Tin Men Founders School: Exploring Japan for B2B Tech Startups
Event Overview
Is Japan the right next step for your B2B tech startup?
Japan is a complex but promising market, with growing demand for digital solutions and real opportunity for Southeast Asia’s B2B founders. But breaking in takes more than interest. It requires local context, trusted relationships, and a deliberate go-to-market approach.
This founder-focused session is designed to help B2B tech startups evaluate Japan as a potential market — whether you’re just starting to explore the idea or already fielding interest from Japanese partners.
The session brings together:
Experienced operators with on-the-ground insight across Japan
Key Japan startup ecosystem enablers based in Singapore who work with founders navigating expansion
Fellow B2B founders exploring or entering Japan, for candid, peer-level sharing
You should attend if you’re a B2B tech founder or operator who’s:
Still figuring out if Japan makes sense for your business
Seeing early signs of traction or interest from Japan
Already exploring Japan and looking to sharpen your approach
Expect insights on:
What makes Japan attractive — and where startups often get it wrong
How to sense-check demand and validate fit before committing
How to build trust with Japanese corporates and partners
Talent, hiring, and team-building considerations unique to the market
Who You'll Hear From
Mabel Fu
Mabel is the Regional Director of Innovation & Product Strategy for Asia at Start2 Group (formerly German Entrepreneurship), where she has supported over 200 startups in their regional expansion.
With deep expertise in Japan and Korea, she helps founders navigate market entry, validate demand, and build the right local networks and GTM strategies.
Her experience spans working with startups, MNCs, and government agencies across Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, and China — giving her sharp insight into scaling across Asia’s most complex and relationship-driven markets.
Naina Verghese
Naina is an experienced business development and partnerships professional, currently serving as Partnerships Manager at Deel, where she drives growth in ASEAN.
Previously, she led market expansion and strategy as part of the executive team at Unravel Carbon and developed go-to-market strategies across APAC at Simon-Kucher & Partners. She holds a degree from the National University of Singapore and has lived across Singapore, India, and the U.S.
👋 Hope to see you there!
About the Organisers
Tin Men Capital
Tin Men Capital is a Singapore-based venture capital firm that's exclusively focused on B2B tech startups operating from South East Asia. It is led by Murli Ravi and Jeremy Tan.
Tin Men Capital has backed companies such as SixSense, Hubble, Globaltix, Zipline, Glife, Manuva and Overdrive.
Having launched fund II, Tin Men Capital are actively investing 2-4 mil USD checks in B2B tech startups in Southeast Asia at the Series A stage.
Event Partners
Deel
Deel helps companies of all sizes on their global expansion - whether you want to hire worldwide without opening legal entities, relocate your team, streamline HR for your global team, or pay all types of workers anywhere with consolidated payroll—and we do it all with full compliance. Deel helps 35k+ companies & 500k+ workers across 150+ countries, including Nike and Open AI.
Hubspot
HubSpot is a leading CRM platform that provides software and support to help businesses grow better. Our platform includes marketing, sales, service, and website management products that start free and scale to meet our customers’ needs at any stage of growth. Today, thousands of customers around the world use our powerful and easy-to-use tools and integrations to attract, engage, and delight customers.
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