Taizo Son, a mobile games entrepreneur and brother of one of the world’s most powerful technology investors, Masayoshi Son, is setting up an agri-food tech accelerator in India. The 44-year-old billionaire, who built his fortune as the founder of game-maker GungHo, has set up “Gastrotope,” an accelerator, through his incubator Mistletoe, in collaboration with Indian accelerator GSF and Infobridge. In an interview, Mr. Son said he considers Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang as his role model rather than his brother.At a time when top investors are pouring billions of dollars in e-commerce, Mr.Son said he would invest in agriculture and food technologies in India. Edited excerpts:
What triggered your interest in India?
Last time I visited India was eight years. This is the first time for me to be in Bengaluru.
Of course, there are so many investors interested in investing in India. Maybe I am the last one of the group to come here. But I am very keen in solving food issues. I got some inspiration for updating food supply chain. Thanks to Rajesh Sawhney (founder, GSF India), I could exchange ideas. I felt it is the best time now for me to come here.
You built your fortune as the founder of gaming firm GungHo. What lessons would you like to share about success?
Never give up! It is the most important thing to be successful....we won’t fail. That is a lesson that I learned from my father.
We never give up to make great things. Not only GungHo, in every start-up I am involved I tell my colleagues, never give up and keep on trying creating best things. That is the ultimate lesson.
Failure is a taboo both in India as well as Japan? How do you deal with it?
Failure is a necessary process to make great things. We cannot avoid failure. Most of the people are afraid of failure before trying something new. I think it is some kind of prejudice.
For the young people, I would like to share that failure is a necessary process, you don’t have to worry about it.
You have invested over $100 million of personal wealth in a series of ventures ranging from self-driving cars to health monitoring toilets, what qualities do you see in start-ups?
My criteria to invest or not invest is based on founders. I am not judging the investment based on whether they will become successful or not, but whether they are pursuing important themes. Off course, (besides) having good vision, they need to have real technology solutions to make that happen. Also, whether the founders have a great passion to make it happen is the most important criteria for me to invest. I am sure there are many great young entrepreneurs in India who have that passion, if we find them then we will support them.
But top investors including Masayoshi Son are betting big here on e-commerce. What made you take the alternative path?
My brother and I have a different approach. Of course, we share the ultimate goal. His approach is to find great companies, accelerate them fast and make them bigger at a global scale. My role is finding very new ideas or technologies and we should foster them.
You said you don’t consider Masayoshi Son but Yahoo! Co-founder Jerry Yang as your role model?
It is because of the age difference. When I was a student, he (Mr.Son) had already become a great figure. To make someone role model, you need to be closer in age. That kind of feeling is very important. And Masa was too big, I couldn’t (meet the) benchmark.
You said India would be the centre of innovation?
India is the greatest farming country in the world. But still, it has issues. If we update the new agriculture and food culture utilising the new technology, design and ideas and then, if we could solve some of the issues of the Indian supply chain, I believe those technology ideas could be adapted to the rest of the world. And that is the biggest impact.
You moved from Japan to Singapore for a better start-up culture? How do you view the ecosystem in India?
I met some good Indian entrepreneurs last night. I found they are very passionate and have great talent to create technologies, especially software. So, Indian ecosystem is really great and of course, I am sure way better than Japan. Singapore is different from both the countries, the government is very aggressive and enterprising. It is one of the best places to test new technology. In Japan, there are so many big companies like Sony and Toyota. If we need to utilise very advanced science, then Japan is one of the best places. I am using those (resources) based on my purpose and talking to everybody.