Interview with Rika Nakazawa - On showing up prepared and being committed to a vision

Accomplished tech leader, VC investor, and best-selling author, Rika Nakazawa coordinates co-innovation practices for emerging technologies, including 5G, Edge Computing, AI, and IoT, through her role of Group Vice President in NTT's New Ventures & Innovation team. 

Having led Sustainability for Americas at NTT, along with her impressive recognitions in the tech world, paints a picture of her commitment to driving innovation and sustainability, which is why we are so grateful that she joined us at Bulgaria Innovation Hub as a board member.

Trilingual in Japanese, German, and English, she grew up in Japan and moved to the US to go to Princeton. Since then, she’s had a variety of international senior executives roles in strategy, business development, consulting, and marketing with Fortune 500 companies - Accenture, NVIDIA, Capgemini, Sony - and Silicon Valley startups. 

What attracted you to the tech industry and how has your journey been so far? 

I was a big STEM kid in school, and I suppose I've always had passion for where innovation, engineering and new ideas converge, and the role that that convergence plays in commercial and sustainable development.and understanding the foundations of elements that can connect in different ways. 

Had I had the relevant guidance and role models, I likely would have pursued a degree in Engineering or Computer Science, but fortunately, my first job post university was the interactive division within Sony Pictures Entertainment in LA. There was a lot of very public exposure on how challenging Sony’s acquisition of Columbia Tristar was at the time and so my journey into technology started with my realization that perhaps I might pursue some sort of intersection between Japan and the West around business. Because I was born and raised in Japan,and with my mother German, and attended an international school in Tokyo - multiculturalism is in my DNA.  And when I pursued the opportunity to work at Sony, I ended up joining a group of innovators that were leading the charge in leverage early days of commercial internet and how it was going to disrupt and transform the entertainment business. 

I was engaged in a lot of early website development, I learned to code in HTML, I started to learn about the ways that we could leverage this new platform to advance some of the business and new opportunities to engage audiences and target markets through the Internet. 

Fortunately all this meant that through a confluence of luck, opportunity and grit - I ended up in advanced technology from the beginning of my career. Throughout, I've been able to pursue a career that has stayed within the realms of innovation and tech, and the way that it would disrupt key industries, which opened up remarkable new ways to think about how to commit to a vision, advance business and strategically align different global communities around that. 

From Sony, I got into the world of mobile at Accenture for a few years. After that I joined Nvidia in the early days and learned about GPU processing, spatial computing and went into services business with the design thinking agency Frog Design that got acquired by Capgemini. Currently I am at NTT, one of the leading technology solutions and managed services providers in the world, with origins in the Japanese telecommunications industry. So it's come full circle in many ways.

How did you first get in contact with BIH, and what motivated you to join its mission? 

I became engaged with the BIH through Pavlina, through a community of innovators when I was living in San Francisco. I was hugely impressed by how articulate, how smart and how vibrant she is and by her vision - and her commitment to it.  

I knew Pavlina even before she started the BIH, so when she started it I thought that what she was doing was incredibly bold, and brilliant, in the sense that I do believe that Eastern Europe, and countries within the region have a tremendous opportunity to leverage some of the paths that have been paved in Silicon Valley and to be able to  bring some of that to the innovators and entrepreneurs, and the VC ecosystem in CEE. 

From a dimensional perspective of bringing learnings from Silicon Valley to Bulgaria, to figure out how to foster and increase the chances of success of those entrepreneurs in Bulgaria by exposing them to the Silicon Valley ecosystem is a strategic vision. 

Pavlina was able to bring together such an incredible group of other mentors and subject matter experts and leaders that will be able to come in and bolster the program. I've been a big fan all along of how much her mission is embedded in integrity, impact, and fundamentally about how to create possible unicorns from BIH. But really, that's all part of amplifying the bigger ecosystem. I know her passion for the intersectionality between Bulgaria and the West. 

Pavlina was living in Silicon Valley, like myself, at a really interesting time where so much was catalyzed by the ability to think about starting businesses leveraging entirely new paradigm around Lean and Agile startups. And when she asked me to join the Board, I didn't even think, it was just an obvious yes. 

Bridging investment in entrepreneurship between Japan and the US offers you a unique perspective on the tech ecosystem. How would you compare Japan and CEE, or what learnings or insights can you share about similarities and differences or any relations between the two?

I think that both Japan and Bulgaria share the common ground of not being as mature yet around the intersection of technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and VC funding. Well, you could say that about any country. I lived in Silicon Valley for 17 years, so it's really hard to think about anybody being as advanced as Silicon Valley.   Silicon Valley IS the mold that was broken around this innovation ecosystem.

I will say that, in contrast, Bulgaria and the Central European landscape are probably further along in terms of fostering a community of engineers and software programmers. I think Japan has been making leaps and bounds around that; but when it comes to software and engineering, the trend that developed with Silicon Valley companies and some of the diaspora moving to Silicon Valley and then going back to their hometowns to source engineering talent is marked difference from how Japanese innovators have been progressing through their lifecycle of transformation.

What makes CEE interesting to investors?

There are some key ingredients - first of all, some of the exits that have been happening over the past few years in the region of unicorns. The early successes have fostered more opportunities in the region, which becomes a flywheel effect. One of the dynamics in Silicon Valley that's been demonstrated is the Fear Of Missing Out - people don't want to miss out on ways on success stories, on exits, on opportunities to generate or create personal wealth and revenue. The early successes have done that, effecting a FOMO dynamic. 

As I mentioned earlier, the Central European region has become a known outsource community for engineering talent from the big tech companies in the US, and the number one point of interest is that early successes breed future successes.

And I think the pandemic also significantly accelerated the norms of how you can be distributed in remote teams working together. The fact that you don't have to be in the same physical location has hugely benefited how the venture and entrepreneurship ecosystem can continue to grow through virtual teams instead of everybody having to be from the same place. 

Having been to the CEE myself, English is such a critical language, especially when you're dealing with cross cultural and cross regional collaboration or opportunities. And so the mastery of English is also obviously extremely helpful. 

Pockets of communities, everybody working on fostering dynamism and cross collaboration, is also very attractive for how investors come in. It’s also relevant to setting up the ecosystem to succeed in many ways, because it's not about the ideas - which, as they say, are a dime a dozen - it's about the execution of those ideas. This execution has to happen with the right talent coming together with very informed and guided ways for those ventures to flourish and for the investment community to take an active interest. 

And I really want to commend my fellow BIH board members, because they too are examples of the diaspora of former entrepreneurs that have been very successful in cultivating the communities as well. I think the next generation and the youth who are so fully embracing the lifestyle and mindset of innovation, and Lean and Agile, bring new ways of being able to build businesses and communities, which is also a big part of being a point of interest for investors. 

Of course, strategic partnerships can make a huge difference in the evolution of a company. But how feasible is it for startups, especially from emerging markets, to leverage them from an early stage?

It's all about relationships and connections. If you have somebody on your board that is on is on the board of an enterprise, and they go and say: ‘Hey, I've identified a really promising startup and like their idea, I think what they have is really complementary to the innovation that we're trying to drive, we should work with them.’, that's going to carry a great deal of weight. So you just need to be smart about the connections, and ultimately, you can't go in and say: ‘We have something really amazing tech. You should say ‘We've uncovered a new way of doing this’, or ‘We’ve uncovered a new paradigm for that industry’. You have to be strategic about it, instead of just reaching out wherever. 

What recommendations do you have for founders who choose to be part of the BIH accelerator?

Do your due diligence in terms of understanding what the process requires of you when joining the accelerator. It's like joining a gym - just because you sign  up for membership doesn't mean you're going to automagically achieve your goals, it really is up to you to show up, put the effort in, and commit to the vision of your goals.

So know what it is that you're getting into and the kind of work that's going to be involved, and know that the smart investment of your time and your energy is going to yield tremendous outcomes. 

Like an athlete training for the Olympics, come prepared with how you can fully exploit the experience in the program. Because BIH isn't just the end destination. It’s going to be the training ground that gets you to the next level. And there are levels beyond that, but once you’re ready, take the step boldly.  There is a saying in Zen Buddhism in Japan - “Leap, and the net will appear”. Take that leap! 

The possibility for Bulgaria Innovation Hub to achieve these milestones is achieved with the support of America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF) - an independent, nonpartisan, and nonpolitical American grant-making foundation working in partnership with Bulgarians to strengthen the country’s private sector and related democratic institutions. For more information, please visit: https://us4bg.org/