From Salarymen to Freelancers – Japan’s New Economy – Koichiro Yoshida

Koichiro Yoshida took CrowdWorks from idea to IPO in less than three years, and today both CrowdWorks and crowd-sourcing in general are seen as essential to Japan’s future economy.  Just 10 years ago,  Japanese politicians pointed to freelancers and part-times as part of the cause of Japan's economic woes. Fortunately, Japan's leadership is now beginning to realizing that having a flexible and skilled workforce is actually a tremendous economic advantage. Of course, since so much of modern business culture in Japan is based on the idea of belonging to a specific company, the move to large-scale freelancing will lead to large  social changes as well. Both good and bad. Koichiro and I talk about the impact those coming changes will have, and about his own journey and how there were many years of preparation, hard work and painful failures hidden behind the "overnight success" of CrowdWorks.