Fuminori Gunji

zookeep Head of GTM | Startup mentor | HR Tech entrepreneur | Ex-SoftBank, Ex-Deel | Ex-Startup COO (M&A exit) | Trilingual BizDev expert 🇯🇵🇩🇪🇺🇸

ZooKeepex-Softbank Robotics JapanOex-Open Associates

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---日本語は下記--- Born in Tokyo, molded by Germany, polished in the Netherlands – I’m a trilingual (ENG, GER, JPN) jack-of-all-B2B-tech-trades with 15+ years in the trenches.

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From consulting to project wrangling at Softbank, to wearing the COO and CEO hats at startups trying to make it big, "I've seen it all" (is what people say who haven't). Ever juggled product-market fit anxiety and lead generation nightmares? Fun, right? Now, imagine doubling the stress with transitioning to almost-full-remote work during covid with a couple of covid doubters, while navigating an increasingly impatient board room waiting for revenue explosion to happen while barely given the budget to keep the team together. Joyful times. Complaints? Sure, there's a buffet of those. But when you take a "30,000-foot view" of it all (actually make that looking from the moon), the problems shrink to the size of a dot on the radar. The secret sauce? In hard times look to the less fortunate and feel grateful, in good times look up to admire the ones crushing it and look for inspiration. Be the solution, not the problem. Focus on the Why, master the What, and be flexible with the How – and for heaven's sake, crack a joke now and then. We spend too much time at work to be serious all the time. Tech startups are my favorite playground. It’s about solving puzzles and having a blast doing it. As Peter Drucker might have said: "The question is: how to be useful" (and not a bore). ==== 日本語 ==== 東京生まれ、ドイツ育ち、オランダのマーストリヒト大学卒業。 経営コンサルティング →日系大手企業（ソフトバンクでロボティクス新規事業の国内事業立ち上げと海外展開を担当） →Fintech系の国内スタートアップのCOOとして、日系大手企業へのM&Aを経験。M&A後、COOとして２年間Post-Merger-Integrationや、コロナ禍によるリモートワーク体制への移行フェーズをリードした後に退任。 次に、Backoffice-as-a-Service系スタートアップの立ち上げと後にCEOを務め、PEファームへ事業を売却。 山あり谷ありで、伸び悩むゼロイチのフェーズも、拡大フェーズの成長痛も色々体験させてもらいました。 但し一貫しての姿勢は、コンサル時代の上司に教えてもらった「自分以外は全員顧客か事業パートナーだと思え（社内外問わず）」とPeter Druckerの「The question is how to be useful - 要は、いかに役立つ人になるかだ」を羅針盤に、今社会が必要だと感じている事業に身を投じて自分一人では達成できない、大きなミッションに貢献しようと日々励んでおります。