After his mobile marketing software failed to take off in the Silicon Valley, Japanese entrepreneur Takanori Nakamura returned home to Japan in 2015 and concentrated his efforts on his startup.
A fan of reading rags-to-riches stories, Nakamura had decided to become an entrepreneur in high school.
After graduating from Kobe University, he joined the telecommunications behemoth Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. in 1996 but resigned a year later.
In 2000, he incubated the predecessor of Rakus to train engineers to use Linux, the open-source operating system. This business venture spread out into email services and a system that helped to automate data processing.
In 2009, Nakamura launched Rakus' current main business -- a software program that allows workers to create expense reports online. He named it “Raku Raku Seisan”, which means “easy, easy settlement” in English. Later, the company developed its mobile version as well.
Initially, the software did not take off. Not the one to give up, Nakamura sought success in international markets such as Silicon Valley. He also launched software to help firms gauge the effectiveness of their social media marketing.
However, Rakus could not compete with American start-ups with deep pockets. That's when Nakamura realised it would be better if he gave it all in his home country.
As smartphones gained in popularity in Japan, Raku Raku Seisan began to take off. Today, the company says it services 8,000+ corporate customers.
Rakus targets 20,000 firms initially out of an estimated 100,000 small and medium-sized Japanese firms for its expense software.
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown, Rakus targets employees, who are working from home but need to file expense reports online.
The company reported an operating profit of $35.2 million in FY21, more than thrice the profits posted in FY20.
Recalling one of the lessons learnt in Silicon Valley, Nakamura believes that spending more on marketing helps to ensure success in the future. He believes that greater spending leads to an increase in market share.
