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Hiroshi Mikitani

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

I founded Rakuten in 1997 with an initial capital of $200,000 and never raised money from venture capitalists; instead, I hired young graduates and focused on building the company organically.

Video

Hiroshi Mikitani at Startup School 2012

@ Y Combinator

Hiroshi Mikitani at Startup School 2012

10/25/13

Related Takeaways

Hiroshi Mikitani

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

Rakuten is now the number one e-commerce platform in Japan, holding a 35-40% market share, and we operate in over 13 countries, including acquiring Kobo, a major e-book company.

Tom Preston-Werner

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

At GitHub, we chose to reinvest our profits back into the company to seize the opportunity we had, which is why we raised $100 million.

Katelyn Gleason

05/21/16

@ Y Combinator

I raised 1.6 million and obsessively built the company for three years, achieving 8.4X growth in one year, which led to a position where I didn't need the money when I went to raise again.

Brian Chesky

12/01/15

@ Greylock

By April 2009, we became Ramen profitable, which allowed us to secure a $600,000 investment from Sequoia Capital, marking a significant turning point for Airbnb.

Alfred Lin

07/31/14

@ Y Combinator

Many e-commerce companies raised large sums but failed due to poor customer acquisition strategies, which we aimed to avoid by focusing on profitability.

Olga Vidisheva

02/24/15

@ Y Combinator

I brought on two technical co-founders who started building the website, and while they were working, I decided it was time to fundraise.

Hosain Rahman

10/15/14

@ Y Combinator

When we raised venture capital in 2003, it was one of the only deals that the firm had done at that time, highlighting the challenges of building hardware.

Y Combinator Cast

11/30/21

@ Y Combinator

Google had substantial traction before raising any funds, which enabled its founders to secure favorable terms in their early fundraising rounds.

Hiroshi Mikitani

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

We were patient in the first three years, focusing on creating a strong business model to support small to medium-sized merchants rather than copying models from Amazon or eBay.