Most recently, I interned with Mercor on the Strategic Projects team, managing experts and delivering high-quality training data to frontier labs.
Previously, I did product and sales at Givefront (YC W24), worked in venture capital in Tokyo, and built a C2C marketplace for Recruit Holdings (Parent Company of Indeed & Glassdoor)
I'm a senior at Minerva University, a startup university funded by Benchmark back in 2012, where I study CS and traveled 7 countries during my undergrad years.
In my free time, I like to build evals, learn about new companies, watch sports from F1/NBA/NFL, and go for a run.
Writing
- Shizuku AI
When we think about the application layer of LLMs, it is easy to think of practical vertical use cases such as software development, legal, or finance, but the top use case of Generative AI is actually in the realm of Therapy and Companionship. The demand for companionship is not new, but the technology behind it has been moving quickly in the last few years. A clear line runs from Twitch to VTubers to AI companions. Each step captured demand the prior format couldn’t reach. Shizuku AI, founded by Akio Kodaira in August 2025 and backed by a16z at a $15M seed at $75M valuation, is aiming to build the next generation of technology through the form of AI VTubers.
- Why Cursor is the OKC Thunder of AI startups
I have been consuming a lot of unrelated content lately, which has surprisingly started to fit together. It started when I revisited Chapter 4 of Poor Charlie’s Almanack, where Charlie Munger breaks down the success of Coca-Cola. Munger argues that people fail to explain Coke’s success because they ignore the fundamentals. He boils it down to creating and maintaining conditioned reflexes. For Coke to dominate, it simply needed to maximize beverage ingestion and minimize the chance that those reflexes would be extinguished by competitors.
- The Japanese VC Scene
This past summer, I interned at KUSABI, an early-stage venture fund in Japan with a unique approach to investing. Unlike many funds in Japan that focus on "base hits" (safe, moderate returns), KUSABI's partners were committed to "home-run" investments, seeking out startups with the potential for huge impact. KUSABI was also structured in a rare way: each of its three GPs was individually responsible for a third of the fund's capital, with no investment committee to approve deals. This structure emphasized an actual "skin in the game" mentality, pushing each GP to take full ownership of their bets, a practice not common in Japan. These attributes about KUSABI attracted me when I considered which VC to work for...
- Spotting Outliers In Social Settings
One time, at a Google Startup Pitch event in Seoul, South Korea, I saw this huge, hulk-like guy smothering down some Pizza. In an event where everyone had the investor, founder, or student name tag, he had nothing on. He definitely piqued my interest, so I approached him and started a conversation. After some basic introductions, he asked me, “Are those students over there your friends?” Me: “Yes, we’re all Business Majors and come from this interesting university that travels the world.” CEO: “Wow, you’re the first person to talk to me all day, why did you want to talk to me?” Me: “You just seemed like the most interesting person in the room.” At this point, I didn’t really know what to say, but it was true,...
- Becoming The Captain Of A Ship at 15
A Japanese/Vietnamese Student In the foreign waters of New Zealand, Captaining a ship of 40 valuable lives. And yes, I was in charge of Sailing this ginormous ship for 2880 minutes.