Leading Social Impact Startup - Event Report
On March 21st, 2023, Social Impact Lab Japan (SILJ) hosted a panel discussion featuring four honorable guest speakers who shared their experiences and insights on impact entrepreneurship and community building.
Our first guest speaker was the CEO and Founder of SILJ - Priya Sultan, a global leader in impact entrepreneurship. She shared her journey and insights on how to enable young people to build social enterprises that disrupt markets and create a positive impact on society. Priya also discussed the mission of Social Impact Lab Japan and helped the audience understand more about the importance of social startup support.
The second guest speaker was Mr. Ikuo Kawauchi, SILJ Strategy Advisor, Pimpri Chinchwad University (India) Advisor & SDGs Consultant. He emphasized The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a comprehensive plan of action to eradicate poverty, promote prosperity, and strengthen universal peace while protecting the planet. In order to achieve the 17 goals and 169 targets that aim to achieve sustainable development, collaborative partnerships among all stakeholders are extremely crucial. More importantly, Mr. Kawauchi discussed the role of integrating SDGs into business and the idea of looking at business from different perspectives.
Our third guest speaker was Moe Kaneko, CEO of Omohibito.co.ltd - a company that focuses on giving care to home caregivers. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, she worked as a consultant at Accenture, and later on as a Marketer for The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G). As her father suffered from juvenile Parkinson’s disease and dementia while she was young, she understood the struggle that caregivers had to find support for the ones who were in need. Therefore, one of the biggest motivations to start her own company in the healthcare industry, was to provide a platform with better access to healthcare products, with innovative products and know-how expertise, to create a society where people are not afraid of disability or growing old.
The fourth guest speaker was Teresa Fong, Senior Product Designer at Skydea.co & Creative Tokyo Community Manager. With over 2,900 members, Creative Tokyo has been a supportive portal point for individuals from all walks of life to find and connect with friends of similar interests, as well as seek new career paths for themselves. Fong emphasized the importance of building social impact through connections and identifying the needs of community members to participate actively to help each other grow. For her, social impact means “any significant or positive changes that solve or at least address social injustice and challenges”. One of the important objectives that she focused on, was SDG Goal 8, which is to promote sustainable and inclusive employment opportunities and decent working conditions for all. The mission of Creative Tokyo, she shared, was for people to “make friends, find new work, and learn from the pros…all while having fun and being yourself”.
During the panel discussion facilitated by Ms. Trang Ho, Managing Director at SILJ, the guest speakers reflected on other social problems in Japan and commented on the role of startups in addressing those issues. Challenges faced by social entrepreneurs in Japan were highlighted, such as the lack of access to funding, public awareness, and support. While Kaneko shared her personal experience as a former young carer and discussed her business idea with several insights on the market, Fong addressed the importance of engaging different stakeholders in accelerating the process of community development. The panelists also discussed the challenges faced as a foreign entrepreneur in Japan and the importance of seeking help.
The event was filled with enthusiastic and diverse participants from around Japan and other countries such as America, Singapore, Australia, India, and Vietnam. We were very grateful to Mr. Steve Bidinger from Skai Beauty Inc., Mr. Mitsu Konishi - CEO of Tomotalk Inc., Mr. Ibrahim Orhan CEO & Co-Founder at Kanari Tech, Mr. Erdinc Ekinci, Co-Founder ofOpenfor.co and Co-Director of Founder Institute Tokyo, among many others, for introducing themselves and their compelling startup ideas to our audiences. With 100% of our participants reflecting on their feedback that they would like to rejoin in our future events, we as Social Impact Lab Japan look forward to the future participation of everyone, as well as suturing collaboration and development of the social impact community here in Japan.
