Akemi Tsunagawa is the founder & CEO of Bespoke, one of the fastest growing chatbot startups in the travel industry. Prior to Bespoke, Akemi worked at Fidelity Investments, Deloitte, and Macquarie Capital after graduating from UCLA.

I founded “Bespoke” in 2015 to make the product that I’ve always wanted for myself. As a traveler, I’ve always enjoyed discovering little known places rather than major attractions featured in guidebooks. 

Why did you choose to employ Bebot in the travel and hospitality industry?

I followed my passion rather than opportunities first; however, we did get lucky with getting the timing right eventually. We were focused on consumer facing services rather than business to consumer services for the first 6 months. As we conducted many user interviews, we quickly learned that many of our users were frustrated that locals didn’t understand foreign languages to take reservations at those local restaurants or even to answer very simple questions from travelers. 

Michelle Messina is CEO of the international advisory and training firm, Explora International. She is a serial entrepreneur and sold her first company at 19 years old. Today, she is a corporate board member and trains start-ups, investors, and mentors to be more effective, using the best practices of Silicon Valley incorporated in her book ”Decoding Silicon Valley: The Insider’s Guide.” Michelle has worked in more than 50 countries and has heard 5000+ pitches from tech, textiles, food, and services companies.

Born in Hokkaido, after college Ms. Iwasaki has started her career with a travel agency and then as Sales director of an advertising agency.

Original product of "Manara cosmetics" became a hit product with sales exceed 10 billion yen.

For Startup Grind, May Month is focussed on Women leaders. We will be interviewing Junko Masachika, Fashion leader of Japan. 

Junko shift has happened when she moved to Italy when she was 25 years old. She understood how personal styling can impact a individual.

Her Entrepreneurship began in 2001 when she started styling Japanese models/celebrities. Her clients were mainly Wealthy/Politicians

谷本有香 氏（ジャーナリスト）

第二回目の今回は、成功者たちのエッセンスを知り尽くした谷本有香さんにお話を聞く。

プロフィールにもあるとおり、彼女は本当に多くの成功者たちにインタビューしてきた。今回は聞かれる番。

もちろん、話しを聞いてきた著名人たちのことについても聞きたいが、彼女自身のキャリアアップのプロセスにおいて、「彼女が大事にしたこと」「きっかけを作った出会い」「今振り返ってみても、偉かったと思うこと」などについても聞きたいことはたくさん。

Fireside（暖炉脇）でのガールズトークを是非聞きにきてください！

★ Fireside chat（暖炉サイドのおしゃべり）では、いかなる成功者においても一起業家としてお話しします。あなたと同じ立場にいた彼/彼女が、どのように現在地に行き着いたのかを伺います。

★ Startup Grindの月次イベントには必ず【軽食】と【ドリンク】でおもてなしさせていただきます！

After working for various companies for 11 years, in India, UAE and Japan, in 2006 I started my first company, Blue Horse Corporation to trading of food, clothing and electronic products. Thanks to Wealth Dynamics, I could clearly understand my path of least resistance and started enjoying business and life, connected with amazing people through various business network meetings. I co-founded Endeavour Japan to organize events sharing and spread knowledge and now part of Startup Grind Tokyo. I enjoy connecting people, helping, learning and growing together! Linkedin profile. Read my article in the Lead Magazine.