experience: How Author Narration Drives Listener Engagement

Don’t Sleep on Sleep Training! Lullaby Teaches the Importance of Infant Sleep Health

Seeing Language: How GORIL Helps Visualize Pronunciation for English Learners

Celebrating Our Queer Community Through Art, Voguing, and Coming Out of the Shadows

Lullaby: Helping Parents Find More Balance in Their Busy Lives

Widening Our Orbit: A New Series of Events for Tokyo’s Growing Startup Community

Starting a New Business? Moon Can Give You the Boost You Need!

Hands-On: How an Entrepreneur’s Experience Helps Build Better Business

Expanding Our Reach: A Message From Our CEO

Parental Guidance Advised: Lullaby Launches New Services With Pigeon

In The News

Moon Opens Doors to Palo Alto Startup Community

What Does Artificial Life Reveal About Us?

The Optimal Solution Between Remote and Office: Who Chooses Where To Work

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