In this panel exclusively with me we have a diverse group of individuals all have more than almost two decades of experience in their own fields and that makes them very apt for a panel that wants to talk about creating the billion dollar business with a billion dollar valuation in mind. The panel will talk about four crucial things today centered around funding but the first important point that we are going to be dissecting is how to really build a business of this generation like Mr. Katiaal said that today businesses have to be built with certain expectations in mind. I will first take his comments on how businesses of today are being made and what kind of business vision one needs to build before really creating these businesses of today of digital India. So you know digital is the key word right everybody wants a digital business there can be other businesses and there are people on the panel who do far better businesses than digital businesses but unfortunately you know digital is the darling of the day. You know when we look at at building businesses one of the first things that you know all of you must look within yourself to say that whether you have the passion to do what you want to do. I think it's it's easier to want to do it but if you really have to get down and get your hands dirty what will come between you and and your success will be the quantum of passion you have and that really defines not only the the success of the business but success of you as an individual. What happens sometimes that you have a great idea you have you have passion for some years you kick it off quite well and then you lose the passion the idea becomes really big over the period of time but you don't own the idea any longer because you lost the passion the perseverance and the resilience to stay with it and like you said the top the first thousand users are critical you'll also get to the first hundred thousand and the first million but then the million to ten million to hundred million to that billion journey requires a serious amount of resilience and perseverance. Also I think the the other big deal about all of this is how much you're willing to put yourself into it and how much you're willing to dirty your hands around what you do. We want great funding we want angel funding we want you know series A series B so on and so forth right but the one thing that everybody looks for is your ability to navigate the circumstances yourself right you will you will move from series A to to whatever on only if the investor can see the passion and the commitment that you bring to the table and that comes down to your obsession with your users and your customers I think that in today's world is extremely extremely critical users are very very unforgiving and they have seriously low patience you can be a startup but the user doesn't care right you can you cannot put a scroll over they're saying I'm a startup I'm just starting off please treat me well right unfortunately it doesn't work like that anymore there are too many options there are too many you know multiple choices that users are living with and so your obsession your obsession and use the word obsession with your users will get you somewhere and it also lets you create newer and new white spaces newer and newer use cases because the other thing that happens is that and like in our business in any other business is that if you come up with a great idea it only takes about 12 to 14 to 18 not months but weeks for somebody to do to replicate that and you're back to being equal with everybody else and so your ongoing obsession will keep you far ahead than the other. It's an important point in building businesses when we speak about the passion and this passion can easily be filtered by an angel investor or an investor who's sitting on the other side of the table who like very aptly Mr. Katiyal said that in the cycle of the business the founder or the creator really forgets what the business was being built for it's a long journey of course we understand that but in your view how does a startup or a startup tenure need to look at their business keeping their passion in mind because we hear a lot of jargon around passion but businesses are not built on passion they are built on money and consecutively on customers. I think you have predicted me being staying. No but that's a very valid point because two three points one is passion is needed and passion is needed not just for the idea or the original idea but to actually look at depending on the facts of the day how you need to modify it tune it then continue and relook at the whole passion whole idea again and again and again so the morning I was saying it needs quite a bit of perseverance I completely echo what the two gentlemen have said but I think for me something much before the passion is the compelling vision what is that need which you have what is that problem you're trying to solve what is the need you're trying to fulfill and is it going to be transitory nature or is a long-term need which will not get faded away with time I think to me that's the most important followed by passion absolutely important you got to be mad for that and then also getting a critical mass of a few people who share your aspirations so unless these three things are combined which is the need which you're trying to fulfill followed by the passion and creating that aspiration and a critical team of people critical mass of those people who really set the ball rolling I think that is something very very clear the second part is authenticity there has to be authenticity people do not want anymore to hear only stories and lip service people want authentic leaders I think these are the two things which have to come across very very clearly and then to say what Gulzar is saying don't look at the billion look at the first thousand customers first hundred depending on which industry you are first hundred first thousand first hundred thousand everything else will follow I think the vision right we often hear in journalistic circles investors tell us that well the idea is great but nobody that startups are trying to solve problems that don't exist and that's where the vision comes into picture but how do you make your your vision compelling enough for an investor to believe in it or a global companies it is Google to agree in on the idea mr. Azad I would like your comments on that sure this is very very interesting discussion and I'm hoping you were paying attention to what everyone said here because it's important in you know different aspects of your life so I think the point on passion was made and that's very important the point of differentiating passion and vision was made that's also very important I think there's a question of how do you translate your vision and idea and take it forward so the the one thing that I would like to say there is and and that's where I think the point that Campbell was making on you know having a vision is to be able to separate your your interests or things that you would love to do from the things that is needed to be done right and even even when you come up with an idea I think the most important thing is to think about what you can do the doing part is the most important part of it is you know there are things that I would say I would rather go on the go on a different note and say there are things that you should not do like for example I said don't focus on the whole billion dollar thing don't focus on even on investing like this whole thing about you know you have to get angel funded and you have to get series a and series b you will soon understand when you get to the market actually that's also all staged you know there is an entire ecosystem that actually wants you to believe that is all required actually if you at the beginning at the beginning of your journey of an impactful journey if you bring everything down to just one and that one P is not pricing is not promotion is not positioning is not marketing is not how you communicate is actually product if in in a word in and this is a different world right from the one that used to exist you know few decades back this is the world of technological movement this is a world of technology transformation of everybody having access to technology and resources I think in that world you have to think about you know bringing it down to that single B and you know of course if your idea applies to a service you know it stands for the service but you bring it down to the product and everything else will follow and you know whether you're creating that product as I said you know for some first thousand users or first hundred thousand users you know this was actually a very interesting conversation that happened in the early days between Google and you know I think Samiran will help me with that who's the person who invented the four-piece gotler was there in one of the conferences and actually a Google person who was a early-day product person walked up to me and said that you are flawed in your police by this discarding every other being and getting to the product it did not worry about positioning and that is why it was able to reinvent its industry it did not worry about packaging or pricing that's why pricing and investments and dollars followed Google's products not other way around and and I have come for India and start thinking differently from what our books are telling us and start thinking differently from the late from the already existing models and think about the product because now we have enough technology innovation to think


Welcome back to my channel, my name is Megan if you are new here. Today we're going to be chatting about the most exciting murder mysteries that have already come out or are going to come out in 2022. So I noticed that in terms of what people are searching for when they find my channel, a lot of it's murder mysteries and obviously murder mysteries are my favourite genre. I'm very picky with them, I've only given probably 9 murder mysteries 5 stars but I love reading them. So I thought I would do a definitive list not just of my most anticipated releases which I've already done 2 videos of but of the murder mysteries coming out this year that I'm most excited for that I think you should be most excited for because I think when you google this really pisses me off but when you google maybe like murder mystery new releases it comes out with thriller and mystery lists right? So not only are you getting thrillers and mysteries but the mysteries you get aren't necessarily murder mysteries which is what I want. So I thought this would be of help to people trying to find modern murder mysteries coming out and giving recommendations. Some of these I've already read, some of them I haven't read but we're going to tell about all of them. If you're new here make sure you subscribe to my channel for lots more murder mystery content and let's just get straight into it. I'm going to go in order of UK publication. First is one that I just read and that is A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle. So I did a video on a cruise reading murder mysteries set on a cruise and it was a lot of fun I really enjoyed the reading experience of reading this on the ship and seeing all the references and callbacks and stuff. I ended up giving this three stars which I think is perhaps a bit harsh maybe it was more of a 3.5. I'm just very picky with murder mysteries and I feel like I'm becoming increasingly picky. It's getting worse, it's not getting better. So this is set in 1924 a murder happens and a detective from London and a ship's officer are kind of investigating it together. It becomes very drawn up in the art world there's a lot of people on board who are related to the art world in some way and I really enjoyed the start of this but I felt like the book just didn't go as many places I wish it would go. I want my murder mysteries to have red herrings to have twists and turns and this was kind of just a linear storyline. It is a debut though and so I think that it was a good debut and I would read from this author in the future. If you're looking for a murder mystery with an isolated setting with a bit of a unique setting I would 100% recommend this. It's historical like I said and I think the writing was good. I think I'm just very picky and this didn't have enough happenings to keep me interested right. It follows a similar format to Murder on the Orient Express where it's just a lot of interviews, it's a lot of our characters meeting this person and talking to them, meeting this person and talking to them but I didn't feel like the characters were distinct enough like in Murder on the Orient Express I feel like you have lots of different characters who are very distinct in their personalities and their backstories. All of the characters in this were kind of the same they were just rich white people in the art world. Do you know what I mean? So they kind of bled into one another and I didn't feel like it was done as well as Agatha Christie but then like who who does do it as well. Then we have The Maid by Nita Pros. This was a super anticipated release for me. I love the cover of it so much. I was so excited for like you know a murder mystery that was pretty prominent a lot of people pushing it. I gave this four stars so we're following Molly who's a maid at this hotel and this is a kind of a floor of the book. It's coded as neurodivergent but never explicitly stated as such but she kind of struggles with social norms and social etiquette but she's a very lovely person and has some really good friends at the hotel but anyway a murder happens at the hotel and she is essentially framed for it. She's suspected for it and it's her and some of her friends trying to solve what has actually happened. I liked the writing in this. I thought it was very very charming. It's smacked of like someone who knew what they were doing right. Oh my god. I thought this was a classy party. So Nita Pros is an editor. She's previously been a book editor. She's Ruth Ware's book editor and I could see some similarities and how I liked the writing and how I liked the plot and how I liked the pacing. It wasn't perfect but it definitely felt like someone who had a bit of authority and wasn't just another debut you know I mean they have a bit of experience in the field. It had moments of wit, it had moments of lightness, of kind of cosy elements to it but I felt like it was pretty obvious what was going on the whole time but it was still an enjoyable read so I gave it four stars. It wasn't what I was hoping it would be but I still enjoyed it. This one is definitely pitched and advertised as a matter of mystery. It's one of those ones where murders don't happen more towards the end but I will count it as one and that is Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. I tell you I've never read a book this fast. I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of four stars but it was such a quick read. Such a speedy read. It's like 300 pages I think? Yeah just about 300 pages and I flew through it. I was reading like 120 pages an hour or something which I never really do. So in this we're following these group of characters who are going to this island to kind of holiday there together. They're very obviously cut off from civilization. Relationships start to fracture and then one person goes missing and another one turns up dead. That's not till kind of towards the end of the book but it is in the synopsis so I feel like it's okay to say because I knew it going in that that was going to happen that's part of the suspense I think. It's pitched and then there were none retelling. I don't think it really is and then there were none retelling which I prefer because I don't really like and then there were none. People love to compare books and then there were none but not deliver but I thought the tropical setting and this was really fun. We had some really interesting character backstories throughout the book. We had kind of flashbacks to the character backstories by family and equally interesting. The build intention of them being isolated, cut off from civilization was really interesting. So I'm definitely going to read more Rachel Hawkins in the future. She's got one coming out I think another murder mystery. Oh my god is it The Villa? I think it's The Villa. I think it's called The Villa. Very similar cover. I'm liking the reach she's going down so I'm definitely going to pick it up. I think that comes out in January of next year. Then we have one that I don't actually own but I'm so excited. I really hope I'm going to get to it and get it soon and it's the Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart. So this is a very exciting one because it's a sci-fi murder mystery. So it's set at this hotel where you go there to time travel right? It's kind of like a stepping stone to time travel and we have this like I think she's a manager of the hotel and she's kind of in charge of all these different time streams and then a body turns up dead in one of the rooms but only she can see it and it's like glitching in and out of time and it just sounds so interesting. Also there's something to do with like the American government coming to the hotel because they want to privatize time travel. It just sounds really really interesting. A very interesting take on murder mysteries. I've heard really good things about it. I do like murder mysteries that bring something new to the table and I feel like this is like a body the only she can see that's glitching in and out of time is such an interesting idea. I love that. Then we have one I feel like I don't know if this technically is a murder mystery because again it's one I haven't read but it is Nine Lives by Peter Swanson.  So I would class this as a murder mystery. It's probably through a murder mystery but I still think it is one. Peter Swanson I always put his books on my most anticipated books of the year because the premises, premises, premise, sorry. Always sound great. I'm always really excited to get to them and then they get shit reviews but I think I still want to get to this. I want to try Peter Swanson out. Then we have another one that I've read. I think this is the only one I've read so far that I've given five stars and that is The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. I just have a soft spot for Lucy Foley and I'm not about to apologize for it. This one is a bit of a iffy murder mystery again. We're following this girl who goes to see her brother in his Paris apartment when she gets there her brother is missing. So it's kind of a missing, passing mystery but I would say throughout the book there's a strong possibility that he's dead. You're trying to figure out is he alive? Is he dead? What's happening? Has he gone missing? Has he been killed? So I would say it is still a murder mystery. She's staying in his Paris apartment while trying to figure this out and there's all these kind of characters in the apartment. We have the socialite, the nice guy, the alcoholic, the girl on the verge, the concierge. So something that I think is very strong about Lucy Foley's books that I love is she always has about five or six characters in the kind of suspect list that you can suspect and I think that just works so well because it's not too big a cast. So say the guest list, right, for example which was her other book, it's set on this island where the wedding is happening. So there's like a hundred, I don't know, 150 people maybe at this wedding but you know that the suspect is going to be one of our characters and that's like that's something you always really know Lucy Foley. The suspect is going to be one of your main characters and they always have kind of an archetype. It's like you're playing Cluedo. Lucy Foley really makes me feel like I'm playing Cluedo or like you know this game where like you have these suspicious archetypal characters. That's something Agatha Christie I think did really well in books like Death of the Nile and Murder on the Yorn Express. You kind of have all these characters with different personalized traits that's very identifiable. I think there's some really good twists in this. There's a twist in this particularly around the halfway mark that literally had me gagged. I was sitting there like gag-a-trandra. I really really enjoyed it. Now not everyone loves Lucy Foley but that's okay. I'm pretty sure all of Lucy Foley's books I'm now going to give five stars but let it be known I gave the Hunting Party two stars. I didn't like it but the guest list and the Paris apartment I just love it. I love her ideas and she's one of my favorite authors I would say but she still needs to get another five star before she can be officially classed as a favorite author. She's not officially classed as one. Next we have Like a Sister by Kelly Garrett. This is one where a black reality TV star is found dead the day after her birthday in a playground in the Bronx. The police class it as an accidental overdose but her sister knows that that is not the case. She knows that that wouldn't have happened to her sister. This just looks really really fun. Again it's a short 300 page murder mystery with a you know modern twist to it set in New York. Sorry by the way if you can hear drilling outside. Someone's drilling and I tried waiting but he hasn't stopped so he was very rude. Weren't you? I've really been doing murder mysteries with like a familial twist as well so I think I'm really going to enjoy this when I get around to it. Next we have one I've put it here because it's already out in the US but it doesn't come out in the UK till September actually but I've put it here because it technically is already out in the world and I think you can kind of get the e-book if you want it in the UK and that is Woman in the Library. I have heard so many good things about this particularly from Mara from Books Like Woe who's my resident murder mystery recommender. This is by Solari Gentil and I think it's a book within a book. I think it's about a murder mystery writer writing this story set at the Boston Public Library. A screamer's heard the guards rush off to find that the woman has died and these four strangers who are sitting at a table together are stuck there whilst this investigation goes on but one of them is the murderer so the kind of mystery is how has one of them been the murderer whilst not leaving the table. Very very interesting. I've heard so many good things about this. I think it's going to be quite a complex murder mystery but I'm really excited to get to this in September and I do love the US cover but I really like the UK cover as well. Sometimes when I love the US cover so much I feel so unlucky that I can't get it but I actually really like the UK cover and I think I'll probably just stick with getting that. Then we have Murder Before Even Song by Reverend Richard Coles. He is a famous reverend here in the UK. It's very similar I think to Richard Osman writing his book. I think that's kind of why this has come into existence but I'm not going to complain. It's following a vicar I believe in his kind of small English quaint town. One of the members of the church is found dead at the back of the church stabbed in the neck with a pair of Sacketers and our main character is trying to investigate what has happened. The text in this is really big. That's really big text. So I think this will be a nice quick read. A cozy setting. I'm really really excited to get to this one. Then we have Harlem Sunset by Nakisi Afia. This is the sequel to Dead Dead Girls. This is a really good series set in 1920s New York with our kind of unlikely detective. I really enjoyed Dead Dead Girls. I thought it was a really good debut. It could have been improved. The you know it was a bit obvious towards the end what was happening but I thought it was a great debut. So I'm very excited to read Harlem Sunset. This is also sapphic as well and I think that the sapphic relationship is going to play an even bigger part in this sequel. So I'm really really excited. And then we have Miss Audra's Regrets by Louise Hearse. This is another historical murder mystery. You're joking. Not another one. Oh for god's sake I can't honestly I can't stand this. We're following this girl whose life has kind of been falling apart. She's a performer and she gets an offer to perform on this ship. It's not the murder mystery set on a ship. And it comes at the perfect time because a murder has just been committed at the club where she works. So she's like I need to get away from all this. I need to start living my life. And then a murder happens on the ship and she's like death is following me. So I don't know if this is going to be a bit of an unreliable narrator where you're starting to think like is she the murderer somehow? Or I think she's going to be kind of investigating it and being a detective. So yeah I really like historical historical mysteries and having been on the ship and enjoying that being my favorite part of Fatal Crossing, reading it on the ship. I'm actually very very excited for this. I have high hopes. The next two are probably the most like mainstream releases that are coming out. We have The Retreat by Sarah Pierce. Obviously The Sanatorium by Sarah Pierce was kind of a runaway success last year and this is the sequel to that. The series follows this detective kind of like Urquiporo following different characters each time but she is always there. It's set at this yoga retreat. I can't say retreat. It's set at this yoga retreat. One girl dies after falling down some of the cliffs and then another person dies in an accidental drowning and our detective starts to think perhaps these deaths aren't as accidental as they seem. I really loved The Sanatorium the first part. I think the pacing was great. I think the suspense was great. I think some of the reveals and twists were almost like horror or thriller like with moments happened. It had me gagged but the ending was not good. Know that sounds bad guys and forgive me for saying it but that's how I felt. The ending was like very we had a villain speaking their truth and giving their big speech and it became very clear that like you know a message that the author wanted to get across with the ending was kind of the whole reason for the book but it didn't work. It hadn't really been set up but I'm hoping that The Retreat will not have that ending but will have all the good kind of gags and shocks that The Sanatorium had. Next is a very, this is an iffy, it's an iffy one whether it's murder mystery but I'm gonna class it. Miss Ruth Ware the it girl is coming out. I am so excited Ruth Ware is now one of my favorite authors. I can officially say I can rely on her for a great book. So this one though a group of friends at university and one of them was murdered. A guy went away for the murder. People are trying to move on with their life and then a journalist turns up saying actually I think that man was innocent and so our main characters trying to figure out was he innocent? Was my best friend murdered by someone else? I was gonna say this might be more thriller adjacent murder mystery but one by one by Ruth Ware was a murder mystery. It was a classic murder mystery but a lot of people didn't like that from her. I loved it but a lot of people didn't like that from her so I don't know if she's perhaps a bit scared to do it again. I would love for this to be a classic murder mystery but with Ruth Ware because her earlier books are more thrillers I would say. You don't really know what you're going to get so I'm gonna love it either way but I would love for this to skew more murder mystery classic murder mystery like one by one did. And then our last pick is one I thought I'd throw this on here because I'm certain there must be a murder mystery in here somewhere. This is the Marple anthology which is coming out more towards the end of the year. When's it coming out? September. Oh not more towards the end of the year. I don't have any murder mysteries after that. So this is a Marple short story collection written by lots of modern authors so you have Ruth Ware on there, you have Lee Bardugo, you have Lucy Foley. I'm really really excited for this. This is actually one I think I am going to use book depository to get the US version which I don't think I've ever done but I much prefer the US edition to the UK edition. That's the US one on top, UK one lower down. The UK one's fine but like the US one I love. I think it's just so pretty. So many of my favorite authors are writing in this and so many authors I've always wanted to try. I've never read a Miss Marple with Agatha Christie. I'm reading the Urquiporo books in order so I've never read a Miss Marple but this might be where I start. I don't know if that's right. I have, which one is Miss Marple that I have here? I definitely have one. Is it the 450 from Paddington? Yeah this is a Marple so maybe I should just read this and see what I think of it before I read the Marple anthology because I do own one. I would like to read the Marple books in order like I'm doing with Urquiporo so maybe I'll get Murder at the Vicarage instead but with Porro I did originally read Murder on the Orient Express before I read any other Porro so I think perhaps I'll start with this because it is one of the most iconic Marple ones and then go back and read the series in order. So there we have it. That is the most exciting Murder Mysteries coming out in 2022. Let me know which of these you're most excited for or which ones you've already read. I would love to know your opinions on any of these that you have already read and yeah again make sure you subscribe for more Murder Mystery content. Thank you so much for watching. If you've got into the end of the video comment the knife emoji or any other murder tool of your choice emoji down below in the comments. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!


常… Let's signs. Usually when I make a video about an NES game, I'll talk about how I saw it in Nintendo Power as a kid, and slobbered with jealousy over the fact that there wasn't much chance I was ever going to play it, since we didn't own an NES back then. But here's a case of a game that was barely even IN Nintendo Power, and as a 37-year-old instead of a kid, I find myself gobsmacked that I'd never heard of or seen this game before. It's conquest of the Crystal Palace, and surprisingly it only mentions in Nintendo power I could find are just two blurbs in the classified information section.  It's made by the developer Quest, and it's the very first game that Yasumi Matsuno worked on. You may know him better as the guy who started the Ogre Battle series, and later directed and wrote Final Fantasy Tactics. Now Conquest to the Crystal Palace is totally different from those games, but it's still pretty dang good. You play as a dude named Farron, accompanied by your faithful dog Zapp, and you have to retake your home, the Crystal Palace, which was conquered by the Evil King Zarrus, when Farron was just a baby.  This is cool, but you get the other abilities later in the game anyway, so it doesn't really matter what you pick to start with. There's five long levels here, and you get three lives and unlimited continues to complete the game, with no saves or passwords. As you can see, this is an action platformer, but it controls a bit quicker than games like Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania. But the one weird thing about this one is Farron's jump. This is one of those games where your character will hang in midair for a tenth of a second and then get sucked back to the earth as if by a magnet. But the strange thing is, that only happens when you use your sword attack in midair. If you jump without doing that, you land just fine. It's a really odd design choice, and the only game I can think of that's like this is Cyborg009 for Super Famicom, which I looked at a while back. Another action platformer with a wonky jump, but Conquest of the Crystal Palace might be even weirder. It definitely takes a bit to get used to, but it's not a game breaker or anything by any stretch. As you progress through the game, you'll meet a couple other characters, one being Kim, who has a shop that you can buy stuff from, everything from power-ups to extra lives. Everything may seem pretty expensive, but just about every enemy drops money when defeated, so if you need more, just grind a bit. Kim will also take the time to teach you the new abilities you pick up, as well as keep you updated on what's going on in the kingdom. And it's stuff like this that really goes a long way toward helping this game stand out, instead of becoming just another action platformer, so I appreciate the extra touches here. You also find the occasional secret area, like if you fall down this pit in the second level, you run into a boss fight, defeat the boss, and you meet the Crystal Princess who grants you a clear screen attack that you can use once per level. The thing is, there's no hint to do this in the game itself, the hint was listed in the instruction manual. Seems like that would have been a good opportunity to drop that hint in one of Kim's news updates, but whatever. And of course I have to mention my absolute favorite part of Conquest of the Crystal Palace. You remember that dog named Zap I mentioned earlier? You can actually summon him to come help you out.  Being a huge dog weirdo, I absolutely love this, and I only wish this game were two player co-op with the dog being a playable character, but I can't complain with what's here. Zap the dog is actually pretty integral to completing the game, since there's certain sections here where it's really difficult to proceed. Like this part here, I mean come on, what is this, a shoot em up? What's with all the flying enemies?  You do have to be a bit careful with how you use them, however, since he has his own health bar in the lower right, so the game doesn't let you abuse that mechanic. There is an item however that you can buy in Kim's shop, the dog whistle, that makes Zap more aggressive, so that's cool. So yeah, Conquest of the Crystal Palace is really good. I mean really good. What a surprise this one was. It really is the complete package. My only criticisms here are the wonky jump, which you can get used to pretty quickly, and some of the level design can be a bit wonky as well. It's challenging, but not too challenging.  All the different power-ups and shop items give this one a ton of replay value, and the game looks great, there's plenty of personality and humor here, and the music was composed by Masaharu Iwata, who also later went on to work on the Ogre Battle series and Final Fantasy Tactics. I would go as far as to say that Conquest of the Crystal Palace is a must-play for the NES, and it might even be a top 30, or even a top 25 game for the system. It is well worth checking out. And I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.


Welcome to this week's edition of Business in Hawaii. I'm Daelyn Yanagida, and we are broadcasting live from the Think Tech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com. You may also subscribe to our programs and get on our mailing list there as well. The theme of Business Hawaii is to share with you local stories of local people by local businesses, and our guests share with us how they were able to build successes and opportunities in our community. In the Think Tech studio today is Lio Fujikawa, economic development specialist with the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. Wow, Lio, what a mouthful. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. It was wonderful. You know, D-bed. Yes. Likely the best kept secret in Hawaii. It can be kind of intimidating to people, I think. We don't necessarily go out and promote ourselves, but we do our work, and we hope that speaks for us. D-bed is really about creating jobs, creating a diversified economy, and especially jobs that are meaningful, that pay well, or sustainable. So our division, the business development and support division actually is pretty much the public-facing part of D-bed, and we actually do a lot of outreach on one part, and we do other work in terms of export promotion, for example. So today I'm hoping that we could, the first slide, showing that we have all this information that I'm going to be talking about, but it's all on our website, invest.hawaii.gov, and people can sign up for our emails as well, but I'll be kind of giving an overview of what we do at the BDSD. Very nice. What exactly does that mean? What do you do, Lyle? So people tell me, and I do think I have one of the best jobs as well, because I actually get to go out and meet all these business owners, entrepreneurs, and sometimes go overseas to go to those markets as well. But I work in, actually we have two branches, but within the division I do work on what I call our domestic side, which is the business support. We have our enterprise zones program, community-based economic development, but because of my background, having worked in Japan for many years, I actually work on export promotion as well in going into Japan, and a little bit of business attraction and investment attraction. So I get to do work on both sides, but our division is really focused on getting into a place where we can actually support individual businesses. We don't do it ourselves. We work with other partners and we gather resources, and we do so through various programs. So maybe the next slide, talking about our enterprise zones program. This is actually one of the best kept secrets. Unfortunately, people really should be looking at this. It's a incentive program for businesses that create jobs. It's really a statewide partnership with the counties. We are signing up businesses all the time. We become more efficient with an online format as well. But the whole point is if you have an eligible business and you're creating jobs every year, you can actually get your GT waived. If you have a contractor who's doing work for you, their GT can be waived. So you can put that money back into your business and therefore keep growing. We've had huge companies, DR Fortress, Maui Brewing Company, and you can see where they've gone and they were maybe smaller at one point, and so they sell this at an advantage. As an advantage. So definitely, as an entrepreneur, you want to use whatever you can. Everything that I'm talking about is a free service, and so companies really should look at signing up and getting that information because it's available. We also provide an annual resource, the Hawaii Small Business Fair, the next slide. This is just a brochure, but we had this most recently at the Leeward Community College. Next year, we'll be planning at most likely Honolulu Community College. We work with several partners. We have the school, SBA Hawaii, DCCA Business Action Center, SBDC, Patsy Mink Center, FOREVER, FOREVA, HONO, and IRS. What we do is we actually offer over 25 classes and it becomes a broad and it can be deeper as well, ranging from starting a business, business planning, to quick books, to creating a food truck business, or even managing your IP. So we try to capture a lot of businesses there. A lot of small business owners will attend a lot of people with ideas only, and they're looking for resources. They're looking to validate their ideas. This is really going to work. We actually have exhibitors too. I'm going to say about 30 exhibitors. The banks are there for the guaranteed SBA loans. We have, as I mentioned, the Patsy Mink Center, SBA, sometimes the post offices that help us with the shipping part of the business. That is a huge resource to help small businesses get started. If you kind of think about our pipeline, as we're saying, the community and small businesses getting started, hopefully we could nurture them and get them to a size that is big enough to actually begin exporting. So I'll talk about that a little bit later. I don't have a slide for Seabed, but we do have a microloan program. And we actually are working with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. There are loan officer, loan servicing partner. And it can be anything for farmers to purchase farming equipment, for helping with the marketing, all that kind of business support, if you will. We are seeking more CDFIs, Community Development Financial Institutions, for those non-egg loans that we're thinking of, as we were talking about, there's a lot more organizations that seem to be really looking at the social impact and understanding that we need to diversify our economy and we have to support many different aspects of it. How do we target, like you were saying, we really try to see where the needs are and try to put resources there. A really interesting program that has just begun, the next slide, the Opportunity Zones Program, is actually that's the Hawaii Business Fair. So we had all the exhibitors there showing, you know, people consulting. And then of course the idea is to capture them and to get them in the pipeline and service them later as they have more questions and whatnot. Hawaii Opportunity Zones is a result of the Tax Act 2017 and it's a unique program where you have investors with a lot of capital gains that actually can reinvest that into a fund that needs to be created. That fund will then invest in Opportunity Zones and that's based on census tracks that are designated. We have a number of brochures on our website at the Opportunity Zones page talking about where the specific areas are and we are still waiting for a lot of guidance from Treasury and IRS about how things are going to be going. At this point we're trying to work with partners to just gather information and support businesses and I think, you know, the next couple of months we'll see some new guidance and we'll be able to really act. But right now I think we're getting a lot of interest. This will be something I think you might talk about later. The benefit of this is really again taking a resource, the capital, and applying it to this advantage area and it could be a business that needs to be rejuvenated, it could be a building, community center, it could be Greenfield or what have you. So there's a lot of options and people are really excited about this program. The large program that we, large impact program that we do work on is the High Step Program and it's the Hawaii State Trade Expansion program that is partially funded by the SBA and that's actually a very successful program for us in terms of our outreach and also the impact. But exports, you know, as we think about how do businesses grow, right? We have an environment here, maybe you're on an island in Molokai and you're just thinking about selling to your neighbors. You have to think about, of course, selling to the rest of the state. You know, it's about really thinking about what your potential is and our job is to show businesses that they do have, kind of give them ideas that they can do these things. Exporting is not just selling to the US mainland, but it's about really looking at overseas markets such as Japan that have huge affinity, right? And we have a lot of opportunity there to continue expanding. In our lifetimes, it will not end. The High Step Program is probably one of the most interest for me because we talk to so many startup entrepreneurs who envision their business here, but do not think right away at the get-go about the exports. Right, right, right. And so actually exporting, it doesn't have to be just apparel or gift items or food. It could be services, right, architects, engineers. And we're trying to develop that further as a software developer, right? As we have those other aspects of the economy, cleaner, right, higher paying, right, those kinds of businesses, if we can put sort of the Hawaii brand on it, definitely we could promote that as an export. The programs that you folks are creating over at D-Bed, you and your colleagues, simply amazing, I think don't get enough airtime, if you will, but when we come back, I'd like to talk about a few more of them and maybe share some of those success statistics with us on where that goes. So we are going to take that short break. This is Business in Hawaii. We'll see you back here shortly. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m., Aloha. Aloha, I'm Stan Osterman, a host here on Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness here on the island. We are a Hawaiian non-profit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Mahalo. Welcome back to Business in Hawaii. Today with us today is Lyle Fujikawa from D-Ved, huge title, but amazing things that are coming out from your department. When we went to break, we were talking about businesses, entrepreneurs thinking about exports as part of their business model. Yes. Definitely, exporting really should be on people's minds because we have the disadvantage of geography in Hawaii, but it's an advantage because people want to compare the unique climate, being away from everything again. From that, obviously culture and the mix of cultures that we have and then whatever products that can be developed from that have a unique brand value that is highly desired. Whenever someone is thinking about manufacturing, really you should be thinking down the line. Yes, I should be exporting. Starting with the mainland, that's technically shipping outside of the state, but what we're talking about is overseas. This is something where actually all states have their own programs in the SBA, federal funds, they put it together. We have to put a proposal in every year. Luckily, we've been receiving funds and we've been putting it to good use. If you can see on the slide, the metrics, the total impact that we're actually creating jobs, the ultimate measure is really the taxes collected, the sales being done. I'm actually planning a trip to Osaka in July in a couple weeks to take about 30 companies to a department store. They have done a tremendous job of putting together a Hawaii fair. They do this for various regions, but the Hawaii fair is by far their biggest. It's a one-week period, the Hankyu Umeda department store, and 250,000 people will come through. It's all segments. There's hula, there's music, there's food, and they just make it seem as best as they can in Hawaii and creating that environment that people want to buy. It's a really great opportunity for those smaller companies who don't have the capacity to really export per se, but to show up and have a consumer right there. They're selling, they're doing validation, brand billing a little bit, and it's a really good experience. Building upon that, in September, we have our Tokyo International Gift Show, which is our largest. We take about 80 companies every year, and that is really a B2B, your more traditional exporting, finding importers, the distribution, and we've had some really successful companies. Hawaiian Chip Company has done really well. They still have their chips, the very delicious arrow chips, but they realize that the manufacturing of hot sauce would be more economic in the sense of the profit and all that. The application of that, they found food service clients, they realize that they can get the retail and all that. We have some food companies, but we have a lot of apparel companies, and gift items, if you will, soap, and natural products. That's an interesting area that really can grow further. This contention of 30 folks that are heading out to Osaka with you, they came through Highstab? We contribute some funds to the program, to the Umeda program. The buyer actually comes to Hawaii, and we've taken, her name is Sala Lozanshi. We go to Maui, the main Maui County Fair, and find some companies. We're always suggesting good companies for them to feature. The best thing is, she's young, she's a woman, she knows what the target audience wants. We have a great pipeline of showing these companies, and in the end, they know what it has to sell. It has to make money for the company, and everybody will, because it's not only the company itself, but it's the Hawaii brand. It's authentic Hawaii. There's always, like Hawaii, we never get away from that, but we have to always, as much as possible, promote the authentic Hawaii brands that are made here, and have the true representation of O'Lohan and everything. Supporting those brands, and hopefully they can get to a larger size where they can participate in other, become bigger, do exporting. The reason why we do that is because it's manufacturing, wholesaling. Those are the jobs that we hope to create. If you get into that intellectual property of Hawaii brands, we can hire value to mitigate the cost of the shipping, and then being so far away from everything. Also, another export that sometimes is not really thought of as an export is actually the International Student Attraction, which is our next slide. It's actually a tremendous economic engine that we've been focusing on the past few years, but creating almost 500 million total economic impact. I actually, anecdotally, I actually saw this in action. A student from Australia was visiting, I'm sorry, she was studying oceanography at UH, her family came to visit. They didn't just come to Oahu, they went to Maui.  You can really see that you have this additional impact. It's a great way to attract, of course, ideas, people who, if they figure out a way to not, of course, you can't remain an student visa, but if you're a creating company, they themselves become entrepreneurs, or bringing capital, not just intellectual, but actual financial capital, to strengthen the Hawaii economy. It's a tremendous thing. I think that's, again, Hawaii as being such a unique place, attracting so many people. It's an obvious solution. So for entrepreneurs who aren't familiar with all of the programming that D-Bed does, where do they start? They really, they can come to our website and just start looking. We're very fortunate because we have a pretty good search engine presence. The last slide shows our website, but we have an email sign-up as well, and we don't do all the work ourselves. We have partners, and so once you sign up and you indicate what you're interested in, definitely we will put you in touch with the right person to help you. We work with HDDC, they're a sister, you know, we're part of D-Bed, but they obviously work on technology. They have their new sandbox, you know, co-working space, but they also work on manufacturing. I saw Staten Oscherman, you know, the energy part is really important. And then creative industries, division, working on, you know, the songwriting, the filmmaking, you know, all those aspects of intellectual development, creative development that can also drive our economy. So we have a lot of different areas within D-Bed as well as working with other partners, but if you say what you need, you know, we can definitely put you in touch. Looking forward to that.  We have a division, a research division that does, right, they publish the annual data book, which is a huge resource. They do studies for the ledge all the time. We do studies together.  But yeah, it's great because we get to go and meet people in person and really help them because we can see that the results, you know, every year they get better and better. And I'll have, you know, our long phone calls and at the end, invariably, they'll say, thank you so much because I'm giving them a lot of, it's not just this, but it's all my experience, you know, living in Japan and working in Japan. And I always thank them. I say, well, you're doing the hard work. You're the small business and doing all that. So let's work together to find success. So what are some of the things that you would like to create forthcoming for Tibet? Just continue to work, you know, like I said, we focus on certain areas and if we can continue to be integrated, synergistic and find those relationships, finding a way to share information easily, confidentiality is important. We don't ever share, you know, business knowledge or, you know, the results and all that individually. We're very careful about how we work with our company information. We protect that. But definitely that openness of, I might not be able to help you, but this person can or together, you know, like we don't have loan officers or we're working with CDFIs to do loans, just really continue to do that. Because that is the only way we're going to get better, right? So I hope through technology and just continue to work together. Do you think that folks aren't participating in these programs because they just don't know about them? I think so. I think they're so busy. They say, OK, I'm starting my business. And then it's like, you know, from day one, they're just, that's all they're focusing on. What we talked about is sometimes hard to ask for help. I don't know what I need help with, right? We don't know. We don't know. So come see, well, you don't necessarily have to see us. You can go to SBDC at Manoa. You know, go see Joe Burns or the Patsy Mink Center. They can help you structure your business. You know, maybe you need to work on certain aspect of it. You know, is it cash flow? Is it just, you know, your accounting system, right? You know, having those tools available. I was talking to an artist. She's an artist. She creates jewelry, beautiful jewelry. And she's talking about her credit terms. And I'm not even a financial expert, but I say, that sounds too generous to me. I think you need to tighten it up and demand more and step up and say, hey, I'm worth it. You know, and let's work together, right? So because that's what it is, right? It's mutual.  But it's that kind of thing where people are so focused on one, maybe the business idea, but not seeing how they can expand it, how they can make it easier for themselves, right? But there's so much out there. So, you know, Google search, you can find things. I do want to give our viewers one more shot at how to get in touch with you. Yes, please. So if we could put up that last slide, this is how they can find you? Sure, yeah. Emails we send out periodically. We do a lot of seminar training. We send out notices. We always have news on our website. But once you get in the system, there's other various ways that you can participate in programs. So the main thing is get an email. And hopefully we can talk. Lyle, I appreciate you. I appreciate D-Bed and the amazing programs that you folks work so hard to bring to us. And I'm really excited to hear more about the different sectors in D-Bed. So unfortunately, we are out of time. But thank you to Lyle for joining us today. And we look forward to hearing more about the different sectors in D-Bed and their exciting projects. A really big thank you to the great production staff here in the studio. And if you would like to be a guest on our show, please email your information to shows at thinktechhawaii.com. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 p.m. And we look forward to seeing you here next week.