I Want to Produce Heroes Like Shohei Ohtani | Junichi Kurose
Junichi Kurose, Founder and CEO of StoreHero, founded the company in 2019 after accumulating a wide range of experience before that. With a mission to "make commerce businesses into heroes," Kurose has his sights set on the world. We sat down with him to hear about the founding story and his vision for the future.
— What were you doing before founding StoreHero?
After graduating from graduate school, I joined Axiiz, where I worked in sales and marketing, and became a director at the age of 27. That's when I met Masuyama-san (now a StoreHero board member), who was supporting us as a VC. After that, the company was sold, and while thinking about what kind of business to pursue next, I went through a series of experiences: launching a new business at a healthcare company, joining a company where Masuyama-san was an executive, and serving as Country Manager at a marketing tools company — before finally founding StoreHero in 2019.
Founded StoreHero to Serve Commerce Businesses in the U.S.
— Tell us about the circumstances behind founding StoreHero.
Even before starting the company, I had heard about Shopify from many people. I got to know Sasatani (now a board member), who was a student at the time, and started sharing my ideas with him. As we talked, we hit it off and decided to work together. We experimented by building a Shopify app, and even planned a physical retail opening service that we pitched to businesses in the U.S. While doing Shopify consulting to deepen my understanding, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Just as overseas expansion seemed hopeless, we were fortunately receiving more project inquiries than expected, and we managed to survive. Around the end of our first fiscal year, Masuyama-san — who had been a mentor to me since my first job out of college — joined StoreHero and became a board member. Later, Paul-san (now also a board member) had been a sounding board for me on several occasions while he was at McKinsey, and after he moved to Incubate Fund, he joined as a board member and made an investment (fundraising announcement).
A Service That Lets Commerce Businesses Become Heroes Every Single Time
— How do you see the business evolving going forward?
Looking at the broader backdrop, SaaS and similar services have become widespread, driven fundamentally by the shift to the cloud. Cloud adoption has been overwhelmingly strong in software, but I think going forward, many services surrounding software will also move to the cloud — including consulting and creative production work. Against that backdrop, StoreHero will be cloudifying its commerce growth support services. By doing so, I believe we'll be able to deliver high-value services to a large number of commerce businesses around the world.
When it comes to building a cloud service, the most important thing — as obvious as it sounds — is simply creating genuinely valuable services. Since we're a company dedicated to making commerce businesses into heroes, our ideal is a service that enables commerce businesses to become heroes every single time, without fail.
Just building a Shopify store and running ads is rarely enough to see steady sales growth. Having a great product is a necessary condition, but it's not sufficient. Achieving growth requires a diverse range of tactics, and many of those tactics will miss the mark — yet it's crucial to keep iterating quickly without getting discouraged. StoreHero's growth support service covers not just the obvious things like ad management and page creation, but every possible means of driving results. Turning that kind of people-dependent service into a cloud offering is StoreHero's challenge.
Making Commerce Businesses Into Heroes
— The word "Hero" is in your company name — is that something you feel strongly about?
The kind of hero I'm talking about is someone who defies conventional wisdom and energizes everyone around them. Take Shohei Ohtani — he's turned the conventional wisdom on its head, right? He hits and pitches in Major League Baseball, giving everyone a sense of wonder and courage. I see the same kind of heroism in Peco, the protagonist of the manga Ping Pong. When you see heroes like that, your own problems start to feel small, and you become genuinely positive. The world is a more exciting place when heroes like that are everywhere. Through our services, StoreHero wants to turn commerce businesses all over the world into heroes.
Gratitude for the Sense of Contribution and the Team Members Who Joined Us
— It's been two years since the founding. Looking back, how do you feel?
Personally, I've truly enjoyed it. There were plenty of tough times, but the main reason I feel that way is that I've often felt like I was genuinely making a difference. I think a big part of it is being involved in work that has a direct impact on revenue. When a client whose long-standing or deeply cherished business was on the brink of shutting down managed to keep it going — that was deeply fulfilling. I felt the joy of witnessing the moment a hero was born.
Also, the fact that the team Sasatani and I started with just the two of us has steadily grown — I'm truly grateful for that, and it makes me genuinely happy. Of course I feel the weight of responsibility that comes with it, but I can't help feeling joy as well.
At the same time, when I think about our goal of delivering services worldwide, the gap between that vision and where we are now is immensely daunting — so yes, there's a fear that comes with that too. That's exactly why I want to achieve it together with the team.
— What kind of people are you looking to bring on board?
What we're trying to do is something grand — taking on the entire world — so I want people who hold themselves to a high standard, regardless of what they can or can't do right now. People who are aiming to be "the best in the world at X," for example.
Also, since approaches change dramatically from country to country, I think it's important to be someone who isn't bound by conventional thinking. Rather than assuming that because a certain sales method works in Japan it will work everywhere else too, the people who will thrive here are those who can read the situation on the ground and make the right judgment — without being overly constrained by common wisdom or standard frameworks.
Finally, on a personal level, I want people who are fun and have a sense of humor. People who, even when things get tough, can find a way to frame it positively and look for the opportunity in it rather than dwelling on the negative. Those are the kinds of people I want to work with.
— Finally, tell us about your vision for the future.
In the short term, we have a new product launch on the horizon. I want to reach a level of service where people can trust that turning to StoreHero will lead their commerce business to success. As a company, we want to hire a diverse range of people and scale up our capacity with an eye toward global expansion.