Artificial Intelligence’s broken promise and its secret truth

The promise of AI is easily understood by anyone with an imagination, and for 40 years, venture capitalists have been enthusiastically investing in that promise.

However, it's been significantly harder for founders to turn that investment into sustainable business models. 

Today we are going to look at why that is, and go over what might be a blueprint for startups to create business models around artificial intelligence.

Tatsuo Nakamura founded Valuenex in 2006 with the goal of using artificial intelligence to supplement the work being done by patent attorneys, and their software was instrumental in the resolution of one of Japan's most famous, and most valuable, lawsuits.  the Blue LED patent case.

We also talk about how to sell to large companies as a small startup, the challenges in trying to make product strategy based on technology, why staying private longer is not always a good thing for startups, and how Valuenex technology accidentally discovered a secret collaboration between Honda and Google.

It's a great discussion with the founder of one of Japan's most successful AI companies, and I think you will really enjoy it.


Show Notes

Why AI can understand patents better than lawyers can
Why the market should drive technology rather than the other way around
How Valuenex helped resolve one of the biggest patent lawsuits in Japanese history
How a new law if forcing change in Japanese universities
How Valuenex discovered a secret collaboration between Honda and Google
How to create sustainable business models in AI
Why quantum computing will both break AI and save AI
Why Valuenex IPOed early instead of staying private and growing
Some unusual advice about when to do a market entry
Why Japanese VC often make market entry difficult


Links from the Founder

Everything you wanted to know about Valuenex
Connect with Tatsuo on LinkedIn
Friend hin on Facebook

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Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Today, we're going to be talking about something that's frankly difficult to talk about on an audio podcast. Tatsuo Nakamura founded Valuenex in 2006 to use Artificial Intelligence and modern visualization techniques to help clients make sense of their patent portfolios and to keep an eye on what the competition is doing. In fact, this technology uncovered some of the core evidence that decided the famous blue LED case. It's highly effective but highly visual, so let me try to explain it.

Valuenex creates a kind of topographical map that shows companies where in the market, their IP is strong and where it's weak. This can let them spot new market opportunities or learn what their competition is about to do. It's all pretty intuitive when you see it, but today, we'll have to use our imagination as a kind of screen simulation.

Tatsuo and I also talk about Valuenex's US market entry - well, their two US market entries, actually. We cover what he sees as the best overall strategy for AI startups for them to find their product market fit, and Tatuo explains how he was accidentally able to discover a significant collaboration between two world-famous companies six months before the project was announced.

But you know, Tatsuo tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview.

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Interview
Tim: I'm sitting here with Tatsuo Nakamura, the CEO and founder of Valuenex. So, thanks for sitting down with me.

Tatsuo Nakamura: Thank you very much.

Tim: Now, Valuenex is a leader in visualization and big data analytics and it's so hard to talk about visualizations on an audio podcast.

Tatsuo: Yes.

Tim: But we're going to try. So, what's the best way to explain? What does Valuenex do?

Tatsuo: Valuenex is a predictive analytics compan...