Alumni Stories: the entrepreneurs of Le Wagon Tokyo, vol. 2
At Le Wagon, we believe that "Code is here to build products". Our Tokyo campus is no exception, and several graduates have been taking the entrepreneurial path over the past year. Let's discover what they are up to!
Summary
Over the past 8 years, Le Wagon Tokyo’s Web Development and Data Science & AI bootcamps have proven to be very efficient ways to kickstart a career in tech. With more than 60% of our students having that goal in mind, we have been building extensive support to help them achieve it.
Code is here to build products
But we did not lose our entrepreneurial DNA, and we still believe that “Code is here to build products”. Roughly 5% of our Tokyo graduates take that belief very seriously, and decide to travel the less beaten path of entrepreneurship. Some of them were planning to launch a company even before joining our bootcamps, while some others found an exciting project to work on during the program and just “fell into it”.
Five years after our first article about Le Wagon Tokyo entrepreneurs, a volume 2 article was long due. Let’s discover what our most recent founders-alumni have been up to!
Mohamed Shegow, Sinta
Graduated from our full-time Web Development in Dec 2022
Mo graduated almost 2 years ago and although he’s been working on his company since then, we did not take the chance to write about him – it’s high time to fix it.
Sinta was built to simplify the hiring process. As a former hiring manager and interviewer, Mo saw firsthand how challenging it can be to juggle multiple tools just to keep things on track. Initially, they developed a co-pilot tool for interviewers, but after speaking with recruiting professionals, they realized a bigger opportunity: why not integrate everything into a tool that teams already use, like Slack?
Sinta has since evolved into a platform that helps teams automate and manage a collaborative hiring process. Its mission is to make hiring more efficient, allowing companies to build great teams without the usual friction.
We’re particularly proud of Sinta at Le Wagon Tokyo: from the name of the product to the pain it’s trying to solve, it is the most untouched idea to emerge from the program. Furthermore, several of Mo’s batchmates contributed to the product in the initial phases, making it a true “Le Wagon brew” product. Check out Mo’s final Demo Day pitch back in December 2022!
Salman Al Khalifa, Sellou
Graduated from our full-time Web Development in March 2018
Having first launched a quantum computing company right after graduating from Le Wagon Tokyo, it’s not Salman’s first rodeo as a tech founder. With Sellou, he and his co-founder are aiming to provide new shopping experiences by leveraging short-style videos and geolocation.
They recently raised their first round of funding (congrats!), and will be looking to grow the app over the coming months.
Yusuke Mori, Newell Road
Graduated from our full-time Web Development in Dec 2023
Following in the footsteps of several alumni entrepreneurs, Yusuke decided to join the Antler residency program in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Antler can be a great first step after Le Wagon if you’re looking to meet fellow entrepreneurs, receive guidance, and potentially secure funding.
In Yusuke’s case, the program enabled him to meet three future co-founders for his venture, Newell Road. Their team was one of only 5 companies selected by Antler out of a thousand of applicants for this program. Leveraging each co-founder’s expertise, they aim to help business professionals make market research scalable and effortless through an AI-powered market intelligence platform.
Laurice Minamihara, Kitakits
Graduated from our part-time Web Development in March 2024
With a Social Entrepreneurship 101 certification dating back from 2018, the wish to become a founder and have an impact has surely been with Laurice for a long time.
It is now turning into reality with Kitakits, a project aimed at helping foreign workers who are coming to Japan “set up their life” here. For that newly launched venture, Laurice convinced no less than 5 of her former classmates to contribute – our part-time students spend 24 weeks studying together, which creates plenty of opportunities to make lifelong connections… and in some cases, future collaborators on entrepreneurial projects.
Dave Jameson, Chronicle Creations
Graduated from our full-time Web Development in Jun 2023
Dave took the nomad route right after graduating from our bootcamp, and moved to Bangkok with one of his Le Wagon teammates, Connor, to put himself in full development mode. They initially expanded on the product they built at the end of bootcamp, which was geared towards role-playing gamers, but soon realized that it might be too niche of an idea.
After meeting very experienced engineers through his explorations, Dave is now working on the next iteration of his idea: an adaptive storybook creator designed to inspire children aged 8-12 to embark on an exciting storytelling adventure, Dreambook.
Dreambook is a great project for two reasons:
It has grown a lot from the initial idea built during our bootcamp
It smartly leverages the latest genAI technology, while keeping a solid core vision
Having a solid core vision is essential to building a successful business, and Dave carries his vision with focus and energy.
Training product-first engineers
You may be considering switching your career to tech by joining one of our bootcamps, and now you’re probably thinking “Ok that’s cool, but why does it matter to me?”.
Several of our hiring partners mentioned that they appreciate the product-first mindset our graduates have: it’s not only about writing beautiful code and complex algorithms, but also about the actual value delivered to end users. In other words, not every Le Wagon Tokyo graduate is an entrepreneur, but they can all become intrapreneurs.
Having founders in our alumni community also brings direct job opportunities: Aki and Shinya for example, who successfully launched and got funding for their Real Estate startup Section L, regularly hire talented Le Wagon graduates.